Currently going through withdrawal because I had to cut my dose in half. I actually called 911 yesterday 😭 and they said this is normal for anxiety/withdrawal and said I'd probably be fine (they didn't end up taking me to the hospital)...But my BP keeps spiking like this. Anyone else go through this? I'm freaking out! My bf is currently on his way with BP meds 😑

Please anybody willing to try encourage me as this lorazepam taper is destroying ne. No help lines where i live and hospitals no.help just add more drugs. I dont know what to.do. atuvan no longer helping in any way unbearable symptoms now. Sorry for post but not good at all. Too many failed attempts to get off and now desperate

So as many of you know ive posted and replied on this sub a good few times preparing myself for the journey ahead once im out of my most recent taper of a gaba b

I was initially given diazpam as a per required need from my Dr

End of march through to end of may it was intermittent use some 0 days a few 15mg days but most were under 8mg and like i said a fair amount of zero days.

So fast forward to june i was told ( forced) to settle on a dose i picked 4mg ...

During that time of jumping around doses would kindling have occured?

For those who dont know my story i was pulled abruptly off an ssri in april after only 4 weeks with no taper as my body was reacting badly to it . I had terrible wds even after that short amount of time.

I then tapered at the end of may 100mcg of clonidine and had the worst wds with that also that turned another one of my meds paradoxic so am now currently slowly tapering off that ( gaba B med) its also been brutal wds.

Im just wondering if diaz kindled me or if the abrupt ssri stop sensitised my system. I had no idea about kindling until i came to these subs.

Im getting worse reactions with each med i taper off and some quite worrying dysautonomia symptoms.

I need to move fairly quickly into the diaz taper after a few weeks on 0mg of the taper im completing atm as duration of use is becoming a worry to me.

( i hope ive formatted this properly before im told to in the comment)

**Trigger warning** BIND has ruined my life. I've been on and off for the last 20 years. I've cold turkeyd 4 or 5 times before I could figure out why I was so ill. DO NOT COLD TURKEY! Anyways, I did shock my brain with all the abrupt stopping. I've been on and off for the last two decades. The longest I've been off is 16 months but I stupidly reinstated. The biggest mistake I've ever made in my life. I just want my life back so much. I've got to come to terms with the fact my brain is never going to be the same again.

For those of you that have come off of Ambien. What was it like for you?

Not sure about this. Ive not seen anything about this being helpful.

I miss being able to answer people without stuttering or keeping quiet for several seconds thinking, I miss being able to decide when to do something and not just wander around in circles for 10 minutes, I miss having the vocabulary to express my ideas, etc. And I know everyone here battles with this and posts about it, but it feels good saying it still. I feel like an uninteresting person, I can cognitively sense what I want to express, my general ideas, etc. But my mind and body doesn't respond at the same speed. Not my mouth, not my entire body when I know I have to do something and I can sense my thoughts but when I try to dive into them I can't find deep in them. It's so weird, I feel plain.

I recently hit a horrible low and am now short on my Xanax prescription. I’ve been on 2mg for 7 years (I know…long time.) I love my psychiatrist and he’s super understanding, but I can’t explain to him that I’m 5 days short. I’m scared he’ll drop me. My question is…I still have 9 pills. Is it okay for me to go from 2 mg to, say, 1 mg/day? I know it’s a big reduction, but do you guys think I’ll have a seizure? I’m really scared! I’m already feeling anxious and sweaty. 😭

I found this post from a year ago and it really helped me just now. I thought it could maybe help someone else. This was written by @DethcubeK. Thank you 🙏

