"But, I deal with this everyday"

[[So...]]

Don't you just love hearing your Dr say that.

 

"But, you were on such a low dose"

 

"W/D only lasts two weeks"

 

"You shouldn't be having problems after three months. There must be something else wrong with you."

 

"Learn how to deal with your anxiety"

 

And, now for the newest one yet.

 

"Taper down, then you can use it nightly or as prn."

 

What are we poor, abused people to do with this information we receive from our Dr's?

 

Denise 

[[Fl...]]

I never imagined that I would have to be responsible for making sure my doctor knows what he is doing, but now I know the score.

 

This isn't the first hard lesson in "things aren't always the way you are lead to believe" I have had to learn. I just hope that this has taught me once and for all that you can't take anything for granted when it comes to your health, money and well being.

[[So...]]

The sad part is trying to get them to listen. They put you through every test under the sun, and still refuse to believe that you are w/d. I just heard this today, from my own Dr. He has taken hundreds of people off of benzo's, but I have been his only one with a problem.

 

P.s. We are not Dr bashing. Just discussing how ill educated the medical profession is, when it comes to benzo's.

 

Denise 

[[mi...]]

"Learn how to deal with your anxiety"

 

I'm not meaning to defend doctors who says this, but for me this is actually key.

 

One of the two or three reasons I decided to get off clonazepam was that I read long-term use can be detrimental to the ability learn new things - including techniques to deal with anxiety. And I've found that to be true for me.

[[So...]]

"Learn how to deal with your anxiety"

 

I'm not meaning to defend doctors who says this, but for me this is actually key.

 

One of the two or three reasons I decided to get off clonazepam was that I read long-term use can be detrimental to the ability learn new things - including techniques to deal with anxiety. And I've found that to be true for me.

 

The bad thing, is that I never had anxiety before I was on benzo's. I took xanax for sleep. So, this anxiety is a whole new ballgame for me. And, knowing that it is a chemical anxiety makes it even tougher for me, because slow breathing, meditation, distraction, has not helped me with it.

 

Denise 

 

[[ma...]]

Denise,

 

My doctor told me the same thing.  Then he justified it by saying, I must have a slow metabolism.  He also he couldn't believe I had the nerve to come off of it. 

 

I go back in a couple of weeks for my physical and it will be three months.  I am scared of what he will say is wrong with  me.

 

~Mama2

[[mi...]]

The bad thing, is that I never had anxiety before I was on benzo's. I took xanax for sleep. So, this anxiety is a whole new ballgame for me. And, knowing that it is a chemical anxiety makes it even tougher for me, because slow breathing, meditation, distraction, has not helped me with it.

 

Have you tried herbs or supplements?

 

When you say mindful breathing and meditation don't work, do you mean you have a hard time doing it? Or that you feel no better after a good session of watching your breath?

[[So...]]

The bad thing, is that I never had anxiety before I was on benzo's. I took xanax for sleep. So, this anxiety is a whole new ballgame for me. And, knowing that it is a chemical anxiety makes it even tougher for me, because slow breathing, meditation, distraction, has not helped me with it.

 

Have you tried herbs or supplements?

 

When you say mindful breathing and meditation don't work, do you mean you have a hard time doing it? Or that you feel no better after a good session of watching your breath?

 

I guess it is both. I do find it both hard to do and not really helpful. I have a constant elevated heart rate of 115. The breathing does nothing to bring it down.

 

I have tried supplements. I take 1500 of Vitamin C per day. I try to get my other vitamins through food. Magnesium supplements drop my bp way too low. I would like to try the L Theanine. But, I think that it also drops your blood pressure. I have to be vary careful with that. My bp runs about 106/70.

 

So, I am kind of in a pickle at the moment.

 

Denise 

[[Fl...]]

I just heard this today, from my own Dr. He has taken hundreds of people off of benzo's, but I have been his only one with a problem.

 

That's part of the reason why this issue is able to slide in under the radar.

 

Undoubtedly there are plenty of people who are diagnosed with other things as a result of benzos but in the scope of things I think it is very possible that the majority of patients have little or no problem with these drugs. If you always blame it on everything else you will ever be see the real problem and if you simply don't see *that* many problems you are going to be a lot less likely to question what you were taught in med school.

[[So...]]

I just heard this today, from my own Dr. He has taken hundreds of people off of benzo's, but I have been his only one with a problem.

 

That's part of the reason why this issue is able to slide in under the radar.

 

Undoubtedly there are plenty of people who are diagnosed with other things as a result of benzos but in the scope of things I think it is very possible that the majority of patients have little or no problem with these drugs. If you always blame it on everything else you will ever be see the real problem and if you simply don't see *that* many problems you are going to be a lot less likely to question what you were taught in med school.

