The Long Hold Support Group

  Liza, Please don't leave, you are just upset and sick right now, as I am.  IDK what to say as I am in the same boat as you, no improvement in 5 months.  Maybe updosing would help, who knows?  No one knows for sure how anyone of us will react to this.  Lynn, V, BG,and Anne so happy for you that the holds are working for you.  We need to hear these positive stories.  Shamo, don't know what to tell you, you could go back on but after 5 weeks I think if it were me I would hold out.  YOur recovery could be tomorrow.  Heith, hope the back is better.  Ice is good on and off with heating pad, it is what works for me.  Hope its better as I know how bad back hip and leg pain is.  Hope for a better day for all and for those doing well I'm over the moon with happiness for you all.

I read everyone's posts and I'm so sorry for all of us who have been suffering so....please let this get better and thank you to those who have responded with such encouragement..

 

I've been in a bad spot for so long and need some input please.....

 

I currently have been experiencing all over body muscle burning from head to toe and even internally.... I feel like I'm on fire.... My mouth and insides even burn with extreme nausea...this has been increasing more often this burning.... i dont know why..... my tailbone hips and upper arms have also been in extreme pain along with joints....swaying feeling in my head which I've had for 15 months and so much more....

 

I barely take anything out when I reduce between holds.... Sometimes just one tiny line on a syringe or 2 that's it... A line!    I don't believe that's the issue....the drug itself never agreed with me that's more the issue.... It makes me feel so sick....

 

Can any of you tell me if these symptoms are normal.... :'(. I'm so terrified....

  I can't really offer you any whys as to why you feel so bad.  There are a few of us on here who are the same.  I have the burning also, its a common s/x.  I have the mouth urinary area and feet area burning, not as widespread as you.  Drs just throw more meds at you.  They want me to take gabapentin or lyrica etc but I am holding out until I can't stand it anymore.  You have been cutting through all this. Why?  Can you not hold awhile and see if it makes a difference?  So many have gotten relief from a small updose or a hold so maybe try this if you haven't already.  I am not advocating anything just throwing it out there for you to consider.  I feel for you as I know how horrible the burning is. Unless you have had this I don;t think anyone can comprehend how truly awful it is. I cry and cry some days.  I should get my vitamins checked as they also say being low in B vitamins can cause neuropathy.  I just hate to go to Dr. but I should do it.  I was just there for a new script and he took blood just to check my liver, kidney etc and cholesterol levels.  All was normal when I sure don't feel normal.  My benzo brain should have asked then please have them do my vitamin etc levels at the same time but I just wanted to get home and forgot.  Oh well, I will get there again.  I hope you get some relief and all who suffer.  It is enough already. 

  I can't really offer you any whys as to why you feel so bad.  There are a few of us on here who are the same.  I have the burning also, its a common s/x.  I have the mouth urinary area and feet area burning, not as widespread as you.  Drs just throw more meds at you.  They want me to take gabapentin or lyrica etc but I am holding out until I can't stand it anymore.  You have been cutting through all this. Why?  Can you not hold awhile and see if it makes a difference?  So many have gotten relief from a small updose or a hold so maybe try this if you haven't already.  I am not advocating anything just throwing it out there for you to consider.  I feel for you as I know how horrible the burning is. Unless you have had this I don;t think anyone can comprehend how truly awful it is. I cry and cry some days.  I should get my vitamins checked as they also say being low in B vitamins can cause neuropathy.  I just hate to go to Dr. but I should do it.  I was just there for a new script and he took blood just to check my liver, kidney etc and cholesterol levels.  All was normal when I sure don't feel normal.  My benzo brain should have asked then please have them do my vitamin etc levels at the same time but I just wanted to get home and forgot.  Oh well, I will get there again.  I hope you get some relief and all who suffer.  It is enough already.

 

Thank you free..... I am terrified of doing long holds as I am fairly certain I am paradoxical but chemically dependent....I never felt right on this and it was already too late...... I also feel so unbelievably drugged and awful on this stuff which is why I do anything even a tiny line on the syringe (of course with holds) to do this balancing act of keeping my physical symptoms in check and get rid of the very heavy drug feeling.... im in this constant drunk haze.... it is a living hell 24/7.... I'm really scared and so tired of all this already myself.... It feels hopeless.....

 

 

  So so sorry I know how you feel.  I feel hopeless and sick most of the time but have to get up and fight one more day.  Wish I could offer some fix for you but I'm right there with you.  Hope today is jsut a tiny bit less horrible for us both. 

Well, I jumped 5 weeks ago and am now 'holding' indefinitely. Was hoping for some possible insight. I used to stabilise and feel 100% healthy with no SX after a cut. Started at 10mg Valium. But when I got past 2mg I have had no relief. I tried holding for a while at 1.5 but it didn't help so I just kept going down to 0. I don't get why my body just stopped recovering and stabilising. I've basically been in a wave of mental symptoms for 4 months now. Only took it for a couple of months before beginning a taper but all in all I was on it for close to a year if you include a taper.

 

The sitting and waiting sucks. Has anyone stabilised in 2-3 months? I'm wondering when I'm gonna get better.

It took me 6 Shamo. I'm guessing that is the average turns around time post jump from what I've read on the main board. You should start feeling better gradually and pretty food at 6 months. It may take longer as it does for,some but 6 months seems to be a common theme. Hope it passes for you soon.  --V

  So so sorry I know how you feel.  I feel hopeless and sick most of the time but have to get up and fight one more day.  Wish I could offer some fix for you but I'm right there with you.  Hope today is jsut a tiny bit less horrible for us both.

 

Thank you free...... I appreciate it very much.....any little bit of optimism helps....

Free, Please and liza. I'm so sorry each of you continues to struggle. I know how nasty and cruel this process is.  We are all in this together to offer support and help one another through the good and the bad. Keep fighting and don't give up. Listen to your what your body is telling you and follow what you feel,is best. It sometimes takes a good deal of time for the CNS to settle down depending on how destabilized it was when you started. We'll figure this out and I know we are going to make it off, it just make take a while. Thinking of all of you today!  --V

Up dated propaganda list for the week. Hope everyone has a great week!--V

 

 

 

 

"Yes, most of the time if people hold long enough, eventually they do come to feel better.  It can take a long time, especially if they've been tapering too fast and have gotten ahead of their body's ability to rebalance itself.  Sometimes people need to just stop tapering and take some number of months for healing, before starting to taper again.

 

In general, I hold my taper whenever I feel my symptoms ramp up at all, and I hold until they settle down. Periodically I will do a longer hold just to give my brain some extra healing time. So far every time I've done that I've had a really great period afterwards, several really good months, even once I start tapering again.

