Burning up, then cold

[[So...]]

The last couple of nights I've been waking up after sleeping on my own for 4 hours (fall asleep with no meds!), then get really hot, not a hot flash (you ladies will know what I mean) but burning up my whole body, followed by the shakes in my legs. Then get cold. And of course by that time I'm freaking out and awake. 

 

I recently reinstated as I was very sick having what the docs think is an autoimmune reaction: dry mouth/eyes/throat which continued even when I was recently completely off the Klonopin (was benzo free for over a week). Now that I'm back on a low dose to stabilize, I'm getting hit with these weird awful symptoms.  I thought getting back on would put these w/d symptoms away but no! I am going nuts with not sleeping well - when will this end? I'd rather not have to up the dose as it was so hard to get down to this point, but upping to stabilize might be my only alternative.

 

I am going to my lady doc tomorrow to discuss hormone levels (I'm on the patch) as maybe they are out of whack because of the benzos?

[[pa...]]

I have had a huge problem with burning heat - not like a hot flash, it lasts longer and I don't sweat, just get hot.  This is often followed by feeling chilled and sometimes I can feel really hot on the inside and chilled on the outside.  I also have a problem with burning/prickly skin, and these are my main, persistent symptoms.  The heat symptom started after withdrawing from gabapentin which I was put on for nerve pain.  It didn't help and after a few months I slowly withdrew and got the heat symptom.  That was last June.  It's gotten somewhat better these past few months, but it's still around.  I will be interested to know if your doctor has any suggestions.  I've been checked for all sorts of things - negative.

 

I do find that passionflower helps.  I don't take it every day now but I did for a while to calm down my skin and heat. 

 

Hope you're feeling better - 

 

Paresthesia

[[So...]]

I have had a huge problem with burning heat - not like a hot flash, it lasts longer and I don't sweat, just get hot.  This is often followed by feeling chilled and sometimes I can feel really hot on the inside and chilled on the outside.  ...

 

I do find that passionflower helps.  I don't take it every day now but I did for a while to calm down my skin and heat. 

 

Paresthesia

Thanks Paresthesia! Do you take the passionflower as a pill or a tea? How much do you take?

[[re...]]

I've had exactly the same thing every night for the past six months, at least. I wake up so hot I have to remove blankets, and the pillow is so drenched with sweat I have to flip it over to continue using it. Then when I get up, I start freezing, especially my feet and hands. It's the withdrawal.

[[re...]]

Please reconsider up dosing. Its not the direction you want to go in. You will most likely only have to get through the very same sx you are trying to get away from.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

 

[[pa...]]

Sleeping was a huge issue for me for months.  Night after night of not being able to get to sleep or waking up a an hour or so after falling asleep and staying awake for hours.  I put together a lot of things that helped - a list sort of that I would go through until something worked.  I usually started out by having a glass of milk and a piece of whole grain toast before bed (or a bowl of unsugared cereal). Often this was enough. Next, some lemon, hops or passionflower.  Next, a benadryl, or some gaba and taurine, all the while listening to relaxing music.  I don't think I ever used all of the above on any single night, but it became a sort of drill for me.  If not this, then the next thing.  And also I might take a couple of bufferin.  My insomnia went away before I got to the last thing I could think of - downloading a really boring book and listening to it. 

 

Your insomnia will eventually go away.  Try to stay on top of it and do not give up. 

 

Paresthesia

[[su...]]

Hello SonicEm,

 

 

I saw your question regarding being hot then cold.  I get that too. I put together some information that might be helpful. I am the type of person who seeks to know what is happening and why, it brings comfort to me. I hope it does the same for you.

 

Information on Body Temperature:

 

"The Ashton Manual" by Heather Ashton, 2002

BENZODIAZEPINE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS:

 

INDIVIDUAL SYMPTOMS, THEIR CAUSES AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

 

 

Body Sensations. ”All sorts of strange tinglings, pins and needles, patches of numbness, feelings of electric shocks, sensations of hot and cold, itching, and deep burning pain are not uncommon during benzodiazepine withdrawal. It is difficult to give an exact explanation for these sensations but, like motor nerves, the sensory nerves, along with their connections in the spinal cord and brain, become hyper excitable during withdrawal. It is possible that sensory receptors in skin and muscle, and in the tissue sheaths around bones, may fire off impulses chaotically in response to stimuli that do not normally affect them.”

