My (almost) Two Year Report

Hello everyone. It's been just over a year since my last post so I figure it's long past due that I reported what's happening with me. I finally started to feel pretty normal again last fall, sometime in September or October of 2009, about a year after my last benzo. That's a year since my problems began, so it fits in neatly with what Professor Ashton says, that the symptoms rarely last more than a year.

I don't know if I made a complete recovery however, since my sleep is still a little subpar and I still have some digestive problems that originated with the benzos. However, both these symptoms are still much better than they were during my long benzo nightmare, and I generally feel like my old self again.

As noted earlier by myself and others, I had a remarkably short stint taking benzos, but the effect was absolutely devastating. Wouldn't you think that the withdrawal symptoms would be a few days at the most, after taking the drug for only a month? There's little doubt in my mind that the fifteen or so benzos I took over thirty days (and seven more during my badly planned taper) destroyed my life for a year, and I wonder if they literally destroyed my GABA receptors, which may have taken all that time to grow back. I think I may be unusually sensitive to these drugs, and I tend to be sensitive to a lot of other things as well. In any case, I'm still completely amazed that my doctor did this to me, and I'll never feel the same about the medical establishment again.

Sometime last summer I started increasing the protein content of my meals. I think that may have helped in my recovery, especially since I'm vegetarian and may have been a little low on protein anyway. Two sources helped me make that decision. Professor Ashton, who said recovery from Benzos is like recovering from an accident or an operation, and a vegetarian website (vegetarians in paradise), which advised eating more protein than usual after an operation or injury, to help build back needed tissues. Of course, whatever else you do, you just have to give yourself time.

I want to thank everybody here that helped me out when I needed it, and I hope that my little post will be read by someone who's still suffering, and that my experience will give some encouragement to soldier on and eventually heal.

Recap: I took 0.5mg lorazepam every other day for a month in August 2008. I did a quick Taper and cut the dose in half by the end of September, then quit. Too fast a taper, I found out.

dear jack,

thanks for your interesting post. extremely shocking that just a month did all that damage but excellent to hear you are nearly healthy again. i am a reluctant meat eater (veg. most of my life), but i feel some good quality meat is helping me, (re the extra protein). i grew up on the jack sprat nursery rhyme (england)...one of the more benign of the old fashioned rhymes. all the best to you in your continued recovery. violet

Hi Jack Sprat!

Thank you for coming back to fill us in. I'm glad to here you are feeling mostly healed. Hang in there on the sleep issue, that was my toughest one too.