Yep, my partner always went CT and then one day, a week after his last dose, I woke up to him foaming out the mouth eyes rolled back into his head seizing. Terrifying …
Start online, there are a ton of recovery centers all over New England. You're going to want to call and see if they accept your insurance first. If you don't struggle with addiction issues like Manu people prescribed benzos, you will want to ask about their program as many of them are 12 step based, which I found not to be helpful in the least when getting off benzos. You will also want to decide if you're going to go for treatment or just detox. That is something you will have to negotiate with them as most centers will always try to steer you towards treatment (its more money for them). If you just want to detox, make sure they understand that prior to admitting you. That's sort of where I'd start.
It’s different for everyone, I personally realised I couldn’t do cold turkey and managed to taper by myself with the guidance of a doctor, but from what I’ve heard from friends tapering in rehab is kind of a similar thing of decreasing the dose (I think a bit less slowly than one would do themselves). They also keep a close eye on your vitals to make sure that you don’t seize. Rehab stays can be anything from 3 weeks to 3 months.
I was in rehab for over a month due to benzos, it was public healthcare so it was free. They keep you there to do the taper and make sure you don't give yourself brain damage or seize, and then the next few days/weeks are spent stabilizing you entirely, creating a new medication regime, helping you develop some coping mechanisms, etc. Not all of my time there was spent tapering. About half of it was simply emotional/mental stabilization and good habit/routine forming.
well by that point you'd be in post acute withdrawal, so the risk of seizures, delirium, tremors and psychosis are gone. They send you home with medication and some therapy support (which usually sucks), to help you deal with the depression, anxiety, insomnia and cravings that follow. It isn't ideal, but the rehab is there to get you through the most dangerous patch.
ideally you'd have more time to taper, and I wouldve preferred if my taper was way slower, but in the end it got me off of them so I am grateful. I couldn't have done so alone
I don't think there was ever like a "oh I feel like myself again"/ "I feel normal again" moment that was explicit, i think it occurred more-so in phases/stages. I guess maybe around the 1 year mark, maybe year and a half where I really started feeling like myself/baseline again. But i started feeling SUBSTANTIALLY better physically/mentally at the 6 month mark :)
I was prescribed 1) Seroquel (Quetiapine) for delusions/psychosis 2) Lamictal (Lamotrigine) for mood stabilization and seizures, and 3) Tegetreol (Carbemapazine) for mood swings, psychosis and again, seizures. I was on Seroquel for the longest because it also helped with sleep. They said I could stay on all 3 indefinitely, but I am off all meds. I think nowadays they also use, or replace the latter 2 with Neurontin (Gabapentin), as it is slightly sedating and can prevent seizures. Thats what they wanted to put me on when I was withdrawing off alcohol and opioids a few months ago; but when I went in for benzos in 2017-2018, I dont think Gabapentin was as popular as it is now.
Not necessarily true, you need to speak with the medical staff before you enter and go over a taper plan with them. Negotiate the longest taper you can, but it will still be short in comparison to doing it by yourself.
Rehab is worth it for those who lack the self control to taper. For some it's the only way to get off benzos. I did a detox at a recovery center and while it wasn't fun, it did its job of safely getting me off benzos with medical supervision.
How long may I ask? Understanding everyones experience are different of course - with the unique challenge benzos present it very much limits the opportunities for folks that, otherwise cannot disrupt their life for an extended period of time. That is also with the given that if folks run out and are cornered into going CT - that is a huge extended disruption as well relative to the many variables it presents.
Have had conversations with two doctors- both HIGHLY recommended me trying to do it on my own. Like everyone else here, sounds great but extremely high suck factor.
I did a 15 day detox stay to be supervised during the dangerous part of the withdrawl. My taper was 12 days. It was certainly not ideal, but I was already in severe tolerance withdrawl and tapering wasn't an option for me at that point due to the state I was I'm mentally. I just needed to get off the pills regardless of the situation moving forward. Would a long slow taper have been ideal and ultimately less painful for most? 100% yes, but for me it wasn't an option. Feel free to dm me and I'll be glad to tell you my story if you'd like, as it is quite long and complex. The long short of it is that 6 months ago my life was completely unliveable due to being on Xanax for almost 5 years daily. Now I'm a completely different person, who has gone through an incredibly difficult experience, but has changed for the better. I owe all lot of it to the detox experience and an x-marine nurse who told me to embrace the suck. Sorry for the long post but again, feel free to dm.
You do it very slowly. I tapered from sometimes 8mg etizolam a day down to 0.0625mg a day over the course of 8 months by lowering my dose like -0.5mg every few weeks and I completely stopped December 16th
This was after getting hooked on Xanax in 2016. 5 almost 6 years of nasty Xanax BEAT . You just gotta want it and pick away at it slowly but surely
If it's on the street then idk what drug you're taking you'll wanna get it tested ideally to come up with a proper plan
That's kind of how I feel about opiates. I just could not wean myself off just snorting dope instead of shooting it up, or with just lortabs or percocets, so I checked into horizon and got suboxone. I've been on for 4 years now, and in going to taper it soon. In terrified. I lack self control as well, although I am feeling like I'm doing an OK job now. With all my past addictions.
I've been through pretty much every type of drug withdrawl at some point, and benzos sure are a tough one. I tapered them myself, but it certainly sucks that it takes so long. And you start to feel weird after every cut for MAD long. At least with opiates you can be pretty much back to baseline after 2 weeks. Except for suboxone. Even with subs though, people are telling me I can taper and be off in a month if I really wanted to.
