Need some reassurance...Here you go....Let's not forget we're NOT crazy

[[wy...]]

Attention to everyone (especially my BenzoBuddies in Protracted WD) - If you haven't looked or read things lately, I re-read this after sending it to a friend, and I thought it was worth noting again that this is DOCUMENTED and acknowledged and that we are NOT, in fact, going crazy.

 

THe full link (if you want to read the entire thing): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_syndrome

 

The Best Part (in my opinion):

 

"Benzodiazepine dependence is a potentially clinically serious condition and its withdrawal syndrome is complex and often protracted in time course.[121] Patients often have persisting withdrawal symptoms for 6 months to a year or more.[23] Symptoms can include anxiety, irritability, insomnia and an increased sensitivity to light and sound. A small number of people withdrawing from benzodiazepines experience a severe protracted withdrawal syndrome which can include symptoms such as paresthesias, psychosis. These symptoms occur despite no pre-existing history of these symptoms. It is important to distinguish between a return of any pre-existing disorder, a worsening of the pre-existing disorder due to protracted withdrawal and pure protracted withdrawal. Symptoms of protracted withdrawal over time gradually improve whereas symptoms due to other causes typically don't improve. Protracted withdrawal syndrome can mimic a range of medical and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, agitated depression, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder and complex partial seizures. Protracted withdrawal symptoms can be punctuated by periods of good days and bad days. When symptoms increase periodically during protracted withdrawal physiological changes may be present including dilated pupils as well as an increase in blood pressure and heart rate.[4] The change in symptoms has been proposed to be due to changes in receptor sensitivity for GABA during the process of tolerance reversal.[3]

 

Protracted withdrawal symptoms refers to symptoms persisting for a protracted time, perhaps a year or more. Patients who experience protracted withdrawal from benzodiazepines, which more commonly occurs from over-rapid withdrawal, can be reassured that the evidence shows that symptoms do continue to fade and return to normal over a period of many months or several years. A figure of 10–15% of patients withdrawing from benzodiazepines may experience a protracted withdrawal syndrome. There is evidence that a slow-withdrawal rate significantly reduces the risk of a protracted and/or severe withdrawal state. There is no known cure for protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome except time.[6] The post withdrawal syndrome may linger for many months in 10–15% of people and for a smaller number of unfortunate patients for several years. Studies following people up beyond the initial acute withdrawal stage have shown that for many patients symptoms continue to improve the longer they stay off the drug, often to the point where they can eventually resume their normal lives even after years of incapacity imposed by chronic benzodiazepines.[3]

 

The causes of persisting benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms are a combination of pharmacological factors such as persisting drug induced receptor changes, psychological factors both caused by the drug and separate from the drug and possibly in some cases, particularly high dose users structural brain damage or structural neuronal damage.[6][122]

 

Sensory withdrawal related disturbances which can be acute or protracted in duration and are among the clinical features of the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. Protracted tinnitus has been found to be a complication of discontinuation of benzodiazepines with tinnitus persisting for many months or up to a year or more after discontinuation of therapeutic doses of benzodiazepines. Appearance of the tinnitus occurs during dose reduction or discontinuation of benzodiazepines and is alleviated by recommencement of benzodiazepines.[56][123]

 

A clinical trial of patients taking the benzodiazepine alprazolam (Xanax) for as little as 8 weeks triggered protracted symptoms of memory deficits which were still present after up to 8 weeks post cessation of alprazolam.[124]

 

A meta-analysis found that the literature shows that cognitive impairments due to benzodiazepine use shows improvements after 6 months after withdrawal but the remaining cognitive impairments may be permanent or may require more than 6 months to reverse.[125]

 

Neuropsychological testing of a group of patients with persistent benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms found that psychophysiological markers differed from normal anxiety markers. The study of the group of patients concluded that protracted withdrawal symptoms were a genuine iatrogenic condition caused by the long term prescription of benzodiazepines.[126]

 

Hoffmann–La Roche pharmaceutical company, the inventor of both the first few, as well as most benzodiazepines, such as Librium (chlordiazepoxide), Valium (diazepam), Rohypnol (flunitrazepam), Dormicum (midazolam) and Klonopin/Rivotril (clonazepam), in a 2007 product information publication, acknowledges the existence of protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal syndromes and recommends that its product flumazenil is not used to treat protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal syndromes.[127]"

 

So there you have it. You're NOT crazy. This DOES get better. And we will almost EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, heal. Know your own strength. XO to you all.

[[WT...]]

The only thing that really bothers me about some of these reports is that the word "permanent" is mentioned.  My brain tells me "Yep, that's going to be you." 

[[...]]

I can deal with having some symptoms permanently, but not others...

 

And I do know people 10 years out still recovering...not permanent, but almost...to me, permanent is a relative term...more than 5 years with major symptoms I would call permanent!

[[WT...]]

I can deal with having some symptoms permanently, but not others...

 

And I do know people 10 years out still recovering...not permanent, but almost...to me, permanent is a relative term...more than 5 years with major symptoms I would call permanent!

 

That's horrifying, mmir! 

[[wy...]]

I think the thing to keep in mind is that 'permanent' is relative. All it's really saying is that anything over 6 months could take much longer to heal. Using the term permanent is not appropriate really, but they are just using it as a scientific way of saying 'we don't know after 6 months how long it will take.' Since most people heal or feel generally improved by 6 months, they don't really measure beyond that.

 

I have no doubts that all people improve and get back to a level that they can deal with, even if it takes years.

[[wy...]]

Also, you have to keep in mind the only thing that states may take longer is cognitive function. And that could just mean that your memory isn't as good as it once was. I could TOTALLY live with that if all the other s/x were virtually nonexistent.

