Posted by helpme on July 9, 2006, at 4:07:07 [reposted on July 9, 2006, at 8:42:34 | original URL]
In reply to Re: BENZODIAZAPINE WITHDRAWL...please help!!!, posted by Leland on May 18, 2006, at 16:01:40
I've gone through this withdrawal more than once, I'm afraid.
Lots of klonopin, about 3-4 years, I couldn't seem to make the prescription last all month becauseof rapid tolerance, addiction-n and a withdrawal effect is more WORSE anxiety- so I'd quickly gobble up anything I could find left. A lot. a lot at once. Typically, the first few days to week are worst: paranoia spels, severe anxiety, feeling too "odd" to deal with people normally, severe chest tightness, sleeping out.of.the.question. Severe crushing depression was another effect, as was seeing scuttely bugs and things out of corners of my eyes. Also, the floor often seemed wavy, and my balance was strange. Thank god, the worst was over by 4-5 days. I knew I could get some sort of sleep by night 5, 4 if extremely lucky. But the effects lingrered a couple weeks, gradually improving. I did my best to detox myself, stuff like lots of clean water to drink, excercise, etc.
NOT easy. Please, good luck. Most of all, if you get the crushing depression- what helped me was to repeat to myself as a mantra, "this is hardcore drug withdrawal". This is a withdrawal symptom." etc.My doc once explained, if a drug does something, like calm the nervous system, and you suddenly take it away- it floods and goes nuts until it resets itself. So you get flooded by the opposite of what the drug was supposed to do; ie, your nervous system goes into panicked, hypervigilent overdrive for a spell.
There is a good website- I think it is called benzo.org, out of the UK. If you can't find it, I think others on the Board might know it.
poster:helpme
thread:646195
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060627/msgs/665377.html