Four Day Window. Then a Wave!

[[Jo...]]

Hi Buddies. I have been tapering now for awhile from 1.5 mg of Kolonopin. It was real tough in the beginning but then things leveled off. This past week was the best yet. I had four days of a window. But then yesterday morning I got hit with a wave that lasted all day. Basically nonfunctional. And on Mother’s Day of all days. I of course started to panic. But then I remembered Parker’s article “What is happening in your brain” and read it again last night.

 

What great comfort it provided me. I remembered that I suffered a brain injury from the benzo and my brain is now healing. It will not be a linear path. Parker said that the windows are when my body has it right in rebuilding neurons and pathways. But then Parker says the brain begins to work on something else in its healing efforts - it’s chaos again while new repairs are made.

 

This makes sense to me. I am trying to look at this new wave now as a positive in that it indicates new and more healing. I have to rejoice in that!

 

Anyone feel similar out there?

 

[[Co...]]

I am enduring my first cut which was apparently too much. I’m in bed telling myself my brain is healing. This is horrible but we will get there together. George

[[Jo...]]

Hi George. Thanks for your encouragement. I notice you said your “first cut and it has been bad”. Have you found Jim Hawk’s Application in the BB website? If you hit “Read Me” first you will understand what he is doing. Basically you plug in all your info and select your taper rate. It gives a choice of between 5% and 10 % over a period of two weeks per Dr. Ashton. I have settled on the slowest rate of 5% because I have found whenever I go faster I get real bad. It uses the daily microtaper approach rather than cuts and holds every two weeks ( which it sounds like you are doing, although I may be wrong). You can select direct cutting of pills or a liquid taper. People succeed with either approach. The benefit of the daily microtaper is that it gives the brain more time to adapt to small cuts. People still get symptoms but they tend to be less severe. I also chose the Attenuated Phase in Jim Hawk’s Application because I want that smaller percentage cut at the lower doses. It spreads it out at the end. It will take me until June 2020 to taper 1.5 mg of Kolonopin this way but I need to function as much as possible.

 

I hope this helps you!

[[Co...]]

Finally figured out how to find response posts. I tried to use that and I’m doing something wrong. It’s not giving me the information

[[AZ...]]

Hi folks,

I’ve been holding and stabilizing since February after doing a rapid taper back in December and January.  I was suffering incredibly at first.  I’ve had windows and waves since then and I agree Parker’s post is very helpful.  Most of April was a wave for me but I’ve seen many symptoms fade away in this time.  Had a week now of window.  My main symptoms now are cog fog most every day, concentration problems, blurry vision.  Overall still uncomfortable but functional.  I foresee another couple months of stabilizing, but I know I’m gradually improving.