Dealing with scepticism

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Tomorrow I’ll be four months off benzos and though I’ve noticed improvements I’m still dealing with many withdrawal symptoms. I’ve got to the point where I don’t even say anything to my wife about what i’m going through. I had some really rough days and and she asked what was wrong and I told her that I my symptoms were bad that day/week. She just says you’ve been off so long there is no way you can be feeling this way because of those meds. Are there any “easy read” documents, etc. out there that I can share with her which would give a better understanding of what we are going through and how long these symptoms can last?

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Ashton Manual  .

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Here are some helpful handouts. http://w-bad.org/handouts/

 

There's some other good information for family/caregivers on that website.  I don't have those links handy but you could browse around or search.  Best.

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Might not be the most "easy to read" explanation, but below is link to about the best

explanation I have come across so far.

 

What is happening to your brain during benzo recovery.

 

 

".... The reason benzo's are so hard to come off of is because unlike the other substances, benzos actually alters gaba neurons. During the course of taking the drug, new Gaba neurons grow in without the gaba a receptor site. This means that you need to wait for old neurons to live their life cycle and die and new ones to grow with the Gaba A receptor site.

 

For ease of understanding, it only takes one day to burn down a 100 year old forest, but a long time to grow it back.. Your GABA-A receptor forest has been burned down by benzo use.. This forest must regrow and it's takes a long time once GABA agonist use has stopped. Also, the two highest concentrations of GABA-A receptors are the stomach/gut and brain. Which is why those in recovery have so many issues with food, digestion, etc and mental health issues. There are approx 100 Trillion GABA-A receptor sites on the Human Body.. one for nearly every cell.. Every system is impacted.. Every.. System.."

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Thanks everyone for your replies!  The Ashton Manual was the first to come to mind but I knew it would be way too much reading.  I'll definitely check out the other links.

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Reading "Success Stories" helps me keep going. Might help your wife to read a few of them to help

her understand what you are going through.  Below is a collection of over 100 "success stories" I ran

across a while back. 

 

 

http://dtfsdf.oco.net/Benzo_success_stories_rev_2_modified-2.pdf