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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Benzos benzo withdrawal- prescription taken away after two decades. how to deal??

sorrowfulmoon

sorrowfulmoon

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 5, 2021
Messages
25
posting because my mother who I live with has recently been taken off her medication of 25+ years. We are at a loss what to do and she is really feeling sick. her clinic and others that take our health insurance have stopped prescribing benzos and she has been taking clonazepam 1mg 2x daily. A new doctor since the others have left doing telehealth phone calls since the pandemic and been "weaning" her off for 3 months which was meaning taken every other day and then every two days and then stopped. we have exhausted our pursuit in questions between her therapist and the new doctor barely communicates and does not seem to care about the patients at all as her other doctor did. It's very distressing she's been experiencing a lot of withdrawal symptoms and erratic heartbeat. I'm wondering if we should look into detoxes, rehabs or other…holistic forms of care don't seem to be managing this and we don't know where to turn. I wonder what any of you all do who may have experience in the situation. I don't believe it was the right call by health professionals since she never abused her dosage and the last doctor was even starting to raise it because of the amount she was on. in my opinion it's horrible to watch her go through this and have a return of anxiety attacks and other symptoms. don't know where to inquire safely for support or suggestions thank you.
 
I am coming off 20 years of benzo use myself. Around the same amount. In November I checked myself into a 30 day detox/treatment center. Im still not completely off benzos, but am down to .5 mg’s of kolonopin per day, which is a quarter of what I was on before rehab. It is scary and I agree that the doctors didn’t handle your mom’s situation responsibly.

All that said to say, yes, I would recommend a medical detox/rehab. They will likely wean her off benzos and also give her medication to lower her risk of seizure. I would look into this like today. Get her in ASAP.

Sorry you’re dealing with this. Benzos are tricky as fuck and it pisses me off to hear stories like this.
 
ChickenScratch said:
I am coming off 20 years of benzo use myself. Around the same amount. In November I checked myself into a 30 day detox/treatment center. Im still not completely off benzos, but am down to .5 mg’s of kolonopin per day, which is a quarter of what I was on before rehab. It is scary and I agree that the doctors didn’t handle your mom’s situation responsibly.

All that said to say, yes, I would recommend a medical detox/rehab. They will likely wean her off benzos and also give her medication to lower her risk of seizure. I would look into this like today. Get her in ASAP.

Sorry you’re dealing with this. Benzos are tricky as fuck and it pisses me off to hear stories like this.
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Wow thank you so much for sharing your experience and suggestions. This is good to know. I’ll start calling places tomorrow… Im curious what they think they’re accomplishing with this… and what they ween people off with other than the seizure meds. Again, im so sorry youre going through this also.
 
You should start looking for another doctor Immediately, also, you could take her Tom a hospital right now,and they don’t probably help her with a dose at the hospital, and possibly a 3-7 day script of clonazepam.

You should also go get a lot of kava kava and black seed oil, those are really powerful herbal relaxants.

I have been addicted to benzos before, and had to go cold turkey because I was in jail(this happened multiple times), so I understand her pain, I am so sorry that she I saw going through this.

There is also something called phenibut that you can buy over the internet, that would probably help her withdrawals a lot

If you need immediate advice, feel free to PM me anytime, I’m on here a lot, and I’m fairly educated about harm reduction
 
do not use phenibut, it is an equally bad habit. You NEED to get her a competent doctor familiar with the ashton tapering manual. 3 mos is laughable for that length of bzd use. this will take more like a year or two. she's likely to feel very distressed and insane the entire time. There isn't a better way, I'm sorry - and any doctor that isn't hip to this reality ^ I would fire.
 
cdin said:
do not use phenibut, it is an equally bad habit. You NEED to get her a competent doctor familiar with the ashton tapering manual. 3 mos is laughable for that length of bzd use. this will take more like a year or two. she's likely to feel very distressed and insane the entire time. There isn't a better way, I'm sorry - and any doctor that isn't hip to this reality ^ I would fire.
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The reason I recommended phenibut was it might be the only option, they might not be able to find a doctor as fast as they can recieve an order of phenibut in the mail. I would think that since she’s already addicted to clonazepam, switching to phenibut wouldn’t make things worse.

