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Just Curious question for all those withdrawing or withdrawn from Benzos?


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How many here were forced to come off these drugs bc of prescribing doctors who no longer would prescribe? If not for this fact, would you still be taking the drugs?

 

 

Thanks--

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  • 2 weeks later...

I won't say it was "forced," more like strongly suggested. I probably would have stayed on my 0.25 dose of Klonopin for a while longer -- it felt like a "low" dose and wasn't giving me any trouble. I had an appointment with my prescribing physician in April of last year in which he was incredulous that I was still on Klonopin. I remember him saying, "Wow, you really need to get off of that!"

 

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CT’d 22 months ago off 10mg.  Now they want me to reinstate because of my physical sx!  I don’t blame the docs as most people come off no problem.  I was unlucky.

 

U

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CT’d 22 months ago off 10mg.  Now they want me to reinstate because of my physical sx!  I don’t blame the docs as most people come off no problem.  I was unlucky.

 

U

 

I had to detox bc of tolerance. My current doc has no trouble prescribing them to longtime patients who he has a longstanding treating relationship with, but increasingly, these new doctors are refusing to Rx these things to ppl any more long-term. They will however put you on all the other junk, like the nasty SSRIs. Ugh-- :'(

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I was incredibly unlucky. I was persuaded to ask a doctor for sleep medicine at a moment when I was desperate because I was sleep deprived, so the ENT only gave me 14 tablets. I was shocked that I started having heart palps on the sixth night. Ran to my GP and she didn’t believe me despite me crying hysterically with BP over 200 and gave me six tablets to taper from. Calling a psychiatrist who couldn’t really help because I wasn’t his patient yet. Another GP dismissing me having benzo withdrawal and thinking I had mental health issues (I didn’t have any). I gave up when I should have pounded the pavement more. I didn’t know I had CT’ed till it was too late. I just thought I would deal with symptoms for a few weeks because I was only on it for less than two weeks. But yes, doctors had no issue wanting to give me an SSRI script.

 

I’m so mad about all of this and that these drugs are so incredibly dangerous to some people.

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@[ R...]

 

I suppose some will give you very limited, small quantities.

 

What ear, nose, or throat problem were you having that you saw the ENT for? Just curious...

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I was fine on zopiclone really happy stable, only took a very low dose no anxiety, could sleep. Don't think I would have stopped as never reached tolerance. Took them on and off fir 12 years. GP retired new one told me had to CT as was on low dose would be fine. Printed off NICE recommendations to taper she ignored them. 29 months later had depression, anxiety, sleep problems, OCD. Got told AD's only thing could have, eventually tried them had adverse reaction so yet another withdrawal.
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@ RKO---An ENT gave you 14 benzo tablets? I am surprised by that. Only GPs and pdocs will usually only Rx these meds to patients for anxiety or sleep issues.

 

I suppose some will give you very limited, small quantities.

 

What ear, nose, or throat problem were you having that you saw the ENT for? Just curious...

 

Was having insomnia from tinnitus that kept me up all night from a fully ruptured ear drum. The audiologist persuaded me to ask the ENT for it as I mentioned that Ambien made me hallucinate when I had the flu 20 years ago. She suggested a benzo.

 

Arguably the dumbest thing I could have ever done.

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I was fine on zopiclone really happy stable, only took a very low dose no anxiety, could sleep. Don't think I would have stopped as never reached tolerance. Took them on and off fir 12 years. GP retired new one told me had to CT as was on low dose would be fine. Printed off NICE recommendations to taper she ignored them. 29 months later had depression, anxiety, sleep problems, OCD. Got told AD's only thing could have, eventually tried them had adverse reaction so yet another withdrawal.

 

Thanks leann. Your post should serve as a cautionary tale for those who are still taking these drugs and doing ok. If something ever happens to this prescriber (retirement, death, illness, etc.), you may find yourself forced off these drugs whether you want off or not. Even if you are still taking these things and are happy taking them (for now), it might be a good idea to try and stockpile whatever you can just in case you find yourself in one of these unfortunate situations where you are literally cut-off cold turkey.

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Very true. Was always in my mind they might stop it one day, but didn't expect her just to stop them no withdrawal. My old GP very sympathetic, think new one was really negligent luckily had my husband to support me. Feel sorry for people on their own when this happens. Gets me you can have as many SSRI's as you want!
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I know Leann. They will prescribe out the SSRIs like candy. I hate SSRIs. Like you, I have always responded badly to them.
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No, my doc would have prescribed forever. I reached tolerance with my xanax, realized I needed more and more to get the same "chill" (I was up to 4 mgs a day)  and decided to quit xanax and Ambien also as it was not helping me sleep. Bad mistake. I CT'd both of them one Xmas vaca, got so sick and loony I almost perished, ended up in the ER, where they prescribed Ativan, had a horrible reaction to Ativan, crossed to valium . . . and started a taper. What a miserable mess.

 

No, my prescriber was a drug pusher in a white coat. (She pushed ADs and SSRIs also. I had 10 years of her drug pushing). I had to take control to get out of the death spiral I was in.

 

Katz

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No, my doc would have prescribed forever. I reached tolerance with my xanax, realized I needed more and more to get the same "chill" (I was up to 4 mgs a day)  and decided to quit xanax and Ambien also as it was not helping me sleep. Bad mistake. I CT'd both of them one Xmas vaca, got so sick and loony I almost perished, ended up in the ER, where they prescribed Ativan, had a horrible reaction to Ativan, crossed to valium . . . and started a taper. What a miserable mess.

