A question for the drinkers, ex and current

[[ti...]]

Which is harder to give up, benzos or alcohol?  I only took benzos for five years (with alcohol) and I want to give up drinking but I have been drinking for many more years than taking benzos and much more since I made the jump.  Will I go through even more awful withdrawal if I give it up?  I am only off valium 7 weeks.  Will the anxiety get even worse?  Thanks, Kathy. 

[[ka...]]

hi kathy im not a drinker but i know benzo is  like taking alcohol they both work on the same reseptors in the brain you need to give up both of them. my son was a drinker an gave it up withdrawls lasted aweek benzo withdrawls can last 6 months to a year or more love in JESUS...kate7

[[Br...]]

When I was taking Benzos my desire to drink pretty much went away.  When I did imbibe, I consumed a lot less, and usually did not get drunk.  This may be the only positive side effect I ever got from Benzos.  Apparently it lasted, because I still have no desire to drink.  I wish I had an answer to your question other than to say that before Benzos I definitely had a drinking problem.  Post Benzo I do not.  Maybe your experience will be similar.

[Guest [...]]

Kathy,

 

Unless you are an alcoholic you can just stop drinking with no withdrawal symptoms at all. Believe me. I have done it many times. For 4 pregnancies, for 'Dry July', because I want to stop for a while.... Nothing! ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECTS. I don't care if they use the same receptors or not. There is no comparison. I have been drinking alcohol off and on all my adult life.

 

I am struggling with withdrawal from long term Xanax. Absolutely no comparison at all.

 

Kate7: What the?

hi kathy, i'm not a drinker but i know benzo is  like taking alcohol they both work on the same reseptors in the brain you need to give up both of them. my son was a drinker an gave it up withdrawls lasted aweek benzo withdrawls can last 6 months to a year or more love in JESUS...kate7

I've seen lots of believers on these forums. Enough said.

 

Xana

 

[[su...]]

Kathy, Kate7 is right...alcohol and benzo hit the same receptors.  I quit drinking 16 1/2 years ago...and attend a 12 step program.  For me, quitting the Ativan has been harder and with more withdrawal symptoms than what I had with alcohol. 

 

I hope you will see a physican, tell him honestly what your daily alcohol consumption is along with whatever else you are taking in terms of benzos, other medications, and even over the counter medications and supplements...and let him help you through this.  Mixing benzos as well as some other meds with alcohol is dangerous business, and detoxing can be also, and you may need the help of a medical professional for your own safety.    Good luck to you.......

[[ti...]]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I have really been hitting the wine since I made the jump...it is the ONLY thing that alleviates my symptoms!  I guess thats because its like a benzo.  I was just basically wondering if I should wait to stop drinking....because I just can't handle any more panic, depression, agoraphobia, horrible physical symptoms....or will I feel better if I give it up now 7 weeks post jump?  Thanks, Kathy. 

[[...]]

I drank heavily for 25 years and quit smoking and drinking on the same day. Benzo withdrawal is ten times worse, this is from actual experience. If you want to get better I would  quit drinking by drinking a little less each day for a few weeks. If you just stop one day from drinking a lot you are in for it! I know, I tried that way and it is awful. Good luck and write back if I can help.

[[sp...]]

I used to be a pretty regular drinker, but in the 1-3 drinks a day range mostly. However, I had significant issues with other things (mostly pot, but what pushed me into despair and horror was the benzos and dabbling with narcotics, understanding it was a stupid and terrible thing to do and watching myself do it anyway), so I've completely cut all that crap out of my life.

 

Not drinking is no big deal for me; it's not that I don't miss it, but every time I see a beer it's easy for me to think "benzo withdrawal is making me miserable, that's directly going to make it worse, problem solved". I miss smoking a lot more, but with every day I get through without any of that garbage I'm probably thinking about it less. I don't know where I'll net out with all that post-benzo, but I know that a lot of my compulsions to use any of those things stem from basic insecurities about who I am, and an inability to just sit still and experience my body and not go batshit bonkers.

 

Cognitive-based talk therapy and simple meditation seems to be helping me a lot.

[[Ja...]]

Hi Kathy,

 

I have a pretty extensive history with sobriety and more recently a 6 plus year trainwreck with alcohol xanax hydrocodone and ambien. Stopped the hydro 8 months ago, alcohol 12-15-2011 and the xanax and ambien in januray. Hard to believe... guess I just didn't want to think about it but the combo could easily have been deadly.

