Doctors are worse than useless.
Most/Many Doctors are worse than useless. That's why I fired 5 in the past 5 years, and kept only one (My great Endocrinologist). I replaced two of the fired doctors with better ones (The new GI doc literally saved me life by helping me get a drug from the UK not available in the US because the FDA agreed I met the criteria for needing it). It's hard to find truly good doctors, and this certainly isn't a US problem, it's a worldwide problem. But I have a new PCP/GP that seems to be good, and my Psych provider isn't even a doctor, she's a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner who is surprisingly Benzo wise.
But, freaking out and overthinking everything has always been my flaw (and in this case my impatience to be drug-free).
I can identify with this, part of it is due to my Autism. It's why I did my initial taper to fast. I go through periods of frustration. If I only knew about BB sooner, if I had slowed my taper down, I might have been half way through by now. As it is, I'm
still stabilizing after reinstating. I know all this negative thinking isn't helping me, and I keep trying to push it out of my head. I visit BB every day, but I'm trying to cut back on my frequency because there's so much negative stuff that isn't helping me. But you gave me something positive, the info about the Sesamin, which I never heard of, and that whole thread you linked to is such a positive discussion, it is giving me hope, because I spent most of my Christmas crying and feeling at the point of despair. I wanted the Memantine to work so bad, and it gave me such GI upset. I tend to be one of those nerdy/geek types, labellled a braniac in high school because I was literally a walking encyclopedia of mostlly useless information. So now I have my hopes set on Sesamin, researching it, and am reading about the positives BB users reported, and not one negative (none have poste any negative). If it's any consolation, you helped me, and I do wish there was a way I could help you. I don't have the ear problems you've had, mine wax and wane, but you always expresssed sympathy for mine, which are nothing compared to yours. I hope yours recede and end in time. But it's easy to sometimes get freaked out over something on a board.
It's a great crime that we're forced to rely on strangers on the Internet and on self-diagnosis to treat iatrogenesis.
This isn't my first rodeo doing this. It's how I found out how my unecesssary/uneeded Proton Pump Inhibitor use, caused me to become physically dependent on them, causing Rebound Acid Hypersecretion (RAHS) at every attempt to stop, which became urgent when I developed Hypomagnesemia from using them (I was on Protonix). Whats worse, no one had a solution that was reliable to get off them. I read of many's failed attempts to wean off them. You can't split the pills. One guy used the capsule form (Omeprazole?), opened one up, and removed one sphere, and took the rest with applesause. Every 4 to 6 weeks he reduced the spheres by one. It took him nearly two years to get off. His was the only succcess story. But I had life-threatening Hypomagnesemia, I didn't have two years. I found my own solution when I found out about a small research facility in London, UK co-founded by Nobel Prize Winner the late Sir James Black.
A Scottish man who entered med school at age 15, decided most doctors knew didddly-squat, and had terrible bedside manners, he wanted to do more, so he went for a degree in Pharmacology after getting his MD. Propanolol and Tagamet were his work, which earned him that Nobel Prize. He was working on Netazepide, the drug that freed me from PPI dependency in only 44 days, when he passed away. The drug was created to treat an Orphan Disease called gNETS (gastric Neuroendocrine Tumors), but researchers found it worked on PPI dependency as well. I SO wish there was something like Netazepide for Benzos. Si James Black may have left this world, but the little one-of-a-kind research company he co-founded in London is still going strong, even have a new drug under development in the pipeline. I've seen so many people suffer from PPI's, I look forward to when Netazepide is approved for prescription use so people can stop the tried-and-failed and suffered serious RAHS as a result, methods they come up with. These forums exist because doctors aren't doing their job, regulatory egencies like the FDA here in the US, the MHRA in the UK and elsewhere aren't doing their jobs.