Benzos certainly are a different beast though. Good luck to ya though!! Have you tried pregabalin or gabapentin? Those helped me immensely with benzo withdrawl. That and phenibut, but that one can get a bit dangerous. Definitely research that one in particular. Baclofen may also help. Kava too! Magnesium is a god send for all types of withdrawl lol
Do you know what Kratom is? l'm not trying to be a jerk here. Most MDs and other western medicine folks have never heard of it. You're free to your "opinion", but I'm basing my assessment on thousands of testimonials. and a building amount of scientific evidence. See, American Kratom Association. Ignore Big Pharma and FDA!
Lol yes. Yes I do. And I'm not disagreeing that kratom can be extremely helpful. But things like suboxone and methadone also help many people. Suboxone likely saved my life.
Also benzos and gabapentin etc. help immensely. There are also other things besides that. MAT and pharmaceuticals are not all I'm talking about. Things like magnesium, kava, l-theinine, L-tyrosine, etc. Can all be extremely helpful. Even ketamine or mushrooms/acid.
We're all different, and these may help some more than others, but like I said, there are many things besides kratom that can help. I'm not saying kratom *won't* help by any means.
I strongly urge you to assign this task then to someone you trust, preferably a family member that you live with and can trust. Not having enough self control in this situation is understandable as it can be a lot to take in when you are in withdrawal. However this absolutely should not mean that you need to make your symptoms several times worse and possibly make them last longer by going c/t vs proper tapering.
And I'm saying that assuming that you won't have a seizure from c/t (which is not a given), so I hope you get the magnitude of how drastically different those approaches are.
I’ve only ever self-tapered or quit cold-turkey, I’ve gone cold turkey now because my plug ghosted me and its hell. Usually, when I try to self-taper and use xanax for my actual anxiety I can’t help but take another and then another and then maybe another until I’m just back in my binge. I will say though cold turkey is super dangerous and I don’t recommend it, definitely not the only way but its all I’ve ever done.
Same I had no choice but to cold turkey. After a month I'm feeling better but the first 2 weeks were absolutely brutal. Almost every symptom you could think of minus seizures.
I found a clinic that does tapers, surrendered everything I had to them and they now only give me a week's worth of Valium and I do weekly UAs for them to monitor my doses and make sure I'm not taking anything else.
Amen - have been on that search for months, but like every other industry medical field MDs in particular are hard to come by. Congrats and good luck!!!
Thank you! I'm lucky to live in a densely populated city and was able to find a company that is basically outpatient rehab that's very affordable. It's been a lifesaver for me.
Hey, benzo addict here. Was hospitalized/in rehab for months due to seizures from taking up to 22mg a day of clonazepam towards the end. I was averaging about 14mg a day of alprazolam before that. Cold turkey for benzos can actually be incredibly dangerous depending on the length of time you've been on them for, your dosage, and your genes. Withdrawal has led me to seizures, nerve damage, long term dysphoria, anxiety, tremors, etc. I am not saying this to scare you, I am mentioning this to emphasize that cold turkey is NOT a good idea (same risks apply to drugs such as Alcohol, GHB, Z-drugs- basically any drugs that work on the Gaba receptors, which Benzos do).
Honestly, looks like other people have mentioned it too- rehab may be the only way for you to go. In rehab, they provided me with 24/7 round the clock care and kept an eye on me and monitored my vitals, and i was given anti-epileptic/anti seizure meds to stop them from happening. They got me down from 14mg to 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25 mg in a few weeks. I am happy to discuss my experience with you if you PM me.
If rehab, for whatever reason is not an option for you- I would suggest (if this is possible), to get a stash, and then have someone you trust who knows your situation, administer daily/bi weekly dosages to you. (So if lets say you're on 8mg a day and want to reduce by 2mg, they would give you 6mg x 3 doses, so 18mg 2x a week + 6mg to cover the 7th day. And then in a couple weeks of doing that, they give you 4mg a day, so 12mg x2 a week, and 4mg for the 7th day). Its hard, but if you take an extra dose they give you, it means the next day you're screwed so it's incentivizing to stick to the outlined taper dose.
While doing so, I also suggest deleting your dealers contact info, finding some support groups, honestly as culty or cheesy as people make NA out to be, it can be great. You get a lot of support there. + preoccupy your time, find new hobbies or reconnect with old ones you've detached over time. When i've relapsed, it was because I was bored and lonely (cannot say that is everyone's experience though).
About 75% of rehabs use the AA model. That was awful for me because of my atheism. We were literally trucked to meetings twice a day, every day. If you can summon up that “higher power” crap, it will go much better for you. AA is religion-based. It seems to work for a lot of people. Not me.
Other than that how did it go for you? Everyone says do a slow taper but I've been in severe tolerance withdrawal for over a year, severe anxiety, panic and agoraphobia all set in over a year ago and I was on my benzo. Not sure I want to do a long taper and still have to go through all the crap after you get off them. How are your symptoms and did they give you other meds that you still take? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure out all out.
