How do you know when you are done with w/ds

[[Cr...]]

Stupid question---we think not. I get some reprieve at times and feel almost normal, then a bad night of sleep and I'm rocketed into the 4th dimension the next day. My doc thinks I have a limb disorder before all the meds were taken last year however i did come off the k a little bit too quickly soooo it is hard to say. The sleep seems to be the last thing on the chart for me since i have 147 days free and clear... The most I sleep in a row is 4 1/2 hrs... I feel like i'm buckling to either going on meds again or spending 1000's of dollars for tests to see what the root cause of my problem is which maybe scam city in the intergrated medical world... Your opinions are great appreciated.... thx

[[Be...]]

Hi, CrazyJo.

 

In answer to your question about how you know w/d is over, I think it's as much about a personal decision as it is about being fully healed.  I knew that I occasionally went through periods of poor sleep prior to benzos, as well as muscle spasms/cramps, sweating, and a whole range of things that are considered withdrawal symptoms when you are tapering.  Some time after the 7th month, when I was feeling like except for sleep I was back to being myself, I just declared myself healed.  I do still deal with sleep issues from time to time and always wake up at least once during the night.  That is my new normal but I have learned to get back to sleep fairly quickly so it doesn't bother me any more.  Are you not able to get back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night?

[[Pa...]]

I did the same thing Beeper did, I declared myself healed, regardless of the occasional symptom, or sleep issue, I just needed to do that for myself.  It was time to put a positive spin on my life, and climb out of the withdrawal pit.  I know that I continued to heal long after this, but to me, this was just icing on the cake because things were already so good.  Sleep was the last thing to come back for me, but I have it now.  I was never a good sleeper, but now I sleep better than I have in years, I guess it takes walking through fire to know peace.

 

I sure wouldn't go for more tests, or start new medications until you have at least a year under your belt, I've not seen many declare themselves before that.

[[Ma...]]

I am finding more and more that there are tons of people who have trouble sleeping that has nothing to do with benzo w/d and they seem to do ok regardless.  Starting to figure out that I need to learn how to do so too!  Especially since poor sleep is what got me in this mess in the first place!  By the way, your med roller coaster sounds like mine!  Take something to fix the problems caused by the previous one until you figure out you don't need any of it.  Wonderful docs!  I did thousands of dollars of tests last year with a "Functional Medicine" doc only to find that the way he was reading the thyroid and female hormone tests was wrong and that I had a taurine deficiency.  No doc--it's withdrawal!

[Guest [Tu...]]

Sleep? What's that?

 

Me on Day 44: 

[[Mi...]]

I did the same thing Beeper did, I declared myself healed, regardless of the occasional symptom, or sleep issue, I just needed to do that for myself....

 

I sure wouldn't go for more tests, or start new medications until you have at least a year under your belt, I've not seen many declare themselves before that.

 

I would agree with Pamster and Beeper.  I'm off just over 8 months and although I feel so much better than I did a year ago, I still have occasional "bad" days.