I feel like I'm dieing, can you get exitotoxicity from w/d?

My first week off I thought I could do this. Had some bad nights. But had some recovery nights, second week even worse sleep and less recovery, now that I am into my third week it's still worse. How can I heal if I can't sleep?

 

I've read about glutamate exitotoxicity can cause a chain reaction and destroy neurons, can you get that with your GABA imbalance from benzos? I feel like I will die. Like I have sporadic fatal insomnia. The cog fog and sleep continue to worsen not improve, and I was on daily use for not even four months! And only .25-.5 how can this reaction be so extreme.

My best advice would be to not spend too much time researching potential problems. All it did for me was cause added anxiety. I think that everyone of us felt (or still feels) that they were going to die from their withdrawal symptoms, but recovery is a much more likely outcome.

 

You are going through a really tough time. There is no getting around that. The sooner you realize that time is the only cure and that time will pass, the sooner you will be able to come to terms with your situation. Accepting the concept of acceptance really helped me a lot. Your condition is bad enough to deal with without adding the extra anxiety of "what ifs" and continued thoughts such as "why is this happening to me?", "why can't things return to what they were?" and "I can't wait until this ends"

 

Hang in there, take it one day at a time and measure progress over a longer time frame and not day by day. You will eventually come out at the other end. Good luck.

I thought I had the same fatal insomnia. In your position all you can do is just push through. I've been exactly where you are. I slept 30 minutes - 1 hour a night before reinstating my last time. I went to fast. Maybe you did too?

 

Ask a doctor about zyprexa. It was the only thing that would litterly knock me out. Best of luck to you

I had six or seven weeks of many 30 minutes-a-night (sometimes zero) sleep when I first jumped.  Then it would stretch to two hours, three hours and eventually five or six hours of sleep.  It takes awhile to re-establish sleep patterns, unfortunately.  Insomnia is terribly frustrating but if you can white knuckle it through for awhile, it should improve.

Thanks for the replies, I feelvlike I am losing my mind. I highly doubt I cut too fast I was only ever on .5mg the most and tapered it to .25 then .175 over several weeks.

 

It's nice to know others have gone through similar situations but I look your dosage and length used and it's much much much more. How the heck can my reaction be so extreme. Good lord I hate these pills.

I only took 25 pills in a month and I'm still having a terrible time at 15 months out. Insomnia is my worst symptom.

That just seems unfathomable. How old are you? Have you gotten checked for sleep apnea or endocrine problems? Less than a month on 1mg and problems for 15 months? That really sounds like something else.

That just seems unfathomable. How old are you? Have you gotten checked for sleep apnea or endocrine problems? Less than a month on 1mg and problems for 15 months? That really sounds like something else.

 

Sleep doctor wanted to put me on an A/D right at the first meeting. Didn't test for anything else. My depression is ONLY caused by not sleeping.

 

Went to another primary care doctor to test hormones. Only thing blood test shows is low vit D. Thyroid is ok.

 

Why something else? What else would it be? I actually was doing a lot better until I got a very bad strain of the flu in March. No idea what at did, but it for sure has done something bad to me. I can only guess my CNS was already weak and it deep fried it. There are other people one here with short use that have been just as screwed as I have though.

Gosh that sounds horrible. I'm going on 3 weeks now of like 2-3 hours per night only and I get it at like 7-10 AM. It's ridiculous. I think I messed my clock up by trying to sleep normally when I was on K. I would try to sleep, but that wouldn't happen ever, so then end up taking the K at like 3-4, except research shows K delays and decreases REM sleep. So taking this pill at 3-4am, it started to push back my  REM sleep to what it is now. Can't believe this shit.

 

Also no one seemed to answer the question, I keep reading about glutamate storms and excitotixicity where your brain just destroys its neurons because of too much glutamate. What does this feel like? Is it possible to get this from benzo wd? It seems to happen during stroke. But many sites related to benzo WD also mention it since the glutmate receptors upregulate and the gaba ones down-regulate. I feel like I am slowly losing my mind. And I don't know how we can heal if we can't get deep sleep.

When you do not get enough sleep you feel like crap and tend to get very anxious about all sorts of stuff since your emotions are all out of whack. My advice is to not give in to these anxieties since doing so can only make your life worse. A million bad things can happen to us daily. No sense in worrying about any of them unless they actually happen.

Gosh that sounds horrible. I'm going on 3 weeks now of like 2-3 hours per night only and I get it at like 7-10 AM. It's ridiculous. I think I messed my clock up by trying to sleep normally when I was on K. I would try to sleep, but that wouldn't happen ever, so then end up taking the K at like 3-4, except research shows K delays and decreases REM sleep. So taking this pill at 3-4am, it started to push back my  REM sleep to what it is now. Can't believe this shit.

 

Also no one seemed to answer the question, I keep reading about glutamate storms and excitotixicity where your brain just destroys its neurons because of too much glutamate. What does this feel like? Is it possible to get this from benzo wd? It seems to happen during stroke. But many sites related to benzo WD also mention it since the glutmate receptors upregulate and the gaba ones down-regulate. I feel like I am slowly losing my mind. And I don't know how we can heal if we can't get deep sleep.

 

I guess a glutamate storm is possible, but I would guess it would mainly happen if you cold turkey off a high dose. If you were going through a storm not only would you know it, you would probably be in a hospital from it.

Okay so it's not just like something that could be happening and causing that pressure/wired sensation in the head? That's what drive me crazy I can't find any reference to what it's like except chemically and accompanied by stroke and the like.

 

My sxs are getting worse now not better. Twitching and spamming muscles, weird head pressure that feels like I can't get tired, so hard to explain, it's not like the head pressure on week one off that was more like sinus pressure. This sensation is lie if my brain was a controllable muscle I'm constantly flexing it and I can't get sleepy. Also weird depersonalizations of my left leg. Feels like it's not part of me.

Oh yeah that is for sure withdrawal. It's very common. I have that buzzing in my head that won't let me sleep a lot of times too. It just has to sk with the GABAA receptors being down regulated. The brain can't counter act the amount of glutamate surging through it. You just have to wait until the brain can heal or create new connections so the GABA works as its suppose to to balance the chemicals in your brain properly. These sensations can come and go.