3 months out: how can you tell if you almost at the end?

[[Jo...]]

Hey @[Pa...], I just want to ask you a personal question. I have been feeling my neck and back. And I noticed that on one side of neck feels like small rocks on each side of my neck. I don’t think this bone. And the left side of my upper back feels like rock too. I checked the other side of my upper back to be sure.
 

Is this what happens when a person tapers too fast? And did you or anyone else have this same problem while going through withdrawal?

[[PE...]]

On 15/12/2023 at 16:16, [[h...] said:

Caffeine modulates the GABA(A) receptors, which are the ones so severely affected by benzos, so I would avoid it completely for now if I were you.

So does caffeine effects healing?

I have no life without espresso/coffee. I'm stuck in a state were i feel constant hangover with headache and tension and strong coffee is the only things that helps.

[[he...]]

46 minutes ago, [[n...] said:

So does caffeine effects healing?

I have no life without espresso/coffee. I'm stuck in a state were i feel constant hangover with headache and tension and strong coffee is the only things that helps.

All I can say, peppe, is it can cause problems, and it may slow healing down, but that’s not a given. We’re all different. I tried caffeine for eight days while tapering, and that almost ended me. I had the worst wave I’d ever had for two weeks. Obviously my body wasn’t ready for it. 

[[PE...]]

4 minutes ago, [[h...] said:

All I can say, peppe, is it can cause problems, and it may slow healing down, but that’s not a given. We’re all different. I tried caffeine for eight days while tapering, and that almost ended me. I had the worst wave I’d ever had for two weeks. Obviously my body wasn’t ready for it. 

Yeah that seems like the norm @[he...]. When I was in acute I didn't touch it. I could hardly drink water without vomiting lol. 

 

 

[[Pa...]]

3 hours ago, [[J...] said:

Hey @[Pa...], I just want to ask you a personal question. I have been feeling my neck and back. And I noticed that on one side of neck feels like small rocks on each side of my neck. I don’t think this bone. And the left side of my upper back feels like rock too. I checked the other side of my upper back to be sure.
 

Is this what happens when a person tapers too fast? And did you or anyone else have this same problem while going through withdrawal?

I didn't experience joint or muscle pain like a lot of our members do but having pain on one side or the other is very common. I don't think these symptoms are exclusive to those who taper too fast, they're just another symptom we deal with.  Benzodiazepines are excellent muscle relaxers so removing them causes the opposite effect. 

[[Jo...]]

Hi @[Pa...], I have a couple questions about this website? Specifically about drug history and surveys. Sorry if I am being to technical with these questions. 🫤
 

 I found a psychologist that agrees with me that what I am dealing is considered Benzo withdrawal even being this for out. I told her about this website I even told that some people on here are in withdrawal even 8 years out. She said “ oh gosh they most have been on those drugs for a very long time.” 
 

Drug History:

This got me thinking what I have been noticing when I read success and recovery stories. That a good majority of people on here don’t put down their drug history, mainly how long they have been on the drug or even mention age. I know this is personal information but judging of what I have been reading these two slightly determines how long your in withdrawal. I have even seen a couple Admins on here asking people to fill out the their drug history. This is what I found slightly frustrating about this website. (Why isn’t filling out the drug history mandatory when a person first makes their account on here?)

Prime example, when I made an account on the surviving antidepressants website I had to fill out the drug history before the account was even made.

Surveys:

My second question is (why hasn’t there been a survey of people here that go through and heal from withdrawal on this website?) I know the staff here have been trying to help people on here for years. (So, would make sense to make a small survey of people through out the years?) I aware that there are two surveys up above.  I am specifically talking about a survey that would be made from this website. 

 

[[Co...]]

On 31/03/2024 at 20:21, [[J...] said:

Hi @[Pa...], I have a couple questions about this website? Specifically about drug history and surveys. Sorry if I am being to technical with these questions.

Hello @[Jo...]. I'll try to answer your questions.

On 31/03/2024 at 20:21, [[J...] said:

I found a psychologist that agrees with me that what I am dealing is considered Benzo withdrawal even being this for out. I told her about this website I even told that some people on here are in withdrawal even 8 years out. She said “ oh gosh they most have been on those drugs for a very long time.”

A small number of people appear to suffer from very protracted withdrawal effects. However, this does not mean they have not improved during this time. And some might have other complicating matters which affects their recovery. I mention this because it is important to not borrow trouble. 

On 31/03/2024 at 20:21, [[J...] said:

Drug History:

This got me thinking what I have been noticing when I read success and recovery stories. That a good majority of people on here don’t put down their drug history, mainly how long they have been on the drug or even mention age. I know this is personal information but judging of what I have been reading these two slightly determines how long your in withdrawal. I have even seen a couple Admins on here asking people to fill out the their drug history. This is what I found slightly frustrating about this website. (Why isn’t filling out the drug history mandatory when a person first makes their account on here?)

Prime example, when I made an account on the surviving antidepressants website I had to fill out the drug history before the account was even made.

Ideally, members would fill out a form detailing their history with benzodiazepines and other (possibly) relevant medications. But there are several reasons which caution against us doing this:

• It creates friction in registering with the community - this is a very well understood effect across all types of social media
• Some of our members just wish to register, perhaps read a little, and leave it at that. Requiring them to detail information they might not be ready to share could feel intrusive or intimidating to them
• Whatever type of questions we might place within the registration form will not capture everything - or if we were to attempt to do this, the form would become very long
• BB is a peer support community - not a medical community. Such a form might give the wrong impression of what BB is about.

