Posted by halcyondaze on February 23, 2007, at 20:34:44
In reply to Re: Wow watch this youtube interview about Xanax, posted by mattye on February 23, 2007, at 20:21:18
> What was it like?
First I tried to get off by myself, cold turkey. Stupidly! I know enough to know not to do that but I was so desperate. I had a seizure. I was hyperventilating and having panic attacks (I've never had an anxiety disorder before). My muscles would randomly twitch and jerk. I could barely walk. I was disoriented and had hypersomnia and occasionally was able to stagger to the calendar and count how many days I had been detoxing and how many days until my break was over and I had to go back to work. Lights hurt my eyes. I felt like someone had hooked up electrodes to every part of my body, especially my brain, and were randomly shocking me (ten million times worse than SSRI/SNRI withdrawal). I couldn't eat. I was so constipated that my stomach bloated and stuck out like I was pregnant. I could barely speak in more than one-word sentences. Noises, even just a ticking watch, sounded like they were resonating in my head. Everything was too loud. I couldn't urinate. My heart was skipping beats. My hands were shaking so badly I broke half of my glasswear trying to pour a glass of water. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't shower. I couldn't get changed. It was all too much effort and too difficult to think about. Everything was distorted - it was like an acid trip, my bathroom door seemed to be a million feet tall, and then sometimes I would feel huge and then small, like Alice eating the wrong cookie. When I looked in the mirror I didn't recognize myself. I often didn't recognize anything in my own bedroom. I felt like I was watching this happen to myself. I couldn't go outside.
This lasted for one week, I bought some Xanax, and managed to stagger into detox the next day.
These symptoms, though not as severe, lasted throughout the Phenobarbital detox and for one month after getting off Phenobarb.
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> > I've withdrawn from a lot of antidepressants. I've withdrawn from OxyContin. I've withdrawn from heroin.
> >
> > Nothing - NOTHING - compares to the hell of what I went through during Xanax withdrawal. Benzo withdrawal can literally kill you. It almost killed me. It took two months with a Phenobarbital detox at an outpatient facility (the only one that does benzo detox outpatient, pretty much) for me to get off of it and it was still utter, absolute hell.
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poster:halcyondaze
thread:735434
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070219/msgs/735526.html