My Wifes Struggle - Any Recommended Rehab Facilities for Benzos?

Hi I am here for the first time but have been witness to my wife’s struggle with benzodiazepines for years.  I found your site through a YouTube reaction video to Lisa Ling Benzos special. September 19 my wife overdosed aspirated and barely survived. Benzos were the only drug found in her system and only drug she used beside the anti psychotic seroquel, which may be mis-prescribed due to effects of Benzos.  I am writing to try to find her the best rehab facility. she is due to go there in the next few days after physical therapy for walking after being in bed for 17 days.  In the long term I think this site may be an important part of her recovery.

 

At this time she did not take Benzos every day as prescribed.  At first she was prescribed them regularly, before I met her. And she has gone months, maybe years without them.  Not that she would tell me.  But now, when it was at it’s worst, it was once in a 10-14 day thing in large doses.  Also she began to mix with a drink, not heavily, one beer or 2, to intensify the effects.  She does not get drunk otherwise.  This combination would have been fatal if she was not found when she was.    The reason I am providing this information is for someone out there to better understand her particular situation. We are putting her into a rehab in the next few days( once she is done with physical therapy)  bc there is fear she will go back to them immediately.  I understand the weening off process associated with Benzos but she is lucky she does not suffer the extreme withdrawal symptoms that an every day user would, and is currently off them with no outside visual withdrawal symptoms.  However there is something there inside her that triggers her to take these benzos in large qtys and has been unable to stop. Also the adverse effects from the benzos has left long lasting psychological distress that led to a Bipolar 2 diagnosis.    Any thoughts help because this side of the story is new to us and her family and may explain a lot of things.  Also please if anyone knows a good rehab facility specifically for benzos please share it with us.  Thank You.

Hi Frank....here is an explaination what is happening to the brain....

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=66397.0

 

Here is a very good breakdown of why detox or rehab is a horrible idea for people with Benzos:

 

https://www.benzoinfo.com/2018/04/20/why-prescribed-benzo-patients-shouldnt-go-to-detox-or-rehab/

 

I hope someone else comes along who has been in a similar situation to your wife,

all the best.

Claudia. 

This might be a weird suggestion, but maybe just keep it in the back of your head in case other programs don't work--Adult and Teen Challenge have a very high success rate for your wife's type of problems, at least the one near me does, but they are a Christian program and it's faith based, not medical based.  Maybe just Google "drug recovery program" and call a few near you and see how successful they generally are at keeping people off the drugs once they're off.  Like maybe what kind of follow up do they do after the person is released from inpatient?  I'm sure you'd want her to keep going to some kind of counseling on an ongoing basis to prevent relapse.

Thank You.  Much of the information provided is for tapering from daily prescriptions. However she is a trigger user,  once every few weeks, months, or years.  May be side effects from earlier every day use but that is known.    Is there any experience or dialogue with this situation?  She does not need detox. She is doing OK without them - for now.

I don't think you said how much of a dosage your wife is prescribed of benzos and what a "large dose" is. It would be informative to know that because a detox center is going to make sure she's off all benzos before she leaves, and no doubt she will be put on other medications so that she won't get a seizure. At any rate, she'll probably come home with a new set of pills. It can be a vicious circle.

 

However she is a trigger user,  once every few weeks, months, or years.  If she can go that long without benzos and doesn't even get withdrawal from it - doesn't have any panic attacks or anxiety or depression, for instance, then it doesn't seem as if detox is the answer. I would think someone who's in tolerance would develop one or more of those symptoms, but maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for your concern.  She's taken xanax & klonopin from doctors off and on for the past nearly 10 years.

 

When we found her, there were  9  1mg Klonopin missing from that day, bought "off the street" (as we would find out later investigating what happened)  and 12 1 mg Xanax missing prescribed the day before.

