Benzo Lies That Have Been Busted

[[Ha...]]

That you are permantly damaged

 

That you are are doomed

 

That everyday will feel like hell

 

That you are going nutts

 

That you will never heal

 

That this is how crazy people act and feel

 

That it is FOREVER

 

That you will never eat

 

That you will never drive

 

That you will be confined to your home

 

That you will have symptome forever

 

That you will gain or lose weight and it is permanant

 

That you will be bald and insane

 

That you are going to never thrive or be happy again

 

That you are worthless

 

That you screwed up

 

That you should fear life

 

That you should fear going outside and driving

 

That you will never excersize again

 

That you will never walk or jog again

 

That you can not watch the grand kids or your kids

 

That you will never be fully functional again

 

 

DAMN this list goes on and on!!!!!!!

 

HANG IN THERE MY BB PALS!

 

 

[[Ri...]]

 

 

That you are are doomed

 

That everyday will feel like hell

 

 

That you should fear life

 

That you should fear going outside and driving

 

That you will never excersize again

 

That you will never walk or jog again

 

 

 

That you will never be fully functional again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woa,  Heather.  .  .  good post!

 

 

These are the ones that especially messed with my mind.

 

 

 

 

RW

[[Ha...]]

 

 

That you are are doomed

 

That everyday will feel like hell

 

 

That you should fear life

 

That you should fear going outside and driving

 

That you will never excersize again

 

That you will never walk or jog again

 

 

 

That you will never be fully functional again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woa,  Heather.  .  .  good post!

 

 

These are the ones that especially messed with my mind.

 

 

 

 

RW

Thank you for posting this!!! It is sooo true what the chemicals can do even to a good solid brain!!! ITS ALL lies and we will all heal in time!!

 

HUGS HM

[Guest [pa...]]

This is a great thread.

 

1. If you don't pray or believe in god you're never going to get better.

2. You're schizophrenic

3. You're just like your mom, you'll never heal and be on medicine the rest of your life.

4. There is nothing you can do.

5. You're so stupid, you can't even remember anything!!!

6. Everybody else is to blame for this.

7. You had all of these problems before benzos.

8. This is all horrible OCD and you're done for.

9. You'll never have another girlfriend or a happy life.

 

O lovely benzo brain.

[[fl...]]

This thread is like gold.  So, here's one I believe right now, and it feels really hopeless.  I WANT TO BUST IT.  Can anyone bust it?

 

You will never be able to handle any stressful situation in your life ever again.  Your stress response now is permanent.

 

After having been sent into two awful tailspins caused by (1) an argument with a family member, and more recently (2) the flu, I don't believe I have any ability to handle my life anymore.  I feel like a 2 year-old that needs constant reassurance.

 

I pray this returns to my baseline, (which was never that great anyway), but this feels like primal fear.  Just primal. 

 

I'm going to keep coming back to this thread.  Thank you so much, River. 

[[da...]]

Lie:

"0.25 mg of clonazepam is such a small dose that you can come off completely without any further taper".

 

That is what a psychologist that is part of "detox" program told my husband. We did not go with that program because the psychiatrist seemed to aggressive and controlling. The psychologist was the nice one. My husband almost believed her ... until the last cut that was 13% out of the current dose. Now he's riding the wave again. Next time I'll go much more lower.

[[Ri...]]

This thread is like gold.  So, here's one I believe right now, and it feels really hopeless.  I WANT TO BUST IT.  Can anyone bust it?

 

You will never be able to handle any stressful situation in your life ever again.  Your stress response now is permanent.

 

After having been sent into two awful tailspins caused by (1) an argument with a family member, and more recently (2) the flu, I don't believe I have any ability to handle my life anymore.  I feel like a 2 year-old that needs constant reassurance.

 

I pray this returns to my baseline, (which was never that great anyway), but this feels like primal fear.  Just primal. 

 

I'm going to keep coming back to this thread.  Thank you so much, River.

 

 

I'll bust it right now floc.

 

 

Over the last months I have been able to successfully manage some very stressful situations which there was no way I could have handled before.

 

In my case I have noticed a gradual improvement in my ability to handle stress without a benzo since my jump.

 

 

Benzo Lie  -  You will never be able to handle any stressful situation in your life ever again.  Your stress response now is permanent.

 

 

    [BUSTED]    NOT BUSTED

 

 

 

 

 

 

River 

[[Jo...]]

River Wolf -

 

Are you human? Are you some kind of saint that has traveled down from heaven? How are you able to speak so much truth like a poet?

