2nd success story at 12 months - life just gets better

[[pr...]]

Thanks for everything and I wish you the best!!!

[[SS...]]

just a heads up that tomorrow - July 8, 2018 - my account will be closed - so - i wont be able to receive / see / respond to emails after that.

 

I wish you all the very best.  Remember - good, clean nutrition will help your body have the best chance at healing - and if you want to try the vitamins - go for it - they are not supplements but rather vitamins that should already be in your body.  i hope if any part of this plan helps you - that you will post about it and pay it forward by helping others that come after us...... hopefully there will be a day where no one is injured by these meds again.

 

xoxo - love light and healing

[[go...]]

Thanks again, will this post remain?

[[B ...]]

Thanks again SSR1975 👍

Prayers for your future.....and ours!

[[Un...]]

Such a wealth of information SSR provided, I’m so grateful!  I’ve already added in Vitamin E, Jarrow Zinc+copper and Vitex.  In addition to Vit C, D3 (I’m deficient), and Curcumin.  All are tolerable so far! 

 

 

[Guest [Ru...]]

Unicorn - rooting for you, my dear friend! My regimen is similar to yours (with a few additions); it has taken time, patience, and building up the doses very, very slowly, but I'm seeing solid physical improvements... I pray the same for you.

 

I would appreciate your feedback on Vitex, after a bit of time... Thanks!

 

Sending a warm hug.

 

Lara

[[Un...]]

Lara❤️❤️❤️ My sweet friend, thank you so much.  I’m cheering you on, too!  So excited for your freedom and keeping you in my thoughts and prayers, daily.

 

Can I ask which additional vitamins/supplements you are taking? 

 

I will definitely let you know how it goes with Vitex after I’ve taken it for enough time to notice a difference.  1-3 months, I’ve heard?

 

Big love and hugs to you

 

Uni

[[So...]]

Best wishes SSR1975. Your experience has taught me so much, and I admire your resilient German spirit! I actually went to a Swiss School in Peru and learnt German (for real); but I have not practiced it for so long that I forgot a lot; but I remember some jokes and on this note I would like to ask: How do you say constipation in German? = Farfrompoopin

 

Well, I am glad you have recovered almost complete in nine months. I will be eight months off and most of my w/d symptoms are gone, except a stubborn GI issue. I was recently diagnosed with IBS-C, gastritis, and a hiatal hernia..fun, fun fun. This is a pre-benzo condition but the w/d made it all worse. I feel so much better though than three months ago.

 

Good luck!

[[tr...]]

Very inspirational and informative.

Thank you 

[[Be...]]

Congratulations on your victory!  You mentioned cardiac problems including PVCs.  I just need to tell you and anybody reading this that even severe PVCs can be caused by a magnesium deficiency.

 

I got my first PVCs some 6 or 7 years ago.  The doctors ran all of their tests and told me they were benign, but they could burn some heart nerves if it kept bothering me.  I finally heard about magnesium supplements and tried one.  They were gone after about a week.  And gone for about 5 years.  The PVCs came back in January after starting anti-biotics for a severe cough/cold.  This caused me great anxiety.  They were bad.  Every third beat for most of the day.  I was still taking the magnesium, but it was poorly absorbed magnesium oxide.  I did more research.  The same doctor examined me and said the same thing.  I found a supplement that was magnesium citrate powder to dissolve in water.  The PVCs cleared up in less than a week, and have been mostly absent for 5 months now.  I'm 54 years old and jog 2-3 X/week.

 

Anybody that claims that vitamins and supplements don't help is misinformed.  As we age, our bodies become less efficient and need some help absorbing nutrition.  If you don't eat spinach every day, you probably need some magnesium supplementation. 

[[Ma...]]

Sorry to see I missed SSR ,but wow what a lot of great information I ave no  signature attached as yet but a long time 1 mg Xanax user with some existing tolerance symptoms getting ready to taper. I have been involved with holistic health information for years, and will be talking to my naturopath about all of this in a couple of days. It has been so discouraging seeing all the information about supplements you seemingly cannot take, and wonder which ones seem to still be on the board during tapering Maybe Melatonin, the adaptagens, Ashwaganda, Rhodiola, and Ginseng. I have seen Bacopa mentioned somewhere on this forum, and I see Dr Weil recommends Valerian for those on Benzo withrawal but a lot of supplement expert seem to thin that is pretty weak. I see SSR listed Benfotiamine as something that helped , though I know there is a lot of opinions that claim no B Vitamins

 

At the moment i still do a lot of swimming and wet saunas, though yesterday I worked out really hard, felt great for about 5 hours and then had a lot of symptoms. Hard to say if the two were tied before looking at a larger sample size. do folks have opinions on saunas? Also I know alpha Lipoic acid and cilantro are two of the substances that actually penetrate the blood brain barrier and potentially remove toxins from the brain But since  brain toxins are not necessarily implicated in all of this, it is probably not worth considering when tapering at least.