 

Yep, but after every possible test they have done on me, they have all come back great. This why I have him stumped. But, he won't even consider benzo w/d.

 

What's weird though, is that I personally know two people that came off of these c/t without even a blip.

 

Denise 

[[Fl...]]

Yep, but after every possible test they have done on me, they have all come back great. This why I have him stumped. But, he won't even consider benzo w/d.

 

This is what is inexcusable.

 

There isn't a ton of research out there about benzo wd but it does exist, but when there is no logical explanation for symptoms there is no excuse for a doctor to disregard scientific documentation after it is brought to his attention just because he doesn't want to believe it. 

 

There are certainly exceptions to this but I think as a general rule doctors don't tend to be the "think outside the box" type and that is a huge problem when the textbooks are wrong.

[[Ho...]]

I just heard this today, from my own Dr. He has taken hundreds of people off of benzo's, but I have been his only one with a problem.

 

My stepson's wife was on ativan for about 3 months for sleep. She decided to stop because she didn't want it to become a habit, so she asked her doctor what to do and he told her "just stop", which she did. 3 or 4 days later she had a seizure while sleeping and my stepson called 911. They ran tons of tests on her and found nothing. She subsequently had two more seizures over the next week.

 

They then did a brain MRI and a few more tests and they told her that all of the tests were inconclusive. She was as sick as hell and had to quit her job. Luckily four months later she woke up one morning and said she felt "just like my old self". She was lucky in that she healed quickly but could never figure what had happened to her.

 

She asked her doctor the next time she went to see him if it could possibly have been the ativan that had caused this to happen to her, and he said. " Absolutely not! I have taken hundreds of people off of benzos and no one has had any problems".

 

You do the math.

[[Fl...]]

She asked her doctor the next time she went to see him if it could possibly have been the ativan that had caused this to happen to her, and he said. " Absolutely not! I have taken hundreds of people off of benzos and no one has had any problems".

 

You do the math.

 

Just seems like we are in the very unlucky minority, huh?

[[Ho...]]

FG...My point is that with all of the medical people that she saw, and they knew she was quite ill, not one of them would entertain the thought that it had anything to do with the ativan.

 

If this is the case then how many other people that this doctor has put on benzos got sick but were diagnosed with something else.

 

Just as in the case with SophiasNana's doctor, they refuse this diagnoses and then site the fact that it has never happened in their practice as proof that it must be something else. It's a vicious circle.

 

It's hugely frustrating because nothing will ever been done about it as long as this continues.

[[Di...]]

I just heard this today, from my own Dr. He has taken hundreds of people off of benzo's, but I have been his only one with a problem.

 

My stepson's wife was on ativan for about 3 months for sleep. She decided to stop because she didn't want it to become a habit, so she asked her doctor what to do and he told her "just stop", which she did. 3 or 4 days later she had a seizure while sleeping and my stepson called 911. They ran tons of tests on her and found nothing. She subsequently had two more seizures over the next week.

 

They then did a brain MRI and a few more tests and they told her that all of the tests were inconclusive. She was as sick as hell and had to quit her job. Luckily four months later she woke up one morning and said she felt "just like my old self". She was lucky in that she healed quickly but could never figure what had happened to her.

 

She asked her doctor the next time she went to see him if it could possibly have been the ativan that had caused this to happen to her, and he said. " Absolutely not! I have taken hundreds of people off of benzos and no one has had any problems".

 

You do the math.

 

Wow!  I'm glad she is doing well now, but that is just awful what she went through.

[[Fl...]]

It's hugely frustrating because nothing will ever been done about it as long as this continues.

 

I agree, I just think that is only part of the reason why this problem is not acknowledged, the other big reason being that most people are able to come off of these drugs with few problems.

 

Most people don't have problems + doctors who are unwilling to look beyond what "the books" say = a recipe for disaster.

[[mi...]]

Denise - as you're not following a strict schedule in reducing your dose, what happens when you take a full dose? Does your heart rate return to normal? Do your other symptoms disappear? Has your doctor asked this?

[[So...]]

Denise - as you're not following a strict schedule in reducing your dose, what happens when you take a full dose? Does your heart rate return to normal? Do your other symptoms disappear? Has your doctor asked this?

 

My heart rate hasn't been normal since my c/t on 8/4/13. I think part of the reason I was reinstated was to try and get it down. Well, that hasn't happened. All of my heart tests have came out normal.

 

Even when I was taking the full doses, it changed nothing.

 

Denise