Though I think they should look for a doctor in the meantime, I don’t think being on phenibut until she’s finds one would Be bad. Personally, if I was in her situation, that’s what I would do
 
polarthedog said:
The reason I recommended phenibut was it might be the only option, they might not be able to find a doctor as fast as they can recieve an order of phenibut in the mail. I would think that since she’s already addicted to clonazepam, switching to phenibut wouldn’t make things worse.
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it's a different receptor system altogether (GABA-B / sodium channels vs GABA-A) and I seriously doubt phen would cover well for genuine, long term bzd withdrawal, plus it has it's own WD etc.... amanita muscaria was very helpful to me on dosage drop days, but that has issues as well. for a not so well versed person and their older mother, this is a terrible situation. I would also look into suing the doctors, btw.
 
cdin said:
it's a different receptor system altogether (GABA-B / sodium channels vs GABA-A) and I seriously doubt phen would cover well for genuine, long term bzd withdrawal, plus it has it's own WD etc.... amanita muscaria was very helpful to me on dosage drop days, but that has issues as well. for a not so well versed person and their older mother, this is a terrible situation. I would also look into suing the doctors, btw.
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I think your right,it wouldn’t cover the withdrawals, but It would definitely be better than nothing. People use gabapentin for benzo withdrawals, and that’s a gaba-b agonist.

I doubt they can get a doctor appointment in less than a month, most psych doctor so have long wait lists. I don’t want her going cold turkey, that’s just straight insanity.
 
I don't see the point on weaning someone off benzos after that long ass time. I'd rather die taking benzos than wd from em after that lenght of time.
 
polarthedog said:
How would using phenibut for withdrawal be different than using gabapentin for withdrawal?
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because phenibut only touches GABAa in very high doses, and large doses always cause problems and more side effects, hangovers, etc

phenibut is also very easy to overdo and compulsive redosing

the potential for it to make the situation even worse outweighs any benefits in my opinion

I have never used gabapentin I can't compare it to that, but I know phenibut quite well

I think it's remotely possible someone might use it correctly and reap some benefit out of it, but most people won't use it that way
 
I am so sorry to hear this!!

This is insane!!! Nobody should have to come off their meds after that amount of time! Especially if they've been helping her!!


Benzo withdrawal can be deadly!! So definitely don't wait to act.

From my experience, there isn't much out there OTC or anything that can help with this.

It sounds like a terrible idea, but alcohol can bring down the severity of some of her symptoms, if she feels she really needs something immediately.
A few beers can help, but must be careful not to end up with an alcohol problem, because then that will exacerbate the withdrawals from both.

I have told others this who were going through benzo withdrawal and the alcohol did give them some temporary relief, since it hits a lot of the same receptor sites as benzos. But it must be done with caution and not to go overboard.

Chamomile has also been shown to help people in benzo withdrawal, at least slightly and is a less 'addictive' option.


In the mean time, as others have said, keep looking for another doctor & if she has a seizure or anything like that (audio hallucinations, etc..) you could always take her to the ER and explain the situation. They may give her a short script for another benzo until she can figure out what to do. But I wouldn't be surprised anymore in today's world. I dunno what country you're in, but in the US, they'd rather you die than give you any meds.

Stay strong friend.
Many blessings to your mother. <3
 
Negentropic said:
because phenibut only touches GABAa in very high doses, and large doses always cause problems and more side effects, hangovers, etc

phenibut is also very easy to overdo and compulsive redosing

the potential for it to make the situation even worse outweighs any benefits in my opinion

I have never used gabapentin I can't compare it to that, but I know phenibut quite well

I think it's remotely possible someone might use it correctly and reap some benefit out of it, but most people won't use it that way
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Tbh, I’ve never used it, I’ve used lyrica and gabapentin and I figured it was pretty much the same as those in terms of psychoactive effects.

Still, I feel like if I we’re in her situation, I would give it a try, almost anything would be better than nothing.

Like the above poster was recommending alcohol, that probably wouldn’t be a good solution, but it would work atleast until she can get something else
 
she needs to actively titrate whatever medicine she has left, and seek a new doctor. I am friends with a few people in this position -- another 65 year old woman who got diagnosed with beginning dementia and FDA regs say dementia patients CANNOT be given bzds ... despite the fact their bzd addiction is what produced the dementia. It's crazy/pointless/dangerous and these doctors think they can abort 20+ year 8mg a day clonazepam habits in a month. When they figure out the ACTUAL liability of the situation, they just stop taking calls. honestly, i would seek a new doctor, an attorney and scrape together whatever street benzos/rx is left and titrate as nicely as possible. ethanol will cause glutamate rebound/possible seizure.

