My medical doctors recommendations on withdrawal

[[Ju...]]

So I had an appointment two days ago with my medical doctor, and they told me there was a couple things that would help. First, exercise. They said to push myself a little bit harder than I've been doing, and it will create more sleep , and that will heal me faster. So even if you're uncomfortable, push yourself harder. Also, stay away from MSG. They said it can both directly result in more waves and withdrawal symptoms, or it can just mimic it. Staying away from caffeine  can help also. Also limiting sugar. Minimizing stress was another recommendation. They said having a therapist can help with the anxiety portion of it. And of course, eat healthy and use social distancing during covid-19, and aside from that, they didn't think anything would really help. So basically diet and exercise, whether you are uncomfortable or not and feel like eating something that's not healthy or not, you have to change your habits. Get as much sleep as you can, you might have to push off some things in life in order to get better sleep and heal better. And this is medical advice from the doctor. It's pretty much stuff we already know, but it doesn't hurt for a medical doctor to acknowledge it.

[[re...]]

This is a great post, even if it is a restatement of the basics, and nice validation from a healthcare professional that what we know to be good for us (diet, exercise, sleep, etc) is the right path to be on.  These are tried and true actions we can take to help speed our recovery.  No mention of supplements, other drugs, etc which are unlikely to help and just waste a lot of $$$ and can cause their own problems.

 

Cheers,

          RR

 

 

[[Ju...]]

I agree Recovery Road. Just basic stuff that we should be doing anyways. And it's definitely difficult to do these things while going through withdrawal, and she agreed. So basically she's saying push yourself and make sure you get good sleep and nutrition and keep yourself in shape and there's no kind of medicine that's going to help, it's going to have to run its course. It's a lot better advice than some of these psychiatrist, telling you to take antidepressants or Gabapentin or whatever else like antipsychotics. That just makes things worse probably unless you have a condition that they work for. I don't know though. Anyways, hopefully your road to recovery is a lot quicker than mine.

[[re...]]

I agree Recovery Road. Just basic stuff that we should be doing anyways. And it's definitely difficult to do these things while going through withdrawal, and she agreed. So basically she's saying push yourself and make sure you get good sleep and nutrition and keep yourself in shape and there's no kind of medicine that's going to help, it's going to have to run its course. It's a lot better advice than some of these psychiatrist, telling you to take antidepressants or Gabapentin or whatever else like antipsychotics. That just makes things worse probably unless you have a condition that they work for. I don't know though. Anyways, hopefully your road to recovery is a lot quicker than mine.

 

No doubt JiT, core basics we should all do our best to adhere to.  The challenge for some is that a pill got us into this so there can be a mindset that a pill will get us out of it.  Believe me, I have tried every supplement under the sun with little to no benefit and a lot of $$$ spent.  Stuff that people have sworn are great (Inositol for one) made me super anxious.  Supplementing with pretty much any amino acid doesn't seem to sit well with me.  I would say I tolerate magnesium, fish oil, and vitamin D well enough, but those things may cause another person issues.

 

I think you and I are at about the same place as I'm 9 months Benzo free since July.  Wishing us both, and everyone else, a fully recovery when the time is right.

 

Cheers,

          RR

[[Ju...]]

Yes I just passed 9 months, in July 2019 is when I quit cold turkey. It will be 10 months soon.

[[re...]]

Yes I just passed 9 months, in July 2019 is when I quit cold turkey. It will be 10 months soon.

 

Same here JiT, I quit CT late July because I had been using "as needed" pet doctors orders so I never considered a taper plan.  Whether that is part of the reason I'm still feeling bad 9 months out I'll never know, but I guess it also doesn't matter anyway.  All I can do is move forward. I'm hopeful they maybe a year will be a turning point. 

 

Let's keep doing the right thing and mutually support each other.  Praying for improvement soon.

 

Cheers

RR

[[Ju...]]

Well that's cool, another cold turkey in July. Mine was on July 14th and then I went to the hospital and they relapse me for 2 days just to say they tapered me. Basically the hospital made it worse. And yeah it was a cold turkey, two different times in July. I'm also always saying that, I'm doing the right thing. My family is always like what do you mean? They are like, you might not be getting into trouble but you're not doing the right thing. They just don't get it.

[[re...]]

July 21st for me, and then when the tinnitus rolled in about a month later I knew that I was going to have to prepare for a challenging withdrawal.  Fortunately I didn't involve a doctor or hospital and I'm sorry for what you had to endure, but on the other hand the poison has been clear of your system for a good stretch now so healing has been happening.  A proper taper would probably been more prudent, but I wasn't aware of BB then nor tapering.

 

In any case, here we are now with nowhere to go but forward.  My family doesn't really understand either, they all believe that since doctors have years of medical training that their guidance is correct and how could I know better than a doctor?  Well, I know my own body so that trumps whatever a doctor may think. 

 

Cheers,

        RR

[[Ju...]]

Sounds identical to what I'm going through. I was home for a couple days at the beginning of August, not that many symptoms really. I mean don't get me wrong, it was hell, but it wasn't until a couple weeks later that the real hell started. That's when the paranoia kicked in and yeah, I also had the tinnitus hit me out of nowhere. It sounded like there was Locust and grasshoppers inside of my house. Loud hissing and complete paranoia. Lots of visual distortions and hallucinations. And each month that went by, the worse it got. And then everything else in the world was going on at the same time, Court hearings and divorce and child custody and evictions and social workers and doctors, Etc. Stuff that people normally take anxiety meds for, and instead of taking meds, I was going through withdrawal. So basically doing the opposite of what normal people do is what we had to do. And then I moved back to the beach, started going for walks, started getting more sleep, and my mind started coming back little by little. I'm still going through hell, but it's definitely improved. I think within the next month, the symptoms will be minimal. I'm still going to have a lot of work to do on my anxiety since I started taking them at 17 and have never lived without them. 20 years is a long time to take them. But we all heal, just some faster than others. And once I'm Healed, I'm going to stop taking my propanolol and never see a doctor again other than blood work and when I'm sick.