 

That's how I approach holds. However, I'm on a very slow, stable, regulated taper. People who are in more trouble usually need to hold longer, and usually don't get relief as quickly as I do."

 

"Basically, holds are how we give our brains/bodies time to catch up and heal and re-establish some kind of homeostasis during the tapering process.  So when to do them and for how long is very variable and depends on the person, the taper, their symptoms, their history, etc."

 

"I highly doubt that holding will harm you, but I've seen people who've taken very long to recover after getting messed up during too-aggressive or unstable tapers. It doesn't look all that different (in terms of symptoms) from when people CT or taper all the way off a med too harshly and end up in protracted withdrawal. It's just that people end up in that same shape without actually having come all the way off the meds."

 

"If you've thrown yourself into chaotic withdrawal syndrome by ill-advised experimentation (or poor advice), holding is probably preferable to further decreasing or quitting altogether.

 

You need to bring some order to the chaos. If you hold at one level (of all your drugs), you are at least giving your nervous system some stability. Given the constants -- which still may be causing adverse effects, etc. -- your nervous system will regroup over time.

 

Once you see some consistency in symptom pattern, you can carefully adjust dosage to see what will help."

 

"If you have been tapering systematically and run into a rough spot, holding can help you get past it. At least, when you hold, you can track your symptom pattern and see what the balance of waves and windows might be. If windows are gradually getting longer and more frequent -- a positive sign -- your nervous system is adjusting to the cumulative decreases and you will eventually be in a position to continue tapering.

 

If during a hold the windows pattern is not promising, a slight updose may be called for."

 

"For me, I hate these meds so much, that holding feels like they're winning somehow.

 

I keep trying to tell myself that it's ME that's winning, as I heal. Because I know that I heal and adapt during holds. I can feel it happening. If I hold long enough, I get to where I'm feeling pretty good. I encourage you to allow yourself the experience of holding long enough to feel good, even if that takes months. It's SO encouraging to get to that point. I cling to the memories of those times, the thoughts I find myself thinking (life is good, there's hope in my future); the way I feel strong and able to deal with stress and extra activity; and the way that even with these tiny increments, when I hold long enough to let myself feel the healing, each step I feel even better than the one before. I can tell that I'm emerging from the damage these drugs have done to me."

 

"Over the course of my journey, I have learned many things.  First and foremost would be to taper slowly.  Have patience and don’t let the calendar determine when you will be off of your medication.  Hold when necessary for as long as necessary to maintain your stability as much as possible. 

 

Face your fears and they will diminish or disappear.  Keep yourself busy with activities and don’t dwell on your symptoms.

 

Symptoms don’t last forever; windows of clarity occur.  Cherish the windows and know that more will come and that they are a sign of healing."

 

"The first three things anyone needs to learn about tapering benzos:

 

1. Slow slow slow.

 

2. A sense of feeling panicked and like you need to rush and do something-something-anything-anything about your withdrawal symptoms is actually a classic symptom of withdrawal itself. It's very important to learn to resist that urge. The best thing you can do is usually nothing at all, just support your body's healing by good diet, gentle exercise, meditative breathing if possible, and a regular schedule of sleep/wake/eat etc.

 

3. There's a lag time with benzo tapers. You can make a cut and do okay, make another cut and do okay, and so on, and then all at once it will catch up with you cumulatively and you can really hit the wall. It's much better to start slow and small with small cuts and long breaks in between cuts, until you have a chance to see how the withdrawal symptoms come and go over time. It's typical with benzo tapers for there to be days when you feel great and you're sure you're all better, followed by worse days, back and forth. So see #1, don't push your luck. With practice and experience you'll learn the best pace for you. But it's a lot easier if you don't overdo it and crash--it can really set you back to do that."

 

"Symptoms are worsened by anxiety and fear." - Prof Ashton

 

"You can return to normal health." - Prof Ashton

 

"You must keep a positive attitude, be courageous." - Prof Ashton

 

"Allow time for your nervous system to recover. It will."- Prof Ashton

 

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."

 

"The secret of patience is doing something else in the meanwhile"

 

"Start small and conservative. Start with a small cut and a long hold. Don't try to follow a calendar schedule; follow your body's schedule instead, by observing your own symptoms.

 

Keep a daily journal of symptoms (ranking them on a numerical scale of 1 to 5 or something like that). Don't trust yourself to remember the way your symptoms wax and wane--the drugs and the withdrawal actually interfere with our ability to reliably perceive patterns. (Trust me on this.  It's pretty much universal. Your mind will lie to you.)

 

Write it down each day and you'll see the patterns emerge.

 

Do a few small cuts and long holds this way until you have a feel for how your body is going to respond to cuts and how the withdrawal symptoms are going to unfold and play out and resolve for you.

 

There are often delayed effects from a cut that don't show up right away, and if you taper too fast, those "lag time" symptoms can add up and hit hard, and it's too late to slow down because you already made the cuts. So take it slow with long holds, and allow the full pattern to play out, so that you become familiar with it.

 

Collect data this way for two or three months. Once you have a track record, you can then decide if you want to try larger cuts and/or shorter holds.

 

Experiment conservatively until you find your optimal rate of taper.

 

This way you will become the expert on your own withdrawal process and you'll be able to tailor it to your own needs and your own life changes."

 

"In order to get my head around the prospects of a really slow taper I have to work through what it represents to me, the things I say to myself that encourage me to go faster. I know that I have more trouble with the holds than the increments. I think I view the hold as disempowering, as an expression of me 'needing' the medication, that I am beholden to it, its dictating the terms. This isnt a very positive relationship to the hold! Rather than a barrier to being off, I need to see it as an important strategy to success and a choice I am making. I also think that not holding long enough hasn't enabled me to have the 'good spells' and the rest I need to recover and keep going, so, being really tired, I've then wanted to speed things up, to get to the other side. My experience tells me to listen to my body and that getting my head around it is important."

 

"What does stabilizing mean after withdrawal syndrome has kicked in?

 

To me, it means not being debilitated by your withdrawals, so that activities of daily life are disrupted.Holding your dose and monitoring it (a journal is a good idea) and your instincts will tell you when you feel strong enough."

 

"Most people are stable on psychotropic medications before their first taper, so there are no withdrawal symptoms. Holding helps to stabilize withdrawal symptoms that are acquired while tapering, going off CT, etc. The meaning of stabilization does not change with the drug. (And the steadier the dose in your system, the more stable you will be and so there are no resulting withdrawal symptoms) Withdrawal symptoms include those which are 'physical' as well as neuroemotions, the latter experienced as emotional while they are actually physical in origin. When withdrawal symptoms subside, your quality of life is better as your ability to cope with the daily demands of living improves.