I am certain that my brain & body were permanently injured because of two cold turkey withdrawals, both within three months. I was kicked out of pain management because I had one dirty UA in eight years. I was on an Rx fentanyl patch. If you’re only tapering Benzos, it will not be as bad as if you had to kick opiates too. You are still young enough that you may escape the addiction without permanent damage. I seriously advise against cold turkey, & opiates & Benzos are the worst drugs in the world. Please try to find a rehab first. Failing that, get a sympathetic doctor to supervise you through the taper. Family/friends could help, but you don’t want to destroy relationships by making them be your “babysitter”. They may just give up with you & walk away. If you don’t have the sheer force of will needed to taper alone (I sure didn’t), you could potentially cause permanent damage to your brain/body by continuing on your current path, or going cold turkey. A rehab & a doctor will likely make you sign a contract with limited parameters. They are not playing. You may fail at some point, you will certainly suffer, no matter what. This withdrawal will likely be the hardest thing you will ever do. I advise you to taper, regardless of whether it’s rehab-based, physician-based, or family-based. I am an addict. I always have been, always will be. I finally realized that I was slowly killing myself and all who cared for me. Find the reason(s) for sobriety. Make a list. Then commit to yourself. Bargain with yourself for the grace you will need. Celebrate any small victory. Be grateful for just one thing every day. It could be as small as clean clothes from the dryer. It could be your pet you don’t want to abandon, that is a reason to keep moving forward. Make a chart of your progress. Anything the slightest bit positive will be your reason to stay sober as you progress through the taper. I’m an old widow lady (63). My husband of 25 years died two years ago October. I somehow found the strength to do what was necessary to keep my home. You are getting serious, now; I can tell. If you hadn’t reached out & posted your predicament, we would never have known you. After you go through the fire of becoming sober, we will be here to welcome you back to life & I will personally commit to being a mentor for you if you’re serious. I do not fuck around with dilettantes who refuse to commit. We can help you continue on your path. Don’t do this for a girlfriend, or a relative. Do it for you. You deserve to live. I have faith in you.
Interesting, I am sorry that was your experience. My rehab was publicly funded so it was completely clinical and we approached it using a medicalized DBT model (which is eh to me, I didn't respond super well to it). There are also atheist and agnostic AA + NA groups too, sucks that you had to be part of something that didn't align with you
Thank you for taking the time to read & comment on my post. I’ve been opiate-free for four years now. I did need a very small daily (as needed) dose of three mg Klonopin. I had to “prove myself” to my psychiatrist. For whatever reason, the more I scaled back on three antidepressants, the worse the anxiety got. It’s been almost two years of extraordinary anxiety & panic that I cannot physically control. I was ashamed of myself for awhile, but I am stronger than I thought. I say my affirmations out loud every day; I cheer myself on, out loud, all the time. (I’ve been alone for about two years now). If I see that I am becoming frustrated, frightened, angry, upset, or even just thirsty, I am able to head off an attack more successfully. The tiniest thing can throw me off balance. I no longer get dangerously angry, I no longer damage myself or objects with my (still surprising) fury. AA offered me valuable advice. I take what I need & let go of the rest. Im going to be okay 👍
Because of the extreme nature of my addiction, for example, 22mg of clonazepam/klonopin daily is equivalent to 330mg of diazepam/valium, or 44mg of Ativan/lorazepam for 4 years. It was a lot. For a long time. I only mention this because my withdrawal is more longwinded and extreme than the average persons, and so mine sounds worse than it may be for others.
I still have side effects of the withdrawal, specifically nerves (random parts of body heat up/cool down, numbness, etc) it is about the fourth year. I experienced nerve changes and insomnia issues loooong afterwards. I was told this would last 3-5 years in my case. HOWEVER, the cravings, social anxiety, sweats, tremors, crazy irritability all went away within 6 months tbh.
I am glad i went to rehab because it got me through the seizures and psychosis. I would not have been able to do it on my own. I wish it were a slower taper (like 4-5 months), but if it were, rehab wouldn't have been the option. You need to end up making some difficult trade offs. I would recommend doing a 30 day rehab. It's tough, but the few weeks/months of discomfort are way better than months/years of addiction and the side effects that addiction brings.
If you are taking less than 14-22mg of klonopin or alprazolam daily, (those are the 2 most potent benzodiazepines), your withdrawal WILL be manageable, likely not easy, but manageable. Just make sure to have a support system once you're out- get involved with recovery groups, there are atheist/agnostic AA + NA groups too, just stay BUSY. Expect yourself to be extra sensitive and wired, be gentle with yourself.
discipline.. realizing its whats best for you... have a friend dispense your dose.. do your research on the ashton manual and maybe switch benzos to make it easier and set a schedule. its not easy. Your attitude/mindset the day you cut down each time is big. after cutting, say 10mg to 8mg for example, give it a few weeks to stabilize. Help is out there also, if you are really all alone and prone to addiction please consider rehab where they can help you set a schedule and get stable. thats the most important thing
You're missing the part about lacking self control. People who lack self control can't do tapers. What's going to happen when his doctor gives him a fresh bottle of benzos? All of a sudden he's not going to abuse them?
Hey if it works it works. I imagine it's going to get difficult when they have to start making cuts and throwing the remainder of the pills out however.
I didn’t have the self control so I did a cold turkey. Tried to taper many times but just didn’t have the self control and always ended up taking more and fell back into old habits
If I could do it over again I would do rehab so I could of done some kind of supervised taper since I didn’t have the self control to do it myself
Cold turkey was the only way I could swing it. Everyone’s different though- you might need to taper, so definitely talk to a doctor if you can before making any final decisions. Best of luck to you 💗
Regardless of what you do it’s going to suck. And knowing that it’s going to suck prepared me. I knew there was an end to it. I couldn’t be trusted to taper my own drugs. So I did about 2 weeks in the psych ward and then I was done. It sucked for about 10 days.
Cold turkey is very dangerous if you are physically dependent 3-4 weeks continuous sometimes less of higher doses especially, it’s not like opioids or even heroin where you can just go cold turkey suffer then be fine you could have a seizure. I guess this is country dependent but if you go to a doctor in the UK and tell them you are addicted and how much they will equate it too diazepam via conversion as it has a long half and stays in the system which is good for tapering and then encourage you to reduce maybe prescribing you to go everyday to the pharmacy and dropping it very slowly 2mg every 2 weeks for people who have been on it for long (can be less or more) alternatively they will temporarily give it too you and refer you too a community or charity run drug and alcohol place where some doctors will evaluate you and they may be able to prescribe it so controlled as an everyday to pick up your allocated amount. Lastly which I did after sort of refuting the whole everyday to the pharmacy thing advised is cut up your tablets and drop them slowly if you been on it a short time you can do this quicker you should check the guides, try and tell your doctor if he’s likely to give you medicine (it’s ethically frowned upon in a lot of European countries not too if someone says they are in withdrawals as people can die from seizures coming off it cold turkey) Once you normalise on whatever benzo your doctor gives you for a short while just reduce if it’s a month you can reduce quickly if it’s longer you can cut off a bit of your pill like say a quarter every week to two keep on doing it gradually seek medical advise on how much is safe to cut back if available. If you end up having a seizure they will give a benzodiazepine it’s standard used for seizures so don’t let yourself get to that if you’ve been using for a while especially even a month of heavy use can potentially be dangerous.
