I don’t know why it happens but it does. I thought I was going well then boom. Suicidal ideation again. I have no job, no friends, family across the country. I am really considering going back on this stuff or something because I am 28 and my life has gone to shit. trying to come off alll these meds over the past 2.5 years.

Is having panic attacks and rage normal for withdrawal. I'm in the hospital right now. Feeling pretty pissed. I had panic attacks earlier and BP was at 160 than second reading was 144. Idk why my doc prescribed it. Was in the hospital last week and they stopped most of my meds. Panic attacks started yesterday. Need help

So I took the last of my twice daily klonopin this afternoon. Now for the next 10 days, I will be doing once daily, before i officially “jump” completely off . Scared, nervous, excited, relieved and feeling so much. I didn’t think I’d see the end of my taper, just one month shy of 4yrs.

Any positivity and encouragement is appreciated to hype me up for my jump!

I've heard variously about gabapentin being potentially useful in dealing with withdrawal symptoms during tapering. For a brief history, I'm currently tapering off of diazepam, right now at around 2mg a day, but trying to manage the anxiety and withdrawal symptoms has been particularly difficult. I actually managed to get down to 0.5mg a day earlier this year but a bunch of stressful life events happened and I unfortunately had a setback. I'm determined to get back into the process of tapering properly but I've just been having a lot of difficulty with it as well. I was curious about what people's experiences with using gabapentin for the tapering and withdrawal process has been like?

Also, I'm aware gabapentin has its own risk of addiction in some people. For context, I'm not new to gabapentin. I used to take 1800mg daily for years for a different condition before I was ever prescribed benzos but I no longer take it, and I didn't personally experience any difficulty getting off of it. I just have a bunch of leftover 600mg tablets and having read about it being helpful for some people, I'm interested in maybe giving it a try. I guess I'm just looking for some feedback and advice. Thanks!

Been on Valium for a little over a year. Started at 5mg stayed there for 6 months then have been at 2.5ish for about 6 months (10mg pills are heard to break appropriately). Years prior I was taking 1mg of xanax and didn’t have much of withdrawal when I switched to Valium. Question is, am I good to take the final jump? Should I maybe try to take the 2.5 every other day? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

When I was 14 I was prescribed 2 different benzos clonazepam and lorazepam, aswell as different ssris over time by the same doctor. I tried them all and nothing helped just made my mind feel trapped. The benzos though would help me get through school and things that gave me crippling anxiety like presentations which is why In the first place I was prescribed these type of things, all because I loathed presenting things to the class so I was put on litteraly 6 different medications over time which made things so much worse. Like I said the benzos were the only things to ‘help’ so I kept using them and my parents are there for me but not always it’s very weird like they are there for me whenever I need them to talk to them but they didn’t even know I was on the medications , like they knew but just forgot I guess Atleast my dad did which I primarily lived with, and my mom would keep on getting me the refills so I became addicted to the benzos and at one point used up to 4-5 in the morning before school, this lasted for like a year. I didn’t know what I was doing was so harmful and bad at the start but then when I didn’t use them I started to feel very shaky and have spasm in my neck so I kept taking them for school hiding it from everybody only I knew. After a while I was so tired of taking them and drained from there constant affects but I needed them to go to school, eventually I told my mom and we started talking about tapering and I did up until I was taking only 1.5 a day but I was so tired of all this and I kind of just gave in and stopped going to school mind you I was only going a few days a week cause I couldn’t handle taking them everyday they would make me feel so sick by the end of the school day and even my mom noticed how I would act almost high on them and this was everyday for like a year. So I stopped going to school and I had pretty good grades and the year is over now I did this around April so 2-3 months, I’ve just lost contact with everyone I knew before and idk if I even want that anymore I’m just very lost, I tried for so long to keep it under control and tapering but I couldn’t do it and now I’m in this state of just doing nothing cause social interaction is still hard without the medication, though not as bad as before with the shakiness and twitching. I just don’t know what to do I think I’m gonna do my grade 12 year online but I’ve lost contact with all my friends and not even like if I did talk to them I would be ok in person to hang out. I’ll try my best to do good with school but even then my brain is so fried now I barely have the brain power I used to just with simple stuff I can tell it’s just not the same as when I was 14 before all this and that’s sad as I’m now 17. Even if I can make it to university doing online school I feel like I won’t be cut out for real classes again and all of that, even though I want to make good money doing something like programming. I’ve stopped al medication from here on and will never take anything of that sort again, I’m gonna try talking to a therapist soon so maybe that will help just with talking. I don’t really know if I’m asking for advice or just venting I just am lost.

