What is the reason you want off the benzo?

[[to...]]

Mine is that Ativan has caused me depression and I lost interest and motivation.

 

My worry is that when I am off and have recovered what if the anxiety I was feeling before the benzos, the reason I went on them, comes back??? 

 

That anxiety was unbearable and I know I will need something to make it go away.

[[re...]]

I decided to quit because I knew I couldn't stay on them forever, and the longer I took them, the harder it would be to stop.

Frankly, if I could have stayed on a stable dose indefinitely, without developing tolerance, without having to increase the dose, I might not have quit. I certainly felt a lot better on clonazepam than I've felt during withdrawal and "recovery" - such as it is.

[[sh...]]

My original decision to get off Xanax was, I knew I would have to up dose, and I didn't want to add more of the medication into my system. Looking back though, Xanax caused me great depression, anger, social anxiety, GI issues, tiredness, difficulty concentrating, and stuttered speech. Now that I'm off, I'm a completely different person, and for the better.

[[os...]]

So i can feel alive again... i have a long way to go but i think it will be worth it. 

 

Oscar

[[no...]]

Iit stopped working.

What I didn't know- was that it had also started to make me feel worse all the way around.

I only know that now, being 6 months offI am so grateful i was finally able to quit.

I tried three times. Finally finally, its nearly over. Its been three years- and three withdrawals. I only now can say its worth it.

I still have anxiety, but there are other ways to deal with it.

it is nothing like the w/d or tolerance anxiety..nothing.

Its not something that anyone should take longer than a few weeks.

[[su...]]

I've felt bad for well over a year and didn't know what in the world was happening to me.  Very long story short:    I was originally prescribed Ativan to help with anxiety/nausea when I had an inner ear problem.  Then, I started having worsening anxiety and panic attacks.  So, when I went to the docs (3 of them) they all said I had anxiety..and I should just take more Ativan and take it more often.  Thank God I found this site, read around the forums, learned about benzo withdrawal, and literally saw my story being written about over and over.  Benzos changed my life very quickly:  Anxiety, panic attacks, terror, agoraphobia,  H/A, nausea, muscle tension in head, neck, shoulders, freezing hands and feet,  tingling, patchy numbness.  What a nightmare. 

[[je...]]

I wanted to understand why I was having to keep increasing my dose of clonazepam and why it would stop working....also had a horrific experience with antibiotics( not even knowing what a benzo was let alone that I was on such a thing!)Awareness of why my life was going to heck in a hand basket and my desire to know more about the drug led me understand it...freak out at first....have a wicked panic attack of course as a person unstable in benzo w/d would likely do...and thus persevere with finding help to taper!  So here I am and plugging along..........Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to all on here who have given me words of encouragement, hope, understanding, and even just told me to breathe!  I love all my bb's and I am actually GLAD I have had the hardships....they sucked don't get me wrong...but I wouldn't be tapering and heading towards the light w/o it all ......amazing how things work!  Many blessings to all.................Jen

[[JO...]]

I feel robbed of living for the past years I have been on them . I made some horrific decisions which have caused me to loss my job , home and lifetime savings. the most pressing issue is my health and just being tired of this drugs controlling my life. Slowly but surely I am going to get my life back and rebuild it.

[[Ga...]]

Because they gave me severe anxiety and caused me to tremble in front of close friends. I also started to feel really odd on them.

[[Th...]]

I developed a severe paradoxical reaction to the drug after 2 years on it and it would cause severe symptoms so I jumped off ..

[[Fr...]]

I went into tolerance w/d on a small therapeutic dose. I wanted to get off of them before, but my doc said at my low dose he doubted it did anything and that I could jump off at anytime. So I just said whatever and kept taking it because to me, I could feel it working and I still do at this even lower dose.

 

But now I know that it was causing all the anxiety that I had before I hit tolerance, I want off more than ever. The anxiety I got was rebound anxiety and it was an everyday thing. I was never like that before I got on the V. I had just random anxiety and panic attacks. I had no idea that the valium was just making it worse. I thought it was supposed to help me. Instead I went into the deep end. Was told I had panic disorder, gad, and agoraphobia. All those terms are a bunch of bs if you ask me, and they were probably made up by the drug companies themselves. Anyways, I will get off and prove that last statement. Besides, the lower I get, the better I feel.

[[Bi...]]

Tolerance

[[Ga...]]

I was never like that before I got on the V. I had just random anxiety and panic attacks. I had no idea that the valium was just making it worse. I thought it was supposed to help me. Instead I went into the deep end. Was told I had panic disorder, gad, and agoraphobia.

 

Frontsider- I feel your pain. I had never experienced anxiety before on the same scale as that which I felt while on diazepam.

[[to...]]

I feel robbed of living for the past years I have been on them . I made some horrific decisions which have caused me to loss my job , home and lifetime savings. the most pressing issue is my health and just being tired of this drugs controlling my life. Slowly but surely I am going to get my life back and rebuild it.

 

Good luck!  Sounds very similar to the situation I am in.

[[bl...]]

1. Tolerance with interdose withdrawal. I would have to increase my dose. While already having withdrawals seems like a reasonable time to withdraw to me. Although I'm not happy about it at all. The timing is awful for me. I talked to my doctor and he wasn't willing to updose it, however. So I'm stuck having to withdraw.

 

2. Tired of being treated poorly by pharmacies for being on this medication, which just increases my anxiety severely and is not helpful at all. I don't like being treated like a drug addict for taking prescription medication. I've had some seriously bad experiences trying to refill prescriptions at times. Once was while traveling, with no pharmacy who would refill my prescription and no available doctors other than ER, which only gave me one days worth of medication. I had to fly home all of a sudden. That treatment cost me thousands of dollars. I worry also that my doctor, who is compassionate, will die, and that I will wind up back in the mill of insane doctors who deny me the ability to make my own choices.

[[Te...]]

My quality of life was slowly declining on a daily basis (during the last year) and I was certain I was developing some chronic disease. I work in the medical field and have a fair knowledge of many symptoms of many, many different medical issues.  In my depressed state of mind....I was imagining I had symptoms of several different diseases and disorders. I was certain I was very sick and was doomed.  I finally admitted to my Chiropractor about my benzo use.  He gave me a quick lecture and started me Googling information.  I was somewhat relieved when I began to learn what was actually going on with me and angry at the same time for allowing it to happen.  I knew how addictive benzos were and I just kept  rationalizing that I was OK using just a short acting one.  "Lessons Learned" the hard way.  Trust me.....once I succeed with this detox....I will never, never ever take another benzo or anything like it. 

 

Taz