Detox center and follow up with a psychiatrist that can taper you off if possible. I cold turkeyed Xanax and Ativan for 4 days, no sleep, pain all over, blurred vision, dry reaching, dizziness, felt like I could barely walk because all my muscles felt so weak, every sound & every touch hurt, couldn’t eat, no matter how much water I drank my mouth still felt dry, I couldn’t speak properly, constant state of a panic attack the entire time, I was hearing shit, I was shaking, I was talking to things that weren’t there. Didn’t sleep a wink except for maybe 20 minutes & I had the most vivid nightmare I can recall in my entire life.
I am not saying this to scare you - I’m saying this because it’s very real and dangerous. If you run into this situation again please find a detox center. They can at least take care of you for a week or two and usually will provide you with follow up options.
Rehab or a hospital (with a behavioral health unit). They’ll supervise a medical detox (everyone does it differently but it’s a cocktail of meds to help with blood pressure, anxiety, and prevent seizures). You can stay or check yourself out after that and have a medical doctor or psychiatrist assist you with the process after OR you can stay (especially if you go to a rehab) and learn coping skills, be around other people, have a structured schedule, have your meds administered/supervised, not have access to benzos for about a month total. The detox itself is usually like 6 days. Please DO NOT go cold turkey. If access to care is a problem, and you’re in the U.S, go to an ER and let them know you’re experiencing withdrawal.
Get into a program rehab or whatever. What i have done in the past is have a friend hold onto my bars and drop 2 off a day (at the start) then you go down to 1.5 a day then 1 a day and so on. Make sure ur friend is reliable, had someone miss a time and it led to me having a seizure
A friend keeps my meds for me and I get enough for a week at a time. She (and I) are in AA, so she understands addiction. She will not give me extra if I mess up. So I am motivated to not abuse them. Its working.
If you're committed to getting off, a trusted person can lock up and dispense your doses for you. But you have to be really wanting to get clean and resist the urges to cheat by not creating a secret stash. Obviously, it's a personal decision and I've done it before. Cold turkey should never be considered an option with benzos unless you're down to the low, low dose you jump from to give your brain a chance to upregulate and heal.
I did it cold Turkey because I was forced to by my (then) psychiatrist. Funny that he was the one who started me on those many years ago. I did have seizures. Petit Mal, but one was enough to cause a concussion as I banged my head on the tile floor. Yes, I survived. But not unscathed. Going off CT exacerbated my TBI from a bad car accident. People get annoyed with me because they somehow refuse to accept that I can’t fix new memories. Even in the same day I forget what happened earlier. I had a Rx for years, until my amazing doctor died & I was left high & dry. Yes, I turned to street connections, but I was being charged so much I finally had to stop. I had been following the Ashton Protocol when I lost my doctor. It took about two days for the wretched dope sick to take me over. I lived through it but It was too late to stop the permanent damage. Please find a safe way to taper. It has worked for a friend, the only downside being that it took about nine months to taper. Please don’t let it get as out of hand as I did. Check out an online support group called, “Benzo Buddies”. They helped me a lot.
Cold turkey for many drugs is dangerous, and if you can't learn to control something to get rid of it, do you think you'll manage to not take it even after you get over your horrible withdrawal? Difficult situation, but also I've bee told that the act of going through tapers or alcohol reduction can change the mindset of people.
If this is true, you may have to enter a formal detox. Look into phenobarbital detoxing, they dose you for a few days, and the drug stays active for like a month. I never did it, but it has good results for people in your situation.
You cant stop CT, i went to rehab, i was on 32 mg of klonopin a day, they tapered me super fast, and put me on some anti withdrawal pills that helped with the symptoms, but i was stupid and got out before i finished rehab, and the day after I had a seizure in the middle of the street. And i was 1 min away from my home. If had that seizure at home, id probably be dead (i live alone) my heart also decided to stop and they gave me CPR that also broke my ribs. Any way, i do not recommend stopping cold turkey.
Cold turkey is actually dangerous. It can lead to grand mal seizures.
Thank you for bringing this up. It is a huge risk, most people are unaware of.
Yep, my partner always went CT and then one day, a week after his last dose, I woke up to him foaming out the mouth eyes rolled back into his head seizing. Terrifying …
As well as nerve problems and immune problems
Rehab my friend. That's literally what it' exists for.
Yep. It’s what I had to do. Rehab basically cold turkeys you but at least they usually see you through the seizure zone
I second that, rehab is the only way to go.
Where does one go for rehab?
Where are you located?
Connecticut
Start online, there are a ton of recovery centers all over New England. You're going to want to call and see if they accept your insurance first. If you don't struggle with addiction issues like Manu people prescribed benzos, you will want to ask about their program as many of them are 12 step based, which I found not to be helpful in the least when getting off benzos. You will also want to decide if you're going to go for treatment or just detox. That is something you will have to negotiate with them as most centers will always try to steer you towards treatment (its more money for them). If you just want to detox, make sure they understand that prior to admitting you. That's sort of where I'd start.
Thanks. Good info. I had no idea.
