Lots of physical symptoms is this all withdrawals? Help

[[Buddie]]

I am having a really rough time right now, perhaps I am tapering too fast, but my body, mouth, skin is burning really bad!! I have lots of internal twitches and I get constant chills like goosebumps, feel hot and cold, my mouth is like fizzing like I have pop rocks in my mouth!
Is this all withdrawals? I’m so worried, it scares me so much . I am so emotional too, sees pain so easily too.

Please advise if you have suggestions I’d really appreciate it.

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...]

Yes, they all sound like very common withdrawal symptoms. Haven’t heard of the fizzing, although there doesn’t seem to be any symptom withdrawal can’t cause. You could try holding for a little longer to see if your symptoms settle back down again. We generally have to make smaller cuts and possibly slow down the taper the lower we go in dose.

[[Buddie]]

I'm sorry you're having these symptoms and they sure sound like withdrawal to me. The cuts you've been making are pretty big so it's not surprising you're having intense symptoms. It would help if you hold for a while and if you slow down your taper. Your symptoms should then be more manageable. I hope you feel better soon. 

[[Buddie]]

Thank you for your advice, when do you suggest I make the next cut?
I was thinking to hold this for the next month or so.
Best from Me

[[Buddie]]

If it were me, I'd hold for no less than 6-8 weeks because of the consecutive number of large cuts you made. When we make a couple of large cuts consecutively they have an accummulation effect and withdrawal can be very nasty. It's best to give your body enough time to recover to make sure the following cuts will have 'normal' withdrawal symptoms.

[[Buddie]]

Thank you so much for the support.
One more question, how long will these strong withdrawals last.?
Would I be better off reinstating my mid day dose?
It’s pretty unbearable

[[Buddie]]

If things are too tough then yes, you can reinstate the mid day dose. If your symptoms were rough before this cut you might even want to consider updosing to where you were beginning of December because your taper has been very rapid.

I personally don't believe in suffering it out if you've tapered too fast. It happened to me and I updosed twice because it was excruciating. I don't regret it. Sometimes suffering is inevitable but when you've tapered too fast you have a possible way out and that is going back up in dose.

Please let us know how it's going.

[[Buddie]]

If things are too tough then yes, you can reinstate the mid day dose. If your symptoms were rough before this cut you might even want to consider updosing to where you were beginning of December because your taper has been very rapid.

I personally don't believe in suffering it out if you've tapered too fast. It happened to me and I updosed twice because it was excruciating. I don't regret it. Sometimes suffering is inevitable but when you've tapered too fast you have a possible way out and that is going back up in dose.

Please let us know how it's going.

I love this!! Screw the stigma and reinstate dose if the withdrawal symptoms are too much from tapering too fast. I’m day 9 on 50 percent reduction of Clonazepam, it was bad withdrawals, still feeling the effects, my cravings went away but the anxiety is next level. Seriously thinking about reinstating tonight and tapering properly once I’m stabilized and ready.

My questions though:

1. Will my body recognize the reinstatement immediately or will it take time to get back to that stabilized baseline? (I only ask b/c I already pissed off my nervous system, most likely will be pissing it off again reinstating, plus you’ve been there so just want to get a general idea of what to expect.)

2. Wouldn’t going up in dose produce a “kindle” effect therefore making it harder for other tapers and making withdrawal symptoms much more intense?

[[Buddie]]

To answer your questions

1) it depends on each individual how quickly they recover after updosing. Both times when I updosed I felt back to "normal" within one day. But I've come to know I'm in the minority. I am yet to find another person who recovered this quickly. You should feel a significant difference within 3-5 days though. It also depends by how much you updose.  If the dose isn't enough then you might not feel an effect. That's why I gave Hope4me two options as one updose might not be enough. What I have noticed though is that updosing works the majority of the time when you've clearly made big reductions.

2) I know people keep talking about kindling in updosing. I haven't found studies that support it. Kindling hasn't really been studied in benzo's but we do suspect it works the same as alcohol which has been studied. In alcohol the problem is stopping and starting the process (updosing is not cessation). Now I don't think it's good to regularly fluctuate your dose up and down simply because you need your blood serum levels consistent. When I updosed twice and then stabilized, my taper was functional and bearable. I have not been in benzo hell. If I was kindled I think I should've struggled immensely. There are people here who have never updosed and have worse symptoms than me. So in my opinion I don't think it's a big risk. We are more concerned about kindling when you've completely stopped and then start using benzo's again.

[[Buddie]]

To answer your questions

1) it depends on each individual how quickly they recover after updosing. Both times when I updosed I felt back to "normal" within one day. But I've come to know I'm in the minority. I am yet to find another person who recovered this quickly. You should feel a significant difference within 3-5 days though. It also depends by how much you updose.  If the dose isn't enough then you might not feel an effect. That's why I gave Hope4me two options as one updose might not be enough. What I have noticed though is that updosing works the majority of the time when you've clearly made big reductions.

2) I know people keep talking about kindling in updosing. I haven't found studies that support it. Kindling hasn't really been studied in benzo's but we do suspect it works the same as alcohol which has been studied. In alcohol the problem is stopping and starting the process (updosing is not cessation). Now I don't think it's good to regularly fluctuate your dose up and down simply because you need your blood serum levels consistent. When I updosed twice and then stabilized, my taper was functional and bearable. I have not been in benzo hell. If I was kindled I think I should've struggled immensely. There are people here who have never updosed and have worse symptoms than me. So in my opinion I don't think it's a big risk. We are more concerned about kindling when you've completely stopped and then start using benzo's again.

Thank for the reply.

Good to know that you go back to normal after a day to a few days. Question again LOL, do withdrawal symptoms usually go away too and the body returns to some sort of homeostasis? TBH, even though I'm managing the withdrawal okay right now, I'd rather play it safe than sorry. I have a lot of variables at play here, so even after 9 days of withdrawal, as in my case, I would reinstate original dose and somehow my body flips like a switch and in a few days all seems return to normal? I'm just worried about bringing about more symptoms that I don't need after reinstating...is there such thing as reinstatement symptoms though?

Also, let's say if I updose and reinstate my original dose from 0.25mg to 0.5mg (which yes was a hugh drop in dosage) how long should I stabilize on that before doing a proper taper? 14 days? One month?