Are there STUDIES on CT withdrawal?

If there are studies on Cold Turkey WD ... please post! 

If there are studies on Cold Turkey WD ... please post!

 

That's a good question. The problem with any study is that no 2 withdrawls are alike. Each CT withdrawl is very unique in itself such as male..female...body weight...what type of benzos your CT'ing off of...how much you CT off of....how long you were on them.....are you taking any other drugs during or after your CT that might delay healing or cause issues. You get where I'm coming from.

 

I use to try to compare my CT to a bunch of other members on here while I was suffering. I was just hoping that mine would be just like someone elses that is doing well.

 

Finally I gave up. I was like fuck it. I was in such a bad way. I started to focus on people that CT'd and healed. I stopped focusing on the timeline and started focusing on the end results. I knew of people that went CT and made it through it. Their journey wasn't easy...neither was mine. But the end results are the same....they healed and so did I.

 

I'm very sorry your still suffering. I wish there was some type of accurate study about time frames and symptoms with CTs. But theres just to MANY variables when it comes to it.

 

Please know myself and others have been through awful CT's and healed......and so will YOU!

 

Please stay strong and hold onto my words. You can do this. If i can....so can you! You got what it takes!!!

Hi, Sarah! I recently read a book about biorhythms. They're on their own schedule. There is physical component, there is Emotional and there is intellectual and other. They rarely coincide in intensity. But if they match it turns out the window. If they are at a minimum it will be deterioration. In the process of recovery, we are very sensitive to this. Hold☺

KRock,

 

Thank you, I have read most of your posts.  I’ve read many CT healing stories over and over, I am impatient when I go back to Acute.  I know ... time, eating clean, exercise, and prayer are what has been the common theme.  I see even Ashton’s studies flawed as they don’t include CT (unless I am mistaken). 

 

I know I am healing.  I hope I have what it takes!

 

SaraSue

Thank you, Bazil.

 

SaraSue

KRock,

 

Thank you, I have read most of your posts.  I’ve read many CT healing stories over and over, I am impatient when I go back to Acute.  I know ... time, eating clean, exercise, and prayer are what has been the common theme.  I see even Ashton’s studies flawed as they don’t include CT (unless I am mistaken). 

 

I know I am healing.  I hope I have what it takes!

 

SaraSue

 

This whole thing is a VERY frustrating process i know! Forward 2 steps...then backwards 3 steps. No rhyme or reason to any of it.

 

Look at the healing process as if your brain is trying to recalibrate itself back to normal. When you removed the drugs your brain started to short circuit and misfire causeing symptoms. Until it figures out how to rewire itself back to your normal drug free baseline.... things can be a little eratic to say the least.

 

Eventually .....your brain figures out how to go back to normal all  by ITSELF. Dont ask me how. By the miracle of God i guess. But that's the most amazing thing about this whole dam process ....your body knows what to do without you doing anything...just stay drug free and be patient. The being patient part is VERY hard when your suffering I know. The worst ever. But symptoms WILL get fewer and further between. If i hadn't gone through it...I would of NEVER believed it myself.

 

The human body is truly an amazing machine. You will see what I'm talking about when you write your success story. I cant wait to read it. Stay the course!! Your time is coming!

I wish there were decent studies on this, but there isn't. And I do not know why. I also wonder how age affects healing. Many of our members are over 60, and all of them worry about this too.

It is terrible that for some reason, nothing IS being studied about this stuff. It tens to make us feel so isolated and even more alone, having to depend on online support.

Krock, you wrote a truly good and supportive answer. I hope many read it, as this stuff does help. Even if you help someone to keep going just one more day, it is a good thing. I know I depended on what I read here in my own long, painful journey.

Getting off benzos is perhaps the loneliest thing you will ever do. Nothing prepared you for what you now feel and experience. Perhaps if you had been warned, you would have made different choices. But you, like me, weren't told. We blindly took our benzos and now have to pay the price.

I will tell you that getting off benzos was the best thing I ever did, no matter how difficult it was. I am now a healthy, happy, and secure older woman who went through something incredibly awful. And it took me several years to recover. But I did, and so will you.

east

 

East,

 

Your input and story has been invaluable to me during these past 5+ months!  I’m getting so tired...

 

SaraSue

It is ever so tiring Sara. 

 

In one of your earlier posts I read that you had to use your hands against the wall to walk.  I can remember same. 

 

I know I am healing, but it is so very slow, non linear.  I'm getting there. 

 

You do have what it takes Sara. 

 

Dee

Dee,

 

It’s been the most exhausting 5+ months of my life.  I keep thinking, it has to get easier!

 

How are you doing?

 

SaraSue

Dee,

 

It’s been the most exhausting 5+ months of my life.  I keep thinking, it has to get easier!

 

How are you doing?

