Benzos For how long is the seizure risk with benzo wd?

[sPHERE911]

As the topic says,

Im going through mild wd from benzos after about 2months of use of xanax and nifoxipam.


I used about 30x 1mg pills of Xanax in about 2 months irregularily. One day I would not take any, the next I would take 2, and then I would not take any for a couple of days etc.


Its a week since I've taken anything at all, and before that I took nifoxipam (RC benzo) for about 4 days. It seems it has a longer half-life.


The symptoms I have is some rebound anxiety, muscle twitches/tremors and some pain in muscles and the head.


Will I be safe? I dont have any existing seizure conditions.

 

[LilikoiMoon]

BWS, or benzo withdrawal syndrome...google it, it'll give you some very important info. Seizure risk vary.

Benzo withdrawal, from what I've witnessed in healthcare, is one of the strangest/worst withdrawals to go through. As a former patient put it "felt like someone was scrubbing every nerve in her brain to her toes with a brillo pad every minute of the day".

Take care. I've never been addicted to benzos, so I can only advise you on BWS. Surely, others will chime in with their experience.

 

[Nom de Plume]

Well, being susceptible to benzodiazepine withdrawal provides one with quite a boon. Now, you can use your Xanax or similar drugs excessively and have for it an unassailable and real justification: preventing a wretched withdrawal syndrome.

I'm kidding, of course. But if it's of any consolation, I've been a profligate consumer of benzos, barbs, ludes, and other GABAergics for at least 8 or 9 years. I was popping bottles of barbs as a barely pubescent moppet, at a time when I had only vellus hairs for pubes. And I've never experienced any withdraws during my many maddeningly boring and insufferably wearisome skirmishes with and smarting from that tortuous thing I have known intimately and loathed intensely by the sobriquet 'unintentional sobriety syndrome'.

My point, while not as succinctly expressed as it may deserve, is that two miserly months of mild and unimpressive use of Xanax (one of the least recreational entities in its very large, very diverse chemical family, relative to its cognates like fludiazepam or nimetazepam or phenazepam or sulazepam or many hundreds of chemically consanguineous others, imo), would seem too improbable to take serious.

That's one of my opinions, which history informs us are each as equally unlikely to be deemed uncontroversial or found agreeable as they are logically able. But, I digress.

 

[sPHERE911]

Well, being susceptible to benzodiazepine withdrawal provides one with quite a boon. Now, you can use your Xanax or similar drugs excessively and have for it an unassailable and real justification: preventing a wretched withdrawal syndrome.

I'm kidding, of course. But if it's of any consolation, I've been a profligate consumer of benzos, barbs, ludes, and other GABAergics for at least 8 or 9 years. I was popping bottles of barbs as a barely pubescent moppet, at a time when I had only vellus hairs for pubes. And I've never experienced any withdraws during my many maddeningly boring and insufferably wearisome skirmishes with and smarting from that tortuous thing I have known intimately and loathed intensely by the sobriquet 'unintentional sobriety syndrome'.

My point, while not as succinctly expressed as it may deserve, is that two miserly months of mild and unimpressive use of Xanax (one of the least recreational entities in its very large, very diverse chemical family, relative to its cognates like fludiazepam or nimetazepam or phenazepam or sulazepam or many hundreds of chemically consanguineous others, imo), would seem too improbable to take serious.

That's one of my opinions, which history informs us are each as equally unlikely to be deemed uncontroversial or found agreeable as they are logically able. But, I digress.

Well I wasn't really worried until I started looking it up, and starting to read about withdrawal here and on the web in general, and then I stumbled upon people telling other people not to stop benzos abruptly even if its from 2-3 weeks of use, because of seizure-danger etc. While on the wikipedia of my native language, it mentions that seizures are very rare and are most likely to happen in people with many years of benzo use and high dosages. I guess I just wanted some opinions on how relevant that really is in my case.

The withdrawal symptoms I have is what I believe to be the benzo withdrawal, but I cant really be sure because Im also withdrawing from a much worse opiate habit, but that has been going on for a longer time than the benzo withdrawal.

 

[keeping]

Will I be safe? I dont have any existing seizure conditions.

There are so many factors to consider here. Are you on any other medications (for instance, lithium lowers the seizure threshhold), and do you have any underlying medical conditions that you may not be aware of, have you been eating properly? The list is pretty endless and in sum; we can't tell you with any confidence whether or not you may or may not experience a seizure. Best bet is to suck it up and tell a doctor if you are genuinely concerned.

If it makes you feel any better, your use of benzodiazepines was pretty minimal and over a relatively short period of time. Took me a couple of years of etizolam use (4-5mgs a day on average) to join the seizure club.

 

[sPHERE911]

Im trying to sleep well and eat well but probably have not been perfect as i have alot going on right now.. but im not on any other medication, im staying off the coffee, limiting nicotine intake and trying to have a stable blood sugar (eating regularily).

but since i havent had it, and its been a week...is it safe to atleast ASSUME im out of the danger zone?

 

[keeping]

but since i havent had it, and its been a week...is it safe to atleast ASSUME im out of the danger zone?

sometimes benzos take a while to eliminate from your system, at higher doses they can remain in your body for a couple of weeks.
i'm not kenny loggins but considering you took a negligible amount over a short period of time you should be out of the danger zone, so stay out.

 

[noone1]

I think it's blown out of proportion so people will be overly cautious and seek medical treatment. My doctor told me at .25 xanax I'd have to be doing 7 times the dosage for months to have risk of seizures but maybe he was just trying to ease my mind, he still told me not to stop cold turkey of course.

Anecdotally it's the same as booze, one week. If you haven't seized after 7 days you're probably fine (that is if you aren't cheating with your interpretation of what a day means and are compensating for the time a long acting benzo takes to leave your system) Of course I'm not a doctor and wouldn't recommend doing anything without seeking medical attention but I can sympathize with wanting to not go somewhere and dealing with it yourself.