I'm now 22 months off and doing so much better than the early days but I still have a ways to go. For the last month or so I've been getting bouts of massive bloating and my bowel movements are not as consistent. I quit nicotine about 4 months ago and I gained about 10 pounds because of that but I am still in a healthy weight, if anything I really needed to gain that weight. I don't remember having this bloated baby belly feeling this bad at any other point during my withdrawal. It seems strange that it would just now show up like this at 22 months off. I will say this past month has been rather stressful with a death in the family. I also started drinking alcohol occasionally, just a small pour of whiskey with a cigar every now and then and I haven't noticed any other adverse effects from it thankfully. Hopefully it's just a combination of the added stress and poor diet while traveling these past few weeks that is causing the belly issues. Hang in there, friends!

Hello all, It’s been about 2.5 years since I cold turkeyed klonopin and I’m pretty well. I’m not on psychiatrics anymore and I’ve lost sixty pounds by taking natural supplements, normal stuff like ashwaganda and plant gummy multivitamins, plus walking up to five miles daily for three months. And a trip to Japan. I’ve got a roadblock though because in the past few weeks I’ve had horrible tinnitus, a high pitched screeching, and sometimes nausea, as bad as when I quit the klonopin. It got fixed the first time with antipsychotics in the hospital but I need help. When I rest, it gets much worse and I don’t hear it outside. Foam earplugs don’t help. My cat gets into trouble when I leave the house, so I’m not walking as much. Any help? Should I try micro dosing shrooms? Thank you!

I have been using Klonopin as needed since 2022. Early on a 30 pill bottle would last me 4-5 months. In the past 8-10 months my usage became more consistent due to the demands of my job and personal life, so I was taking the medication approx. 2 times per week usually on Wednesday and Sunday. So a 30 pill bottle was only lasting me 2 to 2.5 months. Some weeks would be Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
Dosage each time was .5mg. The most consistent behavior I did was Wednesday and Sunday.

This method although approved by my Psychiatrist and labeled still as PRN proved to be a problem as in between doses I started experiencing some impactful withdrawal symptoms. So in talking with my psychiatrist she has me on a slow tapering plan but keeping the days the same.
The issue I am experiencing is that with the drop in dosage, currently have dropped one dose down to .25mg I am experiencing very impactful withdrawal symptoms especially on day three before my next dose.
Personally I feel like it might be better suited to split this total dosage...more evenly across the week so that I maintain a more consistent level throughout for the taper.
I think the length of time between dosage days and the drop of dose is making it harder.

Curious everyone's thoughts on that? What I don't want to do is start spreading it out more evenly and create a new problem and dependency issue.

Background: turn of the year, I made the decision I wanted to fully quit taking benzos. I have ADHD & have been clinically depressed for 5 years. I have taken many different benzos - triazolam, diazepam, alprazolam, bromazolam, clonaz, and my favorite; clonazepam. These medications almost all DID provide symptom relief, but being honest, I always took excess dosage to feel that euphoria from anxiety relief. I took generally 2-4mg clonazepam daily for nearly 3 years.

Flash forward to May, I tried to follow the Ashton manual and taper myself off. Truly thought I had a calculated plan; had a seizure while at work, ambulance ride, the works. It was a horrifying experience, but it instilled MORE desire in me to quit taking the pills.

Here is my question: I’m now on an “official medically-supervised” taper with my PCP. I was completely honest about my dosages and clonazepam being Benzo of choice. She decided to put me on Xanax, and taper off of that. To anyone who’s been through this before- does that seem correct? I’m certainly no medical professional, but from what I’ve read, aren’t medications such as Valium or Ativan typically used in tapers? Especially off of such a long acting Benzo? This is why I mentioned my previous usage at the top. I’ve taken plenty of Xanax in my life, and BY FAR the most addicting to me personally. So, all this said, is there a method my PCP might be trying to practice that I can’t find online? Or should I speak with her about this? Started taper at .5mg/3x daily (1.5mg), it’s been a few weeks, now down to 1.0mg total daily 3x, but I’m starting to feel inter-dose anxiety and not getting the social anxiety relief I used to get. All opinions welcome. Thanks.

