Is Benzo Withdrawal Injury Permanent?

There is A LOT you can do to aid your healing. You are POWERFUL. Remember that.

I went off Ativan after five years and switched to anti-depressant and after two year and insomnia came back, and new Doctor put me back on Ativan . Now I have been tapering from 2 mg to 1/4 mg. I broke my wrist in two places and rib and I increased Ativan dosage and big mistake. I only increased it for a month and started tapering and all hell broke loose. I thought I was dying. It took me a month before I could get out of bed. I even drove myself to emergency, thought I was having a gallbladder attack. Thankfully, the last few days I am functioning normally. I plan to taper the last 1/2 mg very slowly. It is going to take me six months. I take all kinds of vitamins and minerals, drink 80 ounces of liquid,. No caffeine, no sugar, no starches. Eat protein and cooked veggies. Six small meals a day. It helps what you eat. Eat food to nourish your brain and CNS. I had every imaginable symptom and the best I could describe to people, I thought I was dying. Your body will heal provided you exercise a tad bit, breath deeply and pray and think positive. Do not allow this drug to get the best of you.

I love all your work Dr Josef. I would LOVE to see you interview a few fast healers. What is the AVERAGE healing time? 🙏

When will my blood pressure normalize? It shot up the week after I quit and has stayed elevated for over 6 yrs..

Thank you so much for being here. I am in year 10 after cold turkey off xanax and still can't sleep...trouble with agitation and quick temper, lack motivation for anything but healing this. Does anyone have suggestions for how to help neurological recovery? Have tried gaba, 5htp, vb12shots, omega 3, ashwagandha, etc, etc. Just need to sleep...please. Thank you so much for any ideas.

Ok I’m taper from Ativan why aren’t doctors telling or informing patients about withdrawal symptoms from benzo tapers.

Exercise helps withdrawal symptoms

FUN FACT! GLUTAMATE IS THE PRECURSOR FOR GABA… XANAX DEPLETES ALL YOUR GABA… ITS SO SEVERE BECAUSE GABA IS NEEDED FOR ALL BRAIN FUNCTION… YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THROUGH THE ANXIETY WHILE TAKING (THIS SECRET REMEDY)AND GET LOTS OF SLEEP!!!

I WAS ON XANAX 1MG AS NEEDED FOR A YEAR AND AMBIEN 5MG WHICH IS WORSE THAN XANAX… THE BRAIN DOES HEAL BUT YOU MUST STOP ANYTHING DRUG OR SUBSTANCE THAT DAMAGE BRAIN CELLS!!! THERE IS HOPE TRUST ME!!! I AM BACK TO NORMAL AFTER 3 MONTHS

Sadly, I think for some of us it is permanent.
After 25 months of insomnia I feel that I can no longer recover because it will be impossible for me to make up that sleep debt. I think insomnia is 1 of the 2 worst long term symptoms to have. The other being akathesia, which I also had for almost 18 months. I hope others have a much better recovery than me.

Take clonazapem 0.25 everyday on day 3 of none use to be like 1mg a day years ago then down to like .5....take zoloft 150mg tried alot of different anxiety/depression meds i think my nervous system is def affected by the meds with uncontrollable muscle tension in shoulders neck and head and body spasms twitching everywhere...anyone have any ideas thanks????

Doctors need to stop taking patients off of benzos against their will. It's a road to misery and death every time. I do not understand what is so wrong with being medicated. If that's what you want and you're an adult, treat yourself how you want to be treated. Before they were doctors prescribing crap to everybody, the 30s and 20s you would go to the drugstore and actually get whatever you want without needing a note from a stranger.. Big Pharma doesn't want to help or heal you, they want a returning customer who's going to buy and take unnecessary medications the Dr gets paid to prescribe. I've met just about every type of person throughout my life, and the worst people I've ever met are doctors. Somehow they all know your body better than you. Let's just put everybody on ssris and statins which cause dementia and many other neurological disorders. Your brain is literally a giant lump of water and cholesterol/ fat, say your cholesterol medicine is turning your brain to shit same as an SSRI will. Benzodiazepines help a lot of people. Stop experimenting on patients like you're a god. LISTEN to your patient. Also Drs are the #2 COD.

I use my Ativan benzo for sleep and I want to get off and sleep naturally but I can’t! So I need a benzo coach!