 

SaraSue

 

Hi Sara,

 

I can only speak on my own CT and I can tell you I turned big corners after six months (the biggest corner) after 12 and after 18. You are so close to major relief, I would bet on it.

 

Sidebar- I love your ET picture. Sometimes I feel like him. An alien lost on a foreign planet waiting for someone to take me home 

Oh dear...the using hands to attempt to walk across a room....I had forgotten about that one. I had to use a walker back then, but sometimes attempted to get to my bathroom without it. Using hands on wall, and pray I would not fall again. I had NO sense of balance then, and every single move was an effort, plus trying to cope with maybe 75 weird and crazy symptoms all going on at the same time.....never again! NEVER!

All of you deserve the Badge of Courage for dealing with this stuff. And we will never get public recognition for what we have been through, since the public has NO idea it can happen. Compare this to, say, breast cancer. Everyone knows about that and survivors applauded publicly very often. We do not get this. Our problem is clouded in some sort of weird secrecy that we just do not understand.

TAE,

I so hope I feel much better in a few weeks (somewhere after 6 months).  While I expected BWD to be longterm ... I never expected the pain and exhaustion to be so fierce.  I do feel like an Alien is inhabiting my body, this ET!

 

East,

I’m so happy to hear you felt better after the first year!  I’m short on patience these days (happy I was a patient person before BWD). 

 

SaraSue 

SaraSue,

Always good to hear from you. You know I am cheering you on and I also know how bad you have been feeling. Try to keep hanging on, ladybug.

When I say I felt better after a year, I have to be honest here. I felt sort of better but trust me I was not 100% then at all. At one year I was no longer acute, but nor was I up to doing much at all. I did take ne 3 years to feel normal enough to function. But do keep in mind how long I took benzos - 30 years is a very long time. And I went CT off a huge dose of Klonapin and Ambien. I think that does make some sort of difference, but since so little is known about this, who knows?

Keep on trudging forward, sweet lady. You can do this.

I don't know you but I've been trying to determine what to do in my own situation, which isn't like yours.  I've been kindled and am in acute tolerance w/d while still on the drug. 

 

But there are a few that reinstated after several months off the drug and then did slow tapers and made it out, with the reinstatement "saving their lives". 

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=25478;area=showposts;start=0

 

SuzieQ is another that I found and reached out to.  You can find her if you search.

 

I just wanted to send to you and let you know there are options. 

It has been the most exhausting time of my life too Sara. 

 

Exhausted and terrified.  So terribly sick, with no one believing.  So lonely.  Crushing.   

 

Never thought it would end, and it hasn't yet, but am beginnng to see slow improvement. 

 

Exhausting, terror filled, ailing, disbelieved, lonely, and crushing. 

 

And not only that, it's bloody well SLOW. 

 

Mean critter. 

 

We ARE healing Sara.  You remind me every time.  Thanks.

 

Dee

It has been the most exhausting time of my life too Sara. 

 

Exhausted and terrified.  So terribly sick, with no one believing.  So lonely.  Crushing.   

 

Never thought it would end, and it hasn't yet, but am beginnng to see slow improvement. 

 

Exhausting, terror filled, ailing, disbelieved, lonely, and crushing. 

 

And not only that, it's bloody well SLOW. 

 

Mean critter. 

 

We ARE healing Sara.  You remind me every time.  Thanks.

 

Dee

 

Dee,

 

It is ALL of those things.  I’m so ready to live again.  Someday!

 

We are slowly healing.

 

Dee, I am going to make a suggestion to you. It might help a lot if you eliminate using words like "sick" or "ill." Benzo withdrawal is NOT a sickness, its not a disease. It is a temporary condition, one that almost always is resolved. I know it seems weird to you now, but when you or anyone, tells themselves they are sick, it kind of reinforces the wrong things.

I remember a guy from years ago, who kept telling us he was "sick and dying of benzo withdrawal." But he always refused to get help (in an ER) when he said he was dying. A lot of people fell for this and gave him a lot of sympathy, but he never once tried the things we all suggested to him.

We who are in benzo wd are not sick or ill. We ARE suffering badly with something no one told us could happen! I sure didn't know. It came as an enormous shock to this old nurse. I simply did not know that getting off benzos could be this difficult. I recall thinking, on the day I went CT off a boatload of benzos and ADs, that would probably feel awful for maybe 2 weeks. Oh, how wrong I was.

Because benzos work on your brain, its your brain that has to heal and it will, but it can take longer than you hoped for. If you are constantly thinking you are "sick" you are sending the wrong messages to your mind/brain. Just reverse this by telling yourself that you can and will heal, because it is only a temporary condition.

Think about this, please. Sometimes our minds need a bit of prodding and coaching. You seem like a tough lady, one who has the strength to get through this. We have mutual friends who think well of you. And all of us hope you will succeed.

east