Brain pressure and sensations

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Hi everyone! I hope you are doing better on your healing journeys. I have a few questions if someone can help with. I don't have many symptoms but maybe like 10 that are incredibly debilating and painful. Most of my symptoms are brain and neurological, severe brain pressure, pain in the brain, weird sensations in the brain that i don't know how to describe, heavy head on and off. I realized that my symptoms seem to be made worse by eating certain foods (even healthy ones). Should i just stop these foods are just ride the wave. Something i wonder if these are all withdrawals symptoms or something else and when will they go away.. anyway thank you

[[Ma...]]

Eliminating foods, one by one can be really helpful. Sugar, high in gluten, histamine and ect…

Why ride it out if you can find the source?

[[Wi...]]

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9 minutes ago, [[W...] said:

Hi, I have the same. I have brain falling sensation, pulling, burning, zaps, shocks and what not. When my head flares it also comes with a lot of nerve pain on my head. It just has to run its course it seems. 

I feel some foods are making this worse, have you made this connection or I am just trying to find things to blame on? I've been reading a lot about oxalates toxicity and wondering if this what is causing this because I seem to get worse when I eat high oxalates foods but could be wrong...

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

Eliminating foods, one by one can be really helpful. Sugar, high in gluten, histamine and ect…

Why ride it out if you can find the source?

I'm already no gluten, no dairy, and sugar only from fruits. I'm also low histamine. I wonder if it's high oxalates foods causing this, because this seems to happen after I eat parlsey. Why are we so sensitive to foods? I could eat anything before that with 0 problems 

Edit: it seems like i can eat like 3 foods...

Edited February 14 by [...]

[[Wi...]]

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2 minutes ago, [[W...] said:

No, I haven’t found any correlations. It might be coincidental for you but if you find any pattern then you might check if cutting out the foods you think are bothering you helps

Yes I will try that and see if I feel any difference. Thank you so much for your reply. I hope we all get better soon ❤️

[[Pi...]]

Here's my take on the foods thing: I think the best thing is to find that sweet spot between awareness and paranoia. It's very easy to become afraid of foods and then the fear will give you an uptick in symptoms no matter what you eat. I've often thought a certain food bothered me only to find the next time I eat it, there's no issue. Sometimes my symptoms go up just because I ate, period, and I don't think it had much to do with the food itself.

At the same time, different foods may bother us at different stages in recovery. I always try something at least twice to make sure it wasn't a coincidence. If it bothers me twice, I might take a break from it. But then I will come back to it a little later in the process because things are always changing in this game. Something may bug you now, but not bug you later. Also I've noticed that foods bother me MUCH more if I'm in a wave, so I'm more careful if I'm in a wave and less careful when I'm not.

I think the most important thing is to eat natural, whole foods. As in, avoid processed stuff and sugar and high salt as much as possible. But, as I said, I do think it's easy to develop food fear, which is counterproductive. And I think a variety of foods is good to help the microbiome diversify.

I recently watched a video with 2 people who recovered from benzos who felt diet was really important. But one recovered on keto (high in meat) and the other on plant-based diet.  Like, what the heck? So I do sometimes wonder if we get overly invested in the diet thing, but at the same time I think there may be certain foods that we may be intolerant to just for a period of time. 

Cheers,

Pickle

[[WU...]]

I thought it might be to do with foods at first and then I experimented and found it wasn't.  It is the damage this drug has caused sending everything haywire for a while.  All our senses are jangled and mixed up, even music sounds out of tune.   I personally don't eliminate anything, I eat whatever I fancy in moderation and try to enjoy it, even though things still don't taste like they used to.  The last thing anyone needs is paranoia over food on top of everything else!

[[Wi...]]

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

I thought it might be to do with foods at first and then I experimented and found it wasn't.  It is the damage this drug has caused sending everything haywire for a while.  All our senses are jangled and mixed up, even music sounds out of tune.   I personally don't eliminate anything, I eat whatever I fancy in moderation and try to enjoy it, even though things still don't taste like they used to.  The last thing anyone needs is paranoia over food on top of everything else!

Same. I cut out sweets and processed foods as well as caffeine but I eat everything. Haven’t noticed any difference.

[[An...]]

2 hours ago, [[P...] said:

Here's my take on the foods thing: I think the best thing is to find that sweet spot between awareness and paranoia. It's very easy to become afraid of foods and then the fear will give you an uptick in symptoms no matter what you eat. I've often thought a certain food bothered me only to find the next time I eat it, there's no issue. Sometimes my symptoms go up just because I ate, period, and I don't think it had much to do with the food itself.

At the same time, different foods may bother us at different stages in recovery. I always try something at least twice to make sure it wasn't a coincidence. If it bothers me twice, I might take a break from it. But then I will come back to it a little later in the process because things are always changing in this game. Something may bug you now, but not bug you later. Also I've noticed that foods bother me MUCH more if I'm in a wave, so I'm more careful if I'm in a wave and less careful when I'm not.