 

So stable means few or no withdrawal symptoms, whether physical or emotional. The concept of stabilization does not refer to lifestyle issues, though those are obviously impacted when people feel unwell. Most people stabilize when they hold (sometimes for as long as several months), and if symptoms do not entirely remit during that time, they become more manageable."

 

"I'm doing a micro taper and I adjust my cuts and holds according to life stressors and how I'm feeling. Seems like I generally feel the cuts within two to four days after making them, and then I hold for however long it takes (usually a week or two, with the micro cuts). I definitely do stabilize and feel better, although if I know I have a period of time with not much stress coming up, I will push it and make a couple more small cuts before I'm fully at my best. I know I'm going to feel crappy for a while as a result but I know I will hold and it will pass."

 

"When I hold for a longer period I am always rewarded with a spell of feeling pretty good, which lasts even after I start cutting again, for a while.

 

I have always felt better after holds and I have never done well with the "keep cutting even if you're suffering" approach, although some people apparently do okay with that. As always, our own bodies are the experts."

 

" I can only speak for myself. If i held, i know what would happen. If i made a mistake cutting, then all bets are off. I think people are just afraid of making a mistake and then getting the hammer for it. Recovering from a devastating mistake can be terrifying."

 

"I have had to make 3 months holds, or even longer, before I could make some progress again. a few weeks may be too little? be patient."

 

"I had heard about "holding" but I only did it for 3 or 4 or 5 months and then dropped again because I didn't think it worked.  However, I now believe IT DOES WORK - I JUST NEEDED TO HOLD LONGER!  The first 6 month hold I did I saw improvement in many symptoms, however about half a dozen got worse, so I dropped.

 

The next 6 month hold on a lower dose and a slower taper, saw improvement in all symptoms (to mild) with some EVEN GOING AWAY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 5 YEARS!  I felt almost normal for the first time in I don't now how long, it was amazing.  I had some good days and I even went shopping for the first time in 5 years!

 

This was AN AMAZING REVELATION to me because with the next drop, they all got worse again.  This proved to me that all this is definitely w/d... can you believe I still sometimes wonder and doubt (plus other people seem to question it also).  I feel a real calm now about that aspect and somehow seeing that proof/evidence has helped me a lot!  I didn't know anything about holds, let alone long ones, but I do now."

 

"I held for 10 months at the bottom of my benzo taper with a good result.  I'm the hold queen, and firmly believe in erring on the side of holding too long. I think that tapering when we are symptomatic contributes to needless suffering.  I realize some people have paradoxical reactions from benzos, and need to taper in the face of WD symptoms, but they are far fewer than those who benefit from prolonged holds times... several months and more."

 

"A benzo cut can cause an uptick in your withdrawal symptoms, and it may take longer to stabilize once you take a  cut.  I once held for 9 months and this helped me considerably.  tapering slowly has taken time, but my quality of life was only adversely impacted for the first 2 or 3 months."

 

"1 month may seem like a long time but it's not. On the other hand 2 mg of Klonopin is a lot. When I see how fast people went it usually gives me an idea of how long it will take for them to stabilise. In my particular situation I waited for 4 months (with what I know today I would advise anyone in my situation even longer hold).

 

I believe in the healing power of long holds. When we are struggling even minute cuts will make us feel awful. But if we allow our brain to regrow itself through holding subsequent cuts will be less painful."

 

"If I were in your shoes I would actually say, hold not just until you don't feel so terrible any more, but hold until you start to have consistent periods of actually feeling good. It could take a few more months but I would wait as long as it takes. This far along it's not going to make you more dependent on the benzo or cause more damage than has already been caused. And if you treat your brain well and give it the stability and gentle care that it needs, at your age, it's going to bounce back beautifully. Even at my advanced age my brain is bouncing back--after 20 years on meds! So I feel pretty confident that right now it's more important to handle your precious brain gently and lovingly than it is to hurry.

 

It's not a delay--it's a strategic retreat and rebuild. If you get to where your nervous system is really stable and strong, that will give you a whole new base to taper from, and tapering will go much better. You'll have some minimal symptoms after each cut but you'll hold until those settle down. You'll be able to get on with your life even while tapering rather than trying to get through the taper so you can get back to your life, if that makes sense. This is a race that is won by the turtles every time, if "win" means "get off the meds forever and recover fully."

 

"Tolerance withdrawal" is a phrase that's tossed around a lot and usually, in my opinion, used wrongly. In fact most of the time I think it's referring to prolonged withdrawal symptoms. In fact I don't think you can really use the phrase "tolerance withdrawal" during a taper, because by definition tolerance withdrawal is something that happens when you're taking steady ongoing doses of a benzo.

 

However, Klonopin is kind of notorious for causing a kind of delayed withdrawal with holds that might be related to the tolerance withdrawal phenomenon."

 

"Yeah, the way "tolerance withdrawal' is bandied about on the benzo boards (try saying that five times really fast) drives me nuts. Especially since like you said, it's usually used to scare people into keeping cutting faster, which is almost always the opposite of what they need to be doing. VERY rarely is "just keep cutting" the right answer. Drives me nuts. Feels like I'm always the voice in the wilderness on that one. People go too fast, get into withdrawal, hold for a short time; their symptoms get worse (unrelated to the hold, it's just ongoing withdrawal from going too fast before); they get told they're in "tolerance withdrawal" and they need to start cutting again. Yet when someone CTs and has prolonged withdrawal for months or years, nobody says it's "tolerance withdrawal", because obviously that's impossible if you aren't taking the drug. What's called tolerance withdrawal is almost always just plain delayed withdrawal symptoms which are pretty much universal with benzos. Benzos are notoriously up and down and nonlinear and long and drawn out, in withdrawal. Okay, thanks for letting me rant about that. The whole thing drives me nuts (she says for the third time). "

 

"Been 10 days since I began stabilizing, so knock on wood, it seems I have for the most part, won this round by holding, as almost all symptoms across the board have dissipated by 85-90%, even the most minor (tinnitus).

 

Thanks to all who encouraged me to hold out and resist the temptation to further updosing (or going with my doc's advice, albeit well-intentioned) as I was right on the verge of doing so out of desperation to seek relief.

 

Withdrawal is indeed real and until you go through it long enough and then stabilize in time, even the smartest minds, physicians included, can be misled by the insidious nature of w/d into making the wrong assumptions as to causation, suggesting a course of treatment that fits a generalized paradigm, but that usually runs counter to our individual genetics and neurochemistry, especially in those whose receptors have become sensitized to any degree from past repeated "insults" to the CNS (maybe not as acute to suggest a case of kindling, but similar). Hello, medical mismanagement!

