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People who are 3-4 months benzo-free


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What's your withdrawal symptoms as of today?

 

I'll list mine:

 

-anxiety in morning

-stomach issues (gas, bloating, etc)

-depression (not as bad as 2 months ago)

-weight loss

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

What's your withdrawal symptoms as of today?

 

I'll list mine:

 

-anxiety in morning

-stomach issues (gas, bloating, etc)

-depression (not as bad as 2 months ago)

-weight loss

 

Insomnia, pain, tingling, burning, cry spells, anxiety, doom, fear, slight tremor comes and goes. 

cold and sweating with heart palps at night.  GI Issued. Sensitive to noise.  have had several 100% days followed by slamming 40% days.  Recovery is out of wack.  Do not know if I am acute to Post Acute yet. 

 

 

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I'm in the "barely over 3 months club" myself.  Cheers!  My symptoms are as follows, from worst to least severe:

 

-Depression - anger, hopelessness, anhedonia, low self-esteem, isolation

 

-Insomnia - manageable with melatonin and Benadryl, but surprisingly severe without any sleep aids

 

-Increased appetite/junk food cravings (and resultant weight gain)

 

-Bowel Problems - constipation alternating with painful diarrhea

 

-Anxiety - OCD-style intrusive thoughts leading to irrational worry and panic

 

-Cognitive impairment/memory difficulties

 

-Lack of desire to socialize

 

 

These alternate in severity from week to week.  Depression is under control right now but has been the worst symptom overall.  I appear to be in a "window" right now after a month-long "wave" of misery.  Fingers crossed it stays that way! 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hi all. I'm new here and 12 weeks off today. My symptoms are still so bad. Insomnia, anxiety is extreme, headaches, depression. In a very bad 2 week wave and I feel like I'm back to day one. Anyone else having it bad?  I have had a few windows...just too few. Waves are getting worse each time.
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I just finished 9 weeks off a slow taper from 1.5 mg for two years.

 

Got past the sweats, cramps and twitching.  Now mostly anxiety shakes and tinnitus.

 

What should I expect next?

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Now I am at four months out. Symptoms:

 

- Mild, bearable ear ringing. Occasional buzzing. Same as before or a little better.

 

In the last two or three weeks, my energy has shot up. I am getting engaged in things again, looking at possible businesses I could open, getting through chores that seemed insurmountable before. Funny enough, they are actually quite quick and simple . . . I had forgotten!

 

 

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Hi notgleeful, your last post has me hopeful. I'm at 13 weeks and in a very bad wave. Do you think things may improve at 4 months for me? I sleep two hours nightly and have horrible anxiety and crying all day. Have had a few windows, but not enough for hope this will end. Can you encourage? 
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Purplegirl,

 

The human body is an amazing, resilient thing. I think that with time your good times will get longer and better, and your bad ones milder and shorter. You may not notice at first how much you are improving, but there will come a time, after several weeks or a couple months, when you will look back at where you were at 13 weeks and be startled by how big the difference is.

 

NotGleeful

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  • 2 weeks later...

One week into month 3.... really bad wave after a week of feeling pretty normal.

....Big anxiety....hypochondria ( increase in palpatations which totally feeds my hypochondria), fatigue and weakness, restlessness, lack of concentration ( except of course intense concentration on every body sensation), fullness in head, moderate dizziness, depression and d/r.......so discouraged....and worried ...hoping for a better day soon....coop

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I am in the thick of it still but this thread peaked my interest. Makes me pretty nervous though as it seems anxiety and other symptoms related to anxiety are common. How do we know this is withdrawal and not your previous "nervous illness" returning? I only ask because that's what I worry about myself. I worry these symptoms I feel are ME, and not withdrawal at all..
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Friday....I hear ya...I ask myself the same thing when I am in a wave...When I am rational I remind myself that I did not have panic attacks and days long anxiety, agoraphobia and hypochondria before I was prescribed ativan. ( I was prescribed for a sudden onset vertigo due to an ear virus)....Also during windows I am very close to ' being myself '.....When I am in a wave it is very difficult to remember this.

.....Have you had some sunbreaks or windows? ....I try to gauge my 'real ' self by how I feel in my best window....and try to believe that I will be that normal again when I crawl out of this rabbit hole for good.

