Well, look for physical symptoms and try to ignore any mental ones. The common nay usual effect of benzodiazepine withdrawal is anxiety but one should REALLY watch out when myoclonic jerks kick in. They tend to strike the arms and legs first. When I first developed them I had no idea what was happening. I went to my doctor and was prescribed... clobazam. Now I KNEW it was I had been taking too much clonazepam for way too long but wasn't going to say so. But the clobazam did help... It takes the edge off the anxiety but the key thing is, you won't have a seizure.
Nobody would ever take clobazam for fun. It isn't fun. It also has a ceiling effect which equates to about 20mg of diazepam a day but it IS much safer.
When I was on really high doses of benzos during the legal high years, I did notice some twitching and physical discomfort and definitely feeling 'not right' during long stim binges when I had not taken any benzos for much longer than was normal for me at that time. I can now put that down to likely being sub-seizure / mild myoclonic jerks.
Fortunately this time, I don't think any physical dependency, if it exists at all, is anywhere near is severe, due to me having been taking much lower doses and for less continuous time.
But yes you are right that I should not dismiss this aspect out of hand, and should taper down to be safe.
Since my main anxiety issues are related to social anxiety rather than general anxiety, I sometimes don't really have any noticeable anxiety when I'm staying in and not seeing anyone, or only having low-stakes social interaction (supermarket cashiers etc.) My main issue with quitting benzos when not having to be social is definitely the rebound insomnia. I have tried another day without benzos since my post above and I couldn't sleep for the life of me the second time. Maybe it was because I was very much conscious of the fact that I'd had no benzos the second time. Unlike the first time when it never crossed my mind and I slept fine. This does suggest some kind of psychological aspect to the whole thing.
But there has been no sign of any twitching or any associated symptoms on both benzo free days, so I do think any physical dependency is very minimal this time round. But yeah, like I say I will taper down rather than just try to stop cold turkey, both for safety's sake, and hopefully it will help my brain begin to adjust to falling asleep without the aid of benzos.
I know it can be a very long and slow process for the brain to start adjusting to no benzos.
