Posted by snarley on March 3, 2004, at 16:23:39
In reply to Re: Benzo Taper Questions, posted by Mr. Scott on March 1, 2004, at 9:22:46
Scott--
I'm one of those folks you mentioned who went through "paralyzing rebound and withdrawal" from benzos from doing it the WRONG way. I was on massive amounts of Ativan (that my idiot pdoc at the time was actually prescribing to me, i wasnt "abusing" it on my own, he was "abusing" me by prescribing me large doses i was supposed to take several times a day--i was dependent, bigtime). But i wont go into all the hell i went through getting off the ativan (and klonopin, which the guy prescribed to me at the same time).
What i do want to say is that tapering is a GOOD thing, go as slow as possible to minimize effects, as they can be really terrible. Realize that using benzos over a long period of time has probably reduced your ability to cope with your anxiety naturally, as it was just covering up symptoms. In fact, you might find your anxiety problems are worse once you get off than they were when you started the benzos. If there's one thing you should really try to work on as you taper off, it's dealing with your anxiety symptoms behaviorally. Consider getting a therapist who can give you weekly attention as issues come up, and give you tips and tricks to manage your anxiety yourself.
Confronting things that freaked me out in a slow, structured manner over time gave me ways to cope with the things that bothered me, and after several years of therapy and hard work after getting off of the benzos I have virtually zero anxiety symptoms. I'm on a bit of effexor now, and that seems to help as well. But i think that restructuring the way i "think" about certain things is what helped me most. IMHO benzos are just a "quick fix".
Snar
poster:snarley
thread:318845
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040228/msgs/319820.html