 

In recent months she was put back on  10x  1 mg Xanax  "as needed"  written for a month, upon her request.  Ive called her doctors to try to get them to stop giving it to her but there is no way to stop.  She doctor shops to find someone to give it to her.  This month was the first month they gave her 15x  1mg for the month.  And would take nearly the whole months supply the first day or two she got it almost every time.  Then resort to buy more elsewhere,  then stop,  go through symptoms,  anxiety, distress, anger, panic, the rest of the month. Then start all over again the first of the month when her script was filled.  Before she became a chronic user, many times over our relationship id hear " i dont know whats wrong with me but i know something is.  im going to find out i have cancer"  She got blood work done, checked herself with many different doctors.  She went thru menstrual problems, headaches,  extreme acid reflux,  all different kinds of symptoms in addition to the anxiety, that she felt was caused by some other underlying medical issue.  Again, this is when she was completely off benzos.  However knowing the long term withdrawl, this was probably all just from the past benzo use.       

So Frank based on your last post she is definitely exhibiting the behaviors of an addict. However she is also showing definite symptoms of benzodiazepine dependency. This is very complicated. It is complicated because the addiction has to be treated first. The reason why is simple. You can not beat this thing if your heart isn't in it. You have to want to get off these pills so bad that you will go through any amount of suffering no matter how terrible to make it happen. You have to dedicate your entire life to stopping this drug. It does not want to let you go. The suffering is so intense. You have to hold on to who you were and who you want to be while you are not that person. You have to hope and believe with all your heart that the only way to healing is through hell and you have to keep on running until you are out. You can't casually stroll out of benzo hell. She needs to want this more than anything she ever wanted in her life. She needs to hate Xanax. She needs to feel disdain every time she gulps down her new tapered dose. IF she is already off then she needs to want to be free so bad that she won't give up. This is a fight. Every person here on this forum is fighting or has fought for their life with every thing they have. I mean everything. It's this serious, I am not being overly dramatic. This is the appropriate level of dramatic, lol. Getting free of Xanax is the hardest damn thing I have ever done in my life, bar none, hands down, I can not believe I have survived and I can not believe I am still here today. I was so close to being one of the dead end stories from the Lisa Ling episode.

 

This is why the addiction thing and the overdose are so important to nail down.

Frank,

Have you read the ashton manual! Maybe if yoymu read through that as well as posting, you will get a better understanding benzos and see if your wife exhibits any withdrawal behaviors. Maybe she is in wd and she doesnt know what is wrong with her. I was in wd and noone believed me and it was awful. So, it is just a suggestion to gsin more knowlegde.

I believe she's in withdrawal, Frank, based on the symptoms you said and what we normally do when we're in benzo withdrawal. We have tests, we go to the doctor numerous times, we're sure we have a terrible disease. It turns out that it's usually caused by the benzo.

 

I have to agree with Dehytq. We who are dependent have a very strong desire to get off these pills. There is nothing like addiction in terms of how we feel about benzos. We'd all want to c/t if we could do that and not have our CNS be so compromised.

 

But your wife, it sounds like, is really addicted to benzos. And just like with alcohol, the person has to truly want to get off. It sounds as if she's not really wanting to leave them. Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. This process requires a great deal of effort with many pitfalls and terrible suffering (for a lot of us).

 

Is she willing to say goodbye to benzos? That's what I'd like to know.

 

I guess what I'm asking also is: Is it you who is pressuring her? Have you had an intervention so to speak? Has she said yes to detox? Has she said yes to getting off benzos no matter HOW HARD it could be?

 

These are some questions that need answering. An alcoholic HAS to want to be off alcohol. My sister was an alcoholic, and she finally said yes to getting off alcohol, but she had to be near the gutter. We aren't like that at all. We took the pills as prescribed by our doctors and got screwed. Most of us are very angry at having been duped into believing that benzos were "safe." We trusted our doctors. No more!

I'm not sure a detox would really help her.  How long would she stay there?  Once she is out, why wouldn't she just take some benzos again?  They might even put her on more drugs while she is there, as that's common as well.  Honestly, I think only if someone is truly devoted to getting off this stuff, can it happen.  And even then, it is SO HARD.  But you don't need to go to a detox to get off benzos.  For many people it is done safely, at home, with much more comfort. 

