Benzos Could I be on abstinence without craving? (Benzo withdrawal)

[max_]

So, i've been on and off clonazepam for over 3 years at about .5 to 3mg/day. After kind of reducing my doses down to no more than 1 mg a day i stopped taking the pills (that's about a week ago). After that i took 5mg diazepam on day 2, .25 clonazepam on day 5 and i just took 5mg diazepam.
I don't feel like taking them, but I've been experiencing awful flu-like symptoms, and also what i think is paresthesia (pins and needles) on my little finger. It's like a numbness that won't go away and it kind of contracts a little. At nights i get "the bugs", i don't know what you call that, like there's a cockroach crawling on me. Again, i do not crave the pills, but maybe my body does ?

 

[amapola]

Abstinence just means you are choosing not to take them and the fact that you don't feel craving is good.

What you are experiencing is known as withdrawal. Your brain got used to the effect the benzos had on it, and now without them it reacts badly. Here's the wiki article on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine#Withdrawal_syndrome

The symptoms will improve with time, however sudden withdrawal from a high dose of benzos can be dangerous. If they are too much then you have to taper to an even smaller dose before stopping all together.

 

[max_]

Abstinence just means you are choosing not to take them and the fact that you don't feel craving is good.

What you are experiencing is known as withdrawal. Your brain got used to the effect the benzos had on it, and now without them it reacts badly. Here's the wiki article on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine#Withdrawal_syndrome

The symptoms will improve with time, however sudden withdrawal from a high dose of benzos can be dangerous. If they are too much then you have to taper to an even smaller dose before stopping all together.

I've been through everything wikipedia's got on benzos.. these are the "big three"..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_dependence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_syndrome

And several other stuff online and on paper,, I know that my symptoms match with the w/d syndrome but i had no idea you could do it without the crave.. And what worries me the most, is that benzo withdrawal is, along with alcohol, one of the most dangerous for your health, and harder to get through.
Besides, the numbness on my little finger creeps me out, i've used alot of rc's lately (also helped increasing my benzo use, everytime to help me fall sleep). I'm scared to have serious neuronal damage-- or am i being paranoid?

 

[amapola]

Yeah benzos are different in that they don't trigger dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway of the brain (i.e. reward). Reinforcement leading to addiction is more so the negative response to not taking them. So craving is perhaps not as big as with others. With something like opioids which is well known for craving, it can also occur well past the physical withdrawal phase. Really though it's mostly irrelevant to your current situation.

It can be dangerous and if you are worried about it you should just do a more gentle taper. Remember that with clonazepam there is a very long half life so 1mg a day builds up in your system to much more and lowering you daily dose just a little bit every week will add up to a solid overall lesser amount in your system.