who else here is withdrawing from benzos?

[duneplanet]

and how do you cope? IM 11 days off. maybe we cna support eachother

 

[bignbrown]

Not right now, but im generally always having GABA drug withdrawals, whether it be benzos, GBL or alcohol. Benzos are the one im trying to avoid the most and i know how hard it is, the duration is just too long and if i have to go through it again i would probably end up topping myself. I just spent 2 nights delerious and in hell from gbl wd, but would take that over benzos any day.

Is this 11 days off from a taper or cold turkey? Just remember things will get better from now on, valium withdrawals are very drawn out but things will get better.

Good luck (y)

edit: the few times i was forced off benzos cold turkey, i just spent the whole time watching comedys and excerising, using herbal things like valerian to calm me down, occasionally had some beta blockers to control my heart from beating too fast and helping the shakes and some physical symptoms. Excerise does help mentally as its a natural anti-depressent so try and do some if you can!

 

[iceicebaby]

I went cold turkey off of benzos (pretty high dose of ativan) and it gave me seizures pretty badly, chills, and horrible insomnia. I went on Valium and tapered slowly from that and am a lot better off. I agree with use of valerian root to calm someone down, it works wonders. Exercise is good too, once the seizures stopped when I went cold off of benzos I made myself go for power walks. Good luck to you, and it may not seem like it now but things will get better.

 

[duneplanet]

i didnt cold turkey i did a semi-rapid taper. im just an extremely hypersensitive person. always have been. aspergers. benzo withdrawal+ hypersensitivity= great fun

 

[Sweet P]

I've been on benzos daily for 7 years, and I'm now tapering off them with diazepam. Whenever I've gone cold turkey or tapered too fast, I've had severe seizures - to the point that I'd turn blue from not breathing. I'm currently down to 16mg's a day and the whole process isn't much fun.

 

[duneplanet]

I find it amusing how terrible I thought my life was before i started benzos again. And now id do anything to have that life back. This is my 4th benzo withdrawal by the way. here i am again. fuck it.

 

[bignbrown]

I find it amusing how terrible I thought my life was before i started benzos again. And now id do anything to have that life back. This is my 4th benzo withdrawal by the way. here i am again. fuck it.

agree with you there, sure i was an anxious person before the benzos, but the after effects of coming off them are just terrible and soo not worth it.

 

[ugly]

I lost my job, lost my insurance, and have gone cold turkey off benzos. I cry. I feel sad. I can't sleep. I'm short tempered. I'd love more than anything to have a benzo right now. Not having insurance or a job and having unemployment be slower than hell, I don't have funds for most of the stuff I used to have funds for.

 

[duneplanet]

im sorry you lost all of that. How long ago did you stop taking benzos? If it was less than two months ago Id say go on a slow valium taper. Or try lyrica. Just dont stay on them no matter what. you've lost too much already to go back, itd be a waste. Im with you here. IT'll get better. ALl it is is withdrawal. Nothing more. Of course it'll pass. I know its ahrd as hell, people who havent gone thru withdrawal make fun of me and say im a bitch, but if only they knew. These mental states are beyond depression and anxiety, to me id equate it to how hell feels minus the fire. these dark places can breed creativity, I write poetry. the external things will work themselves out. the internal things are what is difficult. my mind is a torture chamber. it was before the withdrawal.

om mani pema hung to you
the mantra of compassion

 

[drmcnasty]

I will be soon and have done it many times. The only bad symptoms I get are the weeks of one or two hours sleep every night and just general aggravation. With my job I have to quit weed and benzos quite a bit but know it's time to quit before it gets out of hand. I feel for you and hope it goes well.

 

[panic in paradise]

i had never been prescribed them before, and never cared for them recreationly but occasionally as a sleep aid.
after some nasty bouts with several antipsychotics i was given lithium(a real piece of mind for me), and built up to 6mgs klonopin. it was needed greatly at the time, and still, but...
after a surprise autoimmune diagnosis and the pain game started, i was put on marinol and marijuana. i unwittingly dropped down to 4mgs after a couple of months. i went back and forth with my daily intake a year? and got myself down to two then one every twenty hours or something once i started opioid maintenance.

in a few ER visits they slipped in iv ativan, and versed. which gave me some nice rebounds, on top of stress from pain, random ~ 40mg oxycodone w/d, and everything else i now eat two, i have 2mg pills, and will eat half sublingualy, and the other orally before sleep.

i have been throwing in .5's every third day, and will not dose until i am physically beginning to withdraw.

the proper method is .125mg dropped every 3-4 days. with klonopin...
valerien is wonderful, i have gabapentin, so 80-100mg is very soothing with benzos and opioids, that is if you are prescribed, familiar with and have this medication.

trying to quit benzos alone cold-turky is a disaster that is easily avoided with a medical professional.
there are endless coping mechanisms, and many very affective herbs that can make this easier, but please be careful, and if you are taking any other herbal supplements, vitamins, weight gaining mixes, read the label for any interactions as they are very common.

i dont want or really feel i should be coming off benzos, but we all have our reasons.