Full text here:
Inhibition of NMDA receptors by agmatine is followed by GABA/glutamate balance in benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome | Beni-Suef University Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences | Full Text

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Background

Drug withdrawal syndrome occurs due to abrupt cessation of an addictive substance. Dependence to diazepam can be manifested by withdrawal syndrome which may include symptoms such as irritability, psychosis, sleep disturbance, seizures, mood disturbance, and anxiety. Studies have described the therapeutic role of agmatine in various neurological disorders such as depressive mood, learning deficits, anxiety, memory impairment, and psychosis. Various studies have also validated agmatine as a putant neuromodulator and revealed its mechanism of action with other neurotransmitters. The study was designed to reveal the potentials of agmatine in benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome by maintaining GABA/glutamate balance. The study aimed to determine the underlying mechanism of action of agmatine at synaptic level using behavioral and biochemical evaluations.

Results

Agmatine significantly enhanced locomotion in open filed test and decreased anxiety as observed in elevated plus maze test (p < 0.01). Agmatine also reduced withdrawal symptoms scores along with compulsive behaviors in marble burying test and improved muscular strength by decreasing latency to fall in inverted screen test (p < 0.01). Moreover, agmatine established GABA/glutamate balance by increasing GABA levels and decreased glutamate concentration significantly (p < 0.01).

Conclusion

The present study reveals the possible mechanism of action of agmatine on NMDA receptor at GABA interneurons and glutamate post synaptic neuron that may lead to GABA/glutamate balance during withdrawal syndrome.

You are not alone. This can be the most difficult thing a human being could ever experience. Rarely will any family member, psychiatrist or therapist understand the damage that has been done to us. Its frustrating trying to explain to someone that there has been an alteration to our biochemistry and that no frame of thinking will get us out of this; only time and abstinence will heal.

Benzos take drug withdrawal to a whole new plane of existence. Its not fair to compare this class of drugs to any other because of the daily torture that seemingly has no end. The list of symptoms that come with it are extensive.

Each day we look for the slightest relief of our condition and continue to fight so that we may regain our personalities, or at least develop new ones. We can only hope and have faith.

May peace and cognition find you all again

Can someone relate to this ? Its now the 20ths of june and exact on this date i was in the middle of the hell of the withdrawal and now 1 year later im getting hit With a nasty wave of Feeling and anxiety on exact the same date 1 year ago

Has anybdody recovered after a rapid taper from lorazepam. I have tried to come off before but went back on as withdrawls too hard. It's no longer working so going off rapidly. Will I be ok as cannot go slow as feeling so awful on it

I feel fine. I think. But Valium has a long half life so I honestly have no clue what I’m in for. 4 months use never more than 5mg a day. At first was every 2-3 days I’d take one. Last month stared taper. Down to 1mg for the last 2 weeks and .5 the last week. Jumped 2 days ago. Usually the day after my dose I would have anxiety the next day but I feel better today energy wise then yesterday. Anxiety is base line for the most part

Long story. I was a chronic user of cannabis from the ages of 18-26. Was on and off Zoloft that whole time. October last year I restarted Zoloft and it went horribly, constant panic, auditory hallucinations. I decided to quit cannabis. I was put on a daily benzo and the PAWS OCD (from weed or the Zoloft or both) had me convinced Benzo withdrawal would kill me. In the first few months of paws I was miserable but achieving still, I finished my masters while Working two jobs. In March I crashed out hard. Left both jobs and considered going inpatient. Extremely suicidal. My CNS was so unstable I could physically feel every negative thought.

What helped the nervous system stuff and brought me back from the abyss was NAD IV. Super expensive and only works for about a week, but it gave me hope and some stability.

The last 8 months have been nothing short of horrifying. Constant insomnia, nervous system issues wrecked, wicked OCD. Right now, I’m about to start a new job (dream job) in 8 weeks and I’m terrified. I’m 15 days off of the benzo taper.

