Benzo belly or gastritis?.

I have been off ativan now for almost 4 weeks and my acute withdrawal was not bad at all. Last week, my stomach started feeling weird and bloated and I always felt hungry, it's like I could not get enough food in me. Five days ago I started with stomach pain, like somebody punched me in the gut, and every time I would have a bowel movement my stomack would go crazy with cramps and pain,I tried Zantac, pepto, gaviscon.... Nothing helps so I went to the doctor to see If it was and ulcer or something els and the blood work showed nothin. He gave me a prescription for Protonix but I don't react very well to PPI's. IS this what benzo belly feels like?...

Harlotte, what you described sounds exactly like what I was experiencing and they diagnosed me as having severe IBS and gastritis (which only means that the intestines are in distress).  The cause of my intestinal distress was gluten and they did diagnose me finally as having Celiac disease which is far more common than people know.  So the doctors will often just keep prescribing meds rather than find the actual root cause of those symptoms. Fortunately I found a very knowledgable GI doctor who knew what to test for.  Now that I'm gluten free I have no more symptoms at all.  I felt starved all the time and ate like a horse, but didn't gain much weight.  This is a common symptom of celiac and gluten intolerance.  You may want to see a dietician and have a blood test done for celiac as well as an intestinal biopsy.  The only true way to know for sure if you have this is an intestinal biopsy which they do easily with an endoscopy.  It has changed my life for the better. If you do have this, it would be important to know it for your overall health.  I've already met several people here who's celiac was triggered by going through benzo wd.  Trust me, its worth asking your doctor about and having checked out. 

 

http://www.cureceliacdisease.org/living-with-celiac/guide/symptoms