What percentage have you recovered?

[[...]]

11 months & 40% (better than nothing!)

[[2t...]]

Just over 7 months and around 75% with some 85% thrown in.

Still have 24/7 tinnitus but the worst is the toxic mornings with anxiety on waking, same happens with a short nap.

I am able to function quite well but have some apathy and a loss of happiness. I want my life back where things made me smile.

 

2trusting

[[He...]]

14 months, 98%

[[al...]]

3.5 months off.

10-20% during waves.

30-50% during baseline/window/whatever.

[[Be...]]

18.5 months

Last wave a week ago, I felt as though I was sent into acute.

Now, I'm a bit relieved, probably in a window! And I feel like I'm 60% healed.

[[li...]]

Just over 10 months. 75-95% depending on the day, with a few windows of 99% over the last 3 weeks. 

[[bl...]]

Nowadays, at just over 18 months, I feel I average around 95%. I have a wave every few weeks or so, usually lasting a few hours or a day, at the most. I know full recovery usually takes around 24 months, so I'm okay with my progress thus far.

[[Go...]]

Not that easy as I don't really remember the feeling of being normal? 

[[vi...]]

56 Days.

 

35% to 40%

[[co...]]

12 months... 60%. Mostly mental symptoms - depression, fatigue, feeling of general sickness, and head stuff.

[[...]]

4.5 months. Anxiety which is directly related to tinnitus and ear stuff (head and ear pressure, sometimes ear pains, hearing distorted, ears stuffy and full, etc) bad mornings with restlessness and early waking, crappy sleep (but averaging 5-6 hours), twitching and weird nerve stuff like random tingles and pulses. Just feeling crappy. I haven't had a glorious window nor have I ever spent a day in bed. I've been functional but never feeling "well."  Maybe 75% some days but mostly 50%

[[gi...]]

5 months, 40%

[[Ne...]]

Is that true that if you took Benzos in the past you don't heal?  Someone earlier in the strand said this.

[[Re...]]

5.5 months. Windows 30-40%, waves 0-10%. I definitely feel worse than the average for my dosage and duration the worst so far on this poll. :(

 

Hey ggbtd.  We're in a somewhat similar boat.  I am amazed at how I feel for the dosage and duration I was on benzos. 

 

I stopped taking ativan after 1mg for 11 days.  Anyway, I've said my story many times but I'm 4 months and one week out from my too rapid valium taper (after a 1.5 day cross-over), and still suffering.  To be fair, I've had windows of 70-75%.  In fact, the other day I mentioned in a post how I thought I was 60 to 70 percent healed and then yesterday got hit by another wave.  To be fair, it's not the worst wave ever by far and I feel like I can still be somewhat functional.  But it's just so bizarre to have been prescribed a benzo for insomnia, use it 11 days, and end up dependent on it AND be in post-acute withdrawal for over 4 months since jumping.

 

So, I guess at the end of the day I'm still having waves and windows.  I have had a fairly good window for the last 2.5 weeks.  I've felt about 70%.  I'm in a wave (started day before yesterday) and today I feel about 30%-40%.  The thing is, I'm still on gabapentin, so I'm not completely free of meds.  I've got another 216mg to taper from gabapentin.  It's a pretty low dose, but we all know that that doesn't mean much when it's the effect of the cut that matters.  I don't think the gabapentin is actually the problem.  I think it's my benzo withdrawal that gets revealed if I cut the gabapentin too much.  It's a bit baffling to manage!!!

 

Oh well, at one point I couldn't imagine I'd make it this far, so that's encouraging.  So, yeah I have some windows where I am 70%.  I'd be closer to 80% or 90% in those windows if I could get some good sleep. 

 

Well, 2.5 months later and I'm better, I think, but my sleep is as bad as back then.  I'm into an uptick in my symptoms again and down to 100mg gabapentin (50mg BID).  A week ago I felt quite good and was hopeful that my gabapentin dose was getting low enough to not be significantly affecting me.  However, it looks like I'll have to keep tapering down to fumes at an even slower pace.  Anyway, I guess I jumped the gun talking about healing while I'm still taking gabapentin.  Won't really know until this taper is finished too. 

 

All the best, everyone.

