Is this a common withdrawal or kindling symptom? Issues articulating and working

I work in a pretty technical sales role (pretty much the craziest job to do while you are tapering - given stress etc but I decided to stick through it and work.)

Anyway, I used to be really good at my job and explaining the value proposition of our product. But every time I speak to a customer, I keep losing my train of thought. For example, I was walking a customer through a relatively basic product of ours (that I used to know inside out) and all of the sudden my brain just goes blank and I have no idea what I'm talking about. Like full on amnesia. Basically, I can't even explain the product I am selling even though I've been selling the same product for 5+ years without any difficulty). So, I end up feeling super embarrassed not being able to give the customer a good explanation and end up losing the deal because I go on a tangent and realize that nothing I am saying actually makes sense. This is super frustrating and anxiety inducing. I have no idea why this keeps on happening....basically my brain goes blank, I struggle to find the right words, I mangle my sentences, I speak  and sound like a complete idiot. My bosses have noticed and are very surprised at to what's going on. I feel like I'm losing my mind - not being able to perform and do something that I've excelled at for years because of tapering benzos (holding at 20 mg of Valium now) is crazy.

I tapered off all my other antidepressants and only have the Valium left to taper and have been doing a long hold at 20 mg to stabilize. I did a very rapid taper and crossover from K-Pin (3 mg / day) earlier in the year, which was highly debilitating, so now I'm being conservative. Not to mention, I've quit and reinstated Benzos at least 3 times over the last 7 years (last attempt being a foolish cold turkey), so I am obviously worried about kindling. I can deal with the physical symptoms but feeling my brain not functioning is really intolerable.

Anyway, has anyone else experienced this? 

Yep, benzos are definitely known to cause memory loss and even amnesia.  I'm so sorry that is happening to you at work.  Is there a way for you to write stuff down, or maybe your key points, so you can refer to it when you get mixed up?  I have to write down the simplest things these days to remember them. 

I was actually going to start a new thread for this, but I'll just share this here.  This weekend, I went to Subway with my son and husband.  When we came out, I went to where the car was parked and it was GONE!  My son was like, "It's over here!"  and it was.  But I distinctly remembered us parking in this other spot, that I felt was too close to the other car. Well apparently my husband listened to me and moved the car to a more roomy spot and parked there.  And yes, we were all still in the car when he moved to the new spot, but I do NOT remember that at all.  Even now, a few days later, I do not remember being in the car while we moved to the new parking spot.  I know it is inconsequential, but it is really bothering me to lose a memory like that.

Definitely from benzos.  I worked in a high stress job where I was forced to speak and write all the time, and it became EXTREMELY difficult while I was on benzos.  I've always been a strong writer, and found that writing anything would take 10X as long.  This goes

away, though, as you start to recover.  Even as you start to taper down from 20mg, which is where I started tapering V, you will find it gets easier. 

Definitely from benzos.  I worked in a high stress job where I was forced to speak and write all the time, and it became EXTREMELY difficult while I was on benzos.  I've always been a strong writer, and found that writing anything would take 10X as long.  This goes

away, though, as you start to recover.  Even as you start to taper down from 20mg, which is where I started tapering V, you will find it gets easier.

Thank you for the reassurance. I feel like I have permanent memory damage / dementia, but glad to hear it improved for you. I guess I need to patient....At what mark during your taper did the cognitive issues start to improve for you? I know everyone is different but curious if your cognition started to clear up once you hit a certain daily dose?

Kind of a catch 22. I feel like the lower you go the better your chances of improving, but then the faster I taper the more s/x I suffer. So, loss-loss....ugh. So frustrating.

Malak--I think 20mg valium, which is the dose equivalence of 1mg Xanax, was too high for me.  Once I tapered to 15mg, I started to clear the "cog fog," and this gradually got better each time I cut.  Just to clarify from my last post; I realized I wrote "worked" as if I

don't work there any more--I still work in the same job!