Theories on why benzos may make you MORE anxious?

[[sp...]]

Is it because it may numb you, therefore you lose your internal navigation system, and put yourself in situations, etc that aren't really right for you?  Thus creating a whole new series of problems? 

[[re...]]

They down regulate your GABA receptors so you go into withdrawal even on a consistent dose.  You will feel wd sx including anxiety.  You have to keep taking more of the drug to get the same results.

 

there may be other reasons as well that I am not that versed in.

[[cn...]]

I think it's a combo of things.

 

I think it's the Gaba craving the drug... when they were so used to being down regulated. Now they are confused and can not chill out at times, therefor causing a sensitive central nervous system. Which means normal things that wouldn't normally cause you anxiety, can.

 

Then there's the other s/x... which can be rapid heart rate, which can CAUSE a person to be anxious. And then the other s/x... which can make a person panic only creating more anxiety.

 

Then there's the initial fear of benzo w/d... not necessarily a s/x from the drug, it's just that you fear it... so there's anxiety that you kind of create by yourself.

 

SO I think it's a combo of all those things.

[[su...]]

Hello spring50,

 

 

I saw you asking questions about why we have anxiety as we taper a benzo. 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.

 

 

Why Benzos are difficult to get off of compared to other drugs?

 

“The Benzo Book, Getting Safely off Tranquilizers” by Jack Hobson- Dupont, 2006

 

 

“It is the down-regulation of the neural receptors that differentiates benzodiazepine dependency from that of all other substances. That is the explanation of why getting off these drugs can be so horrendously difficult for some people, and why withdrawal symptoms for some can last days, weeks, months, even years after the last dose of benzodiazepine is taken. It is ignorance of this aspect of benzodiazepine discontinuation that leads medical professionals-- even addiction specialists who should know better-- to misunderstand the plight of benzodiazepine users. All of their exceptional difficulties and often bizarre discontinuation phenomena are a result of the single problem of down- regulation of the neural receptors after exposure to benzodiazepine.”

 

 

What is the deal about the GABA receptors that makes it so hard for me to taper faster?

 

“The Benzo Book, Getting Safely off Tranquilizers” by Jack Hobson- Dupont, 2006

 

 

“Those who are in the throes of benzodiazepine dependency would do well to absorb that idea: the sole problem you are having is that benzodiazepine has interfered with one of your body’s most elemental functions, that of attracting GABA to its neural receptors. The results of this condition may well present as a staggering array of withdrawal phenomena, everything from insomnia and anxiety, which would seem understandable, to dental distress, difficulty breathing, sinus problems, twitching muscles…..the list is seemingly interminable and contains phenomena that would appear to have nothing to do with the nervous system. Subjectively, these phenomena feel like illness. What is happening to someone whose many trillion nerve cells are down- regulated because of benzodiazepine is neither disease nor tissue damage, but more like a mechanical malfunction. Therefore, recovery is more akin to ‘repair’ than ‘healing’. Being aware of the actual nature of what is wrong helps demystify the rather bewildering process of getting on with recovery.”

 

 

 

 

How does GABA affect the body?

 

“The Benzo Book, Getting Safely off Tranquilizers” by Jack Hobson- Dupont, 2006

 

 

“What GABA does is to bind to parts of the neural receptor. It is this action that calms the nerves. Benzodiazepine binds to a different place on the neural receptor than where GABA binds, but its presence there strengthens the bond that the GABA makes, which increases the power of GABA to inhibit stimulation.”

 

What is down- regulation of GABA?

 

“The Benzo Book, Getting Safely off Tranquilizers” by Jack Hobson- Dupont, 2006

 

 

“Professor C. Heather Ashton found in her extensive research was that, in some people, after exposure to benzodiazepines, the ability of the neural receptors to attract GABA is reduced. So, even after there is no longer any benzodiazepine in the body to influence the receptors directly, they still aren’t able to bind enough GABA to themselves to inhibit electrical excitation sufficiently. This phenomenon is called “down regulation” of the GABA receptor sites.”

 

 

Why down- regulation of GABA causes a vast array of withdrawal symptoms?

 

 

“The Benzo Book, Getting Safely off Tranquilizers” by Jack Hobson- Dupont, 2006

 

 

“Dr. Lance P. Longo and Dr. Brian Johnson of the American Academy of Family Physicians, wrote in “Benzodiazepines- Side Effects, Abuse Risk and Alternatives”, that:

 

“With long-term high-dose use of benzodiazepine there is an apparent decrease in the efficacy of GABA receptors, presumably a mechanism of tolerance. When high-dose benzodiazepines are abruptly discontinued, this ‘down-regulated’ state of inhibitory transmission is unmasked, leading to characteristic withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, autonomic hyperactivity and, possibly seizures.”

 

“What Professor Ashton determined was that even when benzodiazepine isn’t ‘abruptly terminated’ as described above, it still has the potential of down-regulating the action of the neural receptors to inhibit excitatory states. While this is a simple, uncomplicated difficulty, the function of GABA throughout the body is so widespread, so fundamental to the operation of a wide variety of bodily systems, that to have it impaired produces an opportunity for a vast array of possible problems to appear.”

 

 

Why do benzos have to be out of the system to feel better?

 

“The Ashton Manual” by Heather Ashton, 2002

Mechanisms of withdrawal reactions. “Nearly all the excitatory mechanisms in the nervous system go into overdrive and, until new adaptations to the drug – free state develop, the brain and peripheral nervous system are in a hyper-excitable state, and extremely vulnerable to stress.”

 

I hope this is helpful,

 

Summer

[[jo...]]

Summer thank you, this is good info. Helped me

Jo

[[su...]]

Hello Jo,

 

You're welcome. I am so happy to hear the information was helpful. It is this type of info that helps me too. Here's to continued healing.

 

Love to you,

 

Summer