.......You have come this far....I have read so many BB posts that say 6 months off was a defining turning point....I hope so....Sending you hopes forward sunbreaks and windows.....coop

 

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Friday....you cut your dose in half in Nov. ....that's a huge cut...but you are well into it now. So sorry you are having tough times...you are making it through though. ...Do you know what triggered your panic that prompted the first panic attack?...( was that your first panic?)....My guess is that if you didn't have these s;x before the Benzo, it is most likely not you... don't give up...hoping for better days for all of us.  coop

 

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RESCUE DOSE.....uugghhh...oh no....only made it to the first week in month 3....

.....Ate 2 small slices of pizza....out of this world palpitations....wibble/wobble lurching rhythm...nausea.  panic. ..the rescue dose ( .25 ativan) calmed the palpitations and lurching has quieted with only infrequent thud....anxiety beginning to back down....so so scary...almost called 911, but will go to clinic tomorrow

.....don't know what this does to all of my hard hard work of the last 9 months ( 6 months taper and 10 weeks withdrawal)......I just wasn't going to get through that...the anxiety/fear I could have managed ( by my finger nails), but the wild heart was its own kind of panic attack. Very worrieda.  about where or if my recovery will go from here...I feel absolutely sick that this is where this day ended...Has anyone needed a rescue dose? What did it do to your taper.Do I have to stabilize at, 125 again and start over?....will a low dose beta block prevent the bounding and lurching of my heart?

.........feeling very much like a failure....coop

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Hey Cooper. I have been in a wave for months. Last time I remember feeling somewhat normal at least a couple months ago. The first panic attack that happened on September 13 was my first. I wasnt on any meds. I had a great life. Family, friends, no financial trouble. Really everything going great. I was training for a bike marathon. I believe I overtrained and I felt dizzy one day and vertigo. This FREAKED me out and launched me into a full blown panic attack. Since that day I have been a mess. Symptoms ALL day, every day! I have seen psychs, doctors, therapists, naturopaths etc.

 

I was prescribed Clonazepam a couple weeks after my attack as I was jittery and a mess. It helped and stabilized me well. I took off to Jamaica for a week to relax with my wife. I ended up having a minor panic there, and when I returned my doc put me on Cipralex (lexapro in US), and antidepressant. It's been ALL down hill since then. 7 weeks after, I quit both the AD and the Benzo cold turkey as I couldnt take it anymore, and ended up in ER. I was reinstated the clonazepam and a new AD. I took the clonazepam but not the AD. I then cut my dose in half shortly after, and here I am.. Months later, still completely messed up with no windows. All one long never ending wave of misery.

 

I keep being hopeful that it's the drug withdrawal making me feel like this, and not "ME".. All I can do is keep tapering, and eventually get off, and only then will I know if it's me or the drug. Despite feeling like crap, I made another cut today. I thought perhaps I would stabilize but I don't appear to be, so I might as well keep cutting. Cutting from 0.5MG to 0.375MG today. 1/4 of the pill.. I want off this damn med! I was going to go in 1/8 pill cuts, but that would be 2 more months! I have only been on this for like 4+ months. My taper will end up being longer than how long I took it.

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I'm approaching 3 months. Muscle twitches are my only remaining symptom of significance. I do get some anxiety but I bring that on myself by drinking coffee.
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Dear Friday....your introduction to Benzo is exactly like mine....A vertigo attack out of nowhere.. no rhyme or reason what so ever....just splish slashing in the bath...Boom!...the room is spinning, literally can not tell up from down and thought the room somehow was on its side. Do freaked..panic attack followed immediately...called ambulance. I was correctly diagnosed with Menniers Disease. This is an inner ear condition. They gave me ativan in the er and told me to fill the prescription. ..a whopping 2 mg to take as needed. ...which I did...unfortunately.

......Like you, I was an anxious jittery freaked out crazy crying mess because I kept having. moderate panics. ....As it turns out within. 3 weeks I was. having interdose s/x...and my doc misdiagnosed them as now a full blown anxiety/panic disorder ( though I had never had either). She increased. my instructions from " as needed ' to 1 mg in am and 1 mg pm...every day.

.....well long story short the medication,  of course was making me worse.  I did not begin to feel better until I was at end taper. ( 6 months to taper 1 mg ...c/t off first mg).

....Friday you might want to see an ear doctor to r/o an inner ear problem An inner ear problem can trigger the nerves in the ear that ' communicate ' to the nerve paths in the brain. that signal the panic response. ....

....I am so sorry you are going through this

 

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