Why are we so sick for so long trying to get benzos out of our system?

Yet others have no problem at all.  I just spoke with a friend of the family who is in her 60's and said she took Ativan for several years then decided she didn't need it anymore and stopped taking it and didn't have any ill effects from it at all.  And here we, many for years, suffering in pain and misery trying to get rid of this demon.  What makes us different?  What is it about us that makes it so difficult to get back to normal?

That's amazing. Some people have brains that are just wired to be really healthy and resilient. I am convinced it is something genetic. Maybe people like us have some kind of weakness in the brain wiring that make it harder to repair the neurotransmitter changes made by the drug.

Hi Kallor,

 

It just blows my mind at the huge difference.  The longer I go in my taper at a low dose, the worse I get.  I keep having people (drs. included) tell me that at this low a dose, I shouldn't be having w/d x/s....but I am.  I've had extensive medical testing that has not turned up anything (at least yet) so the only logical explanation is the benzo tapering.  Last night, I took my evening dose at 9:30 pm and fell asleep around 11:00 pm......I had a scary dream although I can't remember the details.....but I was so scared that I was amped up and it woke me up at 1:30 am.  When I woke up, I was sweating  profusely and had this nerve pain that I can best describe as feeling like my blood was boiling....I felt it in my upper arms/shoulders. After being awake for an hour, it has eased to a slight burning sensation but hasn't completely calmed.  My brain must be really messed up.  :'( :'( :'(

You just described every night of mine! 

 

I know. It is really frustrating how others just quit and move on. I don't get it either and it makes me mad!!! And that leads the medical community to be confused as to how to address our issues, bc so and so stopped and was fine. Obviously more research needs to be done!!! In the meantime, we r stuck here and hopefully will be ok one day too 

I don't think it's a matter of our brains being messed up.  There is a genetic factor involved as well as how each persons unique system absorbs and reacts to medication. Why are we the chosen?  That is a question I would loved to see answered but because there is still too much denial about withdrawal in the medical community, there seems to be no rush to investigate this issue.

 

pianogirl

That's amazing. Some people have brains that are just wired to be really healthy and resilient. I am convinced it is something genetic. Maybe people like us have some kind of weakness in the brain wiring that make it harder to repair the neurotransmitter changes made by the drug.

 

It just must be genetic. Our DNA is just lopsided. Betsy

Lucky Us (NOT !!)  Ugh!!!! :sick: :(

Sometimes I feel like there's a demon somewhere laughing and pushing buttons and saying........hmmmm, let's do this to her today.. 

Brunette,

I read your signature. Ouch    What have your wd syx been that keep you starting back on?

Hi Grinch,

 

I've had every w/d x/s imaginable and all of them severe.  The most prominent ones are extreme exhaustion/weakness/fatigue/breathlessness that feels like I'm dying and is so bad I can't function through a normal day......just taking a shower makes me feel like I ran a hundred miles, very irritating shocking sensations, migraine headaches which at one point were every day all day for three months straight and now they come and go, an awful prickly sensation in my neck and back of head, neck and back pain and I still get that benzo flu feeling.  Also, when I talk, I feel like I don't have enough oxygen to keep on talking and when I continue to try to talk, my throat gets a painful raw feeling......I went to an ENT dr. to have this checked and he said my voicebox was a little red and swollen and that it was acid reflux making this happen.  I've had acid reflux for years and that never happened before so I can only attribute it to the Ativan tapering aggravating my acid reflux.  I feel horrible this way all day every day and have for an entire year now.  Last night, I took my evening dose at 9:30 pm and fell asleep around 11:00 and I had a scary dream although I can't remember the details.....but it was so scary that it amped me up and made me wake up.  When I woke up, I was sweating profusely and I had this awful nerve pain in my upper arms and shoulders that felt like my blood was boiling...after an hour, it eased up but still felt like a slight burning sensation.  I drank a cup of chamomile tea and held onto a heating pad and after another hour, it finely calmed down and I was able to fall asleep for a few more hours.  Since starting my taper March 2013, I have had extensive medical testing b/c I feel so horrible that I can't believe it's tapering off the Ativan that's doing this to me....but so far, other than the acid reflux which I've had for years, no underlying medical conditions have been identified.  I cry multiple times every day b/c I'm so sick and my family is disgusted and they just don't want to hear about it anymore.  I live alone and had to take early retirement from my job last year b/c I'm too sick to function at work.  I just don't understand why it's so severe to the point that I can't navigate a routine day.  I used to get up and go to work every day with no problem....then March 2013, I was at work, it was 3:00 pm and all of a sudden I got this horrible severe exhaustion and weakness come over me that made me feel like I was going to pass out from weakness if I tried to take another step......it was so bad a co-worker followed me home to make sure I was OK.......and I've been sick every single day since then.  Because no medical condition has been identified, I think what happened to me that day was the start of tolerance w/d but I don't know for sure.  :'( :'( :'(  Something happened to me prior to this that I think may have hindered my taper from the start.  Sept 2012, after having been on Ativan for a year and half, I decided I didn't need it anymore so I stopped taking it, not knowing that it was a benzo or even what a benzo was or that it was dangerous to just stop taking it....I just thought I could stop taking it like with any other kind of medication.  Anyway, after a day or two, I started getting horrible migraines which I thought were just sinus headaches and didn't think anything of it.  Then a couple days later, I was at work and I was punching out for lunch and when I looked at the time clock all of a sudden everything looked gray and went out of focus and I had the sensation that I was moving backwards real fast and what I was looking at was getting smaller then I felt like I was blacking out.  The whole thing only lasted about 2 minutes and I looked away from the time clock and was able to shake it off...but was so scared and freaked out that I went home sick from work.  I went to my family dr. and an eye dr. and told them what happened and that the only thing I could think of that I did different was that I stopped taking the Ativan and they both said, "no, stopping your Ativan wouldn't do that".  So, despite what they said, I reinstated the Ativan, and that never happened to me again......so I'm pretty certain it happened b/c I stopped the Ativan abruptly.......and of course, I'm guessing, but I think that may have lead to the sudden exhaustion/weakness/fatigue that I started getting in March 2013 so when all medical tests were coming back OK, I just came to the conclusion that it had to be the Ativan so I started my taper.  After I started my taper, all the other horrible w/d x/s started....the shocking sensation, severe nausea, etc, etc.

