I think I need to reinstate. Any advice welcome.

[[jo...]]

Hi, I have been in withdrawl for 3 months now and after a period of improvement have been slammed by symptoms which are way worse than even acute phase. I am seriously thinking about reinstating or trying an antidepressant as most of my worst symptoms are mental anxiety/depression etc. Does anyone have any experience of this? I dont think I can cope with this. I have had to leave my job and I have a Masters degree to finish and there's no chance of that happening the way I feel. This could go on for months. I also may have to move back in with my Father for a while and he's quite old and sick so probably couldn't cope well with me in this state. Has anyone reinstated or tried an anti depressant? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[[pi...]]

Hello @[jo...]. I’ve been around the forum for a long time. What I’ve seen in terms of reinstatement is that there is no guarantee it will provide the relief that is sought. Yes, some people have found it effective to do this and then stabilize before beginning a slow and carful taper. However, I believe for a large majority of people reinstatement doesn’t work. 

I also had a ‘honeymoon’ of sorts when I jumped off diazepam (Valium). Due to the long half life, withdrawal hit me later, but with great strength. The acute phase was pretty rough. Sometimes I wondered if I took a benzo that I would get some relief from the seemingly never ending symptoms. I disposed off all my benzos after my taper finished so my choices were limited. I stuck it out and little by little the symptoms started to ease up. Most of the time it was one step forward and two steps back but in the end I persevered. And healed. 

[[PE...]]

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

Hi, I have been in withdrawl for 3 months now and after a period of improvement have been slammed by symptoms which are way worse than even acute phase. I am seriously thinking about reinstating or trying an antidepressant as most of my worst symptoms are mental anxiety/depression etc. Does anyone have any experience of this? I dont think I can cope with this. I have had to leave my job and I have a Masters degree to finish and there's no chance of that happening the way I feel. This could go on for months. I also may have to move back in with my Father for a while and he's quite old and sick so probably couldn't cope well with me in this state. Has anyone reinstated or tried an anti depressant? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi and welcome to benzobuddies

it seems like there are mixed experiences with introducing a AD for benzo WD symptoms. Some get helped, some get worse and some don't get either good or bad effects from it. They can also present problems on their own. Witch is of course something to take into account. 

Same with to up the dose. For some it work, for some it just gives more problem.

I can understand your concern on not being functional. I'm 6 months off and in my third month i still had some bad symptoms. But I'm one of the lucky ones with a slow and steady healing process. 

I do take very small amounts of quentapine. I did 400mg but after reading of all the risks i went down to 30-100mg. I think it helps but I'm not sure if it's just placebo. I had no problem going down from 400mg to 100. 

[[jo...]]

7 minutes ago, [[p...] said:

Hello @[jo...]. I’ve been around the forum for a long time. What I’ve seen in terms of reinstatement is that there is no guarantee it will provide the relief that is sought. Yes, some people have found it effective to do this and then stabilize before beginning a slow and carful taper. However, I believe for a large majority of people reinstatement doesn’t work. 

I also had a ‘honeymoon’ of sorts when I jumped off diazepam (Valium). Due to the long half life, withdrawal hit me later, but with great strength. The acute phase was pretty rough. Sometimes I wondered if I took a benzo that I would get some relief from the seemingly never ending symptoms. I disposed off all my benzos after my taper finished so my choices were limited. I stuck it out and little by little the symptoms started to ease up. Most of the time it was one step forward and two steps back but in the end I persevered. And healed. 

Hi pianogirl, 

Thanks for the reply. You say your symptoms hit late, how late if you dont mind me asking? Mine started 2 days after my last dose and were bad but not as bad as they are now. It kind of went bad, getting better, worse.

[[jo...]]

8 minutes ago, [[P...] said:

Hi and welcome to benzobuddies

it seems like there are mixed experiences with introducing a AD for benzo WD symptoms. Some get helped, some get worse and some don't get either good or bad effects from it. They can also present problems on their own. Witch is of course something to take into account. 

Same with to up the dose. For some it work, for some it just gives more problem.

I can understand your concern on not being functional. I'm 6 months off and in my third month i still had some bad symptoms. But I'm one of the lucky ones with a slow and steady healing process. 

I do take very small amounts of quentapine. I did 400mg but after reading of all the risks i went down to 30-100mg. I think it helps but I'm not sure if it's just placebo. I had no problem going down from 400mg to 100. 

Hi Peppe,

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I am nervous about taking an antidepressant as they two have their horror stories. Is there any alternative though? I think the only things that could make a difference are these two things.

[[Ch...]]

"I have been in withdrawl for 3 months now and after a period of improvement have been slammed by symptoms which are way worse than even acute phase."

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

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I am nervous about taking an antidepressant as they two have their horror stories. Is there any alternative though? I think the only things that could make a difference are these two things.

You're very early on, you know - the "acute phase" can be 6-18 months. You're 3 months in.

You say that you believe that reinstatement or an antidepressant are "the only things that could make a difference."

No, there's a third: TIME.

Give it time.

[[jo...]]

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

"I have been in withdrawl for 3 months now and after a period of improvement have been slammed by symptoms which are way worse than even acute phase."

You're very early on, you know - the "acute phase" can be 6-18 months. You're 3 months in.

You say that you believe that reinstatement or an antidepressant are "the only things that could make a difference."

No, there's a third: TIME.

Give it time.

Hi Chester1965,

Thanks for your reply

I understand this could take time but I dont think I can cope with too much more of this. the mental symptoms are dark and persistant. You are right though time is the only thing that will get me off these things for good. I just hope there's a window or some relief round the corner.

[[Ch...]]

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

Hi Chester1965,

Thanks for your reply

I understand this could take time but I dont think I can cope with too much more of this. the mental symptoms are dark and persistant. You are right though time is the only thing that will get me off these things for good. I just hope there's a window or some relief round the corner.

Yes, I had all of that too! As the days and weeks pass, it will start to subside. Hang in there!

[[pi...]]

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

Hi pianogirl, 

Thanks for the reply. You say your symptoms hit late, how late if you dont mind me asking? Mine started 2 days after my last dose and were bad but not as bad as they are now. It kind of went bad, getting better, worse.

Hello again. I felt good, liberated and happy to be done with the drug that was making me so ill.  This lasted a couple of weeks. Once past the initial acute phase, things eased up a little. However, new symptoms showed up at 4 months off. They persisted for several months. This is the nature of withdrawal, the cns takes time to recover from the massive changes benzo make to it. I was sure I would be recovered in as little as 3 months. After all, I was on the tennis court two weeks after gall bladder surgery. Withdrawal is a different beast. The best thing I did was to find way to distract myself from the symptoms, accept the process and have patience.

[[jo...]]

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

Hello again. I felt good, liberated and happy to be done with the drug that was making me so ill.  This lasted a couple of weeks. Once past the initial acute phase, things eased up a little. However, new symptoms showed up at 4 months off. They persisted for several months. This is the nature of withdrawal, the cns takes time to recover from the massive changes benzo make to it. I was sure I would be recovered in as little as 3 months. After all, I was on the tennis court two weeks after gall bladder surgery. Withdrawal is a different beast. The best thing I did was to find way to distract myself from the symptoms, accept the process and have patience.

it's great to hear you made it to recovery, and encouraging too. My main problem at the moment is intense anxiety. For days now it just hasn't let up. It's absolute torture and just feels like it wont ever stop. I thought symptoms were supposed to be less intense after acute but this is a lot worse.