Over 60 help and support.

[[ci...]]

Ditto what sofa and  nightwatch said

[[Al...]]

Hello!

 

I'm 61 and tapering Valium.

Going real slow and keeping sxs to a minimum but I do get very bad shoulder neck muscle tightness.

I have had just about every sxs you have heard of along the way and a few you may not have heard of before.

The toughest thing I have ever done,..or am doing still.

 

I hope I can just jump in here like this.

 

ATU 🙏🏻

[[sk...]]

31 months today.  Still stressed to the max.

[[Ca...]]

62 and off for 14 and a half months after a cold turkey and lots of kindling.  Lots of muscle and joint pain among other symptoms.  I use an infra red heating pad every day and walk every day, drink lots of water, omega 3 nutrition and ginger and tumeric.  I cannot take a NASID.  My lower back pain improved at about 10 months off so that I could sit without pain.  But it is still very stiff and painful.  I also went gluten free around that time.  Hoping that this will get better or my perception of it will get better, as time goes by. I have seen improvement since 13 months in the mental symptoms.  I am thrilled to see so many older adults getting off of these drugs!!

[[Su...]]

 

I hope I can just jump in here like this.

 

ATU 🙏🏻

 

welcome ATU!  We gotta stick together through this.....

SS

[[ni...]]

Wow, first of all congratulations to everyone in this group! We are all for one and one for all.

I am 71 and started tapering off of clonazepam after around 17 years. I was prescribed it for chronic insomnia. I had NO idea benzos were causing all of so many of my problems. I just related it to the aging process.

I tried to taper a few times and once I was off of clonazepam, but not Ambien. I went to my mom's for a week and left the Ambien at home along with the Clonazepam and didn't sleep the whole week. When I got back home, I was so desperate for sleep, I went right back to taking both meds. 

This site has brought me to where I am today and I can say: Thank you!! My PCP nor any other doctor have been any help in dealing with this problem. I think most just don't know how to help us off of these drugs.

My symptoms are across the board and vary.  Insomnia is the worst, along with RLS, skin fare ups. I have no better name for them, but discovered that otc cortaid calms them down and many are drying up. They look like blisters, but are solid through. I have tinnitus, blender brain, cog fog, memory issues. My face feels like tissue paper sometimes. I don't mean the touch, but just sitting there, it feels like tissue paper. That's the best I can explain it. ha

Many things stress me out. I hear my voice going up as I talk. Sometimes I get breathless trying to say something from stress, frequent urination, especially at night, Night heats. My body is like a blast furnace.  The list goes on, so I won't bore you with things come and go. I find that some friends have stopped calling. The long time ones are still hanging in there. I did tell my family and closest friends because I wanted them to at least understand a little as to what was going on with me.

When I first started tapering, I went very quickly. Crashed and ended up going back up from 0.25mg to 0.5. After I found BB, I leaned how not to taper and so have been successful on the way back down again. I do try not to over analyze everything that happens. It's just too stressful. Hang in there and believe.

[[Su...]]

Welcome Nightengale!  It is hard to believe that this is where we find ourselves at this stage of life isn't it!

But I figure with careful tapering -- there a new life waiting for me to live in a different way -- happily!

We can do that, I'm sure of it -- it'll take time.... and to borrow a phrase from a wonderful buddy here -- Stay strong!

SS

[[Al...]]

Wow, first of all congratulations to everyone in this group! We are all for one and one for all.

I am 71 and started tapering off of clonazepam after around 17 years. I was prescribed it for chronic insomnia. I had NO idea benzos were causing all of so many of my problems. I just related it to the aging process.

I tried to taper a few times and once I was off of clonazepam, but not Ambien. I went to my mom's for a week and left the Ambien at home along with the Clonazepam and didn't sleep the whole week. When I got back home, I was so desperate for sleep, I went right back to taking both meds. 

This site has brought me to where I am today and I can say: Thank you!! My PCP nor any other doctor have been any help in dealing with this problem. I think most just don't know how to help us off of these drugs.

My symptoms are across the board and vary.  Insomnia is the worst, along with RLS, skin fare ups. I have no better name for them, but discovered that otc cortaid calms them down and many are drying up. They look like blisters, but are solid through. I have tinnitus, blender brain, cog fog, memory issues. My face feels like tissue paper sometimes. I don't mean the touch, but just sitting there, it feels like tissue paper. That's the best I can explain it. ha

Many things stress me out. I hear my voice going up as I talk. Sometimes I get breathless trying to say something from stress, frequent urination, especially at night, Night heats. My body is like a blast furnace.  The list goes on, so I won't bore you with things come and go. I find that some friends have stopped calling. The long time ones are still hanging in there. I did tell my family and closest friends because I wanted them to at least understand a little as to what was going on with me.