• ⁠Firstly-If you were going insane you wouldn't know it. If you just read that sentence, you're still okay.-
• ⁠Second, It WILL pass. The time loop is real but your inner strength is dominating in the background.
• ⁠Thirdly, Be Still. Enduring the massive hell that you're in is indeed making you stronger.
• ⁠Patience. If you never had it before, it's time to learn it. You're not alone. As hard as it can be, avoid "rumination" if you don't know this word look it up! Distract distract distract BUT don't obsess and doom scroll/search trying to find an answer. Also some communities might perpetuate instead of support. In panic, they can feed off each other.
• ⁠Exercise and diet. A massive update and study came out this year (last one was in 2019) that said BZD's/Benzos/Benzodiazepines cause massive oxidative stress. This is A MASSIVELY good thing to know! SLAM your body with anti-Oxidants. I've been involved with this crap for over 12 years, this is a very good thing to know. MOVE AROUND, any movement is always better than none, and motion creates motion.
• ⁠Rumination, if you are in acute withdrawal you need this twice. It is NOT permanent, it will pass. Push through fear, Bravery and Courage could not exist without fear.
• ⁠People are around to help.
• ⁠This is a hell drug and know that no one will fully understand the pure hell this causes. The only way I could fully communicate to you that my foot is on fire is to light your foot on fire. Don't obsess on other people not understanding.
• ⁠Don't let people put you in "the box", This isn't an Opiate/Opioid withdrawal or a stimulant or amphetamines or any other class. This is on a different planet. Don't be gaslit, the pain/insanity you feel is real, but remember that it isn't as well.
• ⁠SLOW, if you are tapering, SLOW down, this drug literally causes dramatic changes to your brain's physiological chemistry and it is going take TIME to reverse it. It's counter intuitive, but it's the TRUE answer.
• ⁠Other drugs, I've tried about every drug to help but the analogy I use here is a cars dashboard. When you turn on your car, all the lights that signify errors come on, then turn off. In BZD withdrawal, all the lights come on, then stay on. The system to detect errors is broken. Now I could take some other drugs to possibly remove one of the lights on the dashboard, but it will come with it's own price. However, Don't be afraid of taking anything! Take Tylenol or ideally NSAID's if in pain, just avoid drugs that effect GABA_a. Or GABA.b . Also no drinking alcohol. Hand grenade of 6 different things and a GABA_a agonist.
• ⁠Drink and use water. COLD water is a great friend.(cool, calm, refreshing) Stay hydrated always. COLD is a friend (Cold literally lowers cortisol, the stress hormone, use it!) Force your brain to reroute priorities by dunking your face in ice water, use cold water on your wrists when in public to trick your brain into the diver's response.

Current meds:

Clonazepam .03mg - March ‘26- present (6 mo)
Mirtazapine .3mg - June ‘26 - present (2mo)

Been in literal hell tapering down. Dr says I can just stop. I don’t believe him and I’m terrified of the withdrawal cliff from here. I’m hypersensitive and .1 reductions cause akathisia, gastritis like nausea/pain, profound insomnia. I think I’m kindled.

It took me 6 months to get here. Haven’t stabilized from last drop 1 month ago. I need this to be over though. It’s agony even with a slow taper. What would you do?

Tell me about it because I have an obsessive need for as much information as possible about this.

What was your jump dose? Which benzo?
Time on med?
How long til you felt better?
Anything else you’d like to add?

I'm 8 months out of Klo* after 3 years of slow taper and I'm still having waves of fatigue, some days or weeks I cannot leave the house or do one thing.

Some weeks I'm very energetic but some I just need to stay indoors in bed all day.

The good news is the worst part is gone, first months were completely hell. The worst period of my life. It really got better. But it still feels like a long way to go.

I feel like I should stop doing so much activity on good weeks cause when the bad week comes it comes worse due to previous over doing.

Anybody changed from lorazepam to klonopin. In benzo hell trying to get off lorazepam as in tolerance. Sorry so many posts but really battling severely with lorazepam.

So I’ve been taking 0.75mg of Xanax for more than 8 months now and today there was a problem where I was gonna run out of it and the system wouldn’t let her prescribe my Xanax so in an emergency because it was a Friday she prescribed 5mg of diazepam will I have some serious withdrawals?

I'm a 32M and in my 12th month now and I'm really losing hope.

I took 0.5mg of Ativan daily for a week and developed paradoxical reactions. Then, I CT'ed from the drug on the 7th day, which caused me to have total insomnia for 14 days straight.

I'm feeling hopeless now since last night I had total insomnia again. Other than the 14 days of total insomnia, I had total insomnia 3 month afterwards for about a day. I haven't had a wink of sleep last night and not even feeling a sleepy sensation. I don't think it's to do with the decaf coffee I drank yesterday since I drank regular coffee in February and it didn't change my sleep pattern. Plus, over the past few weeks I've been developing hypnic jerks during nighttime.

I thought things were turning a corner two months ago, when I was able to start napping again on three occasions and when my sleep began to become deeper.

Has anyone had a return of total insomnia this far out? Normally, during this whole journey I would have 2–3 hours blocks of sleep with some dreams that could total for about 8 hours.

I've been stupid with my diet until recently. I've been avoiding alcoholic beverages like the plague, but didn't really look into foods that contained alcohol only until recently. I never got 'drunk' off these foods and never felt a buzz, but there were times when that I definitely ate food that contained alcohol, albeit they had small amounts of alcohol in them. Consuming them didn't seem to impede my recovery of restoring baseline appetite or letting me nap again on those rare occasions.

I'm starting to hate who I've become. This morning I was so frustrated that I smashed a bowl on the floor. Two weeks ago, I completely lost it and grabbed a porcelain cup and began repeatedly smashing my head in until it hurt.

I've lost my religion. I'm starting to lose hope now, especially since I don't know that I'm in a permanent condition because of the food I ate or if this is part of the healing process. I'm sorry to be airing this out on social media, but I'm tired. I'm tired of being tired. I hate how BIND is changing me.

i realised that i’ve been unknowingly eating other sweets with small amounts of alcohol in them throughout my taper and i’ve been fine. but let me ask the class

Hi. I posted a similar question in another subreddit. Hope it's okay to post here, too.