 

Bottom line: patience and giving time to listen to what our body is telling us. The clue: if you're having windows of any length, is this not a good indicator of your body trying to HEAL? So, I powered through the downtime and let it heal. The more acute the symptoms, the more sensitized the receptors, thus more time required to cool the hyper-excitatory response to discontinuance of a med or meds from which the brain has become habituated.

 

Well, I hope others can benefit from my little experience in giving them hope as well. Now I know how to read this better in the future, as each setback is like a little science experiment and an educational course from which to listen and learn, downright frightening, horrid and unpleasant as they may be. "

 

"The symptoms this last month have been anything but linear - a total rollercoaster, with some hours during the days better than others, and some worse - as this has progressed - and I realize this is part of the process. There is a ramp up period, followed by a small reprieve in symptoms, then it's starts to ramp up again, a perpetual ebb and flow day in, day out. So it's been impossible to judge the progression. In fact, the last few days, I feel like my symptoms are up a notch in severity which feeds into my fears and reinforces my doc's position that unless we "get the symptoms back under control" by updosing, my condition will worsen.

 

I do now agree looking back that the although the cuts were small, the frequency was likely too fast and lag time came on like a freight train. I can see my doc shaking his head in disbelief at all that, but like you said, what can we expect?"

 

"It takes as long as it takes.

 

Also, one thing I've noticed with benzo tapering, is that when I'm going a bit too fast I tend to get into this "rush rush hurry go faster get off this stuff" frame of mind, which tends to cause me to actually cut even faster. I've posted about this here and there and found other people are having the same thing. Something about the anxiety, the way the withdrawal activates our limbic system, something like that, seems to cause us to feel a kind of urgency that actually makes us do the opposite of what we need to do at that point.

 

So now, when I get that "hurry up and taper fast" feeling, I try to remember to stop and think about it, and make myself slow down or hold for a while if I can. 

 

Also want to reiterate, because it needs saying all the time and not too many people are saying it:  Even a microtaper requires intermittent holds with no reductions, no cuts at all, for a while."

 

"Better to err on this side of safety. In reading thousands of posts, I never heard of anyone who suffered for holding too much/long, only for too little."

 

"There's some mild weirdness going on in my head and legs, which I'm taking as a sign that there's still some instability going on. I've heard people claim you CAN hold for too long, but I don't really believe that. I mean, we've been "holding" on these drugs for years and, apart from the usual side effects, nothing awful happened because of it.."

 

" Your CNS is very sensitive to these drugs.  Please listen to your body..  Do not taper until all or most of your symptoms have resolved.  If I were in your position.. knowing what I do now, I'd plan on holding for 6 months, then starting to taper at 5% a month.  If you are okay with that pace for 2 months, you could then try going to 10% a month.

 

As long as you are having withdrawal symptoms, your body is acting as it still has the drug.  So it's possible to actually get the drug out of your system sooner, but have your body reacting to it longer.. so, your body ends up responding to the drug longer than if you came off gradually and preserved your quality of life.

 

PS.. if you have a 'window'.. a sustained period of time that lasts, say 2 months, you could think about tapering.. but if you think in terms of say, 6 months, you might do better by removing a constant temptation."

 

"While I understand the desire to get off these drugs fast, I don't think there's enough discussion of the possible benefits of an extremely SLOW taper.

 

And how many stories do we all hear, of people who've tried over and over again to get off meds, and have to reinstate, but have never tried an extremely slow taper with long holds? In the long run so many people spend years trying to get off the meds, suffer, are disabled much of that time, end up hospitalized, et cetera, and in the end they don't save any time at all."

 

"I wanted to say that I've been going through this and can see it in my journal as I track my days of symptom severity and klonopin use to offset symptoms (Might not be recommended but I'd be dead without it). I've been through this cycle so many times, and I have a theory that it's a healing process where our body is adapting and adjusting to not having the meds and that's where the pain or worse hellish days come into play, and then we feel better for a bit until our body has found a new way to heal and recover which triggers the pain/suffering cycle again.

 

I think of it as our body trying to find its way back home to how it should be after being nearly totally altered by these meds. On a bad day or a bad few days I think I try to remind myself that this is my body adapting and healing and it will find its way. Those better days are proof that it has though for some it takes a while to get to them and they may only last a short bit.

 

I remember reading something a while ago about how the body knows how to heal itself from just about anything. But often we interfere with that or things interfere with it (things like stress or other meds or other health issues that compound one another). I like the idea of trusting in my body and believing that it knows how to find its way back to its wellness.

 

Bad days are awful but if they mean my body is going through some kind of adaption as it heals, I feel they are worth enduring. Like when you are tired and just want to go home, traffic and bad weather slow you down and can frustrate you endlessly because you JUST WANT TO BE HOME, but those things pass. They are temporary and you will get home eventually. So accepting the traffic and bad weather as par for the course makes the journey home a whole lot better and easier on you emotionally and stress wise. simple analogy that is weak compared to what we deal with during these cycles, but at its essence it holds the truth of what is happening. Storms and delays when we just want to be home (be well again). "

 

"If you are tapering too fast (and I would add moving doses around, crossing over to another benzo, etc.) and get withdrawal symptoms, they may fluctuate in a windows and waves pattern. This leads a lot of people to ignore the warning signs of going too fast (or tapering while unstable). If you continue to taper, withdrawal symptoms probably will get worse. It's the nature of withdrawal symptoms to fluctuate, because the nervous system is trying to correct itself. "

 

"For many reasons, our emotions are on a hair-trigger, amplified, and perseverative. We probably don't even know all of what's going on physically yet, but it includes diminished prefrontal lobe executive functions, rebound amygdala, dysregulated HPA, over-active adrenals, etc. The neuro-emotions include -- neuro-fear neuro-anger neuro-guilt neuro-shame neuro-hurt neuro-regret neuro-self-criticism neuro-grudge-holding ...and more! It is very, very confusing to have these intense neuro-emotions and try to remember that they are not what they appear to be. Emotions are compelling. Emotions during recovery from psych meds are even more compelling. Sometimes, the neuro-emotion is really totally artificial. Some of my neuro-fears have been so unlikely to come to pass as to bear no resemblance to reality or to my personal history. But, I think a lot of the time, part of what makes it so confusing is that there is a grain of reality to the neuro-emotion. For example, some situation might make you a bit angry under normal circumstances, but the neuro-anger is huge. This is when it's very difficult to 1) catch it in the first place and notice this is a neuro-emotion, 2) convince ourselves, yes, this is really a neuro-emotion, not a real emotion, 3) contain the emotion, try not to act on it, or channel the energy into something safe and constructive -- like exercise or journaling or building a birdhouse.  Whenever you're having an intense, disturbing feeling, try to remind yourself that, right now -- even if it does have something to do with reality -- it is largely a neuro-emotion that you wouldn't be feeling if you were fully healed. And you *will* be fully healed. It's happening! Get ready! "

 

"After a severe CT it took me about six months to get to feeling stable again. I've seen this in dozens of people.  It's not at all uncommon, especially after a CT or a series of ups and downs in dosage or a series of changes of meds, to take many months to stabilize; sometimes a year or more.