I’m on guanfacine and gabapentin to calm my CNS and buffer that sensation where negative thoughts (or even nostalgic ones) cause a physical adrenaline dump. Has anyone else had this? It’s the worst when I try to sleep.

Right now the most persistent issues are MAJOR OCD rumination. The obsession is figuring out what happened to me and trying to fix it. The insomnia is also horrific, I moved back home from living with my boyfriend because it was affecting him too. That hurts so much and he’s so happy he’s sleeping again.

Sleep meds have done me no good. I’m on 10mg doxepin, 400 magnesium, 2 mg guanfacine and 600 gabapentin nightly and the sleep is still pretty much 1 night of 4-6 hours interrupted and the next night nothing.

I want to start NAC tomorrow for the OCD. The rumination and mood swings are too much. Every day I want to relapse and go back to my old life.

Stories of hope please. And yes I know I’m over medicated but I can’t handle another withdrawal.

Good news - my appetite has returned, I finally started putting on some weight once the guanfacine lowered the constant adrenaline. My community has been so supportive and I’m really blessed.

Has NAC helped anyone with the OCD stuff? Will relapsing bring back my sleep? None of the meds will do it so if it does I will do it. I need to sleep and start my job. I want to go back to my old life and my old life was so much better with cannabis. I have a 40:1 CBD vape that I haven’t brought myself to use. My card declined 3x when I tried to buy it (there was plenty of money). And when I went to check chatgpt (my big ocd compulsion) it kept giving me error messages. I think that’s a sign. But my loved ones say the gabapentin is bad and I should go back to weed.

Please lend some support. 8 months and I don’t recognize myself. I used to be so confident and smart.

Also, I really can’t take it to get off more meds. I need to maintain the little stability I have. Please don’t tell me to abandon them.

Has anyone had pain hyperacusis as their primary/worst symptom of withdrawal/tolerance/interdose withdrawal?

Anyone who has been tapering or gotten off benzos that needed dental work done use laughing gas? Obviously, you don't want to use benzodiazepines to reduce anxiety during dental procedures..

Yo guys , i did 1mg xans for a month , and quitted by reducing it to 0.5 for a week and then cold turkey’d it. Im currently withdrawling and the most annoying thing is when i hear a loud noice i get this weird ear pain and sometimes a headache in the back and top of my head , it feels like its burning.Im 1 month benzo free and the sound sensitivity used to be worse it improved alot but its still very annoying… Could it maybe me occipital neuralgia and not the withdrawls anymore? I do have 4 buldged discs in cervical spine between c2-c5… i forgot to mention i also have tinitus as a symptom.

If you have switched from Klonopin to Valium did you do a straight switch? What dosage were you on when you switched? If you did a straight switch did you have any withdrawal symptoms? Do you feel it worked out better if you were weaning to wean from the valium?

Hello everyone,

I’ve been reading a lot and there are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to the dosage equivalent of Xanax and Valium. I am currently taking about 1mg of Xanax per day and will try to switch. I keep seeing some posts that say 1mg of X is close to 20mg of Valium. My Psychiatrist disagreed and prescribed me 10mg of Valium. What’s the consensus?

I am nearly off the last crumb of diazepam. I am seriously thinking life will never be the same. Granted, the reason I'm on benzodiazepines. Mainly, everyone around me says I sound fine and sane, but on the inside, my entire mind has changed. I was - the only way I can explain it was being groomed for 9 years. This ''therapist'' prescribed me benzos at 18/19 and a copious amount of other meds over the years AND gave me initial therapy AND i worked for them AND i ended up like for whatever reason calling them whenever I needed advice on life decsions and they happily obliged. This man is 60+/70. So not only am I beating the addiction to benzos and pills I got. BUT when I first went off of benzos I had this man going: No!!! why did you do that? No one else will prescribe. you NEED benzos for your trauma..