I think the most important thing is to eat natural, whole foods. As in, avoid processed stuff and sugar and high salt as much as possible. But, as I said, I do think it's easy to develop food fear, which is counterproductive. And I think a variety of foods is good to help the microbiome diversify.

I recently watched a video with 2 people who recovered from benzos who felt diet was really important. But one recovered on keto (high in meat) and the other on plant-based diet.  Like, what the heck? So I do sometimes wonder if we get overly invested in the diet thing, but at the same time I think there may be certain foods that we may be intolerant to just for a period of time. 

Cheers,

Pickle

Nice post @[Pi...]. I eat a mostly plant-based diet for health reasons. I try to include a little meat in my diet to make it more palatable. I know Dr. Jennifer Leigh says a plant-based diet has really helped her and that is what she recommends ppl eat. Whole Plant-based diets, altho healthy, can be hard for many ppl because the diet does not contain the most palatable foods. The food manufacturers have figured out how to make foods with the max bliss point (with mostly SOS = salt, oil, and sugar) and once you get accustomed to eating these foods, many of which are very unhealthy and fattening, it is very hard to revert back to a healthy, mostly natural, unprocessed, unrefined food diet.

In benzo w/d, we look for anything and everything when trying to figure out why we are feeling so crummy. I do think there are certain trigger foods that we should avoid but we should be eating a variety of healthy unprocessed foods to fortify our bodies and make us as healthy as possible. We are already sick from benzo w/d and underlying issues we had prior to becoming benzo tolerant and sick. The last thing you want is to create other physical medical issues for yourself by making unhealthy food choices.

I love sugar but have discovered it bothers me so I try to eat as little of it as possible now. It is sad but many parents in America pacify their kids by buying them candy. I grew up eating the stuff daily when I was a kid. I personally think some of these things set us up for things like anxiety and depression as we get older which leads us down the road to psych drugs like benzos.

I wish I could go back to an earlier time in my life pre-panic disorder / pre-benzos when I was feeling good. I would do so many things differently knowing what I know now to avoid both.

[[An...]]

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

Same. I cut out sweets and processed foods as well as caffeine but I eat everything. Haven’t noticed any difference.

Same here.....👍

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Hi, @[...]) My worst issue is everything to do with pain and tension, head in particular. Sometimes it's quite unbearable, now much better though. I eat and drink anything i like, including coffee, sweets, chocolate, but in small amounts. It doesn't make a difference in my healing process. And l did feel worse every time right after eating during the first benzo free months but it didn't matter what food exactly it was. Sure everyone is different. I liked the idea here about trying twice before judging wether it's good or bad for you. Good luck!)

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[[dj...]]

Here is the thing with foods in my experience.  There are some foods that will rev up my symptoms, but they don’t rev them up all the time.  While we’re riding all these waves, at times our brain can tolerate these foods well and times it can’t.  No different than how random my pain and fatigue is.  
 

I’ve cut out MSG and other really high glutamate foods for the most part.  High histamine foods have gotten me only seldomly.  As far as sugar goes…I try not to eat too much but I do love sweets.  So, I have restricted those to after dinner.  They do mess me up sometimes, but the good news is I have nothing to do the rest of the day and there aren’t many hours left in the day, so I won’t work myself into a tizzy if I’ve got a good uptick in symptoms.  I don’t know about you all but a lot of that stuff will kind of correct in my sleep.  
 

I had a couple Oreos tonight and some ice cream and it messed me up (with wild head/brain symptoms no less).   I had the same thing after dinner last night and was totally fine.  Go figure.  But all I have to do tonight is watch TV for a couple hours and then go to bed.  
 

I don’t think foods are going to set you back much, but they can make the ride a lot more uncomfortable if you don’t listen to your body. 

[[Ma...]]

For months I used migraine ice hats (Amazon) in all different designs, 24/7. The ice, the compression all helped the pressure et all going on in my head. Also an ice eye mask, no overhead lights too.

Hope this might help.

Oh-I also only ate about 3 things 🤦‍♀️ (to never be eaten again!!).

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Edited February 15 by [...]

[[WU...]]

"why some people stop without issues and others don't."

That is the million dollar question I would like an answer to. 

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6 hours ago, [[W...] said:

"why some people stop without issues and others don't."

That is the million dollar question I would like an answer to. 

Wu Wei, I think it must have something to do with the unique way our body and brains work. Some people are more susceptible to benzo. I read in an article by Ashton that, for example, "asian people are poor metabolisers for benzo and antidepressants and experience more serious side effects". But why twin sisters react differently is completely beyond my comprehension... The drug by aliens...

Edited February 15 by [...]

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