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Benzo WD never ends...

I

InfectedWithDrugs

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 29, 2015
Messages
126
For a year, I was on Xanax XR 2mg per day, potentiated by Cimetidine, which made it equivalent to maybe 3-4mg per day. Then I accidentally OD'ed when I took some opiates (so dumb) and ended up in local hospital's in-patient facility for suicidal crazies. I told them I want to detox and they decided to get me off Xanax, Lyrica (high dose), Baclofen (high dose) all at once almost cold-turkey. They gave me 1mg Lorazepam per day for 3 days and then discharged me without any scripts... All 3 drugs had severe WD - it was absolutely horrific, mind-bending experience. Lyrica WD are horrible on their own, but when worsened by Benzo WD... no words can describe it... I was lucky and did not experience any seizures, but I did get some mild hallucinations.

That was more than 30 months ago, but the severe anxiety and this unbearable knot in my throat never went away. To this day, if I have 1 single drink or less, I immediately begin having Benzo WD, itch, extra anxiety, etc...

Is it EVER going to stop? I have not relapsed nor did I plan on doing so, but impossible to function like this. My mind and body are in this perpetuating state of shock. Even 800mg of Seroquel does not put me to sleep. I am sooo lucky I was prescribed Xyrem/GHB for narcolepsy, which I was not sure I even had because the sleep study was conducted when I was on Xanax + Oxycodone... Xyrem puts me out for 4 hours at night, but I wake up in cold sweats extremely anxious because it raises cortisol levels significantly.

After I quit Xanax, Lyrica, and Baclofen. I as put on Gabapentin 300mg 3x per day, and Gabitril 4mg 2x per day. They helped, but made me gain weight and became too expensive to afford, forcing me to taper off them. They did resolve the knot-in-throat... Without these drugs, the knot re-appears... I mean it's hard to swallow and doctors examined my throat and found nothing! I also tapered off Buprenorphine and it actually was easy with Clonidine. I was also put on Prednisone for the last 5 days and Prednisone is synthetic cortisol, stress hormone, causing anxiety.

Is this EVER going to stop? Is it lasting so damn long because I was taken off Xanax so quickly??? I want to be able to go out to a bar or club and have a drink instead of explaining people why I cannot drink. I never had problems with alcohol since I like the taste of fancy drinks and wine, not the effect of alcohol...
 
I'm so sorry to hear that you are still suffering so much. Like it or not for now staying away from alcohol seems to be what your body/brain needs. Try not to even think about the future in broad terms ("will I ever be able to drink again?") and just stick with the present, taking care of your physical and mental health as much as possible. For anxiety and sleeplessness, try to get some instruction from a community class, the internet or books on conscious breathing and/or meditation. These can be life savers in so many ways.
 
I'm sorry you're going through this. Unfortunately you will have to take a long break from alcohol as it is a GABAergic drug (as are benzos, gabapenton, pregabalin, and phenibut). If you want to get out of the benzo and lyrica protracted withdrawal syndrome you will have to discontinue ALL GABAergic drugs. They all have a kindling effect.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(sedative-hypnotic_withdrawal)

They also cause exitotoxicity from abrupt discontinuation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitotoxicity

It takes years to recover. I had a 10 year Xanax habit and drank for 17 years. I took my last Xanax in February 2010, and had my last drink in July 2014. It's been six years since my last benzo and the withdrawal was devastating. I am still healing, and it's been six years.

You're doing great - you're through the toughest part, just hold on and be patient. Eating healthy (clean), getting adequate sleep, exercising, and meditation are all very useful tools for overcoming this. You may want to look into cognitive behavioral therapy to help cope with anxiety. Do not drink, even a little as it will cause this to continue. Stay away from all GABAergic drugs. Keep in mind that this is temporary and it will get better. Good luck!
 
Damn, the thought of non-brnzo GABA drugs affecting healing crossed my mind, but my doctor told me otherwise. Now I am finding that Gabapentin prevents new neurons from forming!

What about Xyrem / GHB??? It's GABA B agonist and when taken as prescribed it's not addictive at all, nor did ever make benzo WD's precipitate. I never experienced WD from Xyrem, even when stopping it cold turkey. I do not abuse it, take only 3.75mL 2x per night as presribed. It kept me sane when I was in acute benzo and opiate WD. It does, however, induce morning anxiety by increasing cortisol levels.

For narcoleptics, it's already hard to sleep at night. If you add benzo WD to that, there is just no way to sleep without Xyrem, at least not at night.
 
