Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Information, Help & Support

Additionally, we provide the BenzoBuddies Benzo-Guide as an introduction to the main points of benzodiazepine dependency, addiction, and withdrawal. We hope it proves a useful aid to your benzodiazepine withdrawal.

We offer a platform for the benzodiazepine-dependant to discuss all issues surrounding their efforts to quit benzos. We understand that many of our members will be taking medications other than benzodiazepines. Although outside the immediate scope of BenzoBuddies, members are free to discuss all their medications and how they interact with their benzo use, along with the complications that arise from poly-drug use and withdrawal.

We recognize that benzodiazepines do have some valid uses such as pre-meds, muscle relaxants, and in the treatment of some debilitating neurological disorders, etc. However, we are a mutual support group dedicated to helping those who wish to stop taking benzos. As such, you should be aware that we do not allow the promotion of benzo-use within the benzodiazepine withdrawal forum.

By joining the withdrawal forum, you will be able to seek help and support from others going through withdrawal or reassurance from those that have already been through the process. The benzo withdrawal forum will help you choose a withdrawal method and taper plan to best suit your needs. Most of us hit difficult patches during withdrawal and often all we need is a sympathetic ear. Communicating with those who are also withdrawing or who have already tapered off their benzos can be of great help during our own journey to becoming benzo-free. Sometimes you may need to adjust your plan; the BenzoBuddies benzodiazepine withdrawal forum can help you get back on track!

What we are not about is giving "benzodiazepine advice": that would imply that we are here to tell you what you must do. On the contrary, our aim is to give you back some control of your benzodiazepine use and to share information and support - benzodiazepine help and support, not instruction! We will of course, try our best to explain the various options available to you, and give practical help with planning your taper schedule.

Apart from practical help, the sharing of benzo information, and a shoulder to cry on, we also provide specialised adjunctive areas within the forum to discuss what has helped or hindered our recovery. An area devoted to general discussions about health and fitness, not only promotes overall wellbeing, but can also help us better cope with many of our withdrawal symptoms. There are specilased ares for the discussion of anxiety and panic, and depression too, as well as many other many other specialised areas of discussion. You should feel free to discuss alternative medications and therapies; in accordance with our "no particular doctrine" doctrine, we are neither pro nor anti in regards to these alternative practices.

Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible, and follow no particular regimen, doctrine, dogma or philosophy. Follow your own path; you are in charge!

One of the most important things we are doing is compiling our own guide to quitting benzodiazepines. It is far from complete, but you will find much useful information there.

You may have already noticed our "Stepping-Off" table; we hope that you will find this a useful starting point for your benzodiazepine withdrawal. The table is intended as a basic taper plan, but you should always consult your doctor about any changes to your medication. The table is all that is needed for most people following a regular taper schedule, but we still encourage you to join the forum as support from those also going through benzodiazepine withdrawal can make all the difference.

If you would like to involve yourself in something constructive, practical, supportive, and exercise your brain cells at the same time, we invite all our members to help update and expand the BenzoBuddies Benzo-Guide. Get involved: join our benzo withdrawal forum today!

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13 Guests, 8 Members, 1 Member in Chat: tropicalsoul, mal, rufus, zeus, Beeper, timber, criptey, eljay

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Today at 12:43:46 AM eljay - Elwood!  Today at 12:09:16 AM tropicalsoul - Welcome allenaz to BenzoBuddies!! Yesterday at 11:39:59 PM Bryn - Happy July 3rd everyone!    Yesterday at 11:37:25 PM timber - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Tu8t7OwYg Yesterday at 06:51:45 PM Mackie - http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=8637.0 Yesterday at 06:47:37 PM Mackie - CAROLE, ONE YEAR FREE!!! DAY BY DAY. wish her well here!       http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/ind Yesterday at 05:26:26 PM timber - Happy 4th BB  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sibjs29Kgyk Yesterday at 04:00:24 PM mal - eljay have a question you could probably answer in my post July 02, 2008, 07:40:19 PM tropicalsoul - Hi bdediego!  Welcome to BB! July 02, 2008, 04:04:38 PM eljay - Morning TS. ;-)

Quote

van der Kroef, C.

Reactions to Triazolam. Lancet 1979; ii: 526.

"During the past nine months I have been confronted in my psychiatric practice with a syndrome which is almost certainly induced by the benzodiazepine triazolam ("Halcion") Triazolam can produce the following symptoms: severe malaise; depersonalisation and derealisation; paranoid reactions; acute and chronic anxiety; continuous fear of going insane; depression and deterioration of existing depression; hyperaesthesia, especially for sound but also for smell, taste and light; sometimes hypoaesthesia for the same stimuli; nightmares; restlessness; inability to concentrate; verbal and physical aggression; conflicts with entourage; severe suicidal tendencies; hypnagogic hallucinations; impulse actions; amnesia; dysphagia, accompanied by nasty taste, painful tongue and mucous membranes, dry mouth, loathing of food, rigid feeling in the throat and emaciation up to 2½ stone; cervical pains; headaches that are often extremely sensitive to sound; pressure on the ears; numb and cold feeling in fingers and toes, extending to the distal parts of the extremities; tingling feeling, muscular cramps and paralyses, often at the sinistral side; catatonically impaired motor functioning; reading complaints and blurred vision; dysfunctional speaking and writing; sweating. This syndrome must be classified with the exogenous syndrome of Bonhoeffer. Symptoms ususally disappear within a couple of days after stopping triazolam; sometimes there are withdrawal symptoms, such as rapidly mounting panic and heavy sweating. These side-effects appear in patients who are taking other drugs and in those who are not and in patients who have never had psychiatric treatment as well as in those with a psychiatric history. Patients with this syndrome may be admitted on suspicion of brain tumour or schizophrenia. They impress the observer as seriously ill and the patients themselves often feel desperate and have to fight an almost irresistible impulse to commit suicide. I know of one patient who did commit suicide. The Netherlands Centre for Monitoring of Adverse Reactions to Drugs has received several reports of patients with similar features while on triazolam and the centre issued (July 16) a letter to Dutch doctors, dealing with this matter."

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