Totally Recovered! No more insomnia! Nine months off.

Hello all!

 

I want to post an official "success story" as I have been completely symptom free for about four months now. I feel absolutely amazing, and feel that benzodiazepine withdrawal is truly behind me now. I find myself so incredibly thankful all the time that I am on the other side of it. I am so thankful and amazed, my feelings are beyond words. I still marvel that the hell I went through, which felt so eternal at the time, was indeed just a temporary nightmare. At the time I didn't know that it was just temporary.

 

Truly it was time that was the healer, and I needed time to pass before things would get better. Once they started getting better though, there were some things that GREATLY helped me continue to heal and improve. A major one, as you have probably seen my write about before, was the Zeo sleep tracker.  myzeo.com. It's a wireless headband that tracks my sleep data at night and submits it to something that looks like an alarm clock, that tells me all my sleep data in the morning such as how much I slept, how much time I spent in each stage of sleep, how often I woke up, how long it took me to fall asleep...etc, etc. In my opinion, it is essential to own one of these if insomnia is your main concern, and especially if your sleep has improved to some extent after some months or more in benzo withdrawal.

 

It helped me realize that my sleep had come back much more than I thought it did. I had noticed some improvement, but the improvement was far greater than I was able to discern without the Zeo tracker. I think that when sleep comes back it can be difficult to recognize all the levels of sleep that have come back, because one's thoughts about having insomnia and about being awake can still infiltrate one's mind during the night, causing one to think one is awake more than he or she really is. I don't think this device would have helped me the first few months of withdrawal, but after almost six months off benzos, it literally GAVE ME MY LIFE BACK OVERNIGHT by helping me to recognize the sleep I was getting. In the morning I get a "sleep IQ" report from the Zeo, a number representing my overall sleep time and quality, that is compared with data of average people. My sleep only gets better and I'm happy to say my sleep IQ is average or above average every night. The times it is slightly below average, it's because I don't need as much sleep, and I'll always catch up on any extra sleep I need in the next few nights.

 

Every single day now I take a liquid multivitamin (for optimal absorption). At night I take tart cherry extract tablets for the natural melatonin, and I take Peter Gilham's Natural Calm Calcium at night. It contains a balance of calcium and magnesium. I make green smoothies with a Blentec blender everyday, blending fruit and organic greens. I add in capsule, tablet, or liquid form the following superfoods: spirulina, goji berry extract, marine phytoplankton, and blue green algae.  All of these things are amazing for your body getting nutrients and will help with sleep. All of these supplements can be gotten at a discount price from websites like Vitacost.com

 

The book "I can make you sleep" by Paul McKenna, a British self help guru, with it's accompanying hypnosis CD, really helped me too!

 

Last and not least, having a relationship with a loving Being (God) is, in my opinion, essential in all of life, including in benzo withdrawal. In the few weeks before my recovery, I began sensing the presence of Christ very strongly and was reading Scriptures about Jesus healing various people. I began to have faith that, whether or not I healed, there was a God who loved me and had a purpose for my life that was good. I wasn't sure at the time what this purpose could be, with all of my suffering, but I did believe the outcome was for my good and my benefit, and was for a purpose, and that I would see this outcome in the next life or possibly even in this one. I truly believed this with all my heart. I believed I was important to God and that everything I was going through could be redeemed and could bring me closer to Him.

 

If you think about it, it makes sense to believe this. If there is not a loving Being out there who loves and has a purpose for each and every person, then how does one explain all the good in the world, and how does one explain our need for love and relationships, and how does one explain hope?

 

I hope some of these things help and encourage you!

 

God Bless.

 

Sophia

Dear Sophia,

 

I'm in the midst of my taper and struggling.  I was just asking "are you there God?" and I posted that to my blog.  Then I read your post.  I am going to borrow your paragraphs about Christ and quote them in my blog.  I'm not feeling a presence of God and hope that someday that will return.

 

thank you for sharing your story.

truck

Thanks for the wonderful success story, sophia.  As you know, sometimes it's hard to believe we will ever feel better and posts like yours will help encourage those, like thatsmytruck, who are still tapering or still healing. 

 

God bless. 

Sophia! What a wonderful recovery story, thank you so much. Enjoy your life. 

Thank you, Sophia. 

 

Patty  xo

Great News!    and I thought your sleep strategies were great!

What a wonderful story.  Thank you so much for sharing it. 

 

RV

Thanks for sharing your success!