 

-RST

[[al...]]

Is that true that if you took Benzos in the past you don't heal?  Someone earlier in the strand said this.

 

Why would that be true!? Benzos can't count.

[[ne...]]

Is that true that if you took Benzos in the past you don't heal?  Someone earlier in the strand said this.

 

They were probably indulging in a bit of hyperbole. 

[[ro...]]

-10%, three months out

[[...]]

10% - 4 months out

[[ly...]]

 

 

95%  3 months out

[[Be...]]

88% 6.5 months out

[[Be...]]

Recovery from benzodiazepines is not a linear or steady process. There are huge fluctuations.

[[Da...]]

Mentally/brain wise I am easily 90% healed. I am able to become absorbed in stories again, I have just subbed to Netflix which is amazingly good for anyone who's physical illness keeps them stuck in bed for as long as mine does me. I'm currently back-to-backing American Horror Story, I'm on season 2 now, it's downright awesome and I'm hooked lol. I really struggled to follow storylines in TV shows while on Benzos and in acute when there was a lot of pressure in my head, I would get confused and not really 'get' what was happening, it was like some sort of overload. Now I am back on top with this 110%, I can concentrate better and enjoy things like this again. I didn't really realize when things were 'coming back online' till they actually did, and it dawned on me that I would not be like that forever.

 

I still have bad days, sometimes mental exertion exhausts me as much as physical, and the anxiety I've had all my life is always there, but the good days far outnumber the bad. All the pressure and fog are 100% gone.

 

I have hugggge windows when it comes to brain healing, too huge to really be windows anymore, it's more like healing with a couple of off days.

 

Physically is another story completely, I am very, very tired, I still sleep an awful lot but I don't consider this a bad thing, I think it's been my ability to sleep that has sped up my brain healing. I've never really suffered from withdrawal insomnia, more like the opposite.

 

I still have over 30 physical symptoms including inner tremor, severe tinnitus, ear pain, chest pains, heart/blood pressure issues, joint pain (going to ask to be screened for arthritis soon as my joints click and are very stiff), random sore throats, burning skin, toenails fall off regularly, too many to list really.

 

So physically, I would say I am only about 20%, and this is providing these symptoms are STILL related to withdrawal, I am having to consider alternative options due somewhat to my family history of neurological disorders. I am asking to be referred to a neurologist next week and maybe then, after some more tests, I'll know for sure. It's also possible I have something like ME or Fibromyalgia, both have been mentioned by medics in the past.

 

So yeah, when it comes to healing, mentally/brain 90%, physically about 20%.

 

 

 

 

[[Da...]]

Before reinstating, I was off Klonopin for 10 months and I was 0% recovered. I didn't have one window. When you take benzodiazepines recreationally like I used to, you don't heal.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you're 100% wrong.

 

I used to take 'research chemical' Benzodiazepines (Diclazepam and Etizolam) 'recreationally' at horrendous doses that reached the equivalent of 1000mg (yes one thousand) of Diazepam a DAY when I was at the worst point.

 

This was A LOT more than you were on, doesn't even come remotely close. Yes your dose was very significant, I'm not saying it wasn't, but to say those who use Benzos recreationally don't heal is wrong.

 

I have been off almost a year now and my brain is 90% healed. I am not sure about my body as consensus is something else may be going on with me physically due to my severe levels of fatugue, internal tremor, muscle fascilitations, joint problems etc, but as for my brain, just read my latest posts for that.

 

I go to sleep and dream again, fascinating, colourful dreams, I can follow stories in TV shows and read again, the pain and fog in my brain are all gone, my memory is drastically improving, I am healing. I am free mentally, my brain is 90% healed.

 

I am proof of this statement being wrong.

[[ne...]]

Hello DappleApple, congrats on your recovery, your story is very inspiring! 

I wish you continued healing from now on.  :-*

 

Can you please explain 'research chemical' Benzodiazepines mean? I never heard of this before. Thank you.

 

 

[[sa...]]

HI Blandthrax

 

I remember your story and to be frank i have followed your whole improvements as we were somehow similar. I am happy you re doing 95% better and i am doing better as well.

 

Your writings have been a good inspiration for me my friend.

 

Happy for you

 

Santino