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Perspective on Benzo withdrawal

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deuce85

Greenlighter
Joined
May 1, 2014
Messages
43
Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well. I lurk around here from time to time. I have been sober for 2 and a half years from opiates. It was rough but I got through with the help of some good family and friends and people on this website. Well I am not here for me, but instead my mom managed to go get hooked on benzos and pain pills. She is in her second day of benzo withdrawal and she is saying it is pure hell. I feel so bad for her. I wish I could take her pain. She went to the doctor today and he did not seem too concerned about seizures or anything like that but he did give her valium and tell her to try to rest and gave her something for rest. She was just begging me to let her know how long she is in for. Since I never been hooked on Benzos I really do not know. Can anyone shed some light? Thanks in advance.
 
What benzos and pain pills has she been taking and in what quantities I guess would be the first question.

He's not worried about seizures because he's given her a load of diazepam which will negate any likelihood of a seizure (unless daily dosage is insufficient, but it doesn't have to be much for most people) so you shouldn't need to worry about that.
 
Sorry. She has been taking 5 10mg Lortabs daily and 5 1mg xanax daily. The xanax for about a year and the Lortabs for 2.
 
More so Valium IS a benzo. So he just switched her from xanax to valium maybe as a taper?
 
5 x 1mg daily of xanax is pretty big consumption(for me)
Looks like withdrawal could be long enough to actually look forward tapering?
But hey we cant say you how long it gonna be,its individual thing..could be 3 months,I say 2 weeks minimum
 
So he gave her Valium, which is what she is supposed to be getting away from, so I'm assuming he's tapering her there. It was a good 6 months for me on the benzos to get back to 100% normal
 
5mg of xanax (alprazolam) is no joke, that's pretty heavy stuff for a scripted habit. That's some seriously dodgy medical practice imo if they've just palmed her off on to 5mg of alprazolam a day with no effort of a talking cure.


I'm too busy to write anything more useful at the moment but I'll have a looksee when I get home later. Have a start by checking out the Ashton Manual, that contains a lot of useful info about detoxing from benzos and is used as a base text for withdrawing from benzos by a lot of institutions.
 
All I have to add is that if she tapers off the xanax, make sure she tapers real slow. I dunno exactly at what rate -- maybe a doc or somebody else on here can help with a schedule. All I know is that I had 2 grand mal seizures from a too-short taper off a years-long but low dose benzo course (first xanax, then ativan). One came month and a half after jumping off and the second a month after that. I failed to tell my doc that I was drinking alcohol on top of the benzo, which increased its potency, so I guess the taper she gave me was too quick. Also, I had started doing heroin so I didn't notice any withdrawal symptoms from the benzo and didn't think it was that big a deal. Also, the heroin lowered my seizure threshold. If one of the seizures had happened when I was driving, I woulda been toast. Scared the shit out of my roommate both times.
 
Yeah tapering schedule is real factor,how you will feel when tapering,it could be hell if doing nothing and manageable if doing good diet,activities,tapering technique and informational support.
 
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