Advice needed

[[De...]]

Hello,

 

i was on Clonazapem 3 mgs daily for 6-7 years. I quit it like 4 years ago. It was a relatively fast taper.

 

I had many symptoms of withdrawal which lasted multiple years. Sometimes my hands still go numb while sleeping. My sex drive took 3-4 years to recover.

 

However, I have a concern. Since the last year and a half, every now and again I get a panic attack (once in two weeks). My heart starts pounding, breathing becomes faster, I become fearful, etc. Sometimes I also get faint voices. Can it be related to benzos and their withdrawal? If so, what can I do about it?

 

thank you

I will appreciate your response.

[[jo...]]

From what I've learned on here reading 1000s of posts my guess is that you are still sensitized from the benzo usage.  It is good to see you are mostly healed and carrying on with your life. 

 

I did not understand benzos the first couple times they were prescribed to me.  Looking back I can see that my anxiety was higher after the first time they were prescribed.  Had I known then what I know now I would have never touched any more prescriptions. 

 

It seems the only things you can do are:

 

Never touch another benzo or Z-drug (Ambien, Lunesta, etc).

Avoid things that can set us back (Alcohol, many antibiotics, sugar, shit food, drugs, and more).

Avoid people and situations that might provoke you (impossible to avoid it all so just accept you will have to live with some panic attacks). 

Don't bother getting unnecessary medical tests done.  Many many people on here have spent a fortune on tests that all come back negative.  It turns out every medical issue they were concerned about was a symptom of benzo use.

 

I'm new to this so I have yet to try any kind of therapy / CBT.  I see mixed reviews on here.  Therapy is useful no matter what, but benzo injury is physiological so I can't seeing it being 'cured' by psychological means. 

 

You are a protracted case (people who take more than 18 months to fully recover - whatever that means). People do report more healing after 4 years so it could be just a matter of time while avoiding the things I discussed above. 

 

I hope this helps a bit.

 

J

 

 

[[De...]]

Thank You.

 

I appreciate it.

 

Do the panick attacks ever go away?

[[jo...]]

Thank You.

 

I appreciate it.

 

Do the panick attacks ever go away?

 

I would defer to other more experienced users on here.  From what I read is panic attacks do ease over time, but that also depends on the situations you find yourself in.  Some of those situations are unavoidable (family, work, random people in the world).  I think therapy / CBT would be helpful in learning how to minimize those situations. 

 

My recent use of benzos could have been avoided if I had been counseled how to not put myself in stressful situations.  I am usually very careful and have great judgement.  What I didn't realize is that my judgement had been compromised a little through my previous use of benzos and my risk taking ability was not what it used to be. 

 

I ended up in an extremely stressful situation that would take the strongest man down and reached for an old ativan prescription.  I thought I could use it 'strategically' but found out the hard way it gets worse every time you do that. 

 

I look forward to hearing from more experienced members that recovered from panic attacks.  Life is about taking on stress and coming out the other side.  That's how we grow and succeed, by managing stress.  Benzos seriously compromise our ability to manage stress so we first have to heal and learn to take stress on strategically and carefully.  Most of the people who have setbacks on here (return to symptoms after healing) did so because of stress or consuming one of the things I listed before. 

 

As this world becomes more callous and predatory (economically and politically) it seems stress is going to be here to stay for all of us.  We have to be very strategic and build support within our network which is hard to do while in benzo recovery. 

 

So to summarize:  be strategic where possible with stressful situations.  Build a network of support.  Try therapy to help learn how to avoid and manage stress.  Don't ever touch another benzo.  It may ease anxiety short term, but will bring a never ending supply of stress and misery long term. 

 

J