kmae89

Hi all. I went through alcohol withdrawal 10 months ago and got through it. But coming off of Benzos is even worse! I was on 2mg and I tapered down to 1mg but I feel like I’m going crazy! I am having horrible social anxiety. I can’t make eye contact and it feels like my eyes dart around the room and I blink often or something? I’m off of them completely now due to being pregnant. I can’t go into public now and idk how I’m going to overcome this! Even being around family I’m uncomfortable. Please tell me this could be normal and this will get better. I’m
Miserable. I also started Celexa 20mg for anxiety yesterday so I am hoping this helps. Thank you all in advance!!

Rainwater123

Hello and welcome to SR. I don’t have much experience with benzo withdrawal but I just wanted to say hi and you can get through this. I have read that benzo withdrawal can be difficult but as each day passes your body is working on recovery. You are in a good place here with many people who will chime in with experience in this category so help is on the way. Are you able to sleep and eat? If you happen to have a doctor and you feel comfortable with it let him/her know your situation and they can prescribe some meds for you that will help you out. So please hang in there and I am sorry I am not very helpful, but I wish you the best and it will get better with each day.

kmae89

Thanks so much for your reply! I went through benzo withdrawal in jail so I know I can do this at home! I am able to sleep well. I have some vivid dreams and nightmares though. I don’t think my withdrawals are severe at this point because I was already tapering. My doctor knows and won’t prescribe anymore because I’m pregnant. I think from weaning he wanted me to now go to .5mg then stay off them. So I’m not far off from tapering but it was a fast taper.

kmae89

I’m honestly most concerned with my eyes. Eye contact with others puts me in a panic mode... I can’t even go into Walmart at this point because of the eye contact. It feels like my eyes dart a lot and can’t stay focused or that I blink a lot? I’m not sure if this will ever go away?!

MindfulMan

I was put on benzos to stop my drinking quite some time ago.

I just started drinking on top of the benzos. Eventually I tapered off both. Within 5 hours of my last 1/2 of a klonopin I was hit with the worst withdrawals I've ever experienced, FAR worse than anything I've ever had with alcohol.

If you are having problems already, please speak to your doctor about a taper plan, preferably a doctor that has experience in this process (general practitioners often don't really know anything about this or addiction in general). You don't want to be on them at all if you are pregnant, but there's a way to taper that will minimize the withdrawal stress. SLOW is the key!

Goodfellas

Benzo WD is no joke. Be very very very careful. Benzos don’t get as much attention as they deserve imo (they can absolutely cause hell on earth-
Both abuse and WD)

However , as with most things - it gets better and better with time and the end result (sobriety) is so worth it.

How are you doing today? Please come back to update (:

NOWisNOW

..my ex wife chose to continue taking xanax (and smoke marijuana) throughout the pregnancy of our son with nothing short of disastrous result, he is now 26 and has suffered various health and mental health issues for the majority of his life. The worst of course being a drug addict like the both of us. Ultimately if you don't clean up immediately and stay clean while pregnant you effectively guarantee a miserable life for your child, the social stuggle you're dealing with now will most likely become their entire existence. My son walked out of the 9th grade and locked himself in his bedroom more than a decade ago. To this very day his mother provide him 'medical marijuana' on a daily basis to stem the horrific rages he descends into regularly. Never learned to drive a car, never finished any sort of education or worked, never had any friends or a romantic experience, and remains completely dependant on his mother...
our selfishness *i foolishly agreed during the pregnancy that meds were okay to treat her morning sickness(?)*
we are both responsible for the complete lack of quality of his life...
Sorry to be so blunt but please do it for your child, it cannot be undone once they are born. i deeply regret our decision(s) to not have done otherwise, it is the deepest shame you can imagine to know you're responsible for your child's pain...

no one warned us, this is the single most important thing you can do for your child

electricdreams

I've been through it a few times, all of those times I felt like it would never go away and I felt like the walking dead. I promise it won't be like this forever and there will be a time in the future when you don't even think about it. Since you cannot do a full taper because of the pregnancy I suggest sleeping as much as you can to help heal your brain and doing as little as possible.

If your mind is racing too much to meditate in the traditional way I suggest guided meditations, a lot of good ones can be found online for free. I also found that watching lighthearted stuff like kids' cartoons and funny youtube videos helped. Best of luck. <3

RecklessEric

Benzo withdrawal is the most horrible time I've had. So many weird symptoms.

Seizures are a real danger so it really needs to be supervised.
What got me through the last time was CBT therapy. Seriously- I couldn't recommend it highly enough. I learned that most of the symptoms were actually mainifestations of anxiety. Which is horrible in itself but not life-threatening.

What got me through was CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). It's a relatively short, issue-specific therapy. I would seriously recommend it.

kayleezen

Hello~!
In my experience working closely with a doctor and adding in as much natural remedies as you can will help you. Things like yoga, exercise, anything you can use to self sooth dive into. Eating a lot of healthy food will also help you as your brain adjusts. It's a very long term withdrawal so don't worry if you still feel off in months to come, that is normal. Good luck and put your health first.