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4 Months on Benzo – Cold Turkey


[do...]

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March 2019 I was prescribed cocktails [valium 2mg and amitriptilyne 5mg] for muscle relaxant then stopped abruptly in August 2019.
Several days later I felt very anxious, my heart was pounding, within few hours my hands were stiff, clenched and shaking, I was gasping for breath then rushed to the ER.

Afterwards i had so many unexplained health issues, went to so many specialist doctors none of them could address my symptoms correctly (i got 169 symptoms). Moreover the bloodtest results all were normal.

As time goes by (3 years running), these symptoms subside but not completely disappear. From what I've experienced, whenever i maintain the RIGHT DIET, the symptoms subside.

August 2022 suddenly i got insomnia, 0 sleep for 5 days made me rushed to psychiatry, again I was prescribed another benzo ativan 1mg then changed to estazolam/ esilgan 1,5-3mg + amitriptilyne 25mg due to difficulties breathing and swollen throat.
My physical and mental health condition continued to decline, my body quickly tolerated the drug within short period. I cold turkeyed in December 2022.

After I went cold turkey, i couldn't sleep for 3 weeks straight! Tried several over the counter sleep aid, melatonin, z-drugs, non benzo drugs and therapy to improve sleep, none of them work, only make my symptoms worse. I quit from all drugs on 19 January 2023.

Then I came across dr. Jennifer Leigh site, was having online consultation with her explaining my condition. 
Finally I understand that insomnia and all of those symptoms I had experienced from 2019 until today is called Benzodiazepine Withdrawal.

 

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Hello doodles1980 :hug: Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

 

I am glad you are here with us today .  congratulations to you at  55 days off benzos. Withdrawal symptoms an be relentless and takes.  time to settle but remember they are temporary they will go eventually.  Try to distract from symptoms, the more you do, it becomes automatic.  Anxiety and Insomnia are common withdrawal symptoms. Take a look around and post to any of the dedicated threads.  Our members are very supportive they will encourage you and help you get through this, it will get better so hang in there best you can.

 

I will leave a few links for you to check out.

 

The Ashton Manual

Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidelines

Post-withdrawal Recovery Support

 

You may wish to post here to these threads for help you might get some tips/ideas.

 

Insomnia 

 

Anxiety     

 

 

Members can respond with the best information if they know your medication history.  Go to the top of the page and select PROFILE then choose forum profile then insert drug history into the text box and remember to click change profile

 

Welcome aboard

Magrita

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Welcome, Wow, it sounds like you have been through a lot. Good thing you are off all of those medications. I look forward to reading your success story. Have you tried sleep CBT?
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  • 3 months later...

Hello Magrita and Rebecca29,

 

Thank you for the greetings. Sure i will check the links :)

Pardon me for replying so slow.

 

Recently i found out, in 2019 i was prescribed cocktail [had 1mg valium and amitriptilyne] as muscle relaxant. So what I'm experiencing now is benzo withdrawal, insomnia is one of them.

 

I tried CBTI without knowing it was withdrawal, apparently it didn’t work.

 

I am now entering 4th month off, still struggling but i see a veeeeeerrryyyyyyy slowww improvement.

 

What help me sleep , even after waking up several times are: probiotics for baby (too sensitive to take adult probiotics), caisim, kangkung [english name not sure. this one really potent vegetable, you will feel very sleepy and calm], banana & kiwi [eat 5 hour before sleep]. Plus a clean diet: eat lots of fruit and vegetables, no MSG, no preservative, no sugar, no processed food, gluten free diet, these helps suppress the symptoms and speed up recovery I believe.

 

How about you? what symptoms you are experiencing?

 

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