 

Seems like everyone does get better eventually, though. I know there must be rare exceptions, but from what I've seen they're extremely rare.

 

Anyway, months instead of weeks is a common variation.

 

It does require more patience but it's not a sign of a bad outcome. Many people have gone through spells like this, stabilized, and then gone on to do slow tapers quite successfully. "

 

"People heal at different rates. In 6 months, you might find you're much better. "

 

""Healing from withdrawal feels like not healing at all and being certain that I'm going to be like this for the rest of my life and wondering if I'm going to have the strength to endure it.  But then finding myself driving in my car, completely relaxed, not worried about anything, remembering how at first, driving anywhere caused a continual state of panic until I got back home. I would put things off for days if I could, just so I could avoid the added stress.  Now, there is some residual fear associated with driving, caused by the memory of actually having to do it in such an intense state of fear, but once I get in the car, I relax.  It wasn't driving which caused the fear, the fear was there anyway.  A secondary fear was created out of the horrendous experience of having to drive around while being in a state of panic, I don't recommend it.

 

Healing is like feeling really awful and believing that its just getting worse and worse, until I think back carefully or read back through my thread or journal and see the truth about just how bad it was, compared to now.  It only seems like its getting worse.  Maybe its because its been going on so long, its wearing me down and wearing me out.

 

Healing is like walking backwards somewhere with your eyes closed.  You have no idea where you are heading, and you don't know where you have been until you get somewhere else and open your eyes for a few moments and look back towards where you came from.  Then you close them again and keep going.

 

Sometimes healing feels like I am standing still while the rest of the world races by, leaving me behind, and I panic.  But then I calm down and notice that no one is going anywhere.  Everyone else is racing around and around in circles and I'm sitting calmly and peacefully in the center, knowing that everything I need is right here."

 

"Don't think that holding is "doing nothing." Far from it. When it's needed, it's needed to free your body to do the healing it knows how to do... if we don't interfere! Tapering is necessary to get off the med, but the real recovery comes from complex healing the body does, and the real healing comes from what the body does to heal, which we don't fully understand. Sometimes a small updose steadies the body out and supports healing, sometimes it doesn't. You learned that in your case it doesn't. But healing processes from anything can be "painful" and we can't see the healing for a while - but that doesn't mean we aren't healing!"

 

"Things get less and less wobbly the longer I hold. So that when I cut again, the system I'm re-perturbing is a stable and strong one that's going to be able to handle and adapt to the new perturbations. I think what I see happen to people a lot is, they cut and then they hold for a while, just long enough to allow the worst of it to pass, then they cut again, et cetera, but after a few of those they hit a wall.

 

I'm beginning to think--for me, at least--it's really crucial not to just hold long enough to be able to function, but to hold, at least intermittently, long enough to allow a stable homeostasis to be established, to give the body/mind a chance to attend to some deeper healing."

 

"Not only is it okay to hold for six months, it would be good for you at this point, to give your nervous system time to recover from what it's been through. You can definitely taper down when ready, it's just going to take a lot longer than you had expected. These drugs are NOT the innocent benign wonderful things we were told they are."

 

"I'm currently at four months in my hold, with a vague notion of going to about 6 months to see what level of stabilisation I can achieve.  I'm making myself do it cause I want to know down the track that at least I've given a long hold a good chance."

 

"When people exceed their nervous system's ability to keep up, they get destablized and then must sometimes updose and  hold for a few months or more before resuming, and when all is said and done, their taper takes longer than if they had just gone ahead and done the proper taper to begin with!  Throw away the calendar and focus on living your life.  Always listen to your body.  You'll always be taking less and less, which is better than still being on the full dosage from where you came, so it's all good, right?"

 

"Holding makes sense to me. I can't imagine tapering through this. I don't think it is wise to cut through intolerable symptoms."

 

"I will hold until I feel able to reduce a small amount. Every tiny cut feels like a cold turkey and reminds me how I felt during the botched crossover."

 

"Then I think you are on track to keep holding for the time being.  I'm currently at four months in my hold, with a vague notion of going to about 6 months to see what level of stabilisation I can achieve.  I'm making myself do it cause I want to know down the track that at least I've given a long hold a good chance."

 

" I would hold until your symptoms reduce, then hold for a good four weeks after (or more), given how long you've been tapering and how high a dose you started at, just to make sure your nervous system (central and enteric) really has a chance to stabilize."

 

" I tapered too fast and hit the wall. I ended up having to hold for months before I stabilized. I was feeling so crummy I didn't feel like I would ever stabilize, but things eventually settled down.

I know how hopeless you feel right now. The best thing you can do is hold tight, don't mess with your dose and wait until things settle down."

 

"I would say holding is your best bet. You have destabilised you CNS and there is no silver mbullet that will take that away at once. After we destabilise our system it usually takes some times for things to very GRADUALLY start to settle. If you noticed even the slightest bit of relief as opposed to complete lifting of symptoms it would mean you are on the right track."

 

"I have so far seen that holding got me out of any hiccup I've had. Very bad symptoms only meant I had to wait longer. But I have faith that they will disappear because I've seen them disappear just as a result of holding."

 

" Holds are really important. When someone is tapering by cutting a little more each day it's still important to take the occasional hold where you don't reduce at all. You may have gotten a bit ahead of your brain's ability to heal itself. But I think it will be able to catch up if you treat it gently for a while and don't change your dose. I'd recommend not restarting your taper as soon as you feel better, go ahead and hold for an extra month or so just to allow the invisible healing processes to catch up."

 

"It hasn't even been a month yet, and I expect you'll need to hold for at least three months before you notice really consistent improvement, so hang in there. 

 

And there will be ups and downs. Don't read too much into them. They would happen no matter what you do. Just stay very consistent, keep your life as stable and regular as possible, keep your meds as stable and regular as possible, and allow your nervous system to balance itself out as best it can. The more stable you are, the smoother your eventual taper will be.

 

Again, I think you may have reached the point that people often do reach, where you just don't have as many options any more if things go haywire. So please don't experiment with tapering faster. Stick with slow and safe."