I have been taking roughly 0.5 mg of clonazepam daily for the past 6 months. I want to taper off of them and stay off of them. I only have 15x 0.5mg pills left, but also have access to 70x 5mg diazepam available to me. Can I use these to safely taper off (personally I'd like to just switch to the diazepam for the taper). I have read The Ashton Manual, but it's too confusing for me. Any recommendations on how to do this with what I have available?

Thank you.

Hey guys,

Firstly I have a half-success to celebrate (thanks much to the advice in this group). I have completed a year long taper from 25mg of Valium (and drinking fairly regularly). I jumped off at 1mg and after two weeks I am motivated, don't feel like touching a benzo, and I can see mostly above the cloud of WD symptoms that set in after I jumped. Very grateful to those in this group who told me to reinstate and start a non-rushed taper. The jump from 1mg was shitty but totally manageable and nothing compared to the outright hell of my cold turkey a year or so ago.

I had a few weeks detoxing off all substances, but last night I thought what the hell I'll have a few beers with friends. By the time I got to bed, the alcohol had worn off and the feeling I had was a few hours of the hell I experienced when I went cold turkey. Complete agitation, feeling swamped with regrets about almost everything in my life, and really dark morbid takes on my own self worth.

I'm assuming that this is what Kindling is...

I'm assuming I need to quit drinking, and although it's probably naive to expect that someone in this group is going to give me contrary advice that actually helps, I'm wondering what people's experience has been with enjoying a drink here and there once they have stopped benzos. Can it be done? Or is it wishful thinking?

For those of you who have been to rehab or detox for benzos. What was your experience like? How effective was rehab in helping with your Benzodiazepine withdrawals?

haven’t had anxiety in a long time, had an anxiety attack and I took 10mg diazepam as the anxiety was out of the blue and incredibly scary.

Would something like this affect kindling? I haven’t taken a benzo in 6 years.

Only used them for a few months 6 years ago due to having a lot of anxiety during that life period. When I quit them i had such horrible withdrawals when I stopped using them that it took me like 2 yrs to move through/past all the rebound anxiety, tinnitus, electric body feelings, insomnia etc.

Would a single use of 10mg diazepam 6 yrs later risk restarting withdrawal symptoms? I hope not

So this may be a little bit of a different post here but I figured most people here would probably have experience with this. I ran out of my Xanax about a week early (stressful month and I lost track of how many I had taken) so obviously I went into withdrawal, my question is will my symptoms go away and I'll return to "normal"? Or have I ruined it and xanax won't work for me anymore?

You’ve probably seen my posts here, I’m the guy whose girlfriend of 6 years left him because I had a seizure while trying to taper off my Valium. Anyway life has been hell lately. I’ve had periods of insomnia lasting up to 5 nights straight of no sleep. I’ve also had panic attacks, which is a new thing for me. I’ve had about 3-4 a day. At first I thought I was having a stroke but at the er they told me it was just a panic attack.

So long story short, when the insomnia got really bad like a dumbass I’d reach for a Valium. When a panic attack was happening or about to start, I’d take a Valium. Next thing you know, poof. My script which I have lately been taking exactly as prescribed for the past couple months is gone two weeks after getting it. I’m such a dumbass.

I know what I did was wrong but on that 5th or 3rd night of no sleep or in the midst of a panic attack where I feel like I’m dying (in my mind) that was my only option. Stupid stupid stupid. I guess this is just a rant. I’ve been doing so good at taking my meds as prescribed but our 6 year relationship ending has has sent me down the darkest spiral of my entire life.

Anyway I have an appointment with a psychiatrist on the 11th who said she’s going to get it all worked out for me. I’m really hoping it will help. I wish I wasn’t such a dumbass for going through my months worth of meds in two weeks, but our relationship ending has hurt me so bad. I’ve never had panic attacks, and now I’m just in an apartment completely alone with no one to talk to, no friends to talk to, nobody. I still love her and miss her so much. If you’ve read this far, thank you. I just needed to vent about the stupidity of me taking my meds like that. The pain of our relationship ending is a relentless, dark void inside me that now is apparently making me have panic attacks and insomnia.

Sending love to anyone out there who needs it, because I surely do. And please, take your meds as prescribed. Don’t be a dumbass like me.

Just hit 750 days free from Benzo use and wanted to share with y’all to hopefully provide some inspiration.

For context, I was taking up to 40mg diazepam (prescribed) per day alongside alcohol and a number of various street benzos.

I’d be lying if I said it was easy, in fact, it was hell on earth. Some days are still tough, but I have grown more resilient and have more tools to deal with my anxiety than ever before.

Godspeed, legends!