When I first started tapering, I went very quickly. Crashed and ended up going back up from 0.25mg to 0.5. After I found BB, I leaned how not to taper and so have been successful on the way back down again. I do try not to over analyze everything that happens. It's just too stressful. Hang in there and believe.

 

Nightengale,

 

I can relate to all your sxs. This is a crazy thing that has happened to us. You sound very level minded and grounded so I'm sure you will continue to do well.

 

You have come so far already! 

 

Peace & Healing to all.

 

ATU 🙏🏻

[[sk...]]

This is nuts!!  For months and months and months I've had 2 songs looping in my head.  First it was Old MacDonald and now for the last few months its been Camptown Races.  I wake up in the middle of the night and its in my head, while driving its there, when I'm in the gym working out there it is.  What things do you have the pleasure of looping through your mind?

[[so...]]

My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music is my constant looper.

 

Sofa

[[Se...]]

I'll be 60 Sept 8th.

 

 

I'll be back then.     

[[Al...]]

With me its " A rainy night in Georgia" song that keeps playing in my head.

 

Great song but enough already!!!

 

ATU 🙏🏻

[[Kr...]]

I'm 62 and almost 15 months off a CT and can relate to all sxs mentioned plus some.  I'm celebrate Ng that my bowels motions have improved at 40 days off a taper of omeprazole (losec).  They had improved while I took losec to the point of my feeling confidant to come off it, but it was a very slower taper with a renewed upset bowel and tummy issues.  I still have some distension and flatulence and am now reading about SIBO, but hoping I don't have to be too radical to heal fully.  My fingertips have improved from being painfully sensitive but they are still pruney and my nails still very fragile.  I'm sleeping well unless I go to bed to late or am overstimulated.

 

I have lost some credibility with friends and family too, partly because I was so neurotic (psychotic?) in tolerance wd (I didn't know but did think I was dying because I Wass so stressed and mentally paralysed;  I resigned from my career job because I found it hard to function).  With important friends and family I have done a twofold process:  first up an interaction letting them know some of the sxs I've had and explaining what poisons do to cns akin to chemo, agent orange etc then secondly and after some weeks, a 'light n happy' visit, without mentioning it at all.  I feel consistently sane enough to be consistently sane, but at the same time need to keep stress to a minimum.

 

I work parttime and am very grateful to have a roof over my head;  this happened for a reason; it has certainly increased my resolve about questioning that which affects me personally and having greater empathy, though not responsibility, for others.

 

 

[[Al...]]

I'm 62 and almost 15 months off a CT and can relate to all sxs mentioned plus some.  I'm celebrate Ng that my bowels motions have improved at 40 days off a taper of omeprazole (losec).  They had improved while I took losec to the point of my feeling confidant to come off it, but it was a very slower taper with a renewed upset bowel and tummy issues.  I still have some distension and flatulence and am now reading about SIBO, but hoping I don't have to be too radical to heal fully.  My fingertips have improved from being painfully sensitive but they are still pruney and my nails still very fragile.  I'm sleeping well unless I go to bed to late or am overstimulated.

 

I have lost some credibility with friends and family too, partly because I was so neurotic (psychotic?) in tolerance wd (I didn't know but did think I was dying because I Wass so stressed and mentally paralysed;  I resigned from my career job because I found it hard to function).  With important friends and family I have done a twofold process:  first up an interaction letting them know some of the sxs I've had and explaining what poisons do to cns akin to chemo, agent orange etc then secondly and after some weeks, a 'light n happy' visit, without mentioning it at all.  I feel consistently sane enough to be consistently sane, but at the same time need to keep stress to a minimum.

 

I work parttime and am very grateful to have a roof over my head;  this happened for a reason; it has certainly increased my resolve about questioning that which affects me personally and having greater empathy, though not responsibility, for others.

 

Kristina538,

 

Well said Kristina. You nailed it my dear.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

ATU 🙏🏻

[[so...]]

United we stand, my friends.  This is a really tough journey.  None of us, at our age, ever thought we would find ourselves on a drug withdrawal forum.  My birthday will be here Thursday...64.  Never in a million years would I have guessed this turn in the road.

 

I'm probably further out than most of you.  I only took these pills for two months, sporadically, very low dose.  It doesn't matter.  I've been in withdrawal for 33.5 months.  Once your receptors downregulate, you take a seat in the hotbox like everyone else.

 

To give you hope, this WILL ALL LEAVE someday.  I had over 70 symptoms over the span of this journey.  I'm down to 3.  Benzos don't cause permanent damage.  It just takes a very long time to rebalance our brains and nervous systems.  We will emerge from this healthy and whole.  We hold onto hope for the duration.  Eventually that hope turns to belief.