 

“In my clinic, nerve conduction studies in patients with such symptoms revealed nothing abnormal - for example, there was no evidence of peripheral neuritis. However, the symptoms were sometimes enough to puzzle neurologists. Three patients with a combination of numbness, muscle spasms and double vision were diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. This diagnosis, and all the symptoms, disappeared soon after the patients stopped their benzodiazepines.”

 

“None of these symptoms is harmful, and they need not be a cause of worry once they are understood.”

 

“There are many measures that will alleviate these symptoms, such as muscle stretching exercises as taught in most gyms, moderate exercise, hot baths, massage and general relaxation exercises. Such measures may give only temporary relief at first, but if practiced regularly can speed the recovery of normal muscle tone – which will eventually occur spontaneously.”

 

 

“Benzo-Wise, A Recovery Companion” by Bliss Johns, 2010

 

Lists Symptoms A to Z:

 

Body temperature: fluctuations

 

Sweats/Chills: one minute perspiring profusely then freezing/shaking, hot then chills as if one has ague (a fever with recurrent chills and sweating)

Sweating: profuse sweating regardless of temperature, body washed in perspiration, clothes wet

Temperature: fluctuations in body temperature

 

 

“The Accidental Addict” by Di Porritt & Di Russell, 2006

 

Sweat and Body Temperature

 

“The body’s internal thermostat often seems to go out of control in withdrawal. Temperatures can fluctuate from very cold to very hot in a short space of time.”

 

I hope this is helpful,

Summer

 

[[su...]]

The last couple of nights I've been waking up after sleeping on my own for 4 hours (fall asleep with no meds!), then get really hot, not a hot flash (you ladies will know what I mean) but burning up my whole body, followed by the shakes in my legs. Then get cold. And of course by that time I'm freaking out and awake. 

 

I recently reinstated as I was very sick having what the docs think is an autoimmune reaction: dry mouth/eyes/throat which continued even when I was recently completely off the Klonopin (was benzo free for over a week). Now that I'm back on a low dose to stabilize, I'm getting hit with these weird awful symptoms. I thought getting back on would put these w/d symptoms away but no! I am going nuts with not sleeping well - when will this end? I'd rather not have to up the dose as it was so hard to get down to this point, but upping to stabilize might be my only alternative.

 

I am going to my lady doc tomorrow to discuss hormone levels (I'm on the patch) as maybe they are out of whack because of the benzos?

Hello SonicEm,

 

I saw your comment about taking your benzo again to stop the symptoms. I put together some information that may be helpful. I am the type of person who seeks to know what is happening and why, it brings comfort to me. I hope it does the same for you.

 

OVERVIEW OF PSYCHIATRIC DRUG WITHDRAWAL REACTIONS

 

"Your Drug May Be Your Problem, How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications." Fully revised and updated edition, by Peter Breggin, 2007.

 

Chapter 9: Withdrawal Reactions from Psychiatric Drugs

 

Overview of Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Reactions

 

"In an authoritative 500 – page book focusing solely on adverse effects of psychiatric drugs, fewer than five pages are devoted to withdrawal effects associated with all categories of drugs. This finding reflects the inadequate level of psychiatric interest and knowledge in such reactions."

 

"Psychiatric drugs may induce a wide range of adverse effects when they are taken, and they may induce a wide range of adverse effects when they are withdrawn. Recognize withdrawal syndromes are a regular, common feature of the use of all psychiatric drugs. But as we have seen, doctors who prescribe these drugs too often they'll to warn the patients who take them."

 

"Because they produce unpleasant withdrawal reactions, psychiatric drugs must be considered drugs of dependence. In other words, at least some users will restart the drugs due to the withdrawal – induced discomfort. These individuals will continue their drug use simply in order to avoid withdrawal reactions. The countless first – person reports posted on the Internet by users of SSRI antidepressants, for example, provide unusually vivid evidence that this phenomenon occurs all too frequently. Unfortunately, when withdrawal reactions lead to prolonged drug use, the user risk experiencing more severe withdrawal reactions later."

