Sudden facial burning / tingling - 80 days after jumping / Need help.

I'm normally offering advice, but now find myself seeking it. I need some help. After roughly 4 years of .5mg per day Xanax (see signature), I began a 4 week rapid taper per my PDoc this past November and have been benzo free for 80 days. I have had your typical acute withdrawal symptoms. (rebound anxiety, right side back / right side neck pain, weakness, chest pain, brain fog, inner vibrations, head / hands tingling, headaches, etc) For the most part my symptoms have been decreasing, until suddenly five days ago, while at work (ranked one of the most stressful jobs in the US), I began having vision issues, right eye twitching and tingling on the right side of my face. I made the mistake of looking up to confirm these symptoms are related to benzo withdrawal and stumbled upon early signs for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Ugh. I undoubtedly have "Health Anxiety", and this triggered me big time! I then possibly made a huge mistake.

 

I called my PDoc and explained the symptoms to him. I wanted reassurance this is benzo related and that I don't need to waste thousands in MRI / testing chasing down something else. He recommended I take a low dose of Xanax and see if that alleviated the symptoms. I am ashamed to admit it, but I did. It helped slightly, and for the next four days (all of which I was scheduled off work) the pain was gone. I still had vision issues and tension headaches, but no facial tingling / burning. I am now at work and having horrible right side facial burning / tingling. Over the course of the day it seems to move from my cheek, to my jaw, ear, nose and back to my check / eye area. I've also re-developed that inner vibration, tingling hands, anxiety thing simultaneously, likely from worrying about the face pain.

 

Have other people had this sudden occurrence of facial pain / burning / tingling in this phase of your recovery? What can I expect symptom wise after reinstating a single Xanax dose after 80 days of being benzo free?

 

I am beyond ashamed, disappointed in myself....and simultaneously worried.

I've had this a bunch. Had it just the other day. It gets less and less as time goes on.

First, please don't worry about taking that benzo.  It is highly highly unlikely it has made any change in your recovery path. Now you know that a benzo can relieve some of your symptoms which should help reassure you that the symptoms are from benzo w/d.  And, the resultant worry and fear arising from taking one mitigates any possible relief.  So, you won't do that again.

 

At 80 days off you can expect new symptoms to pop up, maybe hang out for a while or leave quickly.  It is completely unpredictable.  If you are still able to work at a very stressful job then you are doing VERY WELL.  Work can help distract you from your symptoms, maybe a few minutes here and there.  The symptoms you currently describe are all classic benzo symptoms, including the health anxiety which is one of the hardest symptom in my opinion.  At the end of this road, when you are recovered, you will have nerves of steel.  That job will be a piece of cake.

 

Carol

Coming from experience I would highly highly highly recommend not to keep trying to take benzos...to see if it relieves benzo withdrawal symptoms.

 

I completely understand you wanted to try it once but you are only 80 days out.  You'll likely gain new symptoms for another 3-4 MONTHS.  I am 8 MONTHS from my last small dose Ativan pill and I still have some weird tingling/tightness in my face and other areas from the benzos.  As hard as it was I never considered taking more benzos to alleviate the pain because I knew deep inside it would just cause MORE issues.

 

New issues will pop up, some issues will go away, some issues will come back, some issues will come back 100000x stronger than they were before.  I would just suggest no matter how hard it is that you don't keep experimenting to see if taking more benzos relieves benzo withdrawal.  It will be a slippery slope and you will HATE yourself later.  This might sound like tough love but I've been there and you'll thank me later!

 

Sending good vibes your way. 

Thank you all for the replies to my panicked post. As we all know, it's alarming to the core when you have symptoms that match the early on-set symptoms of something alarming such as MS. I woke up this morning with sinus pressure, and no burning / tingling face. But within two hours of activity it return on the right side again along with the increase volume of my tinnitus.

 

As I said before, I really have an issue with health anxiety. i know this to my core. It's what got me on benzos in the first place. Isn't that sadly ironic? I was obsessively worried about my health (and that of my son's health) and ending up being prescribed a medication that caused health issues. I re-instituted a single dose days ago because I felt that if I could absolutely confirm these symptoms were benzo related, and not something more sinister, I could move on with recovery. Otherwise I'm stuck in this symptom equals anxiety - equals insomnia - equals more symptoms - equals more anxiety loop.

 

I'm calling today to make a CBT appointment and try to address this through a non-medicinal route. I don't know what else to do. I am so...down...I don't know what else to say.