 

I printed out what you wrote about the benzos affecting our higher self.  I couldn't understand what was wrong with my mind. The physical pain I understand obviously but the mental stuff I couldn't put my finger on it. Was it DP/DR? Am I depressed? Is my anxiety out of control?

 

But I think this sums it up correctly. Before this fiasco I had a sensitivity for life that I felt others I knew didn't really have.  That's probably what led me to the benzos - my sensitivity came out as anxiety and it was starting to take over my life. 

 

I sure do hope things get better. I'm only looking at positive things now.  I'm following your posts closely!! 

[[Ri...]]

Aww Joe, you made my day.    No, month  - year!

 

 

You know, I'm writing what feels true for me, and what is based on years of study and meditation practice.

 

Sometimes, I would feel the answer to someones question or dilemma, and then the search for the words to describe it begins.

 

So many times I have written posts that dance around the concept but don't quite say it like I am knowing it.

 

Occasionally, I would write a post or start a thread and I hit the nail on the head - I am able to find the words to describe some of the mental and emotional experiences that we are facing.

 

I'm glad to be of help.

 

. . .and thank you for your wonderful compliment.  (are you human?) 

 

 

 

River   

[Guest [Ti...]]

Lie:

"0.25 mg of clonazepam is such a small dose that you can come off completely without any further taper".

 

That is what a psychologist that is part of "detox" program told my husband. We did not go with that program because the psychiatrist seemed to aggressive and controlling. The psychologist was the nice one. My husband almost believed her ... until the last cut that was 13% out of the current dose. Now he's riding the wave again. Next time I'll go much more lower.

 

I was told I could c/t off 12mg of Valium because it eventually self tapers and I have enough built up in my system......

[[ov...]]

River thanks for the hope.  I have completed my c/o to V and begin my .5 mg taper tonight.  There are many lies going through my head, but they seem so real. 

 

Thanks for the hope!

Overcomer 

[[Ri...]]

River thanks for the hope.  I have completed my c/o to V and begin my .5 mg taper tonight.  There are many lies going through my head, but they seem so real. 

 

Thanks for the hope!

Overcomer 

 

I hope your taper goes well.

 

If it gets rough, try to remember the basics - benzo wd will not kill you, and you will get better.

 

 

[[ov...]]

Thanks River:  I need to be reminded of that constantly because the benzos want to tell me I am dying and will never get better!  So keep on pounding it into my head.

Overcomer    :smitten:

[[Ka...]]

River Wolf,

 

Once again, thanks for starting this thread. I usually do NOT read a whole thread but this one was definitely worth it.

 

You and I must have similar brains/body chemistries because I have suffered all of the ones you have and have had the same mentality. I still have lots of symptoms but the irrational fears (some of them) are starting to fade. I even had in a severe way, terror like fear for the weekly "gardeners" at the condo I live in. They use gas blowers, several of them at a time and I had many times that it woke me up and I got totally hysterical, had to go in my bathroom and shut the door but that did not really lessen the noise and I screamed in hysteria. Those were some of the very worse times of my withdrawal when I really thought I was going to lose it and have to be admitted to the hospital or worse!!! Now it still irks me, wakes me up but I can go back to sleep now!

 

I forgot the others that we had in common but it's best to try to forget them right? You are definitely an angel from heaven and any comfort at all that we can give to each other is a Godsend.

 

One thought I had in reading all these posts is that evidently our brains and nervous system craves the benzo so very desperately and it tells us the lies to try to get us to start back giving it the poison. Has anyone else seen or heard this theory? It only makes sense that would be the case...

 

I am not near done as I thought I would be at 12 months out sadly, but I can add another benzo lie that I know intellectually is not true but benzo brain tells me that God does not love me or listen to my prayers and is angry with me. Or that God is punishing me. I even bought a book called, "God is not mad at you". I have always been a strong believer in God so this is truly heart breaking. I pray every night for healing and sometimes during the day, it is a strength for me, there are lots of Bible verses about rejecting fear, knowing God and that he is with us always.

 

I have had every single irrational fear and thought listed in this thread!!! That is just really incredible to me. I am still in the doubting anything good is going to happen to me stage so I take great encouragement and hope from this thread.

 

Thanks a million River Wolf, you rock...and thanks to ALL that posted their accomplishments in recovery.  :) ;)

[[Ka...]]

I am truly fascinated by this concept and find it both amazing and hard to understand. I want to understand the why and how of it. I composed my list of lies that benzos have told me and continue to tell me. It just seems unbelievable that it is all just brain chemistry. I have understood in the past that depression can be caused by a chemical imbalance, now that seems so wrong to me for for some reason. I don't want to think that my whole personality and who I am is just whatever chemicals are floating around my brain. I am currently arguing this with someone on a different site.

