I have looked into the Ashton method
the withdrawal symptom list for coming off benzos makes coming off opioids seem like a cake walk
how long did it last and how bad was it really?
i am aware we are all different and you did the Ashton method I’m just interested in an experience of someone who did it
thank you for the information


I am glad you found the information on the Aston method helpful. It really did help me.
I was on about the equivalent of 100 mg of Diazpepam or 10mg of xanax a day when i started reducing. That was pretty shocking but i had been on much higher doses at times. I liked to get really heavily fucked up on benzos. I wasn't in a good way.
Anyway, I started reducing by 1 standard recommended therapeutic dose (ie the equivalent of 10mg of diazepam or 1 mg of xanax) every 7 to 10 days. The first 3 or 4 reductions I don't recall even noticing much, this probably meant that I had been taking much more than I needed for quite some time, and fortunately I had not become physically dependant on excessive doses.
When I started getting down to around 5 x the daily recommended therapuetic dose (I'm gonna start abbreviating this to RTD) I would feel mild flu like symptoms for a few days after the reduction, and a bit of a spike in anxiety. But nothing too bad at all.
It was only when I started getting down to around 2 x RTD that the insmonia really started to kick in very badly, and this was one of the worst aspects of the whole process from then on. This problem was really severe and lasted for many weeks / months. There is no denying that. Some nights I would not get to sleep until around 6:30am when I had to get up for work at 7am. It was literally a waking nightmare for weeks on end.
Apart from the insomnia, I believe that if I had not had any other problems other than withdrawing from benzos then the whole thing would not have been too bad at all, thanks to the gradual reduction of the Ashton method. In fact it would have been relatively easy, compared to many things in life which have been much harder than that. However, most people take benzos due to underlying problems. These underlying problems then re-surface and cause most difficulty when a person quits benzos. Most people do not become addicted to benzos unless they are taking them for some particular reasons in the first place. I had actually forgotten why I had started taking benzos in the first place, by the time I got off them.
For me, I hadnt even acknowledged the fact that I had severe social anxiety. Plus I was undiagnosed Autistic, and so I had no idea what was causing my social difficulties and anxieties either. Social aspects of work and life caused me so much anxiety, they were so difficult and awkward, and people didnt want to talk to me, and treated me like the weirdo that I was. I didnt understand why I was the way I was. Things would have been much easier if I had understood the reasons for my difficulties.
My problems seemed worse than ever after my few years or so on benzos and then quitting them. I think it was a mixture of the severity of my undiagnosed Autism increasing with age, plus the several years on benzos which meant that I had been trying to avoid my problems, and then it felt like I was suddenly all raw, vulnerable, and exposed, and un-insulated and ill prepared and unsupported to cope well. It was so fucking hard, thanks to the anxiety and Autism. Not because of the benzo withdrawls. Does that make sense?
I stayed off benzos for around 6 months. I could have chosen to stay off them, but for me that would have made no sense. The instant I went back on them my relationships immediately improved and my struggles and misery and ruminantions and painful agonies of awkwardness and self consciousness all instantly gone. I am glad that I have at least tried to stop, and given it a fair crack of the whip to see if I could make things work without them. Frankly I think that I would be quite mad to subject myself to further miseries of denying myself something that helps me so much.
It is quitely mentioned in some reasearch papers that benzos may help some Autistic people, (especially those that have social anxieties - this is not stated explicitly but it seems to be a blatantly obvious statement to me). But still the NHS Drs in the UK don't care about that and it's a blanket policy to refuse to offer new ongoing benzo prescriptions, no matter what the individual case or circumstance . I'd have to see a private psychiatrist if I wanted to get a legal script. If I was a wealthy middle class proffesional that would be no issue at all. But I am not, so that leaves me the option of all those clearnet sites which have sprung up to cater for the need that is out there.
I wish you good luck with whatever you decide to do. I was also addicted to opiates at the same time as Benzos at one point. It is best to quit the opis first, and then go to work on quitting the benzos afterwards.