 

I started to get numb and tingling sensations when I quit alcohol and they got much much worse when i quickly tapered off xanax. Have had all the neuro tests and I'm going back on a benzo until I stabilize and then I will see my doctor again and insist on following one of the very very slow taper methods listed on this site.

 

Neurologist insists what I am experiencing ( parastesia ) can in no way be attributed to witdrawal after 30 days. I'm at a point that I don't believe the doctors really know but I can't deal with months or years of what I'm dealing with as many of the people posting here seem to be doing.

 

Got to be some sort of balance.

[[ve...]]

Which is harder to give up, benzos or alcohol?  I only took benzos for five years (with alcohol) and I want to give up drinking but I have been drinking for many more years than taking benzos and much more since I made the jump.  Will I go through even more awful withdrawal if I give it up?  I am only off valium 7 weeks.  Will the anxiety get even worse?  Thanks, Kathy.

 

Hi Kathy. 

I tapered off 6mg valium.  About a month afterward, I had some wine during Christmas holiday. One week later, I got Shingles. I was under quite a bit of stress at the time but I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some connection.  Once you finish the taper, I think it's important to try and abstain for at least six months to let your GABA heal.  Then, if you decide to imbibe, I would go very lightly and easy for the next few months, no more than a drink or two per week to see if you can tolerate it.  There is a buddy who I know was able to tolerate half a glass of red wine a night but I think he may have waited a while after taper before resuming his red wine ritual.  In any regard, if you taper and continue to drink, you never really give your brain a chance to recover, particularly if you drink heavy, from what I've heard and read.  Might check with your doctor and maybe it's a good time to consider abstinance/AA at least to get your through the first six months to a year off the benzo.  Who knows, you might just decide not to resume drinking which might be best if you feel you have a dependency or addiction to alcohol as well.

 

Vertigo

[[os...]]

Sober 14 months here, i could not have done it without AA, i am now tapering and NOT attending AA but as soon as i am off the Benzo i will be living AA meetings for the rest of my life, i know that without the Benzo my defenses will be much lower, i will need AA more than ever but it really helps... for me, in order to be well in this life i need to live clean and sober... i felt like a fraud in AA before i started my taper... but after i got 3 months dry under my belt, life got much better... but now i am in benzo withdrawals but i´ll get there.

 

Oscar

[[La...]]

Hi, benzos and booze can be a  deadly combination and I finally came to that realization 3 years ago before it killed me  and quit drinking first, I was a very heavy drinker, an alcoholic I would say but I managed to quit cold turkey, having a glass of wine  or two here or there would not have worked for me, I was still taking benzos until Dec last year so that probably helped me over the withdrawals from booze which I really didnt seem experience.  Oh, I thought about alcohol for months especialy  when I socialized with my friends and to overcome that I  became less social for awhile, it worked for me.  Now I am working on getting the benzos gone, the power of the mind can overcome the beast one day at a time, stay strong and try to get all the support you can. Ladygrace

[[ti...]]

flea thank you, yours was the response I was waiting for.  I will do like you said and cut down.  My screwed up nervous system just couldn't take another w/d. 

 

Also, Jake in vegas my heart goes out to you....I too am experiencing weird neuro symptoms and have been for the past year or so...while on valium and now off the valium, mainly walking difficulties, extreme muscle stiffness.  I feel like why bother to go to the doctor...they will just put me on meds. 

 

Thanks to all you guys for replying...how nice it would be to forget this misery for just a day.  Kathy. 

[[li...]]

Tinfoilkathy. I'd be very careful with the booze. Your experience reminds me of what happened to me.

 

I was on what I thought was  a relatively low dose of oxazepam(SERAX) app 15mg/day for about 15 years. Due to various problem, up dosed to 60mgs. After trying to quit cold turkey I realised I was hooked. Withdrawal was so terrible. With some help started a slow taper, starting with 20mgs valium. Completed after about 6months. (Jan 2010). Thing was, towards the end of the taper I started drinking far more than I usually did, not realisisng the close connection between booze and benzos and that I was merely substituting booze for benzos.

 

At the end of the taper I carried on drinking. I think I was going in and out of benzo withdrawal throughout that time with the alcohol keeping the worst of the symptoms at bay. This went on for five strange months. When I stopped drinking the benzo w/d really kicked in.  Tinnitus, muscle aches, derealisation, depersonalisation, eye problems, dizziness, tiredness etc, etc. And this was 5 months after my last benzo. The symptoms of w/d persist till now, and thats 21 months. Not as bad as the beginning but still there. The alcohol was merely substituting for the benzoz and I wasn't free of them at all till I stopped drinking.

