I am new here. In a lot of pain.

[[Ao...]]

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for reading my introduced above. I've joined BB because I'm really really struggling with pain everyday since last January 2014.  It started when I was on the medication Lamictal at a dose of 175mgs. I was also on Xanax at this time . It had been increased to 1mg three times daily. The pain started in my back . I sought my psychiatrist and general practitioners help but they had no idea. They performed lots of tests .. bloods MRI xrays ultrasound Results were fine. MRI showed some changes but nothing "too bad".

So fast forward to this present day. . Im now off all medications except for Valium and Stilnoct.

I was taken off Xaxax at 0.5 mgs 3 times daily and placed on 9 mgs of Valium (10 weeks ago). I was not weaned off xanax  just placed on Valium 9mgs. The nerve pain and back pain increased to excruciating and my doctor placed me on a Lioderm patch...Lignocaine which is helping some.

I do wonder is this withdrawal. . Doctors say no to Xanax withdrawal at this stage 10 weeks off. I really feel my Central Nervous System is in disarray due to so many medications. I cant walk drive . Im off work since June 2013. My family life is suffering and I have a young daughter . Im heartbroken.  The pain usually ramps up around midday everyday with stiffness and muscle soreness.  My leg gets numb weak etc.

Have any of ye experienced this form of pain and for how long? I was such an avid walker and kept going all these years but the past year has been hell. I never experienced anything like this before with withdrawal.

Thank you for reading . I really would appreciate any help.

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I have a somewhat similar story as you.  Not as long of a history, but I too suffer from muscle pain and neuropathy that I didn't have before taking Ativan.  Now is it just a happy coincidence or did the drugs play a part in my condition?  That is the million dollar question.  Out of the six different doctors I've seen only one, but he is the best one a neuromuscular specialist at Duke, that has suggested the Ativan is contributing to the problem.  I personally think it is a big part of my problem.  Didn't say it was necessarily the complete problem but at least making the problem worse.  He is referring me to an autoimmune specialist at Duke as well. All my tests have been completely normal (and I've had a lot done).  I not going to give up until I find answers.

[[Be...]]

I feely deeply your suffering. I wish I had answers for you.

 

I too have lots of muscle pain that started with tolerance withdrawal while on Xanax and Klonopin. It got worse the first night I added Lamictal. A blood vessel burst in my finger and it felt like it had been slammed in a door. The finger is permanently swollen but functional. Come to find out that Lamictal lowers the serum level of Klonopin in blood, significantly. No coincidence. The increased pain was a symptom of further plummeting me into withdrawal. These are things doctors should know, from text books if not using software that alerts to drug-drug interactions. I've been on so many drugs and felt worse than I've ever felt, sometimes like I was going out of my mind. Now that I'm tapering, and in withdrawal, I pray that I will be completely healed of neuropathic symptoms when I'm off Klonopin. All my tests for inflammation have come back negative, many times. The rheumatologist was ignorant and noncommittal about the symptoms being drug related. My well-meaning Pdoc, just didn't see this coming.

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The equivalent dose for 1.5 mg of Xanax is 30 mg of Valium. He shorted you out a lot, so no wonder you are feeling this way. He gave you about .5 mg of Xanax, a 67% drop.

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Thank you all very much for your replies.  I have been wondering about the cross over to Valium and if it was equivalent.  Thank you for helping and giving me answers to these questions.  Its been a terrifying experience and I broke down completely this week to my doctors and told them how its been especially since January.  Both psychiatric doctor and general practitioner did not feel its withdrawal . Either interdose or tolerance.  Thats scary as these are professionals supposedly at the top of their games and they dont or wont even consider withdrawal as a reason for the physical pain I am in. Im in the profession myself and when all this is over and please God it will be someday, I will have a huge insight into how patients like me feel.

Thank you.

[[ea...]]

According to your signature, youre still on Valium and Stilnocht. Stilnocht is zolpidem, a Z drug. Z drugs are kissing counsins to benzos, with the same side effects and withdrawal. SO - your doctors and nurses may be right: tolerance withdrawal, PLUS withdrawal from the Xanax!

But their opinions really don't matter, do they? Its how YOU feel that counts, in my opinion. And, you are suffering. The Lidocaine patch - does it help you? It seems like a good choice to me, as its a topical medication, and pretty safe for most people. I have used them myself, and thought they worked fine.

I am a nurse, and have been for many years. I, too, have learned a great deal since going through this, and I look back in amazement at the general ignorance about benzos in the medical world. I just don't understand it. I have finally understood that (maybe) part of it is because relatively few people go through such misery when they get off a benzo. But - even if only a few do, it should be more widely known. I, too, have run into this ignorance since going through it. I learned quickly to just shut my mouth about it when I see a doctor. I simply say that I got off a benzo, had a tough time of it, and that I don't want to take one ever again. I do not go into detail now. Its really not their business. I have finally learned that only I have control over my medical care...NOT my doctors. I have the right to refuse a treatment I don't want, refuse a drug I am concerned about. It is up to me to research procedures, and drugs, and not rely only on what a doctor tells me. I am in control: not my physicians. I wish more patients would understand this, and that more doctors accepted this philosophy and respected it.

east

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Hi East

 

Thanking you very much for your quick reply. You are so spot on about all of this and I have felt like this for many years but due to trauma, I got quickly led into the horrid side of psychiatric medications many many times.

Im really only beginning to see a crack of light at the end of the tunnel now. I met a very well informed doctor in the last few weeks and thankfully she listened . A doctor can listen but they often never really hear what their patient is saying or not saying.

Yes the Lioderm patch is less invasive thankfully it helps with the awful nerve pain.

Im starting a year long Cbt course after Christmas and im really going to give it everything I have got !!.

There's no way around anxiety or depression.  We just need to go through it .

I see what you mean by the Stilnoct being like a benzo....it appears to work on the same type of receptors in the brain as a benzo. I feel that I will be soon lowering this slowly and coming off it also.

Thank you for you advice. Very much appreciated.