 

"I have been holding, holding, holding as per your advice and yes it has been a ride that I had to hold on tight but I am now having windows that are clearer and even a few days of about 95%. But, I do fall back into waves but I to much much lesser degrees and that's what gets me through them. "

 

"If you are improving with the hold (as expected), I don't know why you would want to start tapering.  Why not wait until the symptoms are gone and then taper.  If you start now, your symptoms will slow the rate at which you can taper, and your quality of life will suffer."

 

"I'd continue to hold as long as you are improving.  I once held for 9 months.. to good effect. Why have a bumpy taper if you can come off without the pain of withdrawal symptoms."

 

"You don't need to make any more changes for a good time (think 6 months or so), even very small ones.  Please let things simmer down!  When you get symptomatic, you have wanted to updose, or ct.. or some variation.  Please hold onto the fact that the very best thing you can do now is to HOLD and let your body heal.  And IMO, holding is the hardest part of all.  At least it was for me."

 

"What you suffer from is destabilisation and the best cure for that is stability over time. It's incredibly hard not to do something, anything when we are suffering so badly. But as you have seen so far that only makes things worse. The information describing how our brain remodels itself turned me into a firm believer of healing power of holding. I have to say that after 5 horrible months I'm being rewarded by feeling so much better..."

 

"A month is not a long hold, especially if you're pretty symptomatic. I wouldn't assume a problem with a hold until after six months there was no improvement.

 

Yes of course most of us get improvement and stability with holds, that's why we do them. But like I say, a month is often not nearly long enough."

 

"I still find that holds are at least as important a part of the picture as the cuts. Maybe more. Slows me down even more, the longer holds, but I still get to feeling so much better after holding for a while that I know it's good for me to do it.

 

And overall feeling SO much better now that I'm on these low doses. Turtle turtle turtle is working for me still. I hope other people can bring themselves to do it and it works for them too."

 

"I'm pretty sure that the holds, for me, are a crucial factor in how well I do overall. I notice a lot of improvement with, and for a couple of months after, every long hold. I feel like my body uses that time to catch up and heal and establish a new, better "normal."

 

"We all will recover is the hope that gets me through the days. From all the countless hours of research and talking to doctors who understand kindling and withdrawl the general concensus is that it will get better with time. You are on the right path just keep going one day at a time. I have made the mistake many times of moving a dose or adding drugs only to make things worse."

 

"People feel pretty stable after holding for a while, but then make even a tiny cut and get hit with symptoms. This will happen over and over. Yet those same people eventually, after holding for many months or even a year, are able to cut again with much less trouble. I suspect there is a lot of subtle healing that needs time, lots of time, to work its way through. Our nervous systems can reach a homeostatic state that's good enough when there are not a lot of extra stressors, but they're not fully healed and are still more fragile at that point than we realize, and can be easily pushed back over the edge. I think that's part of why we get those windows and those waves. I could be wrong but I think that's a pattern that I'm seeing."

 

"Holding for 6 months should result in a substantial improvement."

 

"A sufficiently and very slow taper after holding until stable and maybe a bit longer, should make you able to function and have quality of life while tapering."

 

"But as we see so often on withdrawal groups, it is not simply about (tolerating) getting to being drug-free. It is about completing the healing process. I learned the concept that the ideal way to heal, and the least painless, is to balance tapers with healing.

 

So if your body still needs a little more of that healing process, from the cases I have seen, it can actually be a faster healing process to take a bit longer and let the process complete while not jarring your nervous system by going off too soon."

 

"I have noticed a change in the way I feel since I've been holding. It does tell me that crossing over to K and being on it for 3 months and then tapering was not enough time to stabilize on K. So I am now in my 78th day of holding, and I still am feeling change. This tells me that I should hold longer, which I had already planned to do anyway. I will not hesitate to hold a year if I feel i should. And when I do taper, it will be respective of small cuts with sufficient holds. I do not see the need to rush, and that is the position and mindset I now have."

 

"Unfortunately, there is no fast way out and if you hold for a while to let your nervous system settle and catch up to the changes and then do a slow and steady taper you will be in the best position possible. If you taper carefully you can enjoy a high quality of life , as you go . There are quite a few here who while tapering have held down jobs and maintained a happy and healthy life. "

 

"You have to be so careful to taper this crap off VERY slowly!  I have also thought that I could not stabilize but that just means your brain type needs way more time to heal.  Just hold until you get stable if it does not happen then your brain is just telling you to go slower. Some people just need extra time.  If you taper faster then your S/X can heal then jumping just means a long recovery is coming and I'd rather spend that time slow tapering."

 

"I do not care what Ashton says I NEVER cut if I am still feeling bad.  I hold until I reach a new baseline and then cut again.  This is hard since people tend to push for some odd reason.  Personally I think the withdrawal amplifies the sense of urgency so we end up psyching ourselves out and end up going faster and faster.

 

Jumping does not heal you.  Feeling healed should be the only reason why you jump.  Took me 3 years to figure out this simple fact"

 

"I was very fortunate to have successfully gone on klonopin after what I believe was months off a virtually cold-turkey taper off a large amount of xanax."

 

"There are many reasons why reinstatements to taper are successful. Crossing to the longer life benzo after reinstating AND getting the right equivalency and more. HOLDING is essential and many are coached to "PUSH" through it upon reinstate. The brain has NO time to settle down."

 

"Just be careful in your taper off the clonazepam.  If your dizziness and other symptoms increase or are more disturbing, do not be afraid to hold the taper so that you don't suffer in the process."

 

"When doing a microtaper (smaller cuts but more frequently) people can get ahead of their brain's ability to remodel itself.  The time it takes a brain to heal and remodel, to build new receptors and remove old ones, to turn genes on and off, et cetera, is just not something that we can control or change.

 

I generally encourage people who are microtapering to continue to take intermittent longer holds throughout their taper, just to make sure the brain healing is keeping up with the cuts they are making."

 

"I am almost 4 years out from my last benzo. In the beginning I tapered too fast and hit the wall. I ended up having to hold for months before I stabilized. I was feeling so crummy I didn't feel like I would ever stabilize, but things eventually settled down.

 

I know how hopeless you feel right now. The best thing you can do is hold tight, don't mess with your dose and wait until things settle down."

 

"I would say holding is your best bet. You have destabilised you CNS and there is no silver bullet that will take that away at once. After we destabilise our system it usually takes some times for things to very GRADUALLY start to settle. If you noticed even the slightest of relief as opposed to complete lifting of symptoms it would mean you are on the right track."

 

"Unfortunately, the classic pattern with benzo withdrawal (with all psych meds, but especially benzos) is pretty roller-coaster-y: better days/worse days/better days etc.

