Scared

[[jf...]]

I have been reading quite a few horror stories about those who have had a pretty rough time recovering after their taper is complete. I have always been under the impression that you are healing during your taper, and by going slow and low would minimize the symptoms I've been hearing about and dreading. I know everyone reacts differently, Im just curious how common these bad, post taper experiences are? 

[[du...]]

I can share with you my most recent experience. For 10 months I was on Ativan .5mg x2 a day and after experiencing interdose WD I discovered the beast I was fighting was from the meds and not some natural anxiety and depression. I did some research and tapered down 50% every two weeks until I was completely off after a month and a half. I got 4 days into being clean and it was agonizing and I had every symptoms that you read about on this site. With advice from my doc, wife, and mom we switched over to Valium to taper off with a longer half life benzo and with help from the AM my doc is telling me I’ll probably be around 8 months to taper off. I’m just one person of several but I would not recommend a CT or accelerated taper as my experience was awful. Keep your head up and take care of yourself!

[[jf...]]

Thank you for the feedback. I have been going very slow and low, and am on K, so I'm already on a long acting benzo. I've only made one cut so far, and am doing well. I plan to make another cut in a few days, which will have been a month since my first cut. I expect the taper to last a year, possibly longer, but I am having the patience to go slow. I'm not experiencing any negative effects from being on the K, I just know that I will be better off in the long run being off of it. 

[[ne...]]

Going at a pace your body can allow to taper (different for everyone) versus a cold turkey is ideal. Unfortunately, there are zero guarantees with how things will turn out even with a slow taper. It depends how dependent your body is/the adaptations your body has made to the benzo and how long your body takes to heal depending on your own factors. Some come off very easily and some have great difficulty. Wishing you the absolute best. 

[[PE...]]

I'm 10 day off CT from various doses and benzos. One day my tolerance was so high i CT though my last dose was 100mg V and 30mg xanax!

I did 20mg V for a couple of days and just quit 10 days ago.

I was on 20mg V for 5 years and got a new doctor that just removed them without any taper so i started to buy online and it just went down. 

I feel much better now then for a month ago.

Haven't vomit or cramped for 10 days.

So be totally tolerant might be possible. 

I'm just afraid for hong long it will last

[[PE...]]

I feel I'm going crazy. Chatroom down?

[[je...]]

My taper was functional and manageable and my jump was a non-event. I felt exactly the same post-jump as I felt during my taper. I absolutely believe I was recovering during my taper. Your chances of a manageable recovery increase if you taper slowly and you manage your symptoms during your taper. However, this is not a guarantee. Some people unfortunately struggle immensely during their entire taper and afterwards even though they "do everything right". The thing though is you want to increase your chances of a manageable recovery. That is all you can do. 

I also want to make it clear that even though I was functional during my taper it was not easy, I did struggle. 

[[Je...]]

8 hours ago, [[j...] said:

I have been reading quite a few horror stories about those who have had a pretty rough time recovering after their taper is complete. I have always been under the impression that you are healing during your taper, and by going slow and low would minimize the symptoms I've been hearing about and dreading. I know everyone reacts differently, Im just curious how common these bad, post taper experiences are? 

@[jf...] I believe there are people out there who have gone off of benzos without problems, we just don't really hear about them because they don't look for help on sites like this one. The experiences of members here are more likely to be alarming because, well, we're struggling and we're here. I have a dear friend who took clonazepam during medical school and then stopped and had no problem at all. So, of course, she would never share her story here because in her mind there wasn't one (a story to share). 

Maybe try not to anticipate that things will be bad for you, because they may not be. Like Mark Twain said, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened."

It's so great you're here and getting support but try not to dread what might happen. Because it might not.

Jess

[[jf...]]

I'm not thinking it will, and that is half the battle. Especially with the low and slow hopefully minimizing anything serious once I jump.  And I'd really rather only do dry cuts. The water thing I'd rather stay away from if possible. I think the process of it would make the taper anxiety worse, and I think I would screw it up somehow. 

