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Benzos why does benzo withdrawal last so long when other gaba related drugs take only weeks?

duneplanet

duneplanet

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
328
phenibut: one week
alcohol: one week librium detox
lyrica: 2-4 weeks
benzos: took me 2 years last time and am going through it again

What's the deal?
 
Withdrawal off lyrica? I'm prescibed to 180 x 100mg of gabapentin a month, (almost identical to lyrica) and I can't see it causing physical withdrawal. It's alright in massive doses, but I didn't think it could lead to withdrawal just because its a gabageneric
 
Gabapentin causes awful withdrawal. I've gone through it and it was awful.

As for benzo withdrawal, I think you're reffering to the PAWS - which can last up to two years with any gaba drug.
 
CitioKid said:
Gabapentin causes awful withdrawal. I've gone through it and it was awful.

As for benzo withdrawal, I think you're reffering to the PAWS - which can last up to two years with any gaba drug.
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Didn't know that. But I take all my gaba meds in a few days, then a month without and repeat, so I've never become physically dependant.

I'm prescibed Klonopin (2.5mg/day), Gabapentin(600mg/day),Hydroxyzine(50mg/day),Suboxone(10mg/day), and Paxil(40mg/day).

Now I don't take any of those in the amount I'm susposed to (I don't even take the paxil) byt imagine if I was taking them like prescibed and all the sudden lost my insurance or something. Benzo + Opiate + SSRI withdrawals. I'd probably die.
 
JamtasticX said:
Didn't know that. But I take all my gaba meds in a few days, then a month without and repeat, so I've never become physically dependant.

I'm prescibed Klonopin (2.5mg/day), Gabapentin(600mg/day),Hydroxyzine(50mg/day),Suboxone(10mg/day), and Paxil(40mg/day).

Now I don't take any of those in the amount I'm susposed to (I don't even take the paxil) byt imagine if I was taking them like prescibed and all the sudden lost my insurance or something. Benzo + Opiate + SSRI withdrawals. I'd probably die.
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Yeah if you took all those as prescribed then stopped - that would be dreadful. Gaba addicts like I was for a month take atleast 2 to 3x what you are prescribed daily, and often 10x or more.

But yeah, what sucks about being an addict is if you were in a plane crash like on Lost, the first thing you would do if you survived would be to swim back to the wreckage and look for your prescriptions.
 
The main part of benzo withdrawal that was the worst for me was switching directly from klonopin to valium. I felt like I was on fire, I couldn't go out or talk to anyone without snapping.

After the valium taper though, I quickly bounced back to normal. For a good month though I was very quick, people would say I needed to take chill pill. The most pronounced symptom is acting very tense and not being able to relax. Basically a return of your anxiety.

I started sleeping better to after about 2 months. Benzo withdrawal is generally really bad when quiting cold turkey. If tapered it can be managable, but still more annoying then opiate withdrawal. It's definently not fun, but for the most part your going to see the symptoms you had before taking benzo's come back.

Obviously if you quit to fast are prone to seizures and being very uncomfortable. Post withdrawal can last awhile, however if you taper very low to get your body used to not having it's gaba receptors stimulated. It can be extremely mild to non existant, even after years of extreme recreational use. Everyones different, I find it's best to be positive about it and forget that you ever took the stuff.

Some people like me actually feel alot better when there off benzo's. Irritable bowel syndrom, depressed, anxious, isolated. It's amazing how these things all go away and you get healthier when you quit.
 
SkagKush said:
ya i was gunna say .................

PAWS much.
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it's not PAWS (or at least if its, there is no difference between acute withdrawal and PAWS). i have been off benzos for more than 14 months after a taper and the withdrawal symptoms are only slightly improved over the first week. there was no improvement whatsoever for the first 7 months. benzo withdrawal really does last for years. i am beginning to lose hope of it ever leaving actually.
 
even the acute bad withdrawals from cold turkey valium last a good 3 weeks + , the horrible after effects lasting months/years.
 
No they don't, if you taper very slow to half a mg and skip doses you get minimal withdrawals. Well I did, the only thing I have is rage and anger for the dumb dr, that put me on the shit. Some people are different.I thought the same thing until I sucesfuly tapered from valium, and I'm very sensitive.

Your anxiety and depresion goes up when your addicted to large amounts of benzos. If I missed my dose I would seizure and be hispitalized. Knowing that I'm safe without taking a pill is a huge load off.