 

There is also that post of the one example at Orthomolecular where a guy used high dose C, Gaba, and Niacin to taper quickly from a few years of 1mg Xanax. But such a small sample size it seems pretty worthless, tough Niacin remains a bit interesting to me

 

Maybe this thread can continue to serve as a bit of a meeting place for the holistically minded folks I hope so

[[Un...]]

Hey MAttNapa!

 

YEs, SSR provided such a wealth of information!!  She really went above and beyond.  It's all so helpful!  Have you checked out the Alternative Therapies & Supplements board?

 

I know SSR said vitamin D3 was a no go for her, but I've been taking it at 5,000IU daily without problems (I'm way deficient if I don't).  Some people will have a better time with different supplements than others, but this guideline is fantastic.  I've added some supplements to my regimen of Liposomal Vit C, Solgar Curcumin and D3 because she shared her info and experience about them; Vit E, Jarrow Zinc+Copper and will be adding more later on.  My diet is very similar, as well.  The more whole foods, the better...  if they are not on the excitatory list.  Also, I find juicing to be really helpful.

 

I'm one of the ones who stays away from Magnesium and all supplements that act on GABA receptors.  Like Valerian, Chamomile, etc.  But others are using them.  Working with your naturopath will be helpful!

 

Best wishes to you!!

 

Uni

[[Ma...]]

Hi Unicorn Thanks for the friendly reply I have been to the alternative therapies board and that is probably a better place to continue the conversation than here. However it might be nice to post here occasionally just to bump the thread to keep it visible. I am not sure I know the list of exciatory foods, but I will try looking for it Thanks again and good luck

[[pr...]]

Bump

[[Ay...]]

Thank you is all that I can say...thank you! Your words have given me a renewed perspective on Benzo withdrawal/recovery.

 

Wishing you MUCH success and MANY blessings!

 

~Ayonna 

[[SS...]]

Dear All - just a note - as I don't come here anymore but occasionally get an email that I will try to respond to - it's 15 months out and i am doing awesome - it has only been onward and upward for me.  I stepped away from this site because there was much unkindness going on and i just didn't need the negativity but I can say that i really do believe that the dietary restrictions and vitamins were essential to my healing.  i have been hit with several very stressful situations in the last few months and none of them caused setbacks.  I worked 60 hour weeks all of august and most of september and held up just fine.  this whole year i only took 1 solid week off back in june and otherwise just a long weekend here and there. 

 

i am living the most amazing life after so many years of suffering.  i have no pain - so much of what i thought was chronic lymes was interdose withdrawal and benzo issues.  i was fully dependent on a knee brace to work out for years and don't need it at all anymore.  i am doing 5 miles per day and weight training and power yoga - all feels so amazing after i went through months of exercise intolerance that threw me into terrible set backs. 

 

i did want to respond to hte post about magnesium -  i was totally intolerant to it - i tried it 3 times and each time was sent into acute withdrawal for 72 hours...... however - other people seem to be able to take it without issue.    I have gotten my RBC magnesium checked several times and it has remained above 5 despite no magnesium supplements - so  for me - the cardiac issues were never caused by magnesium deficiency but rather the massive amounts of adrenaline and cortisol surging through my body from the cold turkey off high doses of valium

 

please keep the faith that if you follow a strict diet and willing to try some supportive vitamins - healing does happen - i do believe there are people who aren't getting better and i suspect those are impacted by really significant genetic mutations - i have quite a few and all the vitamins i took were customized for those issues.  i am not sure my body could have beaten this without them.  but that is an individual decision people need to make for themselves.  i have seen people post about their success with the keto diet - i think there are several different dietary approaches that can work and each person needs to find their best path - i created my own plan - which i outlined - other people follow keto or paleo - what these all have in common is no gluten  low sugar, in many cases low or no dairy, low or no carbs - and good fats - the brain needs good fats to heal - it feeds the brain! 