 

The buddies who are still struggling here need to be reminded often that people do heal. 

When you have pain everyday, it is a question that won't go away.

-David

Great story, Sophia. People sometimes forget to include God in their healing, which I think is crucial.

 

Thanks,

George

What a wonderful story Sophia. I have hope thanks to you. You are a real inspiation to me. God Bless you

Hello all!

 

I want to post an official "success story" as I have been completely symptom free for about four months now. I feel absolutely amazing, and feel that benzodiazepine withdrawal is truly behind me now. I find myself so incredibly thankful all the time that I am on the other side of it. I am so thankful and amazed, my feelings are beyond words. I still marvel that the hell I went through, which felt so eternal at the time, was indeed just a temporary nightmare. At the time I didn't know that it was just temporary.

 

Truly it was time that was the healer, and I needed time to pass before things would get better. Once they started getting better though, there were some things that GREATLY helped me continue to heal and improve. A major one, as you have probably seen my write about before, was the Zeo sleep tracker.  myzeo.com. It's a wireless headband that tracks my sleep data at night and submits it to something that looks like an alarm clock, that tells me all my sleep data in the morning such as how much I slept, how much time I spent in each stage of sleep, how often I woke up, how long it took me to fall asleep...etc, etc. In my opinion, it is essential to own one of these if insomnia is your main concern, and especially if your sleep has improved to some extent after some months or more in benzo withdrawal.

 

It helped me realize that my sleep had come back much more than I thought it did. I had noticed some improvement, but the improvement was far greater than I was able to discern without the Zeo tracker. I think that when sleep comes back it can be difficult to recognize all the levels of sleep that have come back, because one's thoughts about having insomnia and about being awake can still infiltrate one's mind during the night, causing one to think one is awake more than he or she really is. I don't think this device would have helped me the first few months of withdrawal, but after almost six months off benzos, it literally GAVE ME MY LIFE BACK OVERNIGHT by helping me to recognize the sleep I was getting. In the morning I get a "sleep IQ" report from the Zeo, a number representing my overall sleep time and quality, that is compared with data of average people. My sleep only gets better and I'm happy to say my sleep IQ is average or above average every night. The times it is slightly below average, it's because I don't need as much sleep, and I'll always catch up on any extra sleep I need in the next few nights.

 

Every single day now I take a liquid multivitamin (for optimal absorption). At night I take tart cherry extract tablets for the natural melatonin, and I take Peter Gilham's Natural Calm Calcium at night. It contains a balance of calcium and magnesium. I make green smoothies with a Blentec blender everyday, blending fruit and organic greens. I add in capsule, tablet, or liquid form the following superfoods: spirulina, goji berry extract, marine phytoplankton, and blue green algae.  All of these things are amazing for your body getting nutrients and will help with sleep. All of these supplements can be gotten at a discount price from websites like Vitacost.com

 

The book "I can make you sleep" by Paul McKenna, a British self help guru, with it's accompanying hypnosis CD, really helped me too!

 

Last and not least, having a relationship with a loving Being (God) is, in my opinion, essential in all of life, including in benzo withdrawal. In the few weeks before my recovery, I began sensing the presence of Christ very strongly and was reading Scriptures about Jesus healing various people. I began to have faith that, whether or not I healed, there was a God who loved me and had a purpose for my life that was good. I wasn't sure at the time what this purpose could be, with all of my suffering, but I did believe the outcome was for my good and my benefit, and was for a purpose, and that I would see this outcome in the next life or possibly even in this one. I truly believed this with all my heart. I believed I was important to God and that everything I was going through could be redeemed and could bring me closer to Him.

 

If you think about it, it makes sense to believe this. If there is not a loving Being out there who loves and has a purpose for each and every person, then how does one explain all the good in the world, and how does one explain our need for love and relationships, and how does one explain hope?

 

I hope some of these things help and encourage you!

 

God Bless.

 

Sophia

 

good  post, im a believer in the almighty god...without him nothing is possible. i surrender my soul to the lord..yes i did

Amen to that Street!

Hi Saintsophia

 

Congratulations! You are an inspiration to all!!!

 

 

Hey thank you so very much for the tip on the sleep hypnosis cd. I bought the book/cd. It works great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Teakettle

It's so wonderful to hear success stories like this!!!!!  I'm so very happy for you SaintSophie  :yippee:

 

It's stories like this that keep us all going, so thank you for sharing.

