Getting family to understand benzo withdrawal and what I'm going through

[[He...]]

How have others done this successfully?  My family is getting impatient...but wants me off.....but just doesn't get it and doesn't want to read about it....I'm terribly frustrated and hurt and a panicky mess right now about it.  My daughter just wants me to go to rehab and get it over with.

I don't want to lose my family....very fearful right now

[[er...]]

I know what you're going through. There is a benzo website out there that has information for families that want to support a family member going through this crap. I don't think we're alone. I hear people say that they have no family support more than people that do. I'm so sick that I can barely function. I have three grown daughters for all the good it does.

I think of all the school plays I went to, the softball games, the graduations, MacDonald's, Friendly's, playgrounds, canoeing, the beach, fishing, compliments, saying I love you, etc. etc. etc. You might think I beat them with bags of oranges.

If I had it to do over I would have sat in a dank barroom.

 

I threw out my Kratom and Gabapentin last week. I'm starting to question the wisdom of that decision...

[[Ca...]]

How have others done this successfully?  My family is getting impatient...but wants me off.....but just doesn't get it and doesn't want to read about it....I'm terribly frustrated and hurt and a panicky mess right now about it.  My daughter just wants me to go to rehab and get it over with.

I don't want to lose my family....very fearful right now

Yeah, its hard... But it is what it is... we are doing our bit... I think sometimes we have to be a bit firm, If they dont want to educate themselves atleast to a realistic understanding, Then they just better accept what is...

Well this is how I try to look at it, easier said than done... And in my case its just me and C15... And we all know teenagers...

Me being sick is great when it suits him, (how relaxed my night will be if he goes to this wild party in town)..  But im just being lazy, (when he wants me to do something extra physical for him)..

 

Sure, they wont totally "get"it.. But an effort goes a long way...

 

 

[[Gr...]]

Yes and no.  My parents, with whom I do not live with, are super nice and understanding about everything to do with withdrawal.  My husband, with whom I do live with, is damn sick of it.  Honestly, I am sick of it too.  I mean, who expects to take years to withdraw from a drug? 

[[li...]]

I think it's difficult to understand the magnitude of the dependency until you experience it firsthand.  I had heard certain medications could be addictive in the past, but I really had no understanding of what that actually meant until I came to be dependent on Xanax. 

 

Some of my relationships in life have suffered as a result.  I haven't had any children yet, so at least I don't have that to deal with, but I do find my parents wondering why I don't want to go to dinner with them, or my long-term girlfriend sort of lamenting the fact that we can't do "normal" things right now (I currently find it very difficult to go out in public.  I used to love going into the city for entertainment, but right now that's completely out of the question).  There does seem to be a degree of impatience behind a lot of what I hear from the people in my life, and it make me feel a bit helpless.  I can only imagine what those of you with families have to endure. 

 

I haven't really tried any strategies other than explaining how I got to this point (a bad doctor), how difficult it is, and how it is not an overnight process.  I'm confident I will get back to being myself again, but it's going to take some time and won't happen overnight, more likely it'll be a matter of months before I've normalized and I accept that. 

 

 

[[Op...]]

I'm struggling with this very same issue as well. I've been in withdrawal since the last week of May so a full 3 months now. I took my last dose of diazepam 15 days ago and on day 10 woke up in full acute withdrawal that is just persisting at this point.

Even though my spouse has withdrawn from Vicodin recently and many years ago from Xanax he still doesn't understand why I am so sick and lately been unable to work. I read things on my phone and email them to him but he no longer reads it. He read some of the Ashton Manual and he's a nurse he still doesn't get it.

I honestly don't think that most people want to understand why someone who looks fine is sick. The fact this could linger for weeks or months or God forbid a year or more scares me to death. It's already threatening to my marriage career.

If someone could write a very short synopsis of what withdrawal symptoms are and how long they last with how to support someone through it. Perhaps that would be most helpful for us to  share. But how to make someone care and be unselfish is a monumental task! After all withdrawal is not unlike depression in that it is a necessary selfish time in our own lives too.

[[Gr...]]

...There does seem to be a degree of impatience behind a lot of what I hear from the people in my life, and it make me feel a bit helpless. ...

 

Yes, people are so impatient.  It's not like we asked to take a drug with the longest possible taper and withdrawal the exists.  Even my acupuncturist started to criticize me and telling I should go out and do things and not just sit at home watching television every day.  AND HE KNOWS I'm in withdrawal, but I guess he just can't or doesn't believe that it's really still happening.