 

[fivelinefury]

I find it amusing how terrible I thought my life was before i started benzos again. And now id do anything to have that life back. This is my 4th benzo withdrawal by the way. here i am again. fuck it.

Yeah same ere m8. I've been addicted to benzos every single day for around 6 years, but along the way have always abused the shit out of them, then stopped, abused, stopped. I will never know how many times I did this, but it must be close to 100 times. Plus I have had about 10 relapses during my proper taper off them.

I lost my job, lost my insurance, and have gone cold turkey off benzos. I cry. I feel sad. I can't sleep. I'm short tempered. I'd love more than anything to have a benzo right now. Not having insurance or a job and having unemployment be slower than hell, I don't have funds for most of the stuff I used to have funds for.

Yup, I can also very much relate to you m8. I lost my job (I had to resign because I couldn't physically function out of bed anymore from chronic benzo use and depression/anxiety. I've been unable to work for over a year now and am still tapering off diazepam 13 months later. I used to barely ever sleep, I did cry myself to sleep some nights, and I was an extremely angry person at times. Trust me when I say things do get better. I still today don't beleive things will get better for me, but when I think back to where I was, say 6 months ago, well I have extremely improved.

 

[mossad assassin]

I have kicked dope countless times and I hate it, naturally. However, there are some things you can do to taper off, make withdrawals easier. For me, after about 4-5 days I start to get my legs back.

When I was involved with Narcotics Anonymous, my sponsor recommended that I stop taking Klonopin. I had been on the drug for four years at this point due to PTSD, agoraphobia, OCD and just about every other anxiety-related condition. My doctors tried many, many drugs before I was prescribed Klonopin-- and bam, just like that, I got my life back, able to function, great right?

So I listened to a person, he was my sponsor and I was clean 23 months. I spent 17 days in Western Psychiatric in Pittsburgh, PA. My attending doctor set up a 5 day Syrex taper. I fely pretty good the 6th day but, if I am remembering correctly, that night was horrifying. I spent the next 10 or 11 days shaking violently, body spasms, hallucinations-- worse than a bad LSD trip. This experience was hell and I find it difficult to adequately articulate just how fucking painful and terrifying it was. My attending's answer? Risperidal and 200mg of Zoloft. Before I entered the hospital, I was at a comfortable weight. I lost around 15 pounds as being horrified 24/7 killed my appetite.

When I was released, I called my psychiatrist and he called in a refill for my Klonopin. After about 45 minutes or so, those awful symptoms were quelled and I slept for days. My psychiatrist told me that the reason I suffered so fiercely from the withdrawal was that because I was not tapered properly from the drug.

Those were the worst days of my life. I am grateful that I experienced that in a way, I learned a lot about NA and its hive-mind mentality regarding benzos, Methadone and Suboxone/Subutex. Hell, it was worth it to get away from those people.

Anyway, reading these posts makes me feel like I am not alone. The level to which I suffered from panic disorder ruined my life for years. Not being able to cross the street to by a pack of cigarettes. Ah, I could go on and on.

Good luck.

 

[Roger&Me]

I find it amusing how terrible I thought my life was before i started benzos again. And now id do anything to have that life back.

This is a precious gift!

You now realize how wonderful life can be, even when it seems to be very difficult.

FWIW, I'm a couple months off benzos now. I don't feel 100% better yet, but that doesn't bother me because I feel about 90% better and my renewed good attitude is making up for the rest.

Benzo withdrawal is a terrible ordeal, but it's also a fantastic gift: not often are people allowed a chance to change their lives for the better in such a concrete and powerful way as they are able to when quitting benzodiazepines. It can really renew your sense of purpose, and change your attitude about life in general.

Life is a beautiful thing, and every day you stay off the benzos is a day that you move closer to a fulfilling, good life. Every milligram of benzo you don't ingest is one step closer to happiness.

Best of luck to you!

11 days is great progress, please don't go back to benzos ever again. Look forward, not back -- you will end up absolutely fine if you follow that advice.

 

[chompy]

Im 38 days off of xanax. Was taking 2mg or more a day for about a year. Switched to valium now. Was a very shakey 3 weeks at first but I feel I have recovered.

