Day 8 of benzo withdrawl

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and am here to post my experience looking for support and advice. I've been battling Oxycontin addiction for 2 years and counting. Recently, i turned to professional help and joined a rehab program with my doctor about 2 months ago. The plan was to taper and than go down the suboxone route. My friend gave me xanax and i took it to help me sleep. everytime i take xanax i end up falling asleep right away. Anyway, i guess tolerance built and before you know it, i was doing 4-8mg of xanax a day from when i woke up to when i slept and i did not realize this at the time, but xanax was causing me to black out. So for 2 months, i was a walking black out. Last week weds, i woke up with no xanax and no oxy. By 6pm that day, i was in withdrawl with cold sweats and anxiety. By midnight, i was in intense withdrawl. I went through the first night with no sleep and it was hell. I had anxiety, i was sweating and cold at the same time, my heart was pounding crazy, i was yawning uncontrollably but could not sleep. It was very bad. By middle of day 2, the anxiety was so extreme i could not handle it anymore, i went and did oxy. I was surprised because it was not helping at all. I did 100Mg's of oxy that day and it DID NOT HELP ONE BIT!!! By night time of day 2, i felt like the anxiety was getting worst! This caused me into getting extreme paranoia and out of nowhere suicidal thoughts crossed my mind. It was so intense that suicidal thoughts were crossing my mind, if you know me, I'm not the sad type. I never was suicidal EVER and i am very outgoing! I was constantly looking out the window, my friend had a criminal case for marijuana against him, and for some reason every person i saw outside my window, i thought was a undercover cop coming to arrest me. I started to think that my life was over, and that i was going to die. It was an extremely frightening time for me. I was laying in bed 23 hours of day one and day two with all the worst physical symptoms you could think of, on top of that, my heart was racing so fast for every second of it that i could not get any sleep. I decided to go to the ER when i started reading on line and i realized i was in BENZO Withdrawl!! I went to the er at the end of day 3, i was extremely dehydrated, blood pressure and heart rate was way too high. They gave me IV and a dose of medicine through the IV that immediately took away the extreme anxiety. After 6 hours at the ER, i was able to go home and finally sleep after staying up 72 hours. I slept ten hours and woke up the next day. I forgot to mention that i had only eaten ONE BANANA IN FOUR DAYS. Even after the ER, my appetite was gone, i was forcing fluids don however. By day 5 and 6, i was ALOT better than the first 3 days. Today is day 8, i have still continued with my oxy habit but still on a taper process. I don't have too much anxiety although it comes back here and there but not as intense. I can finally sleep at night but only for a few hours here and there. My appetite is slowly coming back and i am eating 1-2 very small meals a day. I noticed that the numbness in my entire body is still there, i can only feel pressure. I still am kinda depressed but can actually socialize now. Ive read that depending on your body, you can be in withdrawl for weeks or months, or sometimes even years. I just want to be normal again. I have an appt with my doctor next week and i am suppose to quit oxy sometime next week. Should i just wait til i am fully normal off benzo first? My priority is to not go through what i went through the first 3 intense days of my benzo withdrawl. Oxy withdrawl is more of a physical hell and i can tough that out but xanax withdrawl is COMPLETELY HELL because it turns you into what it is meant to treat!!  I am never touching another xanax or benzo ever again!

Hi,

 

Yes, it's true that benzo withdrawal and healing can take a long time.  It's generally considered to be more difficult and longer lasting than withdrawal from street drugs.  But it sounds like given the circumstances, you are doing well and it would be a good idea for you to avoid benzos in the future.  Repeated benzo withdrawals can lead to kindling and even worse symptoms each time.

 

In general, it's best to taper one medication at a time.  Good luck!

 

 

Thank you for the quick response and advice, I appreciate it a lot! I want to get some advice or knowledge from other people with the same problem as well. Does anyone else have experience with being on oxycodone during benzo withdrawl?! I'm currently on day 9 of benzo withdrawl and still am on oxycodone but am in a taper process. I am scheduled to quit oxycodone sometime next week with my doctor who will prescribe me comfort meds like clonadine which will help with blood pressure. I told the doc I don't want to go down the suboxone route because I don't want to get dependent on another medication and keep having to go through any withdrawl. I'm on day 9 of my benzo withdrawl and I feel physically a lot better but I have a feeling oxycodone is helping in that. The biggest problem and concern is mentally I am not ok. I do feel 50% normal on day 9 but am still depressed, unmotivated, paranoid, and sometimes feel like my life is gonna end. I never had any depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts prior to my prescription pill addiction. Through support forums and information provided online, I learned that tHis mental stage is temporary and will go away. The question is when?! Does anybody have experience with being addicted to oxycodone and benzo's? I don't want to quit oxycodone if I'm still mentally withdrawing from benzo because I'm scared it will send me back to the hellish day1-3 which was extremely mentally and physically intense(I was doing so much oxycodone and it did not help one bit). From experience and online information, I kinda know that oxycodone withdrawl is only physically intense. Do you guys think that if I quit oxy while I'm still in a benzo withdrawl, will it  mentally get worst? I know physically it will be just as intense but I'm just worried about the mental part, the extreme paranoia, the extreme anxiety, the extreme depression, and derealization because I cannot go through that again. I never ever had any suicidal thoughts but day 1-3 was very bad. I was so close to picking up my gun and yea, I can't even talk about it it scares me so much.  Should I just wait til I'm completely mentally normal and than quit oxy? I've been addicted to crack, cocaine, currently oxycodone, did heroin for a week straight, and Xanax . And by far hands down, the Xanax withdrawl is easily the worst. It's been such a bad experience for me that I can honestly say I will never touch it again. I somewhat am glad it happened because I feel like turning my life around but at the same time it was such a hellish and scary experience that I'm here trying to educate myself so that I will never go through that especially day1-3 of the benzo withdrawl because I'm still addicted to oxycodone and I know that ain't a pleasant thing to get off of either. Any help is appreciated thanks

Hey,

Sorry , I haven't read your entire post but I understand that you're looking for more people who went through/ are going through withdrawal from more than one drugs/ addiction issues...

( it's not your post, it's me with a foggy brain. I have trouble reading when it's not spaced )

 

But there is an addiction thread on the boards.

Here is a link to it

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=122099.0;topicseen

 

Also, there is a " other medication " board in the forum.

 

Here is the link to it

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=60.0

 

You might get more response there. Worth a try.

 

Sorry you're feeling so bad...

 

I happened upon this post and since it's recent, decided to respond.

 

It seems like Keanu has 2 addictions; the Oxy and the Benzo. I'm not medical, so maybe one of the admins can answer, but it seems like he should address the Oxy addiction first. Get off it first completely with the help of Valium (another Benzo, but will help with sleep and physical symptoms). Then taper off the Valium. You have to tape with the Benzo. Very slow taper.

 

The Ashton (sp) guide helps to understand, but it seems like you're motivated to do cold-turkey both drugs and I think you have to slow down and let yourself heal. I'm thinking Oxy can be done faster than the Benzo, but again, ADMINs, help me out here.

 

I'm sending healing energy and thoughts to you (an no, I'm not crazy, just recovering)

Forgot to mention; don't get stuck on the thought that it can take months or years to recover. Most people don't take nearly as long. You might always have times where you wished you could take an oxy or a Xanax, but you'll get better and better with a little time. Most of the hard work is up-front. But, don't be afraid to take it slow either.