 

i am now able to take vitamin D without issue - i think early on the brand i had was just too high a dose at 5000 IU - when i went to 1000 IU i was able to tolerate it - which was so important because i had become very vitamin D deficient from no sun or supplementation.

 

perhaps the most heart warming thing for me has been to hear from the people who were also hit with the severe acne who started lycopene and had the same result as me - total clearing in 48 hours.  people felt i shouldn't have been concerned with such a superficial symptom but it was devastating because not only was my brain and insides going through hell - but my appearance was truly horrible..... so to find something that resolved this symptom made such a difference for my outlook. 

 

sending continued best wishes, strength, love and light to you all!!!!!!!!!  keep up the faith, distraction and love and care for your body and brain

[Guest [Ru...]]

SSR,

 

So glad to hear you're doing well! And many thanks for dropping by with more tips and encouragement. Lovely to see you here.

 

I agree with you regarding the negativity and unkindness/cliquishness on this site - so unnecessary and disheartening. I also concur with the broad dietary outline you provide in your latest post, as this is what's working for me, too. I was very hard hit and, like you, doubt that I'd be improving without diet and targeted supplementation.

 

Wishing you light, peace, and continued wellness!

[[pr...]]

SSR1975, thanks for your suggestions because the changes are paying off for me. I wrote about my improvements under SUCCESS, by the way. Thanks again for everything.

[[co...]]

Just wanted to re-up this for anyone looking for some advice.... I think it's a great post and there's a lot of good information in the firs post by the OP.

[[Ty...]]

Thank you so much for posting this! I have had no one this similar to me go through this. All your hard work finding this out has helped me even more. My wife has figured some of this out but you gave us the last pieces that we needed. We figured out some of the food but couldnt find a common factor on what was causing the excitment.. also being german decent and having the mthfr gene mutation (yet again my wife figured that out) have made some baby steps. But i believe after making adjustments from what your post said i believe i will make great strides. Currently starting month 6 off of ativan. And before that i was on klonopin for 3yrs. Thank you so much you have given me so much hope!! GOD BLESS YOU!!

[[ni...]]

SSR1975 what a well written testament to your recovery and congratulations on the success you reached on your benzo journey. I hope you will come back now and then.  I wish you continued success in your life. You are an amazing woman.

Thanks again for sharing, as I plan on using your story to keep me going until I get there.

 

[[SS...]]

best wishes nightingale for a smooth recovery.    i still look back and wonder how i survived it.  i'm just about 2 years out and life is truly beautiful.  i have been through a lot of stress these last few months - ended up in a lawsuit with the landlord/leasing company of my apartment, had some tough politics going on with work - bought my dream house and renovated it - so went 4 months without a single day off to rest -since i worked nights/weekends on the renovations etc and no set backs.    i learned so much throughout the withdrawal process and it continues to benefit me every day.   

 

don't give up - there is an amazing life worth living on the other side of this.  to think i nearly ended things twice...... oh what i would have missed out on !!  stay determined and keep the faith - even when there are no encouraging signs....  love, light, healing and strength to all

[[Fu...]]

Thank you for taking time to write. I’m so happy you are well.

Thank you for sharing all you experiences and knowledge. I have already ordered folinic acid, Methylcobalamin B12 and copper/zinc as I also have the gene variant MTHFR.  I will soon be done with my clonazepam withdrawal. It’s been difficult.

I saved your post and plan to review for further information.  You’re post is invaluable to me. Thank you. Best to you always!

 

 

 

 

 

[[SS...]]

Tyder - so glad you and your wife were able to start piecing some things together.  no question genetics play a huge role in all of this.  i wish our medical community knew more and could offer support but everything i learned was really combining multiple sources of information and trying to make sense of it.

 

i hope your recovery continues on and that you can soon also reclaim your life.  every day - once you are well - we be such a precious gift

 

sending love. light, continued determination, peace and healing

[[SS...]]

Fun To Go - glad the information was of some use - it took a long time to write it all out on paper and then type up - my only hope was that the information could at least help 1 or 2 other people...... we will each have our own unique experience with this but i think a lot of what i recommend will help ease some of the symptoms for people without risking GABA exposure set backs!!

 

best wishes for continuing healing!