[[Je...]]

3 minutes ago, [[j...] said:

I'm not thinking it will, and that is half the battle. Especially with the low and slow hopefully minimizing anything serious once I jump. 

Excellent!!

[[M....]]

Thank you for asking this question! You’ve articulated the same worry I’ve had throughout my (comparatively short) tapering process. I too wondered about the paradox of horrific symptoms following a “healing process”: how could that be? As I understand it, the tapering process - particularly a slow one - allows neuronal systems to “regain control of the functions which have been damped down by [benzodiazepines]” (Ashton manual, p. 31). The way I see it, healing is surely happening while our brains slowly restore their original regulatory functioning. Ashton also proposed that some symptoms “may herald the beginning of a return to normal … functions” (p. 64). So when I experience a w/d symptom such as myoclonus, insomnia, and nightmares, I now think to myself: “Well, I guess that’s me allowing my brain to heal.” It’s certainly no fun, but there’s a sense of agency (“I’m allowing my brain to heal”) and epistemic power (“Oh I know exactly what’s causing this symptom”) that give me a dose of courage.

[[jf...]]

1 hour ago, [[J...] said:

@[jf...] I believe there are people out there who have gone off of benzos without problems, we just don't really hear about them because they don't look for help on sites like this one. The experiences of members here are more likely to be alarming because, well, we're struggling and we're here. I have a dear friend who took clonazepam during medical school and then stopped and had no problem at all. So, of course, she would never share her story here because in her mind there wasn't one (a story to share). 

Maybe try not to anticipate that things will be bad for you, because they may not be. Like Mark Twain said, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened."

It's so great you're here and getting support but try not to dread what might happen. Because it might not.

Jess

That does make a lot of sense, I don't know why I didn't think of that. People that have had a smooth taper and jump probably aren't on here 🤦🏻‍♂️.  I joined for additional support in the event things don't go as smoothly as expected, and I thought maybe all tapers felt like I did when I went was too fast, and incorrectly, (tapering each dose by a percentage) not just one. 

[[Pa...]]

3 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

Thank you for asking this question! You’ve articulated the same worry I’ve had throughout my (comparatively short) tapering process. I too wondered about the paradox of horrific symptoms following a “healing process”: how could that be? As I understand it, the tapering process - particularly a slow one - allows neuronal systems to “regain control of the functions which have been damped down by [benzodiazepines]” (Ashton manual, p. 31). The way I see it, healing is surely happening while our brains slowly restore their original regulatory functioning. Ashton also proposed that some symptoms “may herald the beginning of a return to normal … functions” (p. 64). So when I experience a w/d symptom such as myoclonus, insomnia, and nightmares, I now think to myself: “Well, I guess that’s me allowing my brain to heal.” It’s certainly no fun, but there’s a sense of agency (“I’m allowing my brain to heal”) and epistemic power (“Oh I know exactly what’s causing this symptom”) that give me a dose of courage.

Hello M. LeBlanc, welcome to BenzoBuddies,

Your first post and you're already supporting a fellow member, thank you!  I'm so glad you've educated yourself about this process, information is power and this process makes us feel powerless so kudo's to you.

We're happy you've joined us, please make yourself at home.

Pamster

[[Je...]]

16 hours ago, [[j...] said:

That does make a lot of sense, I don't know why I didn't think of that. People that have had a smooth taper and jump probably aren't on here 🤦🏻‍♂️.  I joined for additional support in the event things don't go as smoothly as expected, and I thought maybe all tapers felt like I did when I went was too fast, and incorrectly, (tapering each dose by a percentage) not just one. 

Exactly! The people that have no problems just move on! It's great that you're here for the support when you need it! And if you don't, you can still support others because it's really helpful, I think, to see that there are tapers that DO go smoothly! 

Jess