 

It's pretty typical in a situation where one has pushed the tapering a bit too hard and gotten into a bad patch, for it to not resolve as quickly as it has in the past. In fact this is a pretty normal pattern: we taper along and things seem to go okay, and then symptoms start to sort of build up and not resolve quite as fast as usual, and then we sort of "hit the wall." That's when it's time to stop tapering!

 

(Well, actually, if we notice the "buildup and not resolve as fast" phase, that's actually the best time to stop and hold, but I don't know about you, but I'm usually too impatient for that.)

 

You've tapered pretty fast--not unreasonably, but not slowly. Now you're down to a significantly lower dose than where you started. It might be time for a nice long hold to allow your body and nervous and endocrine systems time to catch up, heal and rebalance.

 

It sounds like that's what your body may be telling you, and your body is the only real expert on how you need to taper.

 

It's normal to feel pessimistic and bleak during a bout of withdrawal symptoms, even for a really positive person during an otherwise successful taper. It's like we just lose our ability to see the good side of things, like things have never been good, even though logically we know they must have been. That's just another symptom.

 

Giving your body time to really restabilize and get solid now will make your future taper much easier.

 

And when you're ready to taper again, I would consider taking intermittent longer holds of several weeks from time to time.

 

Basically, the takeaway: What you're experiencing is normal. "

 

 

Thank you valley um for your consistent encouragement very much....

Thanks V--I'm surviving on these anecdotes

  Thanks for that Valley, so sweet of you to think of us who suffer and to offer a shoulder.  Hopefully one day, it will be over and we will all be on the other side of this.  YOu offer so much hope and support and it means so much.  Bless you, you are wonderful.

  Thanks for that Valley, so sweet of you to think of us who suffer and to offer a shoulder.  Hopefully one day, it will be over and we will all be on the other side of this.  YOu offer so much hope and support and it means so much.  Bless you, you are wonderful.

Thanks free and all others!  Keep up the good fight. We will make it to the other side. Of that I'm sure.  --V

Yes, we will all make it.  No doubt about it. 

 

As for myself, I had a great few weeks. I felt normal.  I am now experiencing an uptick in symptoms again. This started on Saturday evening.  I've been holding since my up dose back in early June, (I was holding before the up dose) and I have no idea why I got hit with symptoms again. Could this be tolerance?  Can one get used to their dose while holding?  It does not make sense.  I am not doing anything differently. Maybe that is the problem.  I wonder if I should have started cutting again last week when I was feeling good.  I was so close to resuming the taper, but then I thought I would give myself another few weeks. You just never know with this stuff.

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day. Anne

 

Same questions as you Anne. I'm afraid I've hit tolerance at 5 months of holding.

Yes, we will all make it.  No doubt about it. 

 

As for myself, I had a great few weeks. I felt normal.  I am now experiencing an uptick in symptoms again. This started on Saturday evening.  I've been holding since my up dose back in early June, (I was holding before the up dose) and I have no idea why I got hit with symptoms again. Could this be tolerance?  Can one get used to their dose while holding?  It does not make sense.  I am not doing anything differently. Maybe that is the problem.  I wonder if I should have started cutting again last week when I was feeling good.  I was so close to resuming the taper, but then I thought I would give myself another few weeks. You just never know with this stuff.

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day. Anne

 

That's a good question. I had waxing and waning throughout the long hold. I do think the ups and downs continue as long as we are on the drug. The holding does allow healing to occur IMO but there are those pesky side effects of the drugs themselves. I still had the side effects of V when I stabilized but nothing like the withdrawal sxs. It's like you said, we just never know with these drugs. --V

So how do we know if we need to hold more or if it's side effects?  I asked this month's ago and I don't think there was a consensus. This is beyond maddening. I don't know if this is as good as its going to get (which unfortunately is way worse than ten days ago) and I missex the window to stRt tapering again. I give up.

Anne, sorry you are having problems, I wish I knew the right words to say , but all I can say, that yes I have been alright during my self imposed holds, but it seems that most days I have some sort of blip of sx's, nothing that has taken away my ability to function, but enough to know that I am not out of the woods, and if I push myself to get off I am going to go back to the hell I have been twice, so for now I can stand the things that are happening, I have gone through almost all of the sx's I had before, but very mild and tolerable, this morning I had the tightness in my neck and shoulders, and thankfully it went away, I have to say it is disconcerting, but doable, I do not know what being completely off of Valium will be like, but I do remember the two horrific times and so I try to not think of the end, but step forward each day. I am reading that your sx's seem to more than annoying and I am so sorry, but nothing about these Benzo's is easy, not for you,me and the others here, it is really hard for everyone, and I hope that it will get better for you. I do not know anything about tolerance but I think Valley said once that when you are tapering or holding it doesn't happen, I am confused again Valley help me out here. So Anne hang in there and I am Praying that things get better for you soon.

Yes, we will all make it.  No doubt about it. 

 

As for myself, I had a great few weeks. I felt normal.  I am now experiencing an uptick in symptoms again. This started on Saturday evening.  I've been holding since my up dose back in early June, (I was holding before the up dose) and I have no idea why I got hit with symptoms again. Could this be tolerance?  Can one get used to their dose while holding?  It does not make sense.  I am not doing anything differently. Maybe that is the problem.  I wonder if I should have started cutting again last week when I was feeling good.  I was so close to resuming the taper, but then I thought I would give myself another few weeks. You just never know with this stuff.

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day. Anne

 

 

Anne, there is no way to figure these drugs out. That is why we cannot get any help. the doctors do not understand them. I have cut nearly 98% of my dosage and still have bad days mixed in with the good. When I think I have it  beat, it beats me with a bad day. So I gave up trying to figure it out. If sxs are bad , I hold till they pass 1 day or 2 or 3 or whatever and then I go back to cutting .

Hi Shamo,

If you take a look at my profile signature, you will see that we were not in identical  places, but pretty similar.

I too went pretty fast at the beginning of my taper but it all caught up with me when I hit 1.25.  Looks like you had ramped up side fx at around 2 mg too?

 

I had to hold at that point for two months. All of the previous too fast/ too big cuts with very little holding time, unfortunately, had finally caught up with me.

 

Do you think maybe your fast/large cuts at the beginning of your taper may be a reason for the symptoms you are getting now? Maybe your CNS just needs a bit more time to heal and adjust to all the previous cuts?  Just a thought . But who really knows. These Benzos are unpredictable to say the least.

Just like V said, your CNS will heal and adjust soon.

Looks like your taper went pretty well!

I sure hope you are symptom free really really soon!

