Fast taper, fast healing. Here's how.

Hello to my fellow Buddies.  Although I've been benzo free for 3 1/2 weeks I'm declaring success because I have had no symptoms, and I mean none, for the last 10 days.  I wanted to give back to community to highlight how I got addicted to benzos and how I ultimately recovered quickly. 

 

I typed up a big paragraph of how I got here but I decided to delete it.  You guys probably know my story anyway.  Bad sleep followed by a slow benzo addiction.  The benzos stopped working so I upped my dose.  But eventually I had to keep raising my dose.  At some point, after 10 years, it just became too much and I started googling my symptoms, which lead me here.  I crossed over from Ambien 15mg to Valium 10mg for a couple months.  In the middle of May 2016 I decided to do a fast taper from the Valium which was a mistake (10mg down to 1mg in 2 weeks).  Incredible panic attacks followed, along with awful sleep.  Reinstated Valium at 7.5mg at the beginning of June 2016 and started a .5mg reduction every 3 days taper.  I spent roughly 7 weeks feeling delirious from lack of sleep since I only slept 4 hours a night, but I least the panic attacks were kept at bay.  I know the taper seems fast but I wanted this nightmare to be over.  Here is what I did:

 

1) Running like a madman on a treadmill every other day.  I read the book "Spark" by John Ratey, which convinced me that to rebuild my gaba receptors I had to shock my body into stress.  My body would respond to the stress by building new mechanisms for calm, which would help my sleep.  So I ran 2 miles every other day at 9-10mph.  I mean full out I'm-gonna-collapse-into-a-heart-attack running.  I was sweating like a pig of course but afterwards I felt great for a while with a runners high.  It wasn't easy to run after a night of bad sleep, but I forced myself to.  I believe the intense cardio exercise was the most significant factor in my healing.  I should note that I've always been fit and active, and have been working out with weights consistently for 20+ years.  It wasn't until my benzo trauma that I started running.

 

2) Eating healthy.  I always ate healthy, but I paid special attention to my diet during this time.  No caffeine, no alcohol, minimize sugar.  As far as supplements go I took (daily) 1 Optimen, 3g Omega 3 fish oils, and 5k IU Vitamin D, which is what I've been taking for years.

 

3) Kava.  Specifically Borugu by Kava Kalm.  This mellowed me out and I strongly believe helped with any anxiety/panic attacks that I would otherwise be feeling.  I took 2-3tsp on an empty stomach around 5pm. For the first week I took it it had the added bonus of giving me decent sleep, although that faded after the first week of use.

 

4) Kept a consistent sleep routine.  Lights out by midnight, wake up by 8:30am.  I took 1g time release niacinamide before bed, which I think helped.

 

As I said before, I did a .5mg every 3 days dry cut Valium taper using 2mg pills.  I jumped on July 18th.  For the first week I still slept bad, but during the second week I rapidly improved with 4 out of 7 days sleeping well.  On the third week I slept good every day, and now on the fourth week I'm still sleeping good.  I've had no panic attacks, no tinnitus, no nothing.  I've been continuing to run (2x a week) and work out with weights (2x a week).

 

I wanted to write this success story as an encouragement to everyone who might be reading.  I know there are a lot of multi-year horror stories on the net, but I strongly believe if you can do some intense cardio exercise you will *significantly* increase the speed at which you heal.  I was on benzos for almost 10 years and I feel lucky I only had to suffer through 7 weeks of hell to get back to normalcy.

 

If I can do it you can too.

 

 

 

Hi,

 

I'm glad your healing is going so well.  Congratulations! 

 

I've moved your story to this board because in order to write a Success Story, you have to be at least two months off benzos. 

 

:thumbsup: Thanks for sharing your story and congrats!!  :balloon:

Congrats! That is all great news

great story  congrats

Great story, thanks!

 

Although I can't run/cycle full out because of my back, long and daily cardio (1-3 hours of walking/cycling slowly) has done a lot for me during the taper also!

