who else here is withdrawing from benzos?

Certainly withdrawing! 10days off methadone and kick is getting worse! :p Anyone have any idea why this would be so? I'm determinded to never do opiates again even if I have to drown in the bathtub to do so... however if I'm never going to be productive again... and this sickness never gets better and continues to get worse, then I just don't want to be waiting in pain for nothing. Last M kick was worst between 3-8 days; the skin crawling, bone stretching/shrinking, RLS, freezing/sweating part. It's all been here with me since Nov.11 when I started taper. So nearly a month now of feeling like ish. Now 10days completely off the M and worse than ever... what gives? I remember last M kick I was all bitchy about fatigue... wish that was my worst problem now! Thanks for any advice/info.
 
Whoops sorry benzo peeps... lack of sleep has made me incapable of reading properly... please disregard my M posts I guess. Good luck all! Benzo's kick is no joke. Don't know which is worse...
 
^ Yeah, I used to unfortuneatly like the blacking out kind of. I liked it how time seemed to fly all the time because my memory was permanently fucked. Used to take enough benzos to black out for up to a week sometimes 8)
 
I'm right at the end of a taper from what was originally a 90mg a day of diazepam habit. I've tapered according to doctors orders perfectly and i get my diazepam daily pick up with my methadone.

Anyways i'm down from 5mg to 2.5mg and i cant believe how even this affected me with very mild withdrawals but that restless fear was still there as i didn't have cannabis either and i'm a very heavy smoker, the combo of the two made for a pretty shit experience.

Really woke me up to what full blown cold turkey benzo withdrawal is like, and i believe it is worse than opioid withdrawal, just my opinion, something about the fear you feel from benzo withdrawal is just so fucked.

I've got two weeks on 2.5mg and i dont know what happends after this i might go down to a lower dose for a week or two, but i'm definitely finding these last dose reductions the shittest. Hopeforly it's not too bad when i jump to zero.

I just cant wait to be off this stuff for good now, opioid addiction is enough for me, really really over benzos.. Just want to be off it and thank fuck i didn't get a more serious addiction because my little 6 month one was fucked enough.
 
I cant function without xanax, something happened to me where Ive actually developed some mild form of agoraphobia, its places, its the crowds. Ive been on benzos for close to 19yrs now, the longest I was off them was 75 days in treatment, I was taking roughly 30mgs of xanax a day, they had to give me 200mgs of valium to prevent a siezure, combining that with a nice heroin withdrawl, I had actually set the rcord for being at this detox, it was new, and I had to be in there for 17 days. Ive seen the place on Intervention a few times now actually, a hell of a lot nicer than I was there 5yrs ago, but as soon as I got out of treatment, I saw a shrink and had him put me on Restoril 30mg, because I had about 500 of the 15mg ones so, drug test, legit doc script no worries. Now, Im back on xanax, I get them from my shrink, and another doc, each of them give me 8mgs ed, so I try and stick with 16mgs a day, 20 at most, which I know is still a massive dose, but I have to take at least 10mg to even feel calm.

Benzo with drawl is the most evil thing on this earth, I would rather be binging from crack and doing the carpet search, then having my brain rewire itself from benzos. I think its also the fact Ive been on them for almost 2 decades, Im rambling gotta excuse me, I just shot up a gram of persian gold
 
^ Yeah, I used to unfortuneatly like the blacking out kind of. I liked it how time seemed to fly all the time because my memory was permanently fucked. Used to take enough benzos to black out for up to a week sometimes 8)

I did that a week ago, I managed to eat 120 bars in a 3-4 day period, NO MEMORY of what happened, why I even did it. Usually there is a catalyst for me to go off like that, I checked phone records, text messages emails, face book, twitter, and I was spending time with my parents helping them out with Xmas shit, and maybe it was cause my bday was coming up, or that my mom is going through the really rough part of her chemo, I dont know, but they havent seen that side of me since I was 19 yrs old, and 14 yrs later Im falling down a flight of stairs, in a walking blackout. :(
 
^ Yeah, xan bars were one bad one for me too man. I used to eat one after the other since they're shorter lasting, which would always lead to me forgetting what I had done until they were all gone.
 
^ Hi m8, what benzo(s) and what dose are you currently on? If you're feeling that terrible from withdrawals then maybe you should organise a tapering schedulle with your doctor and maybe get reffered to a psyciatrist and psycologist for medication and help to aid your current feelings, (if you haven't already). All the best.
 
I don't know much about benzos and I'm curious about something so if anyone could answer my question(s) I would appreciate it very much. I hope this is okay here in this thread since it's about benzo withdrawals but if it needs to be moved, I'll understand.

