Anxiety over my stomach

Hello to All,

 

Since hitting tolerance w/ Clonazepam and now tapering for the past 9+ months, I have this irrational fear of vomiting/getting sick.  And of course w/d can cause so much GI issues...as it does with me.  So this morning, I walked my daughter to school, got home...called my husband at work...called my mom...and then made breakfast.  It tasted good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  And this is after a major loss of appetite for two days due to anxiety from w/d.  Well now...about 1/2 hour after eating, my stomach starts to gurgle, and gurgle and gurgle.  And I can think rationally for a minute and say that "you just ate a substantial amount of food after NOT eating much for 2 days...so OF COURSE your stomach is going to gurgle a lot"...but then my limbs start to tingle and go cold and the fear sets in, and I am convinced that I am getting sick.  Does anyone else go through this kind of fear? 

 

I know fear in general is a common s/x with going through w/d...but does anyone have this exact fear?  I get so bothered by it.  If I wake up at night I do the "body check" to make sure my stomach is okay..."am I getting sick?"...I haven't had a bug in YEARS...colds/body flu, yes, but the stomach flu or food poisoning?  It's been 8+ years!!!  I even had H1N1 in the Fall of 2009 and dealt with that okay - but I just had "the runs" with that, and as many of you know  H1N1 is more respiratory. 

 

Ugh...I just hope this fear begins to go away once my taper comes to an end...which is close...I should be finished in a matter of weeks.  For anyone who had irrational fears such as this, did your fears diminish after w/d???

 

Thanks for listening (or reading, lol)

 

All the best,

Schatje

Hello sorry to hear about your hard time. My stomach is always churning and and making noise, My fiancee thought it to be quite funny, she had her ear on my stromach and said it was going crazy, I have had alot of stomach issues since I can remember and it all started after anxiety set in. As far as the cold and numb limbs this has been happening to me while I sleep, its quite disturbing and scary. My uncle passed away not long ago from gastric cancer so this elevated my fear something is terribly wrong inside my plumbing. I had an abdominal ultrasound and it cost almost $500 dollars to find out it was clear so yeah I know where your coming from, hope u get better soon!!

I have had stomach problems consisting of gas and cramps/bloating, and tests by my doctor found nothing.  The pain starts in my stomach and later ends up lower down, and he said it's IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) due to anxiety.  I think gastritis is similar, it could even be that since my doctor said it wasn't a definite diagnosis.  Not saying yours is the same but this has varied a lot in symptoms and location, and has seemed like spasm or inflammation sometimes.  I didn't think it could be IBS due to beginning in the stomach but I suppose the entire digestive tract can be irritated due to anxiety or benzo withdrawal.  Withdrawal has definitely made it worse.

 

Buscopan/hyoscine butylbromide, available over the counter, has helped me a lot.  It isn't addictive or tolerance causing as far as I know, and shouldn't affect GABA receptors, since it's an anticholinergic.  Hyoscine hydrobromide is also used for nausea and could possibly work just as well, but it could cause psychoative effects in anyone sensitive to it (not likely at recommended doses however).

 

I also found that not eating enough really made my stomach and bowel worse and more bloated, which seemed to run against logic.  Eating shortly before bed also made things a lot worse sometimes, as did eating large amounts of a food I seem intolerant to.  Taking digestive enzymes with meals could help if it's an inability to digest particular foods, and they have helped me somewhat, but cutting out anything the digestive system can't handle can work wonders.

 

My stomach has kept me awake at night, and I have worried about it sometimes.  Some sort of therapy could maybe help with any stomach problems that are linked in any way to anxiety, aswell as some drug that can reduce anxiety without affecting gaba-a receptors.  I have found baclofen and phenibut helpful for anxiety, but they can cause their own problems even though they are mainly gaba-b agonists.  They can have withdrawal symptoms and some people report finding phenibut addictive.  I am trying mirtazapine/Remeron again now, as it did seem to help with anxiety in the past and hopefully will not feature any tolerance.

 

Good luck with it!

P.S. Also have a think about any other medicines you are taking for any reason...I say this because pseudoephedrine (Sudafed and other brand names) has also made my digestive system crook and kept me up all night with it, and various other drugs can affect the digestive tract in some people.