Great story and good job with that fast taper!  Also, I agree with you about the intense cardio - I've been doing about 50 min of serious cardio 5x a week for about 7 weeks and I've definitely improved a lot because of it - still waiting for my memory to come back online.. In meantime, I'll keep up the exercise..

 

Congratulations!!!

i have been trying the intense running. i had been doing more moderate exercise. the theory makes total sense to me. in intense aerobic exercise your neuron receptors are in a state of pain or unrest and your body most respond naturally in a way to calm or soothe those sites. call it endorphins or whatever. but it is great training for the gaba receptors. its hard to run intensely on a day after insomnia, but when you are hurting from the lactic acid you can ask your self would you prefer that pain or would you prefer more insomnia and withdrawal effects. the answer is pretty obvious!

:thumbsup:What an inspiration. I'm going to ramp up my cardio! Thank you for sharing your success story.

Just a quick update:  It's been over two months now and I'm still feeling excellent.  I had some sleep turbulence a couple weeks ago but that turned out to be a magnesium supplement I was taking.  As soon as I quit that my sleep returned to normal again. 

 

I'm not running as much lately (I mostly lift weights), but I do get on the treadmill about once a week now.

Just a quick update:  It's been over two months now and I'm still feeling excellent.  I had some sleep turbulence a couple weeks ago but that turned out to be a magnesium supplement I was taking.  As soon as I quit that my sleep returned to normal again. 

 

I'm not running as much lately (I mostly lift weights), but I do get on the treadmill about once a week now.

 

Thanks for the update, MingMecca! This is truly exciting for us all....so happy for you! 

Hi Mecca!

 

First off, congratulations!

 

Thank you for sharing your story. I just went through a similar jump off and quit clonazepam after 2 years + and i'm on day 15 or 16 of being benzo free and i am feeling zero WD symptoms like you. Actually, reading your post reminded me a lot of my post so it was good to hear someone else experiencing the same fast healing. I, too, was and still am into fitness and weightlifting and that is probably the biggest factor in eliminating my WD. It is damn amazing that you healed so fast after 10 years plus a pretty fast taper. 

 

I had a question about Kava. I bought some from the vitamin store and they don't seem to really be doing anything, or at least anything I can detect. How does one take it? It's a tea right? And where is the best place to purchase and how to prepare it? I wanted to explore kava as an anti-anxiety alternative.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story. It's awesome to give hope to others and people don't have to suffer that long if they just commit to a healthy lifestyle. Thanks!

Hi Rex, sorry for the long response time.  I haven't been back to BB in a while.

 

To your Kava question:  The stuff they sell at the vitamin store probably isn't very potent.  I recommend getting it from a good source.  When I bought mine I did some research on the net and found a supplier that has pretty good stuff that you can definitely feel: Kalm with Kava.  Micronized Kava is what you want, 2-3tsp in some water on an empty stomach.  It tastes awful, and it will make your mouth numb, but in about 20-30 minutes you should feel something (hopefully relaxation!).

 

Good luck to you!

Excellent! Congrats! I too believe in vigorous exercise as part of the recovery process

Congratulations ! Thank you for sharing your story . It gives me hope . This motivates me more to exercise and eat healthy . I have always struggle with exercise for years . I probably need to approach exercise and eat healthy full time like a job to have benefits with recovery process .

 

Thanks

 

Tracy

Do you think being on a low potency benzo, temazapam, and ambien (instead if adivan,klonopin or xanax) helped with your success?

To Magnolis:  Yes, I was lucky that I was on a fairly low dose of xanax, temazepam, valium, and Ambien throughout the years.  I never combined them.  Ambien was the one I took the longest, and it was the one that really held me back.  It simply stopped working after a while, even on the rare nights I took 20mg (twice my normal dose).  It was like my GABA receptors said "enough!" and refused to work anymore.

 

Mirtazapine also really helped me sleep for a while.  But, like a fool, I stopped taking it thinking my sleep troubles were fixed.  When I discovered they weren't, and I went back on the Mirt, I found that it didn't work as well as before.  That's when I started using the Ambien again.

 

 

Congrats from me as well. I truly think because I have been exercising a lot during my taper, it has certainly helped me a lot.