 

Sorry to ramble on.   

 

Simply because we remove the GABA workers too soon before the receptors are back working again, in order not to suffer, the change over has to be gradual... we NEED the GABA drug as a part of this process instead of thinking of it as something we have to get rid of fast, all that does is cause a deficit in the brain.

 

Also, it is not that we are special or different, the Doctors are partially right, each and every person on this site is anxious as hell in the first place, we don't want to hear it but it is true... maybe we are low on GABA receptors but we are most certainly not the most relaxed people to start off with.

 

Our anxiety triggers symptoms, which is why CT users take a long time to recover as the neurons are mis-firing... our existing anxiety is in over drive... we make the mistake of wanting off the drug too fast and that is what causes the long term problems, protracted folk are that way not just because of a CT but because they have triggered lots of anxiety which is hardly surprising, time and distraction cure this, not speed and obsessing over our symptoms all day long as that just keeps our anxiety going... because, essentially, withdrawal may be down regulated receptors but it is our anxiety that is part of the problem as it is magnified as a response to over rapid withdrawal which in turn creates our symptoms, it is the drug but also our anxiety in tandem.

 

Example, if we are anxious about eating something, chances are we are creating a wave by ingesting said food because we have already triggered the fear associated with doing so... so therefore, WE are a factor in much of this as much as the drug, it is just taht the worst thing one can do is get off these meds in a hurry...

 

 

Yet others have no problem at all.  I just spoke with a friend of the family who is in her 60's and said she took Ativan for several years then decided she didn't need it anymore and stopped taking it and didn't have any ill effects from it at all.  And here we, many for years, suffering in pain and misery trying to get rid of this demon.  What makes us different?  What is it about us that makes it so difficult to get back to normal?

 

She did not have anxiety, she wasn't bothered, hate to say it but we are all full of anxiety, the doctors are partly right, when we get sane again we will see that, it's common sense if you think about it... withdrawal symptoms from these drugs are a result of our anxiety as well as the cessation of the drug... granted there is the receptor issue but our anxiety is what fuels our symptoms.

 

Until our receptors upregulate, our natural anxiety will be magnified, the only solution is to taper slow and get our receptors to upregulate with sufficient GABA drug on board also... lay off the GABA too soon and we feel bad which makes our anxiety worse and that creates more symptoms...

 

Relaxed people can withdraw with little issue.

 

Withdrawal cannot exist as it does without our anxiety, yet it only takes a little as the anxiety has no brake... so it runs riot.

 

We actually do ourselves no favours reading about anxiety all the time, it merely keeps the withdrawals going... the more we distract the better but the obvious answer is to not prematurely stop the drug in the first place... let the benzo's be a part of withdrawal.

 

 

I like to ramble and listening to people ramble All I can say is yep, been there, am there!! I feel ya dear. It sucks! I didn't know much about xanax either. And I was only taking it at bed. But the person that gave it to me never said a peep about wd or interdose wd or anything. I think that is crazy! I honestly don't think benzos should be rxd longer than a week. Maybe to get u over a traumatic experience. But that is it. Not for sleep for sure!! The xanax doesn't work for me for sleep anymore. The only reason why I still take it is bc if I don't wd begins. And I m in tol wd all the time now!! I have all those syx too that u described except I haven't had any or any that freaks me out  of dp/dr. Mostly excruciating physical syx and pain and exhaustion.

 

We are gonna get off this and heal!!