Unless you have experience you shouldn't speculate and discourage others. Burn out what condition were you on xanax for? Didn't you cold turkey? That would explain the terrible paws.
 
nah it wasnt paws. I was getting all the classic benzo withdrawal symptomns. electric shocks, intense pain, psyhcotic symptomns (auditory hallucinations and delusions) etc. This was not paws. If you read the ashton manual you will see that even the dr says that it usually takes 6 months-2 years to recover. I am a very sensitive person so it is even worse for me. This was certainly not paws.
 
I taperd slow and jumped off at .5 valium and if eel terrible. the insomnia is the worst. I can handle the rest if ic an sleep but i dont sleep well. and burn out dont lose hope it isnt forever. When you tell me that people have had it permanently you always say 4-7 years. 4-7 years is the VAST majority and pretty much everyone who still feels it after 4 years is gonna be ont hat site. I guess that at the two year mark you will get better. I think you being upset about never getting better is making it worse. IF you manage to have a positive outlook i truly feel you would have less symptomns. I know its hard but it helps. Its just withdrawal, dont fear it or try to push it away.
 
duneplanet said:
nah it wasnt paws. I was getting all the classic benzo withdrawal symptomns. electric shocks, intense pain, psyhcotic symptomns (auditory hallucinations and delusions) etc. This was not paws. If you read the ashton manual you will see that even the dr says that it usually takes 6 months-2 years to recover. I am a very sensitive person so it is even worse for me. This was certainly not paws.
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You dont understand what i'm saying, A taper can absorb most of the withdrawals.

For 6 months when I tapered especially the transition was terrible.. That whole time I was withdrawaling and not sleeping. My body balanced out by the time I stopped taking it, I was barely taking anything at all, like 1mg ever 3 days.

So for that 6 months of the taper, and about 2 months after I had withdrawals.

Dr, ashton has groups of people and some after a taper report back feeling excellent-good-fair-poor-or in 2 cases relapse or sucide.

I dont buy into any of this benzo bull crap, I took way to much for way to long. And i'm better. But everyones different. The taper is what will absorb the withdrawal if done properly, period.

If you dont do it right, or quit cold turkey. Then in that case, yes I agree you can have withdrawals for along time. Also the younger you are the faster the recovery.
 
i tapered pretty slowly for the shor tlength of time I was on it and am still not even close to being myself
 
I think the designation of what it is that you are feeling is really irrelevant. It is obviously a withdrawal that you are experiencing. Whether it is post-acute or still acute is really a debate of semantics...

With benzos, that recovery period can indeed take a very long time to fully recover from, physically or mentally. Large doses and daily doses over periods of time are what tend to cause the worst scenarios.

I think you need to do a better taper if you ever do this again, because you shouldn't really feel the withdrawal if you're doing it correctly. Rebound anxiety is one thing, but actually feeling the withdrawal effects from the drug mean that you are not tapering the drug slowly enough.

This is a big part of the problem with these recoveries from benzo addiction that last months or years: The transition was not made smoothly from addicted to sober. If you're feeling the bad effects of the withdrawal and continue to taper and feel these bad effects, you're not going to just "go back to normal". You will go through a traumatic experience that changes your life. Your brain will not ever return to normal; you and your brain will just have to get used to the shocking new world that you are being thrown into when you don't taper correctly. Tapering correctly, on the other hand, allows for you to never lose control and have this traumatic experience in the first place. There is no "return to normal" because you transitioned smoothly, and never left "normal"...
 
there was a time in my life where for over a year i took about 18mg of klonopin per day, some days taking xanax or valium on top of it too (sometimes I could only get as much as 12mg of klonopin, but never took less than 12 mg for about a year......

When I finally decided to quit, I was given 2mg a day for a week or 2 , then given 1mg a day for 2 weeks, then .5 for a week or so.....

I didnt experience any withdrawal beyond rebound anxiety....

I wish my mu receptors were as agile....
 
The Hebrew Hammer said:
there was a time in my life where for over a year i took about 18mg of klonopin per day, some days taking xanax or valium on top of it too (sometimes I could only get as much as 12mg of klonopin, but never took less than 12 mg for about a year......

When I finally decided to quit, I was given 2mg a day for a week or 2 , then given 1mg a day for 2 weeks, then .5 for a week or so.....

I didnt experience any withdrawal beyond rebound anxiety....

I wish my mu receptors were as agile....
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I'd expect you to still have withdrawals after 18mg Kpin daiily then down to 2mg to begin taper, especially with the long half life of kpins.

I'm prescibed 22.5mg daily, but I usually go through whole script fast then no benzos for rest of month, because even taking 2-3mg daily can cause a bad physical addiction, damn 18mg!
 
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