We migrated to this software last July. With the previous forum software, we allowed members to have 'signature lines'. These were already sometimes rather obtrusive to the flow of threads. But one of the main reasons we migrated to this software was for better access via mobile devices. Before, virtually no members accessed BB via a mobile device - now, it is about 60%! However, signature lines (unless highly restricted (a single line - they then become rather pointless) are very obtrusive in this software (particularly when viewing the site via a mobile device). For this reason, we decided to not include signature lines.

Instead, we have created a new profile tab, 'History', and we encourage members to make use of it. It is a free-form profile area, which, on balance, is probably the better approach (though, I expect we will add some guidance at some stage).

We have investigated other solutions to make member History readily accessible from posts (but without cluttering up threads). However, there is a major upgrade to the community software due within a few months - it would make no sense for us to invest in a coded solution when it will need to be recoded again soon.

On 31/03/2024 at 20:21, [[J...] said:

Surveys:

My second question is (why hasn’t there been a survey of people here that go through and heal from withdrawal on this website?) I know the staff here have been trying to help people on here for years. (So, would make sense to make a small survey of people through out the years?) I aware that there are two surveys up above.  I am specifically talking about a survey that would be made from this website. 

We have helped promote outside surveys. And some years ago, we collaborated with researcher, Catherine Pittman, to create a survey of BB members. You can view a pdf of the presentation she developed based upon the data she collected.

Social Networking and Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: The Realities of Dependence and the Necessity of Support (adaa.org)

I expect that we will create our own survey in the not too distant future. This new software offers a great deal of possibilities for creating surveys (where we are assured of participants being BB members) which was not possible with the previous software.

We will be contacting old members soon (there are a few technical problems to properly resolve first).

[[Jo...]]

Hey @[Co...], thank you for answering my questions. Is it possible if one y’all can take down the thread I made in the progress log?  I made a thread in the progress log thinking that several others will put theirs as well, but now mine is still the only one there it is just kind of weird.

[[PE...]]

On 15/12/2023 at 16:16, [[h...] said:

Caffeine modulates the GABA(A) receptors, which are the ones so severely affected by benzos, so I would avoid it completely for now if I were you.

Oh does this mean less healing?

I drink lot's of coffey every morning to wake up.

[[Co...]]

3 hours ago, [[J...] said:

Hey @[Co...], thank you for answering my questions. Is it possible if one y’all can take down the thread I made in the progress log?  I made a thread in the progress log thinking that several others will put theirs as well, but now mine is still the only one there it is just kind of weird.

Hi @[Jo...]. Actually, many other members have posted their Progress Logs. However, due to a limitation in this software, Logs are only visible to the poster of the thread and the moderation team (those with the power to edit posts). As things stand, if other members can read your Log, they can also reply to it - this is not our intention is not how Logs operated before we switched to this software. However, I should have a solution to this soon.

[[he...]]

@[PE...] It just means it's worth using caution. I tried to reintroduce caffeine a couple months before I jumped for 8 days and went into a two-week-long wave, one of the all-time worst periods of my taper that I almost didn't recover from.

[[PE...]]

21 minutes ago, [[h...] said:

@[PE...] It just means it's worth using caution. I tried to reintroduce caffeine a couple months before I jumped for 8 days and went into a two-week-long wave, one of the all-time worst periods of my taper that I almost didn't recover from.

Ok! 

Thanks.

[[Kr...]]

On 09/04/2024 at 11:16, [[P...] said:

Oh does this mean less healing?

I drink lot's of coffey every morning to wake up.

@[PE...]  do you take medication that makes you tired ? When in seroquel and benzodiazepines I drank a lot of coffee to counteract the pills.

its like a speedball effect.

I stopped drinking coffee for months and months and it made

no difference in my symptoms ❤️

[[PE...]]

Just now, [[K...] said:

@[PE...]  do you take medication that makes you tired ? When in seroquel and benzodiazepines I drank a lot of coffee to counteract the pills.

its like a speedball effect.

I stopped drinking coffee for months and months and it made

no difference in my symptoms ❤️

No it seems like I'm not sensitive to coffee either! 

I just waking up every morning feeling like a really bad hangover. It's just the state I'm in atm.. a little nassua with some headache etc. Coffey helps with that.

The only medicine I take since 6/7 months out from benzo is quentapine. But just started to realise I have to take it easy on that.

It bugs me that a drug with so little effect, on me, can cause so much problems!

[[Kr...]]

Peppe please take care. And watch that damn Q.

[[...]]

On 30/01/2024 at 19:59, [[J...] said:

Hi, @[Pa...], I know you are probably busy. I just want to know if what I am going through is normal? The past couple of weeks I noticed that my muscles are getting more stiff, my skin is starting to burn, and I am experiencing spasms that are making my muscles even stiffer. 
 

Do think I am a rare case? I got and off of k a couple of times. The max day was 4 days CT I believe. Then with the doctor’s help I taper slower. I ended tapering too fast then had to get off. Because there was know difference of taking a dose and not taking it. Could this be why I am not doing to well?

While this is an old comment, I would like to respond for anyone else reading,  that I have had those sxs as well during taper: Muscle stiffness, burning skin, and muscle spasms. As far as I have read, it is normal wd sxs. Annoying and uncomfortable but normal. And mine improved.

[[Jo...]]

Thank you for responding @[...], I am 6 months out from my last dose of k. It feels like my my muscle stiffness is getting worse. Does it usually get worse before it gets better?

[[...]]

I don't know about it in general, I only know my own experience.