 

I'm hopeful some of the time and down at other times when symptoms pop up from nowhere. I just keep my head down and press on in the knowledge that this thing will eventually stop. That's what I tell myself anyway.

 

I would suggest you try to gradually cut back on the alcohol and then cut it out and give your body time to heal from the benzos before considering drinking again.

 

John 

 

 

[[ti...]]

John thanks for your input...pretty depressing though.  I am doing just what you did unfortunately.  I am very discouraged about what you say about dp/dr.  NO!  I can't take anymore of that!  I will do like a six month taper...I did that with the valium....six months at 5 mg...hell really...and when I dropped to 2.5, ABSOLUTE hell...but then I made the jump ok and I don't want it anymore.  Hopefully, I can do that with the vino! K. 

[[el...]]

Hi Kathy -

 

I did what you are doing only in reverse. I stopped drinking 28 months ago after 40 years of alcohol abuse. The last 13 years of those 40 years, I was also taking my 1 mg Klonopin every day. When I quit drinking, I went into what I thought was unbearable tolerance w/d from the K (and PAWS from the alcohol). So, of course, I updosed the K. That was a huge mistake. It made me suicidally depressed. The short story is that I had to get off the K. I did a rapid taper (because by then I really was in unbearable tolerance w/d). I am over 18 months off now and feeling better every week.

 

Given the very short half life of alcohol, I would probably try to taper rapidly - or even c/t (depending on how much you are drinking). Either way, you will heal. I c/t’d the booze and rapid tapered the K and am healing pretty well - a miracle given the years of alcohol and benzo abuse.

 

eli

[[Ho...]]

Been sober here since 8-1-2009.

 

 

I would quit drinking first, then taper the benzo.

 

I would also be careful how much I drank. I don't imagine anything could suck worse than withdrawing from alcohol while in the middle of acute benzo withdrawal. 

[[me...]]

I am a recovering alcoholic (8 years of sobriety) and for me alcohol withdrawal was worse. But with alcoholism, the phenomenon of craving exists. Whereas with klonopin I never abused it or took it for the effects. I hadn't felt any effects of taking it in years actually. I took klonopin 15 years. I slowly tapered 1 mg over 3 months. Just took last dose 3 weeks ago. I'm feeling pretty much back to normal at this point

[[Ja...]]

Mel,

 

great to read a positive experience. I was sober for 16 years before a 7 year trainwreck. Quit alcohol again on 12-15-2011. Tried a quick taper from prescribed xanax and CT ambien in January. Worst symptoms are numbing and tingling from head to toe on a daily basis. Saw neurologist, GAD diagnosis. Am going back on Klonapin to stabilize and then hope to do a very very slow taper and with any luck will get through it as you seem to have.

[[Me...]]

depends if your an alcoholic or not

 

if your alcoholic then you have a cronic deadly and progressive disease that needs treatment and daily maintanence ( i'm one of these people)

 

benzo's are horrible, but there not very addictive.  and once your out of withdrawl your in the clear

 

for alcoholics were never really in the clear there is always chance of relapse and death.

 

it takes a tremedious amount of work to stay sober, but like benzo withdrawl, its hard but its worth it (ten times over)

 

NOTHING EASY IS WORTH HAVING

[[Em...]]

I'd also guess that it depends on if you're an alcoholic or not.

 

For me I drank heavily from between the ages of 18-23 yrs old. For me quitting drinking was WAY easier than getting off of Benzo's. For the past 10 yrs I only have 1-2 drinks every 1-2 months, so I'm not sure if I ever really was an alcoholic or not. If I had to guess I'd say I wasn't because although it took me probably about a year of trying to quit on my own, I don't really have any cravings for alcohol anymore and I can self-regulate.

 

Anyhow, as to which was easier for me? Quitting drinking hands down because the withdrawals were no where near what they are with these Benzos (to me).

 

Perhaps consider working on one thing at a time?

 

What if you tackled the alcohol first and then later the Benzos, that way you aren't withdrawing from both at the same time? That could be pretty harsh to try and do. First one battle and then the next. That's what I plan on doing. First my Klonopin, next my Cymbalta.

 

Best of luck to you! Hugs ~ Emmy