Agoraphobia

Hi,

 

Did anyone else develop agoraphobia / panic attacks while on Alprazolam or other benzo's?

And more importantly did it 'go away' after quitting ?

They are the main reasons why I am trying to quit. 

 

Looking forward to your answers

yes. I'm still dealing with it. It's hard.

Hi

I was on lorazepam for 8 mths and towards the end of time on it developed bad agorophobia.  I fast tapered off as didnt know any better (came off in 3 weeks).  Agorophobia was alot worse when first off and then I was able to go out to places with not lots of people, light and noise after a few months.  Now at 2 yrs off it has suddenly improved a lot - spent 2 hours clothes shopping in a big department store the other day!

It is part of tolerance to the drug and of tapering sxs, and it does go away, even if it takes time.  Slow taper and youll be fine!  Youre not alone in this crippling sxs

Good luck on your journey

Spring

Thanks for the responses , what do you mean by 'sxs'?

Hello PainlessDoc,

 

sxs is used in place of spelling out the word symptoms.  I developed agoraphobia after my cold turkey, I was totally taken by surprise as I've always been social and fearless.  All of the symptoms I developed in tolerance withdrawal from the benzo's and the symptoms I gained after my cold turkey are now gone.

 

Life is good.

 

Pam

The answers to your questions are simple:

 

Yes, Yes and Yes...

Can confirm - agoraphobia developed from out of the blue early in my taper.  Had to battle hard to get through it. 

Yes!! I had it mostly after I started tapering, but it was only at its worst for about a week because I was afraid that I would have a bad panic attack and be tempted to take more Ativan.  I jumped off nearly 3 days ago and I've been going places here and there, driving some for almost 2 weeks now.

 

It's a battle but the longer I'm off this, the better I know I'll feel and I'll be back to my old social butterfly self again. It seems the Ativan started to make my panic/anxiety worse because now I just have the anticipation anxiety but it goes away as soon as I settle into the public place I'm in. 

 

Ativan is a black hole that sucks you in and keeps you there.

Very uplifting to read all of the above.