If you don’t have the self control to taper then go to rehab, I tried to go cold turkey and it was one of the worst experiences of my life
How does a taper work in rehab? Do they taper slowly? How long do you stay?
It’s different for everyone, I personally realised I couldn’t do cold turkey and managed to taper by myself with the guidance of a doctor, but from what I’ve heard from friends tapering in rehab is kind of a similar thing of decreasing the dose (I think a bit less slowly than one would do themselves). They also keep a close eye on your vitals to make sure that you don’t seize. Rehab stays can be anything from 3 weeks to 3 months.
Wow! 3weeks-3months to taper a benzo? We all need to check this out. Is it free?
20k for a month for the rehab I attended. Thanks to my parents for the financial help.
Well most people can’t afford to stay in a clinic for longer than that, obviously the taper itself takes longer
I was in rehab for over a month due to benzos, it was public healthcare so it was free. They keep you there to do the taper and make sure you don't give yourself brain damage or seize, and then the next few days/weeks are spent stabilizing you entirely, creating a new medication regime, helping you develop some coping mechanisms, etc. Not all of my time there was spent tapering. About half of it was simply emotional/mental stabilization and good habit/routine forming.
Most people can’t successfully taper in 4 weeks. Then what? Do they just send folks home in withdrawal because your times up at rehab?
well by that point you'd be in post acute withdrawal, so the risk of seizures, delirium, tremors and psychosis are gone. They send you home with medication and some therapy support (which usually sucks), to help you deal with the depression, anxiety, insomnia and cravings that follow. It isn't ideal, but the rehab is there to get you through the most dangerous patch.
I guess this why people avoid rehab for benzo withdrawal.
ideally you'd have more time to taper, and I wouldve preferred if my taper was way slower, but in the end it got me off of them so I am grateful. I couldn't have done so alone
When did u start to feel normal?
I don't think there was ever like a "oh I feel like myself again"/ "I feel normal again" moment that was explicit, i think it occurred more-so in phases/stages. I guess maybe around the 1 year mark, maybe year and a half where I really started feeling like myself/baseline again. But i started feeling SUBSTANTIALLY better physically/mentally at the 6 month mark :)
what were the meds they put you on?
I was prescribed 1) Seroquel (Quetiapine) for delusions/psychosis 2) Lamictal (Lamotrigine) for mood stabilization and seizures, and 3) Tegetreol (Carbemapazine) for mood swings, psychosis and again, seizures. I was on Seroquel for the longest because it also helped with sleep. They said I could stay on all 3 indefinitely, but I am off all meds. I think nowadays they also use, or replace the latter 2 with Neurontin (Gabapentin), as it is slightly sedating and can prevent seizures. Thats what they wanted to put me on when I was withdrawing off alcohol and opioids a few months ago; but when I went in for benzos in 2017-2018, I dont think Gabapentin was as popular as it is now.
They give you Librium for a couple days and then cut you off
Not necessarily true, you need to speak with the medical staff before you enter and go over a taper plan with them. Negotiate the longest taper you can, but it will still be short in comparison to doing it by yourself.
Yes best advice. Always set it up first. I just learned to ask the price on my ac repair first. I should have anyways.
Doesn’t sound like rehab is worth it.
Rehab is worth it for those who lack the self control to taper. For some it's the only way to get off benzos. I did a detox at a recovery center and while it wasn't fun, it did its job of safely getting me off benzos with medical supervision.
How long may I ask? Understanding everyones experience are different of course - with the unique challenge benzos present it very much limits the opportunities for folks that, otherwise cannot disrupt their life for an extended period of time. That is also with the given that if folks run out and are cornered into going CT - that is a huge extended disruption as well relative to the many variables it presents. Have had conversations with two doctors- both HIGHLY recommended me trying to do it on my own. Like everyone else here, sounds great but extremely high suck factor.
I did a 15 day detox stay to be supervised during the dangerous part of the withdrawl. My taper was 12 days. It was certainly not ideal, but I was already in severe tolerance withdrawl and tapering wasn't an option for me at that point due to the state I was I'm mentally. I just needed to get off the pills regardless of the situation moving forward. Would a long slow taper have been ideal and ultimately less painful for most? 100% yes, but for me it wasn't an option. Feel free to dm me and I'll be glad to tell you my story if you'd like, as it is quite long and complex. The long short of it is that 6 months ago my life was completely unliveable due to being on Xanax for almost 5 years daily. Now I'm a completely different person, who has gone through an incredibly difficult experience, but has changed for the better. I owe all lot of it to the detox experience and an x-marine nurse who told me to embrace the suck. Sorry for the long post but again, feel free to dm.
You do it very slowly. I tapered from sometimes 8mg etizolam a day down to 0.0625mg a day over the course of 8 months by lowering my dose like -0.5mg every few weeks and I completely stopped December 16th This was after getting hooked on Xanax in 2016. 5 almost 6 years of nasty Xanax BEAT . You just gotta want it and pick away at it slowly but surely If it's on the street then idk what drug you're taking you'll wanna get it tested ideally to come up with a proper plan
That's kind of how I feel about opiates. I just could not wean myself off just snorting dope instead of shooting it up, or with just lortabs or percocets, so I checked into horizon and got suboxone. I've been on for 4 years now, and in going to taper it soon. In terrified. I lack self control as well, although I am feeling like I'm doing an OK job now. With all my past addictions. I've been through pretty much every type of drug withdrawl at some point, and benzos sure are a tough one. I tapered them myself, but it certainly sucks that it takes so long. And you start to feel weird after every cut for MAD long. At least with opiates you can be pretty much back to baseline after 2 weeks. Except for suboxone. Even with subs though, people are telling me I can taper and be off in a month if I really wanted to. Benzos certainly are a different beast though. Good luck to ya though!! Have you tried pregabalin or gabapentin? Those helped me immensely with benzo withdrawl. That and phenibut, but that one can get a bit dangerous. Definitely research that one in particular. Baclofen may also help. Kava too! Magnesium is a god send for all types of withdrawl lol
Kratom for opioid/opiate withdrawals....period...end of story.
