6 replies to this topic

[Agomelatinehope]

Hi. I took Ativan 1mg for about 8months (I had previously taken benzos and antidepressants for years). Then I switched to its equivalent in Diazepam (10mg) and went down from there (2.5mg every 2-3 weeks). I did well at first, everything was going fine until the end of the taper. I had every single symptom from benzo withdrawal. I had a major setback one night that I drank alcohol, from that time everything's been much more difficult.

[While taking 10mg or 7.5mg of Valium I felt completely normal and functional]

I had to quit my studies since I had a panick attack in class and I'm currently living almost 85% of the time in my home waiting for this symptoms to improve.

I had my last Valium dose (of 1.75mg) on 19th of March. In 5 days it will be two months.

Although I'm a bit better (At least I can sleep now) my symptoms are the following:

-Apathy/Anhedonia/complete lack of motivation
-I alternate between insomnia and non-restful sleep (right now I'm sleeping up to 6 hours but I wake up very very tired)
-24h Tinnitus
-Complete lack of sexual desire
-Unable to handle even the minimum stress
-Extreme mindfog. Sometimes it's difficult to know if I'm dreaming or not
-Derealization (It seems as if I can hear me/see me from outside me)

Could you please tell me if this is normal or it could be anything else? What could I take to make things a bit more manageable?

Thank you so much

Edited by Agomelatinehope, 14 May 2013 - 06:17 PM.

[Galaxyshock]

It's post-acute benzo withdrawal syndrome, you may be looking at a year or longer for full recovery. The symptoms fluctuate and you may experience windows of feeling normal. GABA being the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, everything is affected and a lot of different disturbing and mind (and body) -fucking symptoms may be experienced. Check out benzobuddies.org

From what I've read magnesium and bacopa are something to help without distracting GABA-receptor recovery. Theanine too.
If things feel intolerable, Gotu Kola and Valerian are perhaps the safest yet effective herbs that do have some GABA-affinity (but also anxiolysis through different mechanisms like CCK modulation and adenosine) and won't get you in trouble. Ginseng having antipsychotic-like qualities and binding to various receptors may be good too depending how you react, in the withdrawal the brain&body tends to overreact to everything.

Edited by Galaxyshock, 15 May 2013 - 06:42 PM.

[CLR]

I was just recently prescribed a very low dose of clonazepam (klonopin) to treat moderate anxiety. It is also serves as a supplemtary anticonvulsant in my management of bipolar disorder (type 2 I believe). Would you reccommend halting benzodiazpene treatment entirely, before dependence sets in? I've only been using it ~2 times per week for less than a month, with days in between to allow my mind to recover.

I did some research and found that benzos are neuroprotective when it comes to excitotoxicity, but the withdrawal seems to far outweigh that situational benefit...

Edited by CLR, 16 May 2013 - 05:11 AM.

[Agomelatinehope]

It's post-acute benzo withdrawal syndrome, you may be looking at a year or longer for full recovery. The symptoms fluctuate and you may experience windows of feeling normal. GABA being the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, everything is affected and a lot of different disturbing and mind (and body) -fucking symptoms may be experienced. Check out benzobuddies.org

From what I've read magnesium and bacopa are something to help without distracting GABA-receptor recovery. Theanine too.
If things feel intolerable, Gotu Kola and Valerian are perhaps the safest yet effective herbs that do have some GABA-affinity (but also anxiolysis through different mechanisms like CCK modulation and adenosine) and won't get you in trouble. Ginseng having antipsychotic-like qualities and binding to various receptors may be good too depending how you react, in the withdrawal the brain&body tends to overreact to everything.

Thank you. You seem to know what you are talking about

Anyway, isn't 1 year too much? I didn't know recovery was so slow.

I'm having problems trying to convince those around me that this is a long process but they cannot believe that something can take that long.

I've been lately to 2 psychiatrists they say withdrawal doesn't take that long and that I should take antidepressants. I want to assume that this is lack of knowledge from them. One of them told me "There's no problem with taking benzos, there's even people who take them for all their lives"... ¬¬

Right now my life is in stand by... it's very frustrating

Thank you again

[Galaxyshock]

1 year is not too much, seems to be pretty standard. Some heal quicker, some cases take even up to three years.

Just realize it can, and most likely will, be quite a long and frustrating process but don't get discouraged. Seems that people around you don't realize the seriousness of it. It's shouldn't be hard to understand that if the brain has been chemically altered for months or years, that it takes time to readapt to natural balance. GABA receptors make one especially vulnerable to this.

Another person here is long to his post-acute withdrawals too:
http://www.longecity...ive-impairment/

[Kompota]

How I wish it lasted only 1 year for me. Initially I thought it would take a few weeks. But as weeks have turned into months and months into years, I realized it was gonna be a long game.
I don't want to scare you though, recovery is a very individual thing. There is no strict time frame about it.

I can relate how people around you just fail to believe that this is so real. It defies normal human logic. If I hadn't got into this mess, I wouldn't have believed it either. About psychiatrists: they are ignorant. I have often though about all of this being some sort of huge conspiracy among the medical profession and big pharma. However a case of plain ignorance seems more likely.

[Agomelatinehope]

Thanks for your replies

Taking into account that I was taking a low dose of benzodiazepines I don't think it shouldn't take that long.

I'm aware that full recovery can take years, but I hope to be functional in a few months