So Frank based on your last post she is definitely exhibiting the behaviors of an addict. However she is also showing definite symptoms of benzodiazepine dependency. This is very complicated. It is complicated because the addiction has to be treated first. The reason why is simple. You can not beat this thing if your heart isn't in it. You have to want to get off these pills so bad that you will go through any amount of suffering no matter how terrible to make it happen. You have to dedicate your entire life to stopping this drug. It does not want to let you go. The suffering is so intense. You have to hold on to who you were and who you want to be while you are not that person. You have to hope and believe with all your heart that the only way to healing is through hell and you have to keep on running until you are out. You can't casually stroll out of benzo hell. She needs to want this more than anything she ever wanted in her life. She needs to hate Xanax. She needs to feel disdain every time she gulps down her new tapered dose. IF she is already off then she needs to want to be free so bad that she won't give up. This is a fight. Every person here on this forum is fighting or has fought for their life with every thing they have. I mean everything. It's this serious, I am not being overly dramatic. This is the appropriate level of dramatic, lol. Getting free of Xanax is the hardest damn thing I have ever done in my life, bar none, hands down, I can not believe I have survived and I can not believe I am still here today. I was so close to being one of the dead end stories from the Lisa Ling episode.

 

This is why the addiction thing and the overdose are so important to nail down.

 

quoted for truth.

 

I made up my mind last september that i was going to get off my medicine or I would die trying. And it has gotten pretty close to that at times and I am not out ofthe woods yet.

 

So everything you said there is not overly dramatic at all.

After this incident she is all in on stopping.  I told her that eventually she may have to ween off them and she said she never wants to take another in her life.  She is also definitely going through withdrawal symptoms now. It has been about 6 days without benzo as she was on a benzo during sedation.  Right now she has the sweats and is extremely worried and upset.  Although she has just been through such a traumatic experience I am able to tell there is more to

It. However even though she’s suffering now she still does not want anything to do with a benzo. So those are good signs to get from an addict

That's great, Frank, that she wants to stop!

 

Just make sure she's okay and doesn't suffer a seizure.

So Frank based on your last post she is definitely exhibiting the behaviors of an addict. However she is also showing definite symptoms of benzodiazepine dependency. This is very complicated. It is complicated because the addiction has to be treated first. The reason why is simple. You can not beat this thing if your heart isn't in it. You have to want to get off these pills so bad that you will go through any amount of suffering no matter how terrible to make it happen. You have to dedicate your entire life to stopping this drug. It does not want to let you go. The suffering is so intense. You have to hold on to who you were and who you want to be while you are not that person. You have to hope and believe with all your heart that the only way to healing is through hell and you have to keep on running until you are out. You can't casually stroll out of benzo hell. She needs to want this more than anything she ever wanted in her life. She needs to hate Xanax. She needs to feel disdain every time she gulps down her new tapered dose. IF she is already off then she needs to want to be free so bad that she won't give up. This is a fight. Every person here on this forum is fighting or has fought for their life with every thing they have. I mean everything. It's this serious, I am not being overly dramatic. This is the appropriate level of dramatic, lol. Getting free of Xanax is the hardest damn thing I have ever done in my life, bar none, hands down, I can not believe I have survived and I can not believe I am still here today. I was so close to being one of the dead end stories from the Lisa Ling episode.

 

This is why the addiction thing and the overdose are so important to nail down.

 

quoted for truth.

 

I made up my mind last september that i was going to get off my medicine or I would die trying. And it has gotten pretty close to that at times and I am not out ofthe woods yet.

 

So everything you said there is not overly dramatic at all.

 

Yes, I agree that this is exactly the right level of dramatic.

Hi frank,

You should go in and add her signature l. It will help us better unfwrstand whst is goung on. List any ad and benzos etc. I agree with what evetyone is saying here. Also, if she is taking a huge amount on benzos then i would think  she must be having wd sx.