Chronic headaches and hardys daily essentials

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I’ve been doing a micro taper of 6 mg diazepam after switching from zopiclone after 13 years of use in February. I am now on 4 mg diazepam. I started using hardys daily essential nutrients as they have said it will help be able to taper faster. The plan is to replace the benzodiazepine with the micronutrients. I’ve been having chronic headaches which has been a problem for 2 years now but gotten much worse over the past couple years of months. The headaches are mysterious but I have tried so many things and I’m at a point where I don’t get a day without one ever. I’ve tried countless treatments with little to no relief. My questions are: has anyone else had chronic headaches while on diazepam or tapering? Has anyone had success with tapering while transitioning to hardys daily essential nutrients? I’m currently speeding up my taper as it appears the medication may be too strong for me due to the interaction with the Hardys daily essential nutrients. Anyone’s experience or opinion would be appreciated.

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Hello Zana Welcome to the forum.

We are glad you are here.  It’s awful that you are dealing with headaches every day, I tapered diazepam, but didn't experience daily headaches.  You will find others on the forum, who may have suffered with bad headaches.   Sorry I've not heard of “hardys daily essential nutrients” ?   I didn’t find anything that helped me while tapering or in recovery, supplements made me feel a lot worse.  It's best to get symptoms checked out, just to be safe.  We generally recommend a taper rate of about 5-10% every two weeks, although rates vary, depending on symptoms, how you feel, whatever is comfortable.

 When you have a chance, I recommend that you take a look at The Ashton Manual, It provides a great deal of information that can be very reassuring during any stage of this process, including a list of common symptoms in chapter III  with helpful explanations. .

https://benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha03.htm

The Ashton Manual

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/   

Withdrawal Support

https://benzobuddies.org/forum/121-withdrawal-recovery-support/

Magrita

 

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Hi thank you for your reply. I have read the Ashton manual and began a micro taper of .3% per day which I’ve sped up to .6% per day and may begin to make slightly bigger cuts due to the effect of the hardys products. I have read positive reviews on their website about people being able to get off benzos with relative ease while using their daily essential nutrients. I’ve also read of people having withdrawal made easier by taking their aminos which I’m also taking now. I know it’s not consistent with Ashton manual or the general consensus amount the benzo community but certain aminos have been reported to assist in the withdrawal process.

I have been through Diazapam withdrawal before and I had no idea what I was doing. It almost sounds too good to be true that a high dose multivitamin supplement could make it any easier to get off benzos but the products been proven to improve many mental health issues. I have found their support helpful as they do seem well informed about benzos and refer to the Ashton manual on their website which is something I haven’t found anywhere else in my search for support.

The product specialists are saying because I’ve tapered so slowly while being on the daily essentials my body is now reacting badly to the diazepam as if it’s too strong and this could likely be the cause of the constant headaches. It’s like I’ve developed an intolerance to the diazepam or at least an intolerance to the dose because of the effect the micronutrients now have. My doctor is completing the training with hardys scientists so she’ll be able to guide be better support me through my taper. 
 

Hopefully my story ends up a success and can help someone else.

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Hello, @[...].  Welcome to BenzoBuddies. I just used our search function (located in the upper right corner of the page)  to look for member posts about Hardy Nutritionals.  (I didn’t find many but I only did a quick search using ‘Hardy’ and ‘Nutritionals’ as keywords; you might find more posts if you do a more comprehensive search using more/different keywords.)

The below-linked post gave me pause. This member’s vitamin B6 levels reached toxic range while taking Hardy Daily Essentials.  When she discontinued the product, she went into acute benzodiazepine withdrawal. To learn more:

https://benzobuddies.org/topic/133619-begoods-village/?do=findComment&comment=3297323

 

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Thank you for this. I can see from searching b6 toxicity on the Hardys website that now offer a low b6 version of the daily essentials. I’m unsure if my b6 levels but I will opt for the low b6 version in future to be on the safe side. 

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I also have constant headache.. diazepam was my drug fpr 5 years. I switched too clonazepam three days ago

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I also get a lot of headaches, and they've gotten worse over the last month or so. I've been off clonazepam for just over three months. Headaches and head pressure are very common symptoms of BIND (Benzodizepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction) and withdrawal.

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I don’t think I’m in withdrawal yet at least not from the diazepam. I’m wondering if his could be protracted withdrawal from zopiclone that I switched from in February after 13 years of use or even seroquel which I got off in April after 17 years of use.

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I have been in and out of urgent care a few times out of desperation with the pain. I’m not showing any other symptoms of neurological dysfunction(?) I guess so they haven’t sent me for an urgent ct scan although that will happen eventually as I’ve asked my doctor for a referral. I’ve had blood work done for thyroid issues mainly and b12 which is elevated but not of concern. 

I am not sure what else my dr should look for? Obviously the b6 one to be aware of. 

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Thank you I so appreciate everyone’s input!

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I’ve decided to hold at 4 mgs for a while and see if anything improves. I talked to another person at hardys we go seemed a bit more knowledgeable about benzos and psych meds. She recommended i pause my taper and just hold for a while and assess my symptoms.

I was looking at my tapering journal I noticed since February the longest I’ve gone without making a reduction of anything is 17 days. Seems like a good idea to try and get stabilised.

 

As I sped up the taper and was getting close to 4 mg were getting worse for me, particularly sleep. 
 

I switched from zopiclone to Diazepam overnight back in February. I felt amazing as I was actually able to sleep and no longer experiencing medication induced sleep eating disorder. I’m wondering doing a quick crossover may have caused problems? Even though I felt so much better sleep wise.