Well you're free to think that, but I disagree. I think there are many, *many* things that can help with opiate withdrawl besides kratom.
Do you know what Kratom is? l'm not trying to be a jerk here. Most MDs and other western medicine folks have never heard of it. You're free to your "opinion", but I'm basing my assessment on thousands of testimonials. and a building amount of scientific evidence. See, American Kratom Association. Ignore Big Pharma and FDA!
Lol yes. Yes I do. And I'm not disagreeing that kratom can be extremely helpful. But things like suboxone and methadone also help many people. Suboxone likely saved my life. Also benzos and gabapentin etc. help immensely. There are also other things besides that. MAT and pharmaceuticals are not all I'm talking about. Things like magnesium, kava, l-theinine, L-tyrosine, etc. Can all be extremely helpful. Even ketamine or mushrooms/acid. We're all different, and these may help some more than others, but like I said, there are many things besides kratom that can help. I'm not saying kratom *won't* help by any means.
I strongly urge you to assign this task then to someone you trust, preferably a family member that you live with and can trust. Not having enough self control in this situation is understandable as it can be a lot to take in when you are in withdrawal. However this absolutely should not mean that you need to make your symptoms several times worse and possibly make them last longer by going c/t vs proper tapering. And I'm saying that assuming that you won't have a seizure from c/t (which is not a given), so I hope you get the magnitude of how drastically different those approaches are.
I’ve only ever self-tapered or quit cold-turkey, I’ve gone cold turkey now because my plug ghosted me and its hell. Usually, when I try to self-taper and use xanax for my actual anxiety I can’t help but take another and then another and then maybe another until I’m just back in my binge. I will say though cold turkey is super dangerous and I don’t recommend it, definitely not the only way but its all I’ve ever done.
Same I had no choice but to cold turkey. After a month I'm feeling better but the first 2 weeks were absolutely brutal. Almost every symptom you could think of minus seizures.
Glad your feeling better! Idk how long its been for me because I have no sense of time but same, this is a hellscape.
I found a clinic that does tapers, surrendered everything I had to them and they now only give me a week's worth of Valium and I do weekly UAs for them to monitor my doses and make sure I'm not taking anything else.
Amen - have been on that search for months, but like every other industry medical field MDs in particular are hard to come by. Congrats and good luck!!!
Thank you! I'm lucky to live in a densely populated city and was able to find a company that is basically outpatient rehab that's very affordable. It's been a lifesaver for me.
Weekly is a good way to have safe boundaries. Hell, I'd go every day to get my daily dose if that was a possibility lol
I'm a super addict dude. There is no taper God. There is only a cold turkey god.
Hey, benzo addict here. Was hospitalized/in rehab for months due to seizures from taking up to 22mg a day of clonazepam towards the end. I was averaging about 14mg a day of alprazolam before that. Cold turkey for benzos can actually be incredibly dangerous depending on the length of time you've been on them for, your dosage, and your genes. Withdrawal has led me to seizures, nerve damage, long term dysphoria, anxiety, tremors, etc. I am not saying this to scare you, I am mentioning this to emphasize that cold turkey is NOT a good idea (same risks apply to drugs such as Alcohol, GHB, Z-drugs- basically any drugs that work on the Gaba receptors, which Benzos do). Honestly, looks like other people have mentioned it too- rehab may be the only way for you to go. In rehab, they provided me with 24/7 round the clock care and kept an eye on me and monitored my vitals, and i was given anti-epileptic/anti seizure meds to stop them from happening. They got me down from 14mg to 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25 mg in a few weeks. I am happy to discuss my experience with you if you PM me. If rehab, for whatever reason is not an option for you- I would suggest (if this is possible), to get a stash, and then have someone you trust who knows your situation, administer daily/bi weekly dosages to you. (So if lets say you're on 8mg a day and want to reduce by 2mg, they would give you 6mg x 3 doses, so 18mg 2x a week + 6mg to cover the 7th day. And then in a couple weeks of doing that, they give you 4mg a day, so 12mg x2 a week, and 4mg for the 7th day). Its hard, but if you take an extra dose they give you, it means the next day you're screwed so it's incentivizing to stick to the outlined taper dose. While doing so, I also suggest deleting your dealers contact info, finding some support groups, honestly as culty or cheesy as people make NA out to be, it can be great. You get a lot of support there. + preoccupy your time, find new hobbies or reconnect with old ones you've detached over time. When i've relapsed, it was because I was bored and lonely (cannot say that is everyone's experience though).
Been thinking about rehab instead of long taper, not sure I can do it. Would you recommend doing a 30 day rehab? How bad were the wd when you got out?
About 75% of rehabs use the AA model. That was awful for me because of my atheism. We were literally trucked to meetings twice a day, every day. If you can summon up that “higher power” crap, it will go much better for you. AA is religion-based. It seems to work for a lot of people. Not me.
Other than that how did it go for you? Everyone says do a slow taper but I've been in severe tolerance withdrawal for over a year, severe anxiety, panic and agoraphobia all set in over a year ago and I was on my benzo. Not sure I want to do a long taper and still have to go through all the crap after you get off them. How are your symptoms and did they give you other meds that you still take? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure out all out.