 

[deaf eye]

i am tapering slowly,

i dont know if this would help, but i was riddled with anxeity, feeling like dumps and all sketched out and was almost time for my next dose

i had to replace the gaslines and the pilot light assembly on my grandmas furnace, before it got cold```````

skipped my dose
sat in her cellar at peace
took me about an hour or two,
doping up the threads on the pipes,
taking my time
getting the assembly in there
and everything hooked up
and it was a success

i think i was supposed to take my dose around 1 or 2 pm
made it to 6 -7 that night

running the gas lines was kinda therapeutic and calming in a way



find something where you can be alone doing something productive, and calming, believe me i was a plumber for a few years and i hated the fuck out of that job, but for some reason that one job balenced me out, so when im sketching out i feed the birds, watch them, just do something to take my brain off how shitty im feeling

going out with a friend is a good distraction,

just dont lay around thinking how crappy you feel, that shits like a snowball getting bigger and bigger,

 

[Nib]

i am tapering slowly,

i dont know if this would help, but i was riddled with anxeity, feeling like dumps and all sketched out and was almost time for my next dose

i had to replace the gaslines and the pilot light assembly on my grandmas furnace, before it got cold```````

skipped my dose
sat in her cellar at peace
took me about an hour or two,
doping up the threads on the pipes,
taking my time
getting the assembly in there
and everything hooked up
and it was a success

i think i was supposed to take my dose around 1 or 2 pm
made it to 6 -7 that night

running the gas lines was kinda therapeutic and calming in a way



find something where you can be alone doing something productive, and calming, believe me i was a plumber for a few years and i hated the fuck out of that job, but for some reason that one job balenced me out, so when im sketching out i feed the birds, watch them, just do something to take my brain off how shitty im feeling

going out with a friend is a good distraction,

just dont lay around thinking how crappy you feel, that shits like a snowball getting bigger and bigger,

Hehe. I was a plumber as well. The Pipe Dope was always fun to joke about.. Very fucking nasty job as well since I did all house calls and shit. Seriously most people would not believe some of the shit you see in peoples houses.

But yea sitting around thinking "Withdrawal should be here now" will just make it come quicker. I could be fine for probably a whole extra day from Opiates as long as they're in my possession. If I leave the house without them or end up in a situation where I miss my normal dose then my mind will put me into W/D a few hours early.

 

[welshmick]

I've got Diazepan down from 30/40mg a day to 6mg most days.

I do feel that this last bit might be the hardest, not even sure I wan't to quit completely.

Some days I manage on 4mg some it's 8mg, but every crisis(and I seem to have a lot), I'm bloody glad I got them.

The doctor has been given me 8mg a day, for ages so I save some on good days.

I do also drink a couple a beers a night and like MJ when I can get good bud.

Good luck to everyone trying with the bastards.

Will follow this thread from now on

 

[AfterGlow]

I had been on Xanax, 2-4mg/day for the past 3 years and 6-8mg/day for 3 years before that. Prior to Xanax, I was on Lorazepam 2.5-5mg/day and Temazepam as needed for about 15 years.

About this time last year I began my own taper program by alternating days when I would and would not take them and gradually increasing the number of days off. It was really hard to finally just stop, but I haven't taken any benzos now for 4 months and I feel great.

 

[bagochina]

Wow that is a good deal AfterGlow. 4 months and feeling great. It took me a solid year until I could say I was even at 75% than I started taking klonopin again for 2 months to get off opiates. I definitely noticed a return of those nasty benzo w/d feelings but I think it was blurred from the opiate w/d. 8.5 months clean from pills now though and feeling good.

That first year though, HOLY FUCKING SHIT I was in hell every way imaginable. Complete and utter wreck. I was clenching my jaws/teeth so much I ended up cracking a couple teeth pretty bad. Those things just destroyed me way worse than many year IV heroin runs. The duration just wore me down and just continued to stomp me into the ground. Truthfully there are days when I just want to say you know fuck it give me a bar of xanax, a couple hits of good weed, and a nice root beer float [or a hard cider this time of year]. To easy for me to forget the twisted reality those put me through.

8mg klonopin [8 yrs]
2mg ativan [8 yrs]

Plus xanax [powdered], halcion, injectable valium/ativan, Librium, Restoril, Rohypnol [still have a few hundred of those I hid somewhere in a blackout haze], you name it and I had it in large quantities. I had been taking benzos since I used to snatch um from my first job at a mom and pop pharmacy at 13 [v-cut valiums], I am 34 now, wow. Than I would mainly just take them when I was getting sick from dope, than I just started taking them everyday on dope. Than I hopped on scripts from my doctor and that is when the k-pins and ativan kinda become clear in my memory.

Sometimes I feel like I repeat myself on here or worse I feel like I am just dick sizing [which is completely not the case]. I guess it helps me to type this shit out and than see it in writing and be like what the hell was I thinking?! Sometimes ppl I talk to in recovery I cant really relate to and god knows I can talk up a storm concerning drugs in general, ha. Anyways.

peace.
seedless