Did chest symptoms dissipate for you eventually?

[[An...]]

Pressure, pain, palps. Shortness of breath feeling, air hunger, trouble swallowing, muscle tension in chest, stomach, and upper back.....you know, all the heart related crap. How long after you stopped  benzos before you started getting some relief from these troublesome sx's, even if you have not gotten full relief. These things seem to be a daily companion for me. I often find myself wondering if these horrible sx's will ever leave or am I stuck with this stuff until I die?

 

I think I have some kind of a cardiac phobia from this now.  :'(

[[ph...]]

Still going on for me, comes and goes in intensity.

 

 

[[...]]

It does go away.

 

Halfway through my taper my chest pain and heart palpitations got so scary I went to the ER. Turns out it was just benzo withdrawal.

 

My doctor explained it to me this way. The withdrawl issues create so much anxiety that your chest is always in a state of muscle constriction. After a long time, the tired muscles create chest pains and other strange behaviors which seem to be coming from your heart.

 

To fix this my doctor said we had to address the anxiety in order to give the chest muscles a chance to relax. But rather than give me benzo which I was trying to taper off of he gave me Buspar.  Buspar is NOT a benzo.  It was easy for me to take it for a couple weeks until the chest pains went away and then I stopped it with no problems. It is not a fix and it doesn’t work for some people. I only took it in the morning and took a very low-dose. It’s sort of made me dizzy but it was worth it to get the elimination of the chest pains.

 

Bob

 

[[An...]]

Thanks Bob--

Do you still suffer with any chest pain, pressure, etc.?

[[Fo...]]

Improved on less Diaz and Seroquel

Three ER admissions last year. None since lowering meds

Good luck.

[Guest [mi...]]

Its all anxiety! I had chess tightness in the past before benzos and post benzos and anxiety is the thing in common. In the past it was normally traumatic situations that triggered it, now without any triggers is more than likely that is chemically induced. Anxious thoughts bring a menu of other symptoms too and everything gets amplified due to this meds. The only chance we have is let our brain to heal using all the resources we have at hand, mostly time...

[[...]]

Thanks Bob--

Do you still suffer with any chest pain, pressure, etc.?

Here’s how I would describe things.

 

Back when I was tapering I would describe chest issues and pain on a scale of 1 to 10 as a 10 where 10 is the worst.

 

Now that I am eight months free of benzo I probably only had a few events of chest related pains lasting no more than a day or two and the rating would be 1 or 2.  I have months go by where I don’t even think about chest issues or pain.  It seems to only come back if I have work stress or other anxieties trigger it. 

 

In short, you have a great reason to hope that this will go away.

[[An...]]

Ok, thanks Bob (and all others) for your responses. Hope sx's are minimal for everyone this weekend.

[[Fo...]]

Thanks Anti B

Dickie