 

Anyhoo, here is my list with a few borrowed from all the posters here that apply to me. Hope you don't mind.

 

So mind boggling...

 

My brain is damaged beyond repair

I will never heal or get better

I will never feel better

My life is ruined/over

I will never be happy again

There will be no future for me, my life is over

God does not love me, he is mad at me

God does not listen to my prayers anymore

God is punishing me

The withdrawal symptoms are going to last forever

I'm different. I'll never heal fully. I will grow old and die alone.

I'll never be able to support myself again.

I have to live in poverty from now on.

Why is everyone else feeling good and doing more and I'm not?

I am different, been on too many psychiatric drugs and I am not going to get better

These symptoms can't be just benzos. I must have a horrible disease.

I'm ok right now, but down the road, I'm going to have an event that sets me back.

My CNS is fried and will never really recover.

I have wasted my life

My looks have changed in a really bad way

When I look in the mirror I see a really ugly scarred and sick person

I can never lose weight

My health has been ruined for good

I am doomed for certain

I will never fully heal

 

Is it any wonder that life has come to a screeching halt with all these negative thoughts swirling about at any moment of the day or night? No!!! I am not done arguing with the lies and trying hard to believe that they are not true. Hope someone reads this other than me.

[[Ri...]]

[quote author=Katia Kane link=topic=87594.msg1323892#msg1323892

My brain is damaged beyond repair

I will never heal or get better

I will never feel better

My life is ruined/over

I will never be happy again

There will be no future for me, my life is over

God does not love me, he is mad at me

God does not listen to my prayers anymore

God is punishing me

The withdrawal symptoms are going to last forever

I'm different. I'll never heal fully. I will grow old and die alone.

I'll never be able to support myself again.

I have to live in poverty from now on.

Why is everyone else feeling good and doing more and I'm not?

I am different, been on too many psychiatric drugs and I am not going to get better

These symptoms can't be just benzos. I must have a horrible disease.

I'm ok right now, but down the road, I'm going to have an event that sets me back.

My CNS is fried and will never really recover.

I have wasted my life

My looks have changed in a really bad way

When I look in the mirror I see a really ugly scarred and sick person

I can never lose weight

My health has been ruined for good

I am doomed for certain

I will never fully heal

 

 

 

Katia -

 

I have BUSTED all of those lies except for the poly drug one. I experienced ALL of those others and they have proved to be a benzo lie.

 

My life is so completely different than it was during wd. I'm normal again and it feels great.

 

Your turn is coming. Don't let the lies take you out.   

 

Can someone who has recovered from many psych drugs bust this one please?

 

 

 

 

[[Ka...]]

So glad to hear once again that my turn IS coming. Waiting patiently...and waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

 

I feel like the dude who went crazy in the shining...typing the same words over and over, I could have easily sat and done that...wtf has happened to my brain.

[[ov...]]

Wowie zowie River:  I have told myself all those lies and more!  Keep accentuating the positive.  i need it!

Overcomer  :smitten:

[[Be...]]

 

I am different, been on too many psychiatric drugs and I am not going to get better

 

Can someone who has recovered from many psych drugs bust this one please?

Consider it busted.

 

Over the last 2 decades I've periodically been the victim of several different SSRI's, SNRi's, Tricyclic meds and anti-psychotics and they ALL screwed with my head so much that I lost all sense of who I was and became.. different.  For the worse, of course.

 

That said, I've been clear of them all for 18 months and am pleased to say that all the sense-of-self that they robbed from me has returned.

 

It's definitely not true that they leave us permanently damaged.  We get better eventually with cessation.  Just takes a bit of time for the mind to re-adjust.

 

 

B

[[Ri...]]

  "I am different, been on too many psychiatric drugs and I am not going to get better"

 

 

 

 

  Another Benzo Lie              [Busted]  Not Busted

 

 

 

Thank you Benzoid 

 

 

 

 

River 

[[Be...]]

Always happy to bust a cap at the lying voice within, River.

[[...]]

Benzo Lies

 

I was talking with a friend about the lies that benzos tell us and thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on the topic.

 

Here are some benzo lies that I previously posted on my blog and thought it would be good to start this thread off with.

 

Please add some of the lies that you used to believe and now know to be untrue.

 

This will be very valuable for those who are still under the spell of the lies that benzos tell us. My experience is that our thinking is fundamentally altered by benzo action during tolerance withdrawal and during tapering, and that we are not actually thinking – we are at the effect of chemical storms in our brains. And we think that these are our thoughts. And worse yet, we BELIEVE these thoughts. But what we are experiencing is chemical and electrical processes that occur during the body’s attempt to adjust these chemicals and processes on the fly.