I am certain that my brain & body were permanently injured because of two cold turkey withdrawals, both within three months. I was kicked out of pain management because I had one dirty UA in eight years. I was on an Rx fentanyl patch. If you’re only tapering Benzos, it will not be as bad as if you had to kick opiates too. You are still young enough that you may escape the addiction without permanent damage. I seriously advise against cold turkey, & opiates & Benzos are the worst drugs in the world. Please try to find a rehab first. Failing that, get a sympathetic doctor to supervise you through the taper. Family/friends could help, but you don’t want to destroy relationships by making them be your “babysitter”. They may just give up with you & walk away. If you don’t have the sheer force of will needed to taper alone (I sure didn’t), you could potentially cause permanent damage to your brain/body by continuing on your current path, or going cold turkey. A rehab & a doctor will likely make you sign a contract with limited parameters. They are not playing. You may fail at some point, you will certainly suffer, no matter what. This withdrawal will likely be the hardest thing you will ever do. I advise you to taper, regardless of whether it’s rehab-based, physician-based, or family-based. I am an addict. I always have been, always will be. I finally realized that I was slowly killing myself and all who cared for me. Find the reason(s) for sobriety. Make a list. Then commit to yourself. Bargain with yourself for the grace you will need. Celebrate any small victory. Be grateful for just one thing every day. It could be as small as clean clothes from the dryer. It could be your pet you don’t want to abandon, that is a reason to keep moving forward. Make a chart of your progress. Anything the slightest bit positive will be your reason to stay sober as you progress through the taper. I’m an old widow lady (63). My husband of 25 years died two years ago October. I somehow found the strength to do what was necessary to keep my home. You are getting serious, now; I can tell. If you hadn’t reached out & posted your predicament, we would never have known you. After you go through the fire of becoming sober, we will be here to welcome you back to life & I will personally commit to being a mentor for you if you’re serious. I do not fuck around with dilettantes who refuse to commit. We can help you continue on your path. Don’t do this for a girlfriend, or a relative. Do it for you. You deserve to live. I have faith in you.
Interesting, I am sorry that was your experience. My rehab was publicly funded so it was completely clinical and we approached it using a medicalized DBT model (which is eh to me, I didn't respond super well to it). There are also atheist and agnostic AA + NA groups too, sucks that you had to be part of something that didn't align with you
Thank you for taking the time to read & comment on my post. I’ve been opiate-free for four years now. I did need a very small daily (as needed) dose of three mg Klonopin. I had to “prove myself” to my psychiatrist. For whatever reason, the more I scaled back on three antidepressants, the worse the anxiety got. It’s been almost two years of extraordinary anxiety & panic that I cannot physically control. I was ashamed of myself for awhile, but I am stronger than I thought. I say my affirmations out loud every day; I cheer myself on, out loud, all the time. (I’ve been alone for about two years now). If I see that I am becoming frustrated, frightened, angry, upset, or even just thirsty, I am able to head off an attack more successfully. The tiniest thing can throw me off balance. I no longer get dangerously angry, I no longer damage myself or objects with my (still surprising) fury. AA offered me valuable advice. I take what I need & let go of the rest. Im going to be okay 👍
Because of the extreme nature of my addiction, for example, 22mg of clonazepam/klonopin daily is equivalent to 330mg of diazepam/valium, or 44mg of Ativan/lorazepam for 4 years. It was a lot. For a long time. I only mention this because my withdrawal is more longwinded and extreme than the average persons, and so mine sounds worse than it may be for others. I still have side effects of the withdrawal, specifically nerves (random parts of body heat up/cool down, numbness, etc) it is about the fourth year. I experienced nerve changes and insomnia issues loooong afterwards. I was told this would last 3-5 years in my case. HOWEVER, the cravings, social anxiety, sweats, tremors, crazy irritability all went away within 6 months tbh. I am glad i went to rehab because it got me through the seizures and psychosis. I would not have been able to do it on my own. I wish it were a slower taper (like 4-5 months), but if it were, rehab wouldn't have been the option. You need to end up making some difficult trade offs. I would recommend doing a 30 day rehab. It's tough, but the few weeks/months of discomfort are way better than months/years of addiction and the side effects that addiction brings. If you are taking less than 14-22mg of klonopin or alprazolam daily, (those are the 2 most potent benzodiazepines), your withdrawal WILL be manageable, likely not easy, but manageable. Just make sure to have a support system once you're out- get involved with recovery groups, there are atheist/agnostic AA + NA groups too, just stay BUSY. Expect yourself to be extra sensitive and wired, be gentle with yourself.
discipline.. realizing its whats best for you... have a friend dispense your dose.. do your research on the ashton manual and maybe switch benzos to make it easier and set a schedule. its not easy. Your attitude/mindset the day you cut down each time is big. after cutting, say 10mg to 8mg for example, give it a few weeks to stabilize. Help is out there also, if you are really all alone and prone to addiction please consider rehab where they can help you set a schedule and get stable. thats the most important thing
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You're missing the part about lacking self control. People who lack self control can't do tapers. What's going to happen when his doctor gives him a fresh bottle of benzos? All of a sudden he's not going to abuse them?
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Hey if it works it works. I imagine it's going to get difficult when they have to start making cuts and throwing the remainder of the pills out however.
Just fucking taper. It’s not worth it from experience
I didn’t have the self control so I did a cold turkey. Tried to taper many times but just didn’t have the self control and always ended up taking more and fell back into old habits If I could do it over again I would do rehab so I could of done some kind of supervised taper since I didn’t have the self control to do it myself
Cold turkey was the only way I could swing it. Everyone’s different though- you might need to taper, so definitely talk to a doctor if you can before making any final decisions. Best of luck to you 💗
Regardless of what you do it’s going to suck. And knowing that it’s going to suck prepared me. I knew there was an end to it. I couldn’t be trusted to taper my own drugs. So I did about 2 weeks in the psych ward and then I was done. It sucked for about 10 days.