 

Sophia,

 

I'm 14 months benzo-free but insomnia and tinnitus remain my biggest challenges. I will try some of the remedies you suggested.

 

Thanks,

Sylvia

Saintsophie,

 

I was just looking through success stories and found yours....what an inspiration!

 

I am 7 months off and still struggling with derealization and cog fog...sometimes to the

point where I ask God..."why are you continuing to torture me?  is there no end in sight?

please release me from this misery!"

 

I really appreciated hearing about your faith and how it helped you through....it is what

keeps me going. 

 

I also appreciate hearing that you are completely healed...it is so encouraging to hear

that it does happen!  for REAL!

 

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful story.

 

And...if you have any tips on derealization or cog/fog....pass them along, please!

I'm having hormones checked this week....hoping that will do the trick!

 

Tish aka Percussion

thankyou sophia!

curiously, today is the first time i've looked at success stories and i'm inspired

i'll look into the zeo sleep tracker. love the idea of that...of course it's too soon

for me to use one. brilliant! so easy to deceive ourselves and stick to an old

pattern when it's not relevant any more. a little device to tell the truth about

the night's sleep. (insomnia was major reason i went on benzos). violet.

 

Last and not least, having a relationship with a loving Being (God) is, in my opinion, essential in all of life, including in benzo withdrawal. In the few weeks before my recovery, I began sensing the presence of Christ very strongly and was reading Scriptures about Jesus healing various people. I began to have faith that, whether or not I healed, there was a God who loved me and had a purpose for my life that was good. I wasn't sure at the time what this purpose could be, with all of my suffering, but I did believe the outcome was for my good and my benefit, and was for a purpose, and that I would see this outcome in the next life or possibly even in this one. I truly believed this with all my heart. I believed I was important to God and that everything I was going through could be redeemed and could bring me closer to Him.

 

A little while ago, I read that the Jesus that exists today is the exact same one who existed in the Bible - the same one who healed the sick and performed miracles -for those who truly believed.  I read this, and it was like a light went off. 

Sophia!  Thanks so much for sharing this story. 

 

The whole prospect of getting over this seems overwhelming at times ... but until the last few days I hadn't even considered this illness was benzo related.  It makes so much sense.

 

As far as God, Spirit, Love getting us through things.  Yes!  Sometimes when feeling so horrible it is really tough to Be Still and quiet the mind - but it's so important to persevere.  Having been pretty much housebound for the last few years (first caring for my son, now the last year not able to do much myself) I remembered reading in a book of a Buddhist perspective on St. Benadictine's monks.  The author was home a lot with kids and said she looked at it as being in a monastary, and a time for spiritual renewal (as much as taking care of kids can be like living in a monastary, not mine when they were young!).  Anyway, I took that to heart and have used this unchosen 'exile' of sorts to read, read, read.  There are times I'm too fuzzy to take in what I like, and others where I can read often.  I've tried to see this as a time of spiritual growth, and have read from all sorts of religions and spiritual disciplines.  This is an experience I would never have had the time to have, and has been amazing in that respect.  It has really helped me to form my personal beliefs and develop a much closer relationship with God.  Now, that's not to say I don't want to get rid of this stinking, constant dizziness, burning, sick feeling ... and be there for my kids.  If it weren't for them, this would be easier to deal with ...  Kendra, you mentioned having been tested for MS, we were sure that's what it was with me as well, and I kind of wished it had been, as it would have been an answer.  Now it looks like there is another answer - so we'll all chug on together!  It is true that coming out the other side of something makes us better, more compassionate people.  Except for how it affected my kids - I have to say the house fire we had was one of the best experiences in my life.  Completely showed how much material things don't matter - it was such a release, and also the amazing outpouring of kindness and love from total strangers.  The whole thing gave me such a new perspective on life and changed me so much personally for the better.  (okay, I tend to ramble ... just feeling elated right now to have found all of you)

 

I am so grateful for this forum, and for the opportunity to interact with people going through this.  What you have shared is so encouraging!

 

Ellen

I am taking some advice somebody gave me on Benzobuddies and I am reading the Success stories, and not just the other posts, which can fill you with fear and foreboding.  What an uplift - it makes you feel that there truly is hope in getting to the other side.  Thank you Sophia for your amazing story and may we all be able to write our success stories in the near future.  ,

Hello Sophia,

 

I read your success story. Very inspirational.

 

Thanks you so much.

 

Summer

Your story is very encouraging to me   Thank you.