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Are there people That didn't experience withdrawal?


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Hey guys,

 

Ik was wondering if there are people out here who've successfully withdrawn from benzo's with little to no symptoms.

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Of course, there's loads of people who have tapered off benzos with no sx, it's just that you don't see them, cos they never need to come to message boards like this for support.

 

The problem with benzos, however, is that you never know if you are going to be one of the lucky ones. There is a lag time, so, with cold turkying, you could feel ok for a week or two, and then BAM!!! it hits you, and it's often too late to reinstate.

For this reason, it's always best to taper.

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My friend was taking 4mg kpin a day for 2 years. Here cut 1mg a week per his Dr and walked off with slight anxiety for a week. He said it was much easier than quitting opiates for him.  He still uses kpin after nights of heavy drinking he says. Petty crazy
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Tons. My dr said that he has only seen 4 reactions( wds i guess) in 10 years of practicing medicine. Prob our genetic makeup.
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The vast majority of people get off a benzo without any problem. But you wont find them here, thats for sure.

I know a woman who took Xanax for years, and stopped abruptly. She told me she had a "terrible withdrawal." When I asked her to explain, she said, "Well, I couldnt sleep  well for about a week."

That's what I call an easy withdrawal!

My reaction? I wanted to slap her.

east

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My taper has been 95% symptom free.

 

I have IBD so obviously that flared up for a little bit while I tapered but other then that I've been feeling pretty good.  I honestly could not tell if my flare up was related to the benzos or if I just had a flare up because of my IBD. Probably a little bit of both. I had almost zero anxiety symptoms during my taper...

 

I stick around here to show that this isn't horrible for everyone. I tapered pretty slowly, I probably cut on average every 20 days or so....sometimes longer sometimes shorter

 

For reference, I took .5mg ativan daily for 1 month then .5mg clonazepam daily for another month THEN 1mg clonazepam daily for 2 months. I remember dropping down to .25mg when I first wanted to taper and I had some rebound anxiety. I probably could have dealt with it but I found this site and it scared me so I tapered slowly. In hindsight I could have tapered much quicker but this has been relatively pain free so it's all good.

 

I personally know people that took upwards of 10mg xanax a day for years at a time and they were able to quit with very little symptoms. The people on this site are truly a very very small minority. I think the somber posts and negativity doesn't really help new members looking for hope.

 

Sorry for the rant just sharing my experience and opinions

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Years ago, I took Ambien for a couple of weeks and quit when it stopped working, no problem. I took Prosom for 1 or 2 months (I can't remember) and then quit (and started taking Benadryl I think). I took Lunesta for 5 1/2 months, went into tolerance withdrawal (I think), switched to valium and having been tapering and feeling pretty cruddy for a couple of months. I had hoped for a quick taper, but it did not happen.

 

I assume my problem this time was due to the particular drug and the duration. Hopefully it will go well for you.

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I have quit Xanax and Ambien many times in the past with no problems at all. This time the Xanax got it's hook into me and I went into w/d when I tried to quit. So here I am.

 

My cross to valium was smooth and I have had no symptoms since I started tapering.

 

I am thankful and hopeful but prepared, my brief experience with w/d was horrendous.

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Yes, there are people who can quit. I have a friend who stopped Xanax c/t, and he said it wasn't that bad... he said he had a seizure and then got better after that. The opiates he couldn't stop as easy.

 

There are a people who stop them everyday I'm sure.

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I believe the opposite to many but I think vast majority of people suffer w/d symptoms after long term use.

The thing is those symptoms may not be the obvious ones and get overlooked, for example digestive problems or high BP.

Ingesting a chemical everyday that alters the brain and cns functions and creates tolerance and dependency for quite some time is not going to wash away with no consequences whatsoever.

I do agree that some suffer more sxx than others. But totally sxs free, I very much doubt it.