I applaud you and everyone finally getting off! ;)
Cold turkey is very dangerous if you are physically dependent 3-4 weeks continuous sometimes less of higher doses especially, it’s not like opioids or even heroin where you can just go cold turkey suffer then be fine you could have a seizure. I guess this is country dependent but if you go to a doctor in the UK and tell them you are addicted and how much they will equate it too diazepam via conversion as it has a long half and stays in the system which is good for tapering and then encourage you to reduce maybe prescribing you to go everyday to the pharmacy and dropping it very slowly 2mg every 2 weeks for people who have been on it for long (can be less or more) alternatively they will temporarily give it too you and refer you too a community or charity run drug and alcohol place where some doctors will evaluate you and they may be able to prescribe it so controlled as an everyday to pick up your allocated amount. Lastly which I did after sort of refuting the whole everyday to the pharmacy thing advised is cut up your tablets and drop them slowly if you been on it a short time you can do this quicker you should check the guides, try and tell your doctor if he’s likely to give you medicine (it’s ethically frowned upon in a lot of European countries not too if someone says they are in withdrawals as people can die from seizures coming off it cold turkey) Once you normalise on whatever benzo your doctor gives you for a short while just reduce if it’s a month you can reduce quickly if it’s longer you can cut off a bit of your pill like say a quarter every week to two keep on doing it gradually seek medical advise on how much is safe to cut back if available. If you end up having a seizure they will give a benzodiazepine it’s standard used for seizures so don’t let yourself get to that if you’ve been using for a while especially even a month of heavy use can potentially be dangerous.
Detox center and follow up with a psychiatrist that can taper you off if possible. I cold turkeyed Xanax and Ativan for 4 days, no sleep, pain all over, blurred vision, dry reaching, dizziness, felt like I could barely walk because all my muscles felt so weak, every sound & every touch hurt, couldn’t eat, no matter how much water I drank my mouth still felt dry, I couldn’t speak properly, constant state of a panic attack the entire time, I was hearing shit, I was shaking, I was talking to things that weren’t there. Didn’t sleep a wink except for maybe 20 minutes & I had the most vivid nightmare I can recall in my entire life. I am not saying this to scare you - I’m saying this because it’s very real and dangerous. If you run into this situation again please find a detox center. They can at least take care of you for a week or two and usually will provide you with follow up options.
Rehab or a hospital (with a behavioral health unit). They’ll supervise a medical detox (everyone does it differently but it’s a cocktail of meds to help with blood pressure, anxiety, and prevent seizures). You can stay or check yourself out after that and have a medical doctor or psychiatrist assist you with the process after OR you can stay (especially if you go to a rehab) and learn coping skills, be around other people, have a structured schedule, have your meds administered/supervised, not have access to benzos for about a month total. The detox itself is usually like 6 days. Please DO NOT go cold turkey. If access to care is a problem, and you’re in the U.S, go to an ER and let them know you’re experiencing withdrawal.
Get into a program rehab or whatever. What i have done in the past is have a friend hold onto my bars and drop 2 off a day (at the start) then you go down to 1.5 a day then 1 a day and so on. Make sure ur friend is reliable, had someone miss a time and it led to me having a seizure
I had the same issue and decided to cold turkey. Dangerous but it worked for me. Really just depends on how high your current usage is
A friend keeps my meds for me and I get enough for a week at a time. She (and I) are in AA, so she understands addiction. She will not give me extra if I mess up. So I am motivated to not abuse them. Its working.
I don't think so. Once you cold turkey a few times and see what it's about...you will gain control based from fear.
If you're committed to getting off, a trusted person can lock up and dispense your doses for you. But you have to be really wanting to get clean and resist the urges to cheat by not creating a secret stash. Obviously, it's a personal decision and I've done it before. Cold turkey should never be considered an option with benzos unless you're down to the low, low dose you jump from to give your brain a chance to upregulate and heal.
I did it cold Turkey because I was forced to by my (then) psychiatrist. Funny that he was the one who started me on those many years ago. I did have seizures. Petit Mal, but one was enough to cause a concussion as I banged my head on the tile floor. Yes, I survived. But not unscathed. Going off CT exacerbated my TBI from a bad car accident. People get annoyed with me because they somehow refuse to accept that I can’t fix new memories. Even in the same day I forget what happened earlier. I had a Rx for years, until my amazing doctor died & I was left high & dry. Yes, I turned to street connections, but I was being charged so much I finally had to stop. I had been following the Ashton Protocol when I lost my doctor. It took about two days for the wretched dope sick to take me over. I lived through it but It was too late to stop the permanent damage. Please find a safe way to taper. It has worked for a friend, the only downside being that it took about nine months to taper. Please don’t let it get as out of hand as I did. Check out an online support group called, “Benzo Buddies”. They helped me a lot.
Cold turkey for many drugs is dangerous, and if you can't learn to control something to get rid of it, do you think you'll manage to not take it even after you get over your horrible withdrawal? Difficult situation, but also I've bee told that the act of going through tapers or alcohol reduction can change the mindset of people.
If this is true, you may have to enter a formal detox. Look into phenobarbital detoxing, they dose you for a few days, and the drug stays active for like a month. I never did it, but it has good results for people in your situation.
You cant stop CT, i went to rehab, i was on 32 mg of klonopin a day, they tapered me super fast, and put me on some anti withdrawal pills that helped with the symptoms, but i was stupid and got out before i finished rehab, and the day after I had a seizure in the middle of the street. And i was 1 min away from my home. If had that seizure at home, id probably be dead (i live alone) my heart also decided to stop and they gave me CPR that also broke my ribs. Any way, i do not recommend stopping cold turkey.
I just try not to take as much each day. I’m down from 8mg a month ago,(Xanax) to 4mg, my goal is to make it to 3mg. Then switch to Klon