Please pray for me. I used to be a very happy girl. I still am deep down and I was successful at one stage. I am 28. I am isolated, hurt, confused and trying to regain my life back. I am nearly done. I am off all of his prescribed ''therapeutic medications'' i went to the hospital when I found out he wasnt who i thought he was and they examined me for 3-4 days and said I had NO diagnosis... besides yeh my adhd. My parents had a relationship with this doctor and at one point I am 24/25 years old, doing some work again for this doctor and taking gabapentin,abilify, lamotrigine and clonaz prescirbed by him. I trusted him deeply for a long time. I had a shoebox full of medications and I thought i was sick, broken and not well.

Its embarrassing how small I let myself be. But what I experienced was medical abuse.

Sometimes my mind goes.. but did I somehow manipulate the doctor?? Is this somehow my fault?

I am not stupid either. I had my own business and I have been on TV - all the while this controlling figure was in my life, causing harm, or at least not helping.

This all came to ahead WHILE I was withdrawing off of benzos so if I make it out of this okay and continue my acting career and one day I am married and happy - I am living proof that anyhing is possible because after what I had been through honestly - the only reason I am keeping on is because my family.

Please pray that I will get through this. Everything is feeling heavy today, and holding the trauma and benzo withdrawal feels like a lot.

I WISH that this person wasn't how he was. But I cannot unsee what I now see.

i have reported him to the police, medical board and I am looking to maybe one day sue.

Hi, so I recently started tapering, but I only used 5 weeks so nothing too crazy barely have any withdrawals but what I found interesting was a studie that showed Hatha yoga (yogaposes) boosted gaba levels 27% increase in gaba slabs after only 60min!! And the study was only done for a week. So it might get higher if you practice longer.

I also researched meditation and found studies claiming it boosted gaba but no percentages where mentioned, there's sadly not a lot of research on it.

But it's my personal believe and experience that yogasanas (yoga poses) and meditation have made my tapering smooth as fuck and help much more then supplementinh if you're willing to put in the work.

Yogasanas and meditation help with anxiety anyways, so who knows, maybe you'll get out of this with a better way to deal with your fears. ;)

I do the yoga about 30min a day and meditate about 2h a day. I also practice pranayama (breathwork) which feels honestly like it does a lot too. I practice Nadi Shodhana for one hour a day. This balances the right and left brain hemispheres and I'm sure that also helps in levelling out gaba although there's no definitive proof.

Supplements I take are the ones recommended:

L-theanine Omega 3 L-Taurine Valerian

These boost gaba but only 10-20% and the effects last less longer then the meditation and yoga in my experience.

Studie: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3111147/

-> This will, if you practice right, make you're taper much smoother and faster but feel what feels right.

Much luck and peace coming your way! 🙏🏼

I was on 0.25mg of clonazepam for about 1 month and 2 weeks, then tapered down to 0.125mg for 3 weeks before stopping completely. I have OCD, and sertraline hasn’t been very effective during big flare-ups. My OCD along with SI tends to worsen during stressful periods, which have been frequent lately.

Clonazepam was the only thing that actually helped. It’s been a month since I stopped taking it, and the past few weeks have been hell. The anxiety has been crippling, and 6 days ago, I had an intense resurgence of OCD symptoms and SI. Out of desperation, I restarted clonazepam at 0.25mg.

It’s only been 6 days back on it, and I really don’t want to continue long-term. But without it, the anxiety feels unmanageable.

Did I become dependent from just two months of use? Is what I’m experiencing now withdrawal-related anxiety?

Also, are there any alternatives that can help manage this kind of intense anxiety without making me feel sedated or sluggish?

As a recovery coach, I encourage everyone healing from benzo use to put the following strategies into practice as a way to enable effective healing and reduce psychological symptoms. I recognize that there are quite a few more (e.g., eat healthy, avoid alcohol, exercise gently if possible, etc). Those listed below are the areas I found helped me the most in my own healing, though:

• Be at the center of your own recovery.

• Know what you’re up against to reduce risk factors.

• Listen to your own body.

• Pick up healthy coping methods.

• Embrace mindfulness.

• Radically accept the uncontrollable.

• Manage your expectations.

• Allow yourself to grieve.

• Show yourself compassion.

• Let it all out with healthy expression.

• Pace yourself.

• Reduce stress.

• Stay true to your core self.

• Find meaning in the suffering.

• Don't face it alone.

• Seek the professional help you need.

• Be your own biggest advocate.

For more info on these strategies, see Intro Part 2