 

"As noted, the relatively small quantity of published case reports describing withdrawal reactions cannot be taken as a valid indicator of the actual frequency of their occurrence. As a rule, withdrawal reactions from most psychiatric drugs have been ignored or simply not recognized as such. However, studies specifically designed to look for such reactions have found them in 60 – 80 percent of patients. A full 20% may undergo "severe" reactions."

 

"Doctors often focus on the physical consequences of withdrawal, such as nausea, tremors, or seizures, while feeling to identify the emotional withdrawal symptoms that so often contribute to the resumption of drugs. Emotional withdrawal reactions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, confusion, and irritability can actually have a greater impact on patients than purely physical symptoms."

 

"The three main categories of emotional and behavioral withdrawal reactions are anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Anxiety reactions appear to be common upon withdrawal of central nervous system (CNS) depressants such as benzodiazepines and other tranquilizers, most of the antidepressants, antipsychotics, lithium and anticonvulsants used as mood stabilizers, and anti-Parkinsonians. Still, evidence from case reports and studies suggest that any psychiatric drug may produce any of these withdrawal reactions."

 

"In addition, over a dozen studies so far have implicated expectant mothers ’use of antidepressants during pregnancy with the appearance of the peculiar "neonatal abstinence syndrome." In one well – controlled study, a full 30 percent of 60 infants whose mothers took antidepressants for prolonged periods, including during the third trimester, developed the syndrome, which lasted up to four days; 13 percent of the infants had severe reactions. The most common symptoms were tremor, gastrointestinal problems, and abnormal increase in muscle tone (hypertonicity), sleep disturbances and high – pitched cries. None of the 60 infants without exposure to SSRIs develop the syndrome. There is some debate whether this represents an actual withdrawal reaction or a sign of direct drug toxicity in the serotonin system."

 

"Furthermore, clinicians and researchers do not always correctly describe2 the symptoms that occur upon withdrawal. In many cases, pro-drug bias and habitual resistance to acknowledging withdrawal effects lead them to use relatively neutral, ambiguous terms (such as agitation, restlessness, anxiety, and psychomotor retardation) in place of terms like psychosis."

 

Undoubtedly, many withdrawal reactions from all categories of drugs are mistakenly treated as "relapses" by prescribing physicians, thus moving the focus away from possible drug involvement and toward the patient’s "underlying disorder." Many researchers also approach the problem timidly, often failing to describe or emphasize withdrawal reactions. As a consequence, patients suffer, and the public is kept uninformed."

 

"Can provide truly informed consent for the drugs they are taking, doctors must fully describe withdrawal or discontinuation in terms of adverse reactions with a "frequent" probability of occurrence. It is the doctors’ duty to make sure that patients actually grasp and then remember the nature and likelihood of all important adverse reactions, including withdrawal reactions. Similarly, in their official drug monographs, drug manufacturers need to provide more accurate summaries of reports of withdrawal reactions, as well as detailed guidelines for tapering their products, just as they provide guidelines for how to initiate treatment."

 

"The best way to minimize the risk of severe withdrawal reactions is not to take psychiatric drugs in the first place. The second best approach is to plan a slow, gradual withdrawal involving close monitoring and a systematic, ongoing program of information, counseling, and reassurance. Unfortunately, however, abrupt withdrawal remains too common in clinical practice. Abrupt withdrawal is imprudent and may result in additional distress and disability. Except in emergencies, patients who are stopping their use of psychiatric drugs and the professionals who are assisting them should proceed gradually and maintain this gradual pace until complete cessation is accomplished, even if the early stages of withdrawal percent no difficulties."

 

I hope this is helpful,

Summer

[[pa...]]

summermeadow -

  Thanks for the temperature information.  I had read Ashton's comments but not the others.  Much of the info on temperature involves sweating, and I do not sweat.  Your information indicated just temperature fluctuations which is what I have. 

 

Paresthesia

[[su...]]

Hello paresthesia,

 

You're welcome. I am happy to hear the information was helpful. I have found that understanding what is going on is really helpful. I am happy to hear it is helpful to you too.

 

Love to you,

 

Summer