I spoke to a neuroscientist tonight about benzos....

[[mo...]]

Will do, Gardenia - if I ever get a call back on my apt. time!

[[al...]]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting. I just found out there's a benzo withdrawal doctor close by if I think I need one at this point. Three months ago yes. Now, doing ok.

 

where is benzo md you found

[[mo...]]

@alan99, Vancouver, british columbia

[[Ca...]]

Thanks 4 posting!  I feel so much better now. I have been reading some haunting stuff on here lately so it helps recovery, I'm sure, to calm down.  :smitten:Candy

[[ma...]]

Maybe this convo might just inspire her to do some research herself Maybe it can be like the butterfly effect. The flutter of someting as mere as a butterfly's wing can change the course of history.

 

Part of the biggest problem with benzo withdrawal sufferers is that in those who are effected like we are, we often become very introverted and homebound, sometimes afraid to reach out even so it compounds the problem of lack of awareness...

[[...]]

What an encouraging post.  Thank you

[[as...]]

I try to bump this every few months, as it gives us all a lift....

[[Ch...]]

Great post very encouraging

[[tu...]]

Thank you for posting such a reassuring post from a source that surely knows her stuff.  If only doctors knew and would share what this neurologist knows.  This ordeal would be so much less horrifying if you had support from the medical community.  Someday I believe the truth about what these drugs can do to people (even if it is not the majority) will be known.  Until then, I am grateful for this community and the medical professionals that do what they can to put light on this problem.  Great post!  Validates so much of what so many of us need to hear as we battle through this ordeal.

[[rs...]]

I just can't believe they put poor little rats through this kind of torture. I always said benzos were rat poison. rstud

[[Lo...]]

Yes thank you so very much for this post!!  Never fails - when I am at the lowest point, if I get it together and come here, I find something like this!  I was at a point where I was losing hope about recovery and there was your post!! 

Now if I could only find the same about the codeine and the mold (that one is the least likely to find good news about

[[pa...]]

Something just perfect that needed to be posted for one and all!  Thank You, Patty

[Guest [ma...]]

This is a real ray of sunshine! Thanks for sharing this! 

[[Sa...]]

I totally forgot about this post, thanks for bumping! I really needed to see this again!

 

Sassy

[[Fl...]]

This is encouraging to me being 17 months off and still dealing with cognitive issues. I just wish there was more scientific data on WHEN people recover. It would seem to me that quite a few people recover by 18 months and most by 2 years but there is still a significant minority who still suffer beyond that. It would be nice to know percentages just for a little peace of mind. It's not much of a stretch to believe in a full recovery in a reasonable timeframe when I'm in a window but unfortunately those are few and far between.

[[Ic...]]

I have been on Klonopin for 18 years.  When the psychiatrist put me on it, he told me it was addictive.  I said hey, wait, I've read I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (a book about Valium addiction).  He said (in a dismissive tone) Oh, Klonopin is what I use to get patients off Valium. 

 

This morning when I got on benzo.org.uk (recommended to me by my new psychiatrist--my fourth), I discovered for the first time what Klonopin has been doing to me for the past 18 years.  I've been asking and asking why I keep getting worse.  I know I have severe PTSD, but why is my memory getting worse?  Why is my anxiety getting worse?  Why can't I function?  No one ever mentioned that the Klonopin was damaging my brain.

 

I realized today that what that psychiatrist must have meant 18 years ago is that he put people on Klonopin in order to get them off Valium, but then he left them there.  Otherwise, he would have known how hard it is to get off Klonopin.

 

So I've been grieving today about the 18 years I lost and thinking that I had lost my mental faculties forever until I read your post.  My first grandchild is expected next January.  Maybe I'll have my mind back when its born!

 

Thank you for your encouraging words!

[[Fl...]]

I know I have severe PTSD, but why is my memory getting worse?  Why is my anxiety getting worse?  Why can't I function?  No one ever mentioned that the Klonopin was damaging my brain.

 

Welcome to the reality of benzodiazepines. Overprescribed and often not understood by the doctors who hand them out like nothing. I spent a few years wondering why I was becoming increasingly more depressed and moody, and in retrospect less and less functional with work. Now here I am, 17 months off the drug and I still can't think straight. The doctor who prescribed them to me didn't for one second question whether or not it was the drugs that were making me sick, even after I ran out of pills and described to her in detail how 4 days after my last pill it felt like something was pulling my lower jaw to the ground and sucking out my brain. Nope, she just shrugged her shoulders, said "Hmmm...." and wrote me another script. I'm not a doctor but thinking back on it anyone with common sense should have been able to tell something was seriously wrong. But I guess that's par for the course. From now on I research EVERYTHING.

[[Ic...]]

Thank you, Floridaguy.  I'm sorry your doctor didn't help you when you needed it.  I'm sorry you had such a rotten time with your withdrawal. 

 

My psychiatrist gave me this web site a few weeks ago, but I didn't look at it until today.  It was the first hint I had of what I might be looking forward to.  If you don't mind, I think I want to linger in the denial stage for awhile.  I know I'm not ready to face what you went through.  I definitely do not want to believe that it could happen to me.  Arrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!