Buprenorphine+alprazolam+lyrica+baclofen detox all at once? Damn, that's ROUGH. I was gonna say you should probably stop the ghb if you want your poor gaba receptors to heal. Even though it's not dependence forming when taken as prescribed (and I'm even dubious of that statement), it's stimulating your gaba b receptors and probably preventing them from healing in much the same way as alcohol would. I'm no doctor and that's all speculation, but I would take like a year long break from all gabaergics. Just like, get a chill job, a non-gabaergic sleep aid, and smoke a buncha weed and exercise everyday for a year. You should be feeling much better after that.
 
Stay away from GHB if you were having withdrawals from baclofen. I used to cycle Lyrica, baclofen/phenibut/GHB at night, benzos and am going through a nasty withdrawal mostly from the benzos I think.

May I ask what doses you used of Lyrica and baclofen?
 
I study transhumanism and they have a treatment that resets the neurotransmitters in the brain to their original state. It's called rTMS. (repeatative transcrainal magnetic stimulation). In Canada it's been approved for depression and anxiety. Think of the mechanical version of Ibogaine extract.
 
Moreaux said:
I'm sorry you're going through this. Unfortunately you will have to take a long break from alcohol as it is a GABAergic drug (as are benzos, gabapentin, pregabalin, and phenibut). If you want to get out of the benzo and lyrica protracted withdrawal syndrome you will have to discontinue ALL GABAergic drugs. They all have a kindling effect.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(sedative-hypnotic_withdrawal)

They also cause exciitotoxicity from abrupt discontinuation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitotoxicity

It takes years to recover. I had a 10 year Xanax habit and drank for 17 years. I took my last Xanax in February 2010, and had my last drink in July 2014. It's been six years since my last benzo and the withdrawal was devastating. I am still healing, and it's been six years.

You're doing great - you're through the toughest part, just hold on and be patient. Eating healthy (clean), getting adequate sleep, exercising, and meditation are all very useful tools for overcoming this. You may want to look into cognitive behavioral therapy to help cope with anxiety. Do not drink, even a little as it will cause this to continue. Stay away from all GABAergic drugs. Keep in mind that this is temporary and it will get better. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Good point.
It takes time but it's possible. I am also sober from benzos (+ opiates), and despite of good and bad days, your life will be better.
I know you may feel you don't have the strength but you could try to have some exercises and try to include things you enjoy doing, hobbies - anything that may distract you so that you can move on.

It's easy to say I know and I'm really sorry you are going through this, but you'll need to be strong to move on as well.
I have also quit for almost 1.5 year and still have my bad days. Don't give up trying.
Hope you feel better soon.
Take care,
E.
 
Napdmd said:
Stay away from GHB if you were having withdrawals from baclofen. I used to cycle Lyrica, baclofen/phenibut/GHB at night, benzos and am going through a nasty withdrawal mostly from the benzos I think.

May I ask what doses you used of Lyrica and baclofen?
Click to expand...

I used to be on a large dose of 80mg per day of Baclofen and now only at 10mg. If I stay away from GHB, I have to quit my job and go on disability due to narcolepsy and that is IF the government lets me, but that's not an option!!! I have a career job now, so does that mean I'm screwed since I have to take GHB to stay awake during the day and sleep at night?
 
I would not use GHB during withdrawal from GABAB agonists like baclofen. If you do not have any baclofen withdrawals or the withdrawals from baclofen are long gone GHB is ok to use. Only using GHB at night does not cause any dependency and gives a pretty good sleep. However, you are still using 10mg of baclofen a day so it is possible you are creating dependence from GABAB agonists.

I do not know if GHB hinders benzo withdrawal recovery since it is a strong GABAB agonist, activates GHB receptors and does not do anything to BZP receptors, but I would just stay away from anything GABAergic like the gabapentinoids: pregabalin, gabapentin, phenibut or GRI's like tiagabine.

Just do not reinstate benzos, avoid alcohol and even valerian root bacause it will delay the healing as it works on BZP receptors.
 
I quit Baclofen cold turkey and nothing bad happened, except a bit of muscle spasms. I guess I am in the clear for GHB then.

What about NSAID's? I use them for pain to avoid narcotics, but they are mild GABA A antagonists...
 
How are you doing InfectedWithDrugs? Please give us an update - I hope all is well. I is see your NSAID question, but don't have an answer. Surfing the net yields conflicting results, and I don't take them so I don't have personal experience to draw from. If your in pain you may want to consider kratom - it works great for pain relief but it is mildly addicting. I used it when I first got off benzos and booze to help with withdrawal and used it again more recently after a surgery because I felt like strong opiates weren't really an option for me, so kratom seemed like the lesser of two evils.
 
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