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Help with benzo withdrawal please.

M

Mighty-oak

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
290
Hi all

I have been suffering for the past 15 years with horrible anxiety that I was given Valium for, so been on Valium for 15 years everyday. 6 years ago I was prescribed Clonazepam on top of the Valium, Clonazepam dose was at 0.5mg once a day, it really helped for the first few years but then it seemed like my anxiety was becoming worse and worse so I did some research. After little research I found out that long term benzo use actually makes anxiety worse so I started to cut the dose of Clonazepam. I am cutting down by 10% every 3 weeks.....But the effects are terrible as in heightened anxiety. Is there any natural supplement that may help withdrawal/anxiety that anyone has had success with? I have read that L-Theanine is meant to help, also Zinc, Vit C and something called Ashwagandha...Any help/advice would be great as really struggling here, so much so and this is rather embarrassing that I cant leave my home due to anxiety, Dr has me down as 'Chronic Agoraphobia' .

Thanks in advance.
 
Have you read the ashton manual? It is the go-to for tapering benzos especially if you have been on them long term.

I was on benzos for years. It is very true that unless you keep increasing your dose you will not receive the same therapeutic value you originally had. It is called diminishing returns. It took a while and some heartache for me to get clear of it.

What has really worked well for me is a combination of quitting the benzos (slowly tapered), taking 100mg of zoloft in the morning, therapy, and meditation. Anxiety is a daily struggle and I still get caught up in thoughts I do not like, but on that regime I can control it a little bit better...and what is anxiety but the feeling of a loss of control.

I would highly suggest discussing this with your doctor, and if your doctor is not helpful then I suggest finding another doctor. If you are having some severe anxiety under his care, obviously he is mishandling your case, and a second opinion may be in order.
 
Thank you manboychef. So did you find that benzos worked really well to start with then kind of made anxiety worse than it was to begin with? Very interesting to read that about loss of control, that is what I am scared stiff about, the what if's. My Dr still has me on 10mg Valium a day and has stopped my Klonopin, but luckily I managed to get hold of 100 x 0.5mg Klon tabs. Each Klon tab weighs 200g and I am down to 130g so nearly half a tab. I am also on Celexa (Citalopram) 40mg a day and am taking 15mg Zinc everynight along with 500mg of Vit C, been taking Vit C for about 8 weeks, not really noticed any difference and the Zinc I have been taking for 5 days so maybe a bit to early to tell. I may get some L-Theanine as that seems to have good reports on reducing anxiety. Not tried any meditation, will look in to that. I used to love walking my dog for hours and hours now my girlfriend has to walk him because I cant leave my house and one of the things that I read to help anxiety was exercise, bit hard to do being stuck in a tiny 2 bed house that I cant leave!
 
Actually I did notice a distinct increase in my anxiety as I progressed in my benzo usage. I kept escalating my dose in order to keep up with my anxiety and panic attacks. I have OCD and benzos were very helpful for controlling my intrusive thoughts and reactions to them, but in the long run I had a really bad resurgence of symptoms that came with having panic attacks all the time. Panic disorder sucks. I jump when the phone rings. If someone walks up behind me and says something I jump. When I am outside watering sometimes the song changing in my headphones makes me jump if there is a slight elevation in volume from one song to the next.

I feel you on the agoraphobia. I get particularly worried when I leave my yard. I have stopped driving because I have panic attacks. I should visit my girlfriend more often, but I find it hard to drive a couple hours... Have you tried having a trusted person with you as a security blanket when you go out? It is helpful for me because I have memory problems from many ods on benzos and heroin. Just being out I am worried about forgetting my way and that causes me to be scared. Even with GPS I cannot control those urges. It is getting better little by little as long as I work on it. I think I may have to try immersion therapy for this. Maybe slowly desensitize myself to the anxiety by slowly going farther and farther with a trusted friend or relative.

Have you noticed any memory or cognitive problems since you started the benzos? I have very bad short term memory and sometimes even my long term memory gets confused. It is embarrassing because I used to smart as a whip, and now I lose the meaning of what I am trying to say even though it is on the tip of my tongue.
 
I have been on Klonopin for over 12 years now. I take 2mg twice daily for many years. Sometimes I'll take half my night dose in the evening and the other half before bed. I do notice when I take the half in the evening I feel a lot better,AKA my body needed it. Instead of upping my dose with my doctor I want to taper down when time is right.
 
I was a daily marijuana smoker for 12 years. So addicted, I even smoked through my pregnancy (with much research of fetal harm reduction), which I am ashamed of. I never could get past day 2, due to the massive anxiety. I read a lot about the amino acid supplement, L-Theanine, on this site and gave it a try. I take 200 mg a day when I feel anxiety onset come on and it has worked phenomenally. It takes about 30 minutes to feel the affects. I always thought that I wouldn't ever be able to quit, but I am on Day 5 and every day gets easier. I swear by this supplement, maybe give it a try and see if it helps. I actually drank an energy drink while taking my dose yesterday and I have never felt so high on life without taking drugs. I am so happy to be clean and sober. I am also prescribed Prozac and I would suggest seeing if your doctor can prescribe you an anti-depressant that helps with anxiety. I used to think awful things all day long, cry about every news story I would hear and not be able to control my emotions. The Prozac has seemed to turn off that trigger in my brain and it doesn't allow me to get so deep in thought about bad things that I have consistent anxiety.
 
Hello.