I haven't used any kind of benzo in a long time and I've been sober for over two years. I never had a problem with benzos as I could take them or leave them and opiates were my DOC. If I couldn't find opiates, I would get benzos like Xanax and I would usually get pretty large amounts of them because they're so cheap compared to my normal DOC (heroin, Fentanyl, and Oxycontin). Because I would end up with so many of them, I would usually have a "binge" for maybe a few days or even up to a week at a time every once in a while but like I said before, I could take them or leave them. I would even hang onto some of them to keep around for emergencies (withdrawal from opiates, usually) and I wouldn't be that tempted to take them unless I had absolutely nothing else.

Anyway, so like I said, I would end up going on binges every couple of months usually and they would involve me insufflating maybe up to a few (between one and five or six) peach Xanax--maybe three or four blues tops--in a day and this would last for up to a week.

Well, ever since I was 16 I have had epilepsy after having a bad head injury so obviously I am prone to seizures. I have heard that withdrawals from benzos can definitely cause seizures and I often wondered if any of mine were caused by benzo withdrawals. I was never sure because I was irresponsible with my anti-seizure meds and I also didn't know if I took enough benzos to even suffer withdrawals to begin with as I never experienced any other negative side effects after stopping them after a week of using them constantly.

I know it's not possible for anyone to say with 100% certainty but do you think it's possible to suffer withdrawals serious enough to cause a seizure after only using benzos for about a week? I know everyone is different and bla bla bla but I was having A LOT of seizures back then (about one a month) and I've often found myself wondering if this was caused by my inability to properly take my anti-seizure medication OR because I was suffering from withdrawals but didn't know it. I never tapered down after one of said weeks of benzo use so yeah, I still wonder to this day if any of my episodes were caused by stopping them all of a sudden.
 
To the above poster Ive had seizures after a weekend binge of 40-50mg xanax, on three separate occasions, usually about 5-6 days later. So you can definately have a seizure after only a short binge if you eat enough. But that was back when I had low tolerance and just blackedout and ended up eating a whole bottle of xanax stupidly.

I been on and off benzos for a cpl of years, never had withdrawls too badly until now. I've just returned from a 6 month visit to Thailand and ate benzos almost daily. usually around 20mg valium plus 1-2 mg xanax each day. Plus I was binge drinking most of the time too.

Luckily I got a good GP here and got in touch with an organisation called Reconnexion here in Melbourne that offers counselling and help with benzo withdrawl, and they have both been pretty helpful. I just explained my situation and have been put on a taper, similar to ashton method guidelines I think. They suggest i find a stabilising dose (starting with 20mg valium) for a cpl weeks, then hopefully start reducing soon as I feel comfortable.

I gotta start new job and other stuff like find new place to live, so while I'd like to taper kinda quickly, I think slowly is way to go. 6 months is a rough guideline on how long it will take according to the counseller, but I'm sure I could do it quicker...
 
I know it's not possible for anyone to say with 100% certainty but do you think it's possible to suffer withdrawals serious enough to cause a seizure after only using benzos for about a week?

Xanax is extremely potent and quickly metabolized, it can induce dependence very quickly if you're taking high doses. For someone with epilepsy, a week of high-dose xanax use followed by abrupt cessation could definitely cause a seizure.

6 months is a rough guideline on how long it will take according to the counseller, but I'm sure I could do it quicker...

My advice: Don't worry about the amount of time it will take, just reduce 10% of your dose every month or so. If you never drop more than 10%, and hold the cuts for a decent amount of time, you'll never be worse off than uncomfortable.
 
Yeah, xanax is certainly harder to taper off, since it has a much shorter half life than say diazepam, so seizures can happen to anyone after a binge and then suddenly stopping. I know people who have had seizures off a few different benzos when they have stopped suddenly without tapering and they don't have epilepsy. Somehow I have been extremely lucky in the past to not have any seizures myself after alot of binges (like 50mg xanax in 48hrs, etc).
 
I've been on them almost ten years or so and I can't stop them.

I'm going to use xmas to hopefully withdraw (yeah, that will be a fun xmas).
 
^ Yeah thats it man. There was countless times in the past from having a heavy benzo use "session" where I was having a great time, but would always end up forgetting where I left my phone or wallet, etc probably 100 times in a day/night 8)
 
i'm wondering if we could get a poll... where people no longer on benzos could choose how many years it took to feel relatively sober/normal after the withdrawal... 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5... something like that...
 
Xchange

Just want to put a reassurance
in this thread to anyone
who is in long-term protracted benzo withdrawal.

You WILL get better.
Hang in there!

If at seems your making no progress
keep in mind
my withdrawals were
so bad I couldn't drive a car for six months.
At one point my face was paralysed.

At a year I was still fucked.
Sixteen months I'm better than I've ever been.
Shit can happen rapidly.
Much Love DS.

:)
 
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