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I think they are the majority, otherwise more docs who prescribe them would be less shocked when you have a hard time. I do wish it wasn't considered so abnormal to go through all of this because most of us seem to need a lot of help with it and very careful tapering or management of sxs. My doc was understanding, but even he, after many years of practice, had to do some research when I started having so much trouble. Either no other patients had had this issue or they had chalked it up to something else they suffer from, which I also think happens a lot.

 

I have 1 or 2 family members who are less like me in nature but who skate on and off of these things like it's a change in diet. It's nothing at all to them. Now I understand why so many of my other relatives simply stay away from prescriptions no matter what.

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There most certainly are. In fact most people experience little or no problems stopping benzodiazepines. I looked into the literature on this subject and knowledgeable people working in the field have given estimates ranging between 15-46% as to the percentage of persons having significant trouble getting off benzos. People who can stop benzos easily do not join online support groups such as BB. We are in what is known as a significant minority.
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oh gosh eastcoast,i am in so much pain at the moment, but i have to laugh

at your reaction. i can just imagine the dialog.

:smitten:

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My friend was taking 4mg kpin a day for 2 years. Here cut 1mg a week per his Dr and walked off with slight anxiety for a week.

 

That's crazy, isn't 4mg kpin like 60-80mg of dia? Lucky bastard.

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I took them for 6 months or so at a time every few years and never had issues coming off.  This time around I stayed on them for too long and then the hell started!
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[36...]

I was able to get off of Xanax with minor problems , maybe a couple of days with headaches. This was before I was able to have internet , never heard of withdrawals.

    When I started to read stories in the internet and found out about the drug and all the horrible things, I started to have the withdrawals too.

      Go figure!

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I was able to get off of Xanax with minor problems , maybe a couple of days with headaches. This was before I was able to have internet , never heard of withdrawals.

    When I started to read stories in the internet and found out about the drug and all the horrible things, I started to have the withdrawals too.

      Go figure!

 

This is funny because I'm sure I made things much worse for myself reading things on this site.

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I was able to get off of Xanax with minor problems , maybe a couple of days with headaches. This was before I was able to have internet , never heard of withdrawals.

    When I started to read stories in the internet and found out about the drug and all the horrible things, I started to have the withdrawals too.

      Go figure!

 

This is funny because I'm sure I made things much worse for myself reading things on this site.

 

So some of the withdrawal is actually placebo or something?

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    I feel symptoms can be magnified or even created by reading here. Of course just an opinion but as

    sensitive as our CNS's are going through this, it can happen really quick. I have created "more" anxiety than I already "had"

    when reading here. As far as my symptoms go, I feel that all I have had or currently have was/is w/d and my CNS correcting itself and

    all part of this "process". I was two months into a c/t when I found BB's and very sick and it proceeded to get worse and not from

  reading here, just from the nature of this (I find nothing natural about this). But yes, easy to make things worse I think.

                                        nikki

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I think if you're reading others postings you have to do your best to ignore ones that may trigger a reaction.  There are many positive posts that can give you some reason to feel confident in the direction you are going.  Our minds are very powerful and open to suggestion.  If you read postings that bring unwanted feelings out I can see it can be harmful. Myself, I find I have some OCD so the power of suggestion can be harmful.  As soon as I see something that can bring those feelings out I tune that post out.
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  • 3 months later...

Bump!!

 

I personally know three people that went c/t, and never had a blip.

 

One of them used Atarax to get to sleep for a few weeks. And, still uses Xanax on rare occasions.

 

If these people only knew how lucky they were!!

 

Denise  :smitten:

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This was definitely a positive thread. I know I  make matters worse if I start reading the horror stories, then all of I sudden I have every symptom in the book (hmmmm).  Some of my symptoms are real, no doubt about  it, but I tend to magnify them at times.  Staying busy & not focusing on my health is helpful. I'm down to 2mg of Diazepam after 14 years on 2 to 6 mgs of Ativan.  Quite the roller coaster ride.

 

Thanks for giving some positive feedback. :thumbsup:

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