the only things that might be helpful here are : baclofen, possibly acomprosate but i dont know how well that does w bzds. typically it's used AFTER a librium taper for alcoholics. Anything else is going to dig a deeper hole. IF she is having severe ticks/seizure like activity just don't pass go, take her straight to ER where they will give her a temporary Rx and hopefully referral to a good physician.
 
sorrowfulmoon said:
posting because my mother who I live with has recently been taken off her medication of 25+ years. We are at a loss what to do and she is really feeling sick. her clinic and others that take our health insurance have stopped prescribing benzos and she has been taking clonazepam 1mg 2x daily. A new doctor since the others have left doing telehealth phone calls since the pandemic and been "weaning" her off for 3 months which was meaning taken every other day and then every two days and then stopped. we have exhausted our pursuit in questions between her therapist and the new doctor barely communicates and does not seem to care about the patients at all as her other doctor did. It's very distressing she's been experiencing a lot of withdrawal symptoms and erratic heartbeat. I'm wondering if we should look into detoxes, rehabs or other…holistic forms of care don't seem to be managing this and we don't know where to turn. I wonder what any of you all do who may have experience in the situation. I don't believe it was the right call by health professionals since she never abused her dosage and the last doctor was even starting to raise it because of the amount she was on. in my opinion it's horrible to watch her go through this and have a return of anxiety attacks and other symptoms. don't know where to inquire safely for support or suggestions thank you.
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I appreciate all your replies!! Reading through them all, apologies if I don’t get to reply right away, my brain’s been scattered trying to figure anything out
 
polarthedog said:
You should start looking for another doctor Immediately, also, you could take her Tom a hospital right now,and they don’t probably help her with a dose at the hospital, and possibly a 3-7 day script of clonazepam.

You should also go get a lot of kava kava and black seed oil, those are really powerful herbal relaxants.

I have been addicted to benzos before, and had to go cold turkey because I was in jail(this happened multiple times), so I understand her pain, I am so sorry that she I saw going through this.

There is also something called phenibut that you can buy over the internet, that would probably help her withdrawals a lot

If you need immediate advice, feel free to PM me anytime, I’m on here a lot, and I’m fairly educated about harm reduction
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Thank you sm for sharing this info. I would like to pm you in the near future as we are working with a few solutions, we are also dealing with an emergency with my grandmother that came up which has thrown a wrench in our productivity in this manner. I’m going to look up the products you mentioned and will be in touch. Im so sorry that you had gone through that in jail, must’ve been awful. From what im hearing, cold turkey sounds so unsafe!!!
 
cdin said:
do not use phenibut, it is an equally bad habit. You NEED to get her a competent doctor familiar with the ashton tapering manual. 3 mos is laughable for that length of bzd use. this will take more like a year or two. she's likely to feel very distressed and insane the entire time. There isn't a better way, I'm sorry - and any doctor that isn't hip to this reality ^ I would fire.
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Thank you so much for emphasizing and sharing. I agree this is complete incompetencey on the clinic and doctors, she’s been telling her therapist how horrible she’s been feeling throughout the “tapering” process. And she had said that everywhere was stopping prescribing benzos and the doctor would only consider giving her antidepressants or something which she has always been sensitive to. And yes that sounds about right how she’s been feeling throughout… :( it’s like everything has been affecting her differently and over sensitized. I’ve noticed the differences and we talk about it. Will be updating
 
polarthedog said:
I think your right,it wouldn’t cover the withdrawals, but It would definitely be better than nothing. People use gabapentin for benzo withdrawals, and that’s a gaba-b agonist.

I doubt they can get a doctor appointment in less than a month, most psych doctor so have long wait lists. I don’t want her going cold turkey, that’s just straight insanity.
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Hey im gonna screenshot all these names cuz im unfamiliar and gonna look them up. Are there even any doctors to look for in a major city or is this some sort of blanket law in the united states rn? I don’t really understand why her doctor she had so long has left and the new doctor at the clinic said “no one is allowed to prescribe them anymore”. And regarding suing… what chain of law would i contact for such? Ty. Im just trying to educate myself the best i can. I guess this is territory she never thought she would have to deal with since the last time the psychiatrist even tried to take her off this medication is when she was pregnant w me and fortunately a doctor in the emergency maternity ward had overridden that decision and said it would do more harm than good and she would not be able to go through any withdrawal while pregnant and prescribed them to her themself. But that was then lol…..
 
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