 

Our bodies are healing us.  All we have to do is be good calm passengers and let our bodies do what they were designed to do.  Hold on buddies.  Let's hold onto each other until the smoke clears.  We will be better than fine.  We have experienced hell on this road trip.  And that's why we get to feel the embrace of heaven.  The world will smell sweeter to us than anyone else who has never been through these torrential storms.  We will be stronger than 90% of humanity.  Tough as titanium.  Nothing will ever bother us again.  We're being "recycled" at a cellular level.  Old useless parts are sprouting new growth.  We are being reborn.  Don't doubt it for a second.

 

Love, Sofa

[[ci...]]

Sofa, Thank you for being such a kind , supportive soul for us all.

[[so...]]

Cindy,

 

I've never left your side.  Never will.  We are in this together.  Let's finish this.

 

Sofa

 

 

[[Su...]]

Sofa,

Love how you worded what is happening in our bodies.....

Reborn indeed!

SS

[[Al...]]

Sofa,

 

That was one of most inspirational writings I have read on any forum. 

 

I think you are correct we are being groomed and hardened and reshape to see the world anew.

 

Hugs:

 

ATU 🙏🏻

[[Bl...]]

Hi all:

 

I'm 63 so I thought I'd join this group for some moral support.  I have a horrible history with benzos, C/T's ( off benzos and AD ) and on and off so many meds during the C/T off klonopin that it made me even sicker.  I was reinstated on a smaller amount of Valium Fall of 2014 and have done a very very slow taper but have suffered the entire time.  I lost the ability to sleep after the C/T and my sleep hasn't resolved, the sleep deprivation is still going on........and I can go weeks without any sleep apart from a few micro sleeps. I assume I'm kindled as I was reinstated a year after the C/T. I'm almost finished the Valium taper now but feel as though I've wasted 3 more years as the sleep deprivation, GI distress, daily headaches and migraines etc is still extremely bad.  That's the short version...

 

I really want to heal and be healthy again... I need some friendly support to get through this ordeal and keep my sanity in tact.

 

Wishing you all good health and happiness.

 

Blue

[[so...]]

Blue Swan,

 

Don't worry about setbacks, reinstatement, kindling and all that other crap.  You are on the right path now and that's all that counts.  Finish your taper safely and gently settle in for the remainder of your system rebalancing.  We all heal.  These pills don't cause permanent damage. Once your CNS gets riled, it takes a long time for the nerves to repair their frazzled ends. The brain works hard to calm the hypersensitivity.  That's all this is.  Too much excitatory cortisol, not enough calming gaba.  Eventually our brains help us achieve just the right balance between the two and we are healed.

 

You will be just fine.  Don't believe these forum posts that say we are sick.  We are the opposite of sick.  We are healthy, which is why our brains are working perfectly to restore order.

 

Sofa

[[Bl...]]

Awwwww...thank you sofa, I needed to hear that today and your message sure gives me that pick me up that I need to keep going.  My poor brain had convinced me that I'm permanently damaged and I'll never sleep normally again , however you have convinced me otherwise  Thank you!

 

Blue

[[ni...]]

thank you All tied up and sufferingsixty for the welcome!  We do have a new life out there waiting for us to embrace once we are healed. It is what keeps me putting one foot in front of the other each day. We will make it. 

[[Kr...]]

@[So...]💕✨✨Happy Birthday!!✨✨💕(It's Thursday in New Zealand 😊)..

 

I've seen your posts so often when surfing BB; always value add and positive; many thanks.

 

I totally agree that the CNS will heal although I also know each h time you bash it, it gets weaker.  I have bashed it more than once (chemo aside)  it never realised the sxs is I've had similar to pruney hands before (dry skin fragile nails) and erythema Palma (toxic red palms) but this time I gave myself a thorough work over because of being in tolerance so long (I had my eyes checked, stomach and sleep upsets and then my hands got nerve pain and peeled!.... all before wd/ct ).

 

I'm now working 25 hours driving minibuses, a big change from IT Management and a big drop in $ so currently trying to pay the bills that have accrued during wd ;  so I figure both health and $ will take at least another 2 years to fully recover.  In saying that at 15 months out I have to say improvements are more consistent and so many sxs have totally disappeared;  what's left is more physical than mental but can cause anxiety because I have yet to trust/interpret what my body's trying to tell me when it comes to pain and distinction.... but certainly confidant enough to 'note and detract' until my attention is really commandeered.  Love to all .... we've got this 👍😍😏

 

 

[[sk...]]

New symptom for the last 3 days.  Nausea.  Benzo, the gift that keeps on giving.