 

 

Now that I am feeling better, it’s easy to see some of the lies the benzos tell us. They are plain to see in hindsight. But for those of you who are having troubles with taper symptoms, or pre or post-taper symptoms, I wanted to help you to see  some of the lies that the benzos have told me, and may be telling you too.  Hopefully, you will be able to use this to understand more about your experience and maybe you could use this post as a template for reality.

 

Benzo Lie # 1. There is no hope.  This one is nasty. Do not believe this lie. It can take you down fast. It is not true, even though it feels very true. For me, this hopelessness was a result of benzo created chemical imbalances coloring my thinking into a perceived end of time. I could not imagine time extending for more than 3 months into the future. There was no way I could think of any possible outcome at all – not even a negative one, and all of my imagined outcomes of less than 3 months were negative. If you cannot imagine a positive future for yourself, know you are under the trance of lie # 1.

 

Benzo Lie # 2. My Life is ruined.  Do not believe this lie. You are in a temporary state of withdrawal. It is an awful state, but it is temporary and you will move out of it and have a life that you can mold into what you had before or one that is better than before. When you can think clearly, you are able to fashion a life that is better than what happened to you when you were tranquilized and your life fell apart as a result of being drugged. When you are out of withdrawals and free from the effects of their symptoms, you will be in a better position to solve problems instead of having them take you down.

 

Benzo Lie # 3. These benzo effects will last forever.  I see this lie as being conditional.  The lie part is that if you are making decisions that will move yourself toward health and away from benzos, it will not last forever. There WILL be an end to the benzo-related troubles. As you get further away from benzos and their effects, the less the benzos will act on you.  If you make benzo related decisions that move yourself away from natural health and into benzo use, you may end up in a never ending loop of having side effects being confused as diseases, and having benzo symptoms being medicated with more benzos, and in turn, more and more drug and symptom interactions and more and more suffering.

 

Benzo Lie # 4. I will never be happy again  This lie broke my heart. I let this lie rob me of my dreams. I am living proof that you can totally believe this lie and live to prove it wrong. I never thought I could ever be happy ever again. I’m not only happy now, but happier than I was before I started on benzos. I feel like I have just vanquished a dragon, and there is a great deal of satisfaction in that. Now, I am happy. I am happy just because I exist and because life is available to me. There is such joy in coming back from the edge and being able to function again.

 

I felt like there was no way happiness could ever be attained by someone who is going through all of this suffering and torture and ineptitude, and now I’m happy.  I am the guy that was scared to death of my cat for 2 years. I was freaked out because the gardener was going to come on Wednesday and scare me with the noise of his equipment and today it’s Monday and I’m worried about it already. I couldn't drive for over a year. . . and on and on.

 

If you are feeling that your happiness is behind you, do not despair. You cannot absolutely know that your best days are behind you. The effects of benzo action will make you believe you cannot be happy. It is not true. After your body begins making the feel good chemicals and you are out of wd, your life can get wonderful again.

 

 

These are just a few of the benzo lies that have I have busted for myself. And there are many, many more.

 

Try this on - If it makes you sad, it's probably a benzo lie.

 

You CAN be happy again. It will feel great, and you’ll love it more than ever. 

 

 

Please post the benzo lies that you have busted so others can learn from your experience.

 

 

 

River 

 

This a great thread, Thank you so much River!!!!

D21

[[ov...]]

Thanks again for the positivity, I need it!

xo Overcomer  :smitten:

[[ak...]]

Can anyone bust these.....

 

My body will never absorb food correctly again and I will waste away without gaining weight.

My arms and legs will never stop hurting and looking so scary.

My stomach and digestive tract will be permanently damaged.

I will always have hypochondria that there is something "else" wrong -especially when doctors try to make you think so.

 

I am having some difficulties with these and am hoping for some , well, HOPE 

[[Ri...]]

 

My body will never absorb food correctly again and I will waste away without gaining weight.

 

My arms and legs will never stop hurting and looking so scary.

 

I will always have hypochondria that there is something "else" wrong -especially when doctors try to make you think so.

 

 

 

I had three of those four situations and I have proven those to be benzo lies.

 

I was so skinny and my arms looked terrible. A friend of mine made a strange face when he saw how my arms had shrunk.  The muscles came back and the pain went away in my arms and legs too.

 

I thought I was medically doomed for life - but it was just another lie.

 

 

3 of 4 lies  [ BUSTED ]

 

 

 

Can someone help her with this one -

 

  My stomach and digestive tract will be permanently damaged.

 

 

 

River