 

Good luck and all the best to you! And ONCE AGAIN, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR JUMP!

 

HEATHCLIFF

 

So how do we know if we need to hold more or if it's side effects?  I asked this month's ago and I don't think there was a consensus. This is beyond maddening. I don't know if this is as good as its going to get (which unfortunately is way worse than ten days ago) and I missex the window to stRt tapering again. I give up.

I personally don't think your body adjusted to the K initially and that may be what is happening. Please don't give up. I know you're struggling right now. Try to get through each day doing whatever you can. Take it easy when needed. I believe you're still experiencing withdrawal and instability the way you describe your sxs. Stressing over it can become overwhelming so relax if you can. I'm still positive you'll get where you need to be. I wish I could do more by having the answers you need.  --V

Anne, I am sorry to hear about your uptic in side effects.

I too have had two bad days. My mornings are always awful but these past two days I was hit with headaches, neck cakes and overwhelming fear.

 

I too don't get it! I held for two months and then only tapered down .05 over five days. That's a cut of only  one half of of a tenth of a milligram !

 

I think I am going to have to cut .01 from now on and wait about three days before I cut again instead of cutting .01 for five days in a row.

 

But of course it's only 6 days past the .05 cut, so I have to wait and see. My parathesia Had gone away and that I was so grateful for.

But now my windows are not as clearly open today, and I had some bad parathesia this morning, and my neck ache, although better, is still there.

 

I am wondering if the fact that Valium has a half life, may be the reason why my increased sfx didn't start to appear until the 6 th day.?

 

But as far as tolerance goes.... I have heard over and over again that tolerance can NOT happen while you are tapering or holding..  ValleyUm wrote a great reply to me a few pages back and  I finally accepted it.

 

So no, I don't think it's tolerance, it's probably in my opinion, just the crazy withdrawal of Benzos that behave like that.

Also some one wrote once that with any cut you make, you will most likely get some withdrawal side effects. I know you didn't make a cut recently, but could it be a delayed sfx from a previous cut. Or does that nit make sense?. I am not knowledgeable enough to give you any real advice. I wish I could.

I guess you should just hang in and see what happens? . I hope The sfx will be gone in a few days..

 

That's what I'm going to try to do. What else can I do?

 

I hope you are feeling much relief real soon!

 

Heathcliff  :smitten:

 

 

 

 

I don't know Liza.  This is exactly what happened to me back in May--just out of the blue.  Things got worse each day.  I sat here for several weeks (my vacation time), just waiting for my husband to come home.  I was a mess. I finally up dosed a bit, and I felt much better.  I really had no choice since I had to go back to work the first week in July.  That was back on June 13.  Of course I had some "blips" of symptoms here and there over these last several weeks, but I felt normal most of the time.  I did not experience the same symptoms or intensity that I am right now. The only thing I can think of is tolerance. I have not seen a satisfactory explanation about tolerance, but I am definitely going to look into it. In the past, I have been able to hold for long periods with no problems.  Once I held my dose at 0.250 mg/day for over a year and a half. 

 

Don't give up Liza.  We cannot do that.  I know you are going through hell.  I could not have gone through what you have for so long.  You are a strong person.  I just wish there was a definite answer to this, but there isn't.  In my case I have no choice but to get off of this stuff.  My doctor will most likely stop prescribing it very soon.  Last time I saw him he mentioned that Ativan is not to be used as a maintenance drug. I agreed with him, but he also said that the small amount I am on could not be causing the problems I was having at the time (that was back in early June).  I saw on my record that he diagnosed me with general anxiety disorder.  He even mentioned other drugs, like antidepressants,  which I want no part of. I will see how it goes for a few more days, but knowing me, I will either start cutting again, or I will up dose yet again.  I have to be functional so I can work.  That is non negotiable.  I suppose tolerance could be part of it.  After all, these benzos are not meant to be taken for longer than a few weeks.  I am going to look up some peer reviewed journal articles and see if I can find out more about tolerance.

 

Right now I am just baffled.  I feel so defeated.  The transition from feeling normal to this is devastating.  The person I really feel bad for is my husband.  He is so supportive. He was thrilled that I was finally feeling much better. We have been able to get out and do things and enjoy our time together these past few weeks for the first time in over a year.

 

Again, I am sorry to be such a downer.  I will deal with it.  You will too Liza.  One of these days this will just be a bad memory. 

 

Anne 

Yes, we will all make it.  No doubt about it. 

 

As for myself, I had a great few weeks. I felt normal.  I am now experiencing an uptick in symptoms again. This started on Saturday evening.  I've been holding since my up dose back in early June, (I was holding before the up dose) and I have no idea why I got hit with symptoms again. Could this be tolerance?  Can one get used to their dose while holding?  It does not make sense.  I am not doing anything differently. Maybe that is the problem.  I wonder if I should have started cutting again last week when I was feeling good.  I was so close to resuming the taper, but then I thought I would give myself another few weeks. You just never know with this stuff.

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day. Anne

 

That's a good question. I had waxing and waning throughout the long hold. I do think the ups and downs continue as long as we are on the drug. The holding does allow healing to occur IMO but there are those pesky side effects of the drugs themselves. I still had the side effects of V when I stabilized but nothing like the withdrawal sxs. It's like you said, we just never know with these drugs. --V

 

That is true Valley.  After my up dose last month, I improved each day.  These last few weeks I have felt normal with none of the symptoms I am experiencing now.  This seems to be full blown withdrawal.  It is crazy.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Anne 

Anne, sorry you are having problems, I wish I knew the right words to say , but all I can say, that yes I have been alright during my self imposed holds, but it seems that most days I have some sort of blip of sx's, nothing that has taken away my ability to function, but enough to know that I am not out of the woods, and if I push myself to get off I am going to go back to the hell I have been twice, so for now I can stand the things that are happening, I have gone through almost all of the sx's I had before, but very mild and tolerable, this morning I had the tightness in my neck and shoulders, and thankfully it went away, I have to say it is disconcerting, but doable, I do not know what being completely off of Valium will be like, but I do remember the two horrific times and so I try to not think of the end, but step forward each day. I am reading that your sx's seem to more than annoying and I am so sorry, but nothing about these Benzo's is easy, not for you,me and the others here, it is really hard for everyone, and I hope that it will get better for you. I do not know anything about tolerance but I think Valley said once that when you are tapering or holding it doesn't happen, I am confused again Valley help me out here. So Anne hang in there and I am Praying that things get better for you soon.

 

Thanks Begood!!  You are so sweet.  I will hang in there.  We all will.  It is so maddening.  Like you, I can handle the blips of symptoms, but this feels like full withdrawal--just like back in May.

 

:smitten: