I thought that this may be a worth while post as it is something that really helped me in early recovery, and I always forget to mention it when discussing withdrawal, PAWS, and sober living now. Along with many other things, I was addicted to Xanax for 10 years. When I went to rehab they cut me off cold turkey, and rehab was only 28 days so the worst of it hit after I had left treatment.
During early recovery my anxiety increased over 100 fold, and needless to say I wasn't keen on starting new medications to help as I feel the Xanax had done so much damage, and I didn't realize how dangerous and addictive benzos were until after the fact. I took them as a medication, unaware of their party potential, so I was completely blindsided by what was happening. I was in pain...physical and mental, and I was at a loss on how to control it. Seeing how I had destroyed my life, I wasn't working, I had nothing but time. I decided I had been through so much already, I was going to spend some of the meager remaining on a spa day for myself. I booked an all day package to sample the services offered at a day spa in my town. This package consisted of two one hour types of massages, along with a hot stone treatment, a body scrub and vicci shower, foot reflexology, and a variety of other treatments. I learned two things that day. One, read up on services before you schedule them, otherwise you may find yourself having needles placed all over your body and then lit on fire while someone rubs your head, and two, a deep tissue massage alleviated my physical pain and brought the anxiety way down, for a couple of days.
I started booking regular deep tissue massages, because they really helped the withdrawal. It helped so much that began researching how to maximize the effects of the massage, and subsequently began to eat much healthier, and eventually transitioned over to whole foods. Oddly enough, I started sleeping better as well, mind you, I was thick in benzo PAWS so I considered a good nights sleep to be anything more than an hour, and while it was dark out. I also started to take a decent multivitamin, and drank much more water.
I got massages whenever I could, usually about once a week. I found that regular deep tissue massages really helped alleviate anxiety, muscle tightness, and restless leg syndrome. I found that Swedish massage and hot stone therapy helped me to learn to ground my thoughts, and actually lead me to look into cognitive behavioral therapy.
During particularly tough times I would sometimes get three massages a week. I believe getting massages kept my stress levels down enough to where I didn't get arrested because of anxiety early on, and they kept me from giving up and taking benzos just to be comfortable for a while. It may not sound like much, but early on those were the two biggest concerns I dealt with. I wanted desperately to be sober an have a normal life, as I never experienced that as an adult since my addictions began when I was a kid living with my parents.
Today I am six years clean of benzos, and two years clean from booze (stupidly thought I could drink like a normal person once in a while and learned I couldn't lol). I get a massage every two weeks, sometimes more frequently if I can afford it. I can physically tell when it's been close to two weeks as I am stiff and my stress levels rise. I just thought that I would share this as its something I now take for granted, but was very useful to keeping me straight in early recovery. For those of you who think you can't afford it I say you were able to afford a drug habit, which can sometimes be a couple hundred dollars a day. We addicts can be pretty creative when it comes to getting cash, so try it out. Many places have promotional massages, so your first one may be free. Some places take insurance.
Anyway, stay strong my friends.
During early recovery my anxiety increased over 100 fold, and needless to say I wasn't keen on starting new medications to help as I feel the Xanax had done so much damage, and I didn't realize how dangerous and addictive benzos were until after the fact. I took them as a medication, unaware of their party potential, so I was completely blindsided by what was happening. I was in pain...physical and mental, and I was at a loss on how to control it. Seeing how I had destroyed my life, I wasn't working, I had nothing but time. I decided I had been through so much already, I was going to spend some of the meager remaining on a spa day for myself. I booked an all day package to sample the services offered at a day spa in my town. This package consisted of two one hour types of massages, along with a hot stone treatment, a body scrub and vicci shower, foot reflexology, and a variety of other treatments. I learned two things that day. One, read up on services before you schedule them, otherwise you may find yourself having needles placed all over your body and then lit on fire while someone rubs your head, and two, a deep tissue massage alleviated my physical pain and brought the anxiety way down, for a couple of days.
I started booking regular deep tissue massages, because they really helped the withdrawal. It helped so much that began researching how to maximize the effects of the massage, and subsequently began to eat much healthier, and eventually transitioned over to whole foods. Oddly enough, I started sleeping better as well, mind you, I was thick in benzo PAWS so I considered a good nights sleep to be anything more than an hour, and while it was dark out. I also started to take a decent multivitamin, and drank much more water.
I got massages whenever I could, usually about once a week. I found that regular deep tissue massages really helped alleviate anxiety, muscle tightness, and restless leg syndrome. I found that Swedish massage and hot stone therapy helped me to learn to ground my thoughts, and actually lead me to look into cognitive behavioral therapy.
During particularly tough times I would sometimes get three massages a week. I believe getting massages kept my stress levels down enough to where I didn't get arrested because of anxiety early on, and they kept me from giving up and taking benzos just to be comfortable for a while. It may not sound like much, but early on those were the two biggest concerns I dealt with. I wanted desperately to be sober an have a normal life, as I never experienced that as an adult since my addictions began when I was a kid living with my parents.
Today I am six years clean of benzos, and two years clean from booze (stupidly thought I could drink like a normal person once in a while and learned I couldn't lol). I get a massage every two weeks, sometimes more frequently if I can afford it. I can physically tell when it's been close to two weeks as I am stiff and my stress levels rise. I just thought that I would share this as its something I now take for granted, but was very useful to keeping me straight in early recovery. For those of you who think you can't afford it I say you were able to afford a drug habit, which can sometimes be a couple hundred dollars a day. We addicts can be pretty creative when it comes to getting cash, so try it out. Many places have promotional massages, so your first one may be free. Some places take insurance.
Anyway, stay strong my friends.