 

No, my prescriber was a drug pusher in a white coat. (She pushed ADs and SSRIs also. I had 10 years of her drug pushing). I had to take control to get out of the death spiral I was in.

 

Katz

 

Holy smokes, katz, I'm glad you lived through all that.  I can't imagine attempting CT.

 

 

I decided on my own, mostly because I wasn't able to feel emotions like normal people and because of watching benzo videos and realizing a lot of symptoms I was experiencing may be from Klonopin.  Hoping Doc will continue prescribing. 

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No, my doc would have prescribed forever. I reached tolerance with my xanax, realized I needed more and more to get the same "chill" (I was up to 4 mgs a day)  and decided to quit xanax and Ambien also as it was not helping me sleep. Bad mistake. I CT'd both of them one Xmas vaca, got so sick and loony I almost perished, ended up in the ER, where they prescribed Ativan, had a horrible reaction to Ativan, crossed to valium . . . and started a taper. What a miserable mess.

 

No, my prescriber was a drug pusher in a white coat. (She pushed ADs and SSRIs also. I had 10 years of her drug pushing). I had to take control to get out of the death spiral I was in.

 

Katz

 

Sorry to hear this Katz. Was this prescriber a GP or shrink? I think pdocs are more likely than GPs to prescribe benzos nowadays but there are some psychiatrists who will not even Rx benzos to patients.

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I was taking Brotizolam for sleep for nine years and was living a normal life. I got them on regular trips to Japan. Covid hit, I couldn’t get back, and ran out. I had some Etizolam and Zolpidem in reserve so I thought I could switch. Wrong. From day one horrendous withdrawals and now I’m messed up with Zolpidem tolerance withdrawals. If I had regular access to Brotizolam I would probably still be on them. One day I was fine and the next I was in hell.
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Sorry to hear this John, but thanks for sharing. What Country are you in? Why did you have to get them from Japan?
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I was taking Brotizolam for sleep for nine years and was living a normal life. I got them on regular trips to Japan. Covid hit, I couldn’t get back, and ran out. I had some Etizolam and Zolpidem in reserve so I thought I could switch. Wrong. From day one horrendous withdrawals and now I’m messed up with Zolpidem tolerance withdrawals. If I had regular access to Brotizolam I would probably still be on them. One day I was fine and the next I was in hell.

 

Sorry to hear this John, but thanks for sharing. What Country are you in? Why did you have to get them from Japan?

 

Ouch, I'm so sorry, John!  I can't imagine going through what you did and what you're probably still experiencing.  I feel for you.

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Sorry to hear this John, but thanks for sharing. What Country are you in? Why did you have to get them from Japan?

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I was in a country, not Japan, when it happened. I used to live in Japan when I first got them. These drugs are not available in a lot of places. Bummer.

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Sorry to hear this Katz. Was this prescriber a GP or shrink? I think pdocs are more likely than GPs to prescribe benzos nowadays but there are some psychiatrists who will not even Rx benzos to patients.

 

She was a psychiatrist. She was convinced I had bipolar disorder (what???? at 40 this showed up????). I was just going through a period of really bad depression which led to writer's block which led to more depression. When I got clear of her and her drugs (13 of them counting benzos and Ambien) I found a therapist who helped me with my depression. And writer's block. No more drugs for me. My psych was so sure she could "fix" me if only she found the right drug. So sad. I lost 11 years to that woman and her quest for the magic pill.

 

I hope things are different now with shrinks and their patients. Sometimes all we need to do is to talk. But alas, shrinks aren't trained to talk. Indeed, wasn't old-fashioned psychiatry called "the talking cure"?

 

Anyhow, best wishes to all here.

 

Katz

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You are 100% correct. Pdocs don't do psychotherapy anymore. They all push drugs as the answer for all of life's problems. Sadly, they are all in bed with the drug companies to promote and sell drugs. I am not anti-drugs by any means. Drugs are sometimes appropriate, but no one seems to want to explore the possible efficacy of non drug treatments. Personally, I do not think benzos should be prescribed long-term except in the most dire cases and then only after full informed consent is given about the risks of long-term medical management using these drugs.
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I saw a psychiatrist once last year, seemed to want to label me as " having some sort mental disorder" Gave me a script for 60 mg duloxetine, he said start me on high dose to knock it on the head, was awful felt I was bouncing off ceiling totally spaced out, after 3 days had stop it. So don't think things have improved! Didn't seem accept withdrawal can last for months just got told it's OCD.
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I wanted off and was rapidly forced off AD's which caused neurological injury. I wanted to do it slowly but the prescriber said he will do it his way and rushed me off and injured me.
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Sort of yes .

My Dr got into very serious trouble with the benzo rxing . His office raided and he could no longer rx controlled substances .. however that left alot of us sick on VERY high amounts of benzos .

I left back to the west coast and to my horror NO ONE was willing to over see my coming down off 8 mgs of klonopin a day so I had to dangerously rely on IOP's and giant amounts of indica pot over years to come down . This was horrible .

No I wanted off that stuff a long time ago , it was making everything worse .  I don't even want to be in the same room with it ever again .

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