Two years ago I detoxed from many drugs but the toughest was benzos. I went for about three months of not sleeping much. No good appetite. After fighting against the withdrawals for a few months my anxiety lessened more and more. I noticed that the longer I stay clean the lesser my anxiety issues. It's crazy bc for years I told myself to take xanax to keep my anxiety down. But now in reality I think my anxiety issues were only from the drugs. The best advice I can give is if you feel like not eating, make yourself eat. Your body needs food whether you are feeling it or not. Drink lots of fluid. Must stay hydrated. Also look to your higher power. Mine is God so I would pray and pray. I would pray and say oh just help me make it through today(morning). Then when I would make it through the day I would pray at night and thank him for helping me getting through that day. It is a process but these are the things that got me through the tough times. Oh meditation helps tremendously too.
 
Mrs.Lynn said:
Hello.

Two years ago I detoxed from many drugs but the toughest was benzos. I went for about three months of not sleeping much. No good appetite. After fighting against the withdrawals for a few months my anxiety lessened more and more. I noticed that the longer I stay clean the lesser my anxiety issues. It's crazy bc for years I told myself to take xanax to keep my anxiety down. But now in reality I think my anxiety issues were only from the drugs. The best advice I can give is if you feel like not eating, make yourself eat. Your body needs food whether you are feeling it or not. Drink lots of fluid. Must stay hydrated. Also look to your higher power. Mine is God so I would pray and pray. I would pray and say oh just help me make it through today(morning). Then when I would make it through the day I would pray at night and thank him for helping me getting through that day. It is a process but these are the things that got me through the tough times. Oh meditation helps tremendously too.
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Yeah. After years of being on benzos they gave me no relief from the intrusive thoughts and panic attacks. Basically, I just kept taking them because I would have an intense withdrawal as well as a resurgence of even stronger symptoms of my mental illness. A proper taper limited my withdrawals, but I still have paranoia, and sometimes my mind creates answers to questions that do not need to be answered. This is six months after I stopped daily use.

What works for me: I take 100mg zoloft in the morning. I get up early and meditate while I take care of my garden. When I am in my garden I can turn my brain off. The one thing I miss about the benzos is I could drive without having a panic attack, and I could leave my house without intense prompting.
 
Update: Princess is back on the green. Lasted 16 days. Even with being on my prescribed Prozac, Kilonipin and Welbutrin, life had become miserable. I felt utterly depressed and hopeless. I felt no joy in daily life. Constant boredom. I'd rather smoke in the evenings, as opposed to having to live life the way I felt. The L-Theanime seemed to help at first, but then it felt like I would go through a slight withdrawal when I didn't take it. Headaches, nausea. I've been smoking for a week and life has been awesome. Great mood, I have energy in the evenings. Green is good!
 
manboychef said:
Anxiety is a daily struggle and I still get caught up in thoughts I do not like, but on that regime I can control it a little bit better...and what is anxiety but the feeling of a loss of control.
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This!! I took benzos (as of course most people do) to deal with anxiety issues, but they just ended up making everything ten times worse in the long run.

I read an interesting article a while back that says that opiates actually end up lowering our thresholds to pain. So - if you take opiates for ages for pain relief, and then come off them, you'll be less equipped to deal with ANY pain from that point on. I wonder if the same can be said for benzos. Since I got off them and the post-benzo head finally cleared, that nasty anxiety feeling feels like a shard of glass through my body. I'm talking more about the actual physical anxiety feeling, rather than the headfuck.
 
Mighty-oak said:
Hi all

I have been suffering for the past 15 years with horrible anxiety that I was given Valium for, so been on Valium for 15 years everyday. 6 years ago I was prescribed Clonazepam on top of the Valium, Clonazepam dose was at 0.5mg once a day, it really helped for the first few years but then it seemed like my anxiety was becoming worse and worse so I did some research. After little research I found out that long term benzo use actually makes anxiety worse so I started to cut the dose of Clonazepam. I am cutting down by 10% every 3 weeks.....But the effects are terrible as in heightened anxiety. Is there any natural supplement that may help withdrawal/anxiety that anyone has had success with? I have read that L-Theanine is meant to help, also Zinc, Vit C and something called Ashwagandha...Any help/advice would be great as really struggling here, so much so and this is rather embarrassing that I cant leave my home due to anxiety, Dr has me down as 'Chronic Agoraphobia' .

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I got cut off cold turkey from a ten year daily Xanax habit. I was naive and didn't know they were addictive or dangerous. Withdrawal was excruciating. I know you want a more natural solution, but consider giving Indural (propranolol) a shot. It works well to stop the adrenaline response. It's a blood pressure med, nonaddictive, and fairly benign. I wouldn't have gotten through withdrawal without it. That was six years ago, I still keep an active script in case I need it in an emergency. There is a fast acting and an extended release, I recommend getting each. The fast acting is great for an attack, the long acting is great for a stressful day. It doesn't feel good like a benzo, it just makes you calmer.

I found that long term benzo use dramatically increases anxiety. The worst part of stopping benzos is the first six month to a year, then it slowly gets better. I'm hoping the taper will lessen the severity of the withdrawal and subsequent PAWS for you and make overall recovery much quicker. I haven't taken a benzo in over six years and I am 80% recovered. However, I went cold turkey. I think tapering really minimizes excitotoxicity, so fingers crossed. Just realize however bad you feel that it is temporary and it will get better.

Regarding your actual question, I have found kava kava, Relora, L-theanine, and Ashwagandha useful. I take melatonin, Relora, and l-theanine in the evening. I have a suppliment drink that contains Ashwagandha that I sometimes take in the morning (has iron I. It so it tastes horrible). A good kava kava extract will hit you like a benzo without none of the negative affects of a benzo.

Feel free to hit me up with questions or if you need to vent. Keep up the great work!
 
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