 

I think you have to keep in mind that almost 90% of these things we are going through go away. They just do. We need to be gentler on ourselves.

 

[[WT...]]

I don't know.. It just seems so hopeless.  I don't even like the thought of going back to just being able to deal with things.. I want to be ME again.. ya know?  And by that, I'm talking about this mental crap.  Organic fear, psychosis type stuff.

[[pa...]]

Thanks for posting this. I have read this many times. This wikipedia article on "benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome" is what I took to my regular GP after I left my psychiatrist.  I took this to my psychiatrist, too - but he denied it all.  This article is great because it's like -18 pages - and the end of it is full of about 80 professional journal references.  This goes to show that AT LEAST 80 peer-reviewed journal articles exist describing the very real aspect of benzo withdrawal and recovery. My GP believed me easily. My gut feeling is that the psychiatrist believed me, too - but being as how this entire profession is his life's work, I don't know that HE psychologically could handle learning that benzos DO cause this. I feel that ironically - the psychiatrist was in denial.  Not me.  That was when I left and never came back. 

 

I do think we'll all heal. Perhaps some aspects of neurological issues - subtle things - may be "permanant"- but more than likely - even these will go away in time. For example, Bliss Johns stated that she had tinnitus that persisted -but in her book, towards the end, she started to state that even the tinnitus was starting to leave for brief periods here and there.

 

It is my belief that we will heal "enough" to feel totally normal - whether or not that is subthreshold to our awareness. (We may not be completely the same, but it might not be possible to really tell - which is the same to me.)  I won't mind if some subtle signs come and go for the last parts of healing  - so long as the major symptoms go. I have a feeling it will be easier and easier as time goes on.  That is what I am going to proactively anticipate. The longer time goes on and the better we are to our bodies, the better we will do. 

Also - it's helpful to begin to post positive messages during recovery versus posts that highlight that things will never get any better.  They do and they are.  Awareness isn't always indicative of healing.  And a lot of healing is happening int he midst of symptoms.  That makes such good sense.  Healing isn't happening in windows - it's happening in waves, which are the result of the nervous system undergoing resetting and defragging. The rearranging of brain chemistry doesn't feel right - and that's so weird for all of us - but it's happening BECAUSE we are recovering.  I think this really hit me in the past month, as windows and waves became finally obvious.  The CNS is stuttering and sputtering  - but that is a GREAT THING.  If it didn't happen at all, we couldn't get to the other side of healing.  It's okay to cry, let off steam, feel uneasy, feel scared - all of it.  But I feel we should respect our bodies and allow these things to occur, as they are occuring because recovery demands they do.  I am starting to really embrace the symptoms in a positive way as much as possible- with a intuitive knowing that this is what my body needs to do to heal itself - and it knows how.  It knows how and all I must do is feed it positive messages and good food and water.  Be kind to this body! It's doing so much work - and the normal times will return!

 

Thanks so much for this article.  It is a great reminder that we ARE INDEED normal for our experience . This drug changed things , and our body is in a process of tolerance reversal. NICE! 

 

;)Parker

[[wy...]]

Sure thing, Parker - I think it gets to a point where we have to do the stuff that we don't think we're capable of because it's through those things that everything starts to get a little better, and a little better, and then I think we realize one day: wow, I haven't had issues in ages.

 

I think too many of us (myself included) hope that it will all just magically pass and that THEN we can begin to get on with our lives. But, it just doesn't work that way. The only way out is THROUGH.

[[re...]]

Thanks for posting wylidas.

 

I've read this before  (sometimes I think I've read every single benzo article in existence  but it's a good reminder.

 

And thanks parker for your thoughts too.

 

We are healing.

 

B

[[WT...]]

Don't get me wrong.. if I'm left with a twitch or some tingling.. I can live with THAT, but I can't deal with the idea of of being left with 10% psychosis or organic fear -- that won't fly with me.  Even the memory thing, I can train my brain to get a better memory, but all this other mental stuff would need to go for me to do it.

[[wy...]]

I agree with you WTBNA. And I don't think this stuff will persist forever. I believe it's the cog fog and some minor stuff that may linger, if anything. This other mood and chemical stuff will go. It has to. I just don't see how we would be the exception to the rule. 99.99999% of people fully heal with no major issues remaining between 1-3 years. The only thing we don't know is how long that will take for each of us. But, it is absolute hell waiting. I understand.

 

[[...]]

Don't get me wrong.. if I'm left with a twitch or some tingling.. I can live with THAT, but I can't deal with the idea of of being left with 10% psychosis or organic fear -- that won't fly with me.  Even the memory thing, I can train my brain to get a better memory, but all this other mental stuff would need to go for me to do it.

Me neither dude. Even if only 10% of the anxiety remains, that won't be acceptable at all to me.

[Guest [...]]

aaaahhhhh this articile scares me with the permanent brain damage thing because thats what I think I have seriously.  You cant feel this bad on this stuff without you thinking your going to be living in fear for life.  I need to slow my tapering down because im FREAKING out. 

 

what has this crap done to us.  Im trying to be positive but its so hard especially after reading this because Im sure Im going to be in the low percentage that it becomes permanent and I miss my old self so much.

 

 

Lizzy

 

[[ti...]]

I just wanted to say that I was feeling terrible and feeling a setback in withdrawal today, my ears have been so bad today too. . And reading this at the end of my day truly made me feel so much better and helped some depressed feelings. I may now be able to sleep tonight just by being reassured that there is a reason for what I'm going through. My brain is trying to heal and I'm not plain losing it. Thank you all so much for your posts.