I watched a video short of yours asking if people had a harder time withdrawing from opiates, anti-deps or benzos. I have severe Fibromyalgia. Anti-deps either did not help me or I had allergic reactions. I took opiates for 12 years and decided I did not need them anymore. My doctor said I could quit cold turkey but I was leery of it, so I tapered for 2 weeks, which was not long enough. I had blood coming out both ends for 11 hours straight, painful muscle spasms shaking and chills, and blood pressure in stroke range. Then it was over, but I had to lay around for 9 days to recover from it. After that there were no more effects. I took Xanax for 33 years, which enabled me to sleep and drive, but then the "war on drugs" came and I saw some patients actually die when yanked off of them cold turkey. I tapered using the Ashton method for 2 years, and slept very little. I've been off for 5 years and have brain damage that is getting worse, not better. I look 10 yrs. older, have almost no short term memory, am losing chunks of long term memory too, having both typing and number dyslexia now, am depressed and so anxious that I've become a hermit, and cannot multi-task, follow recipes or even walk and talk at the same time. If I try to do two things at once, what I say makes no sense. I can't handle any loud noises, get overstimulated easily, and am a nervous wreck. Benzos were much, much harder. Getting off opiates was a day at the beach compared to benzos. My pharmacist said severity of w/d tends to be genetic, and to see how hard it could be for you, consider how many first degree relatives of yours have any kind of addiction, and that includes workaholic and shopaholic too, not just drugs or alcohol. If you have even one, she told me to never, ever go cold turkey. Taper is safer.

Just a quick question I'm going through protracted withdrawal from 5 years ativan use. Every few days the head zaps get to a point where I loose control and go on a slight drinking binge for the day. Am I fighting a loosing battle in terms of recovery ? Been like this for 6 months

Longest recorded was 12 years exercise helps ❤

The people that don’t have improvements because they are not addressing the underlying anxiety disorder and doing things to actively get over it

I suffered really bad insomnia for 6yrs!!!! I thought I would never sleep! Im here today to let you the your brain will heal! Eat healthy! Don’t drink alcohol! Keep your stress levels down.

I came of in 2018! I’m been struggling with insomnia finally today I’m seeing improvement in my sleep, I will never get on any medication ever again.

"Substantial improvement" is not being RECOVERED. 8 years here. Permanent cognitive and memory damage. Feel like I have dementia every single day.

I’m suffering greatly been off 7 months tremors in my legs with intense pain like mucle cramps buzzing vibration sensations in my body high pitch ringing in my ears suicidal ideation depression I’ve been on and off since I was 18 years old I’m 45 and suffering most times I just wish god would take me away to end all my suffering benzodiazepines ruined my life I will never be the same I would of never went on them if I new what they would do to me long term thats why im off now 7 months and will never go back on my family and Friends all abandoned me in the worst time of my life I have no one I’m constantly being sent to the er with all these symptoms I’m tired so tired I have no family no friends and being dead just seems so much better than suffering the way I am now my wife left me and divorced me because of how violent benzodiazepines made me I lost my kids to child protective services and I’m not aloud to see them again till there adults I’m so broken and alone crying is all I do now

I'm 12 years out from a CT w/d. Still have tinnitus and many other sxs, although I live my life. I have experienced brain damage, and I do the very best I can within my limitations.

Please help me!!!!!!

Psychiatric neurotoxins can cause permanent damage to the CNS. Basically it disrupts the normal function of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord damaging it beyond repair. Best approach is never start these drugs.

I did meth and got symptoms of schizophrenia down syndrome and Parkinson's. Boo hoo.

Has anyone heard of the Verona benzo detox method using flumazenil?

Hi guys, really need some help with this. I come on a holiday to my home country in pakistan and asked for sleeping tablets and he gave me Alprazolam, my naivety i didnt do my research and took a tablet. Helped me sleep, second day 1 tablet didnt work so much so 3rd day i doubled up, that didnt work either so i stopped taking them in total i had 4 tablets (3days) i think at 2.5mg or 0.25 not sure and threw them away. The withdrawals were crazy shivers, mental breakdown, hyperventilating literally wanting to die and hallucinations thinking a cat has run past etc and just wanting a good cry not knowing what it was because of and ive never used any sort of anti-depressants in my life even sleeping tablets unless they herbal. And me wanting to cry has never happened ive always been the happy guy class clown who makes funny jokes these 4 tablets literally changed me Can someone advise me what i need to do or how long this will last? Also this literally happened 3 hours ago.

Benzos damaged my hearts electrical system smh constant pvcs since tolerance 😪 horrific @ 8 months off 💔

I'm almost 8 years off Klonopin and still have horrific waves. Even in my windows I'm about 75% of my former self.

How can we find a pscyhiatrist in our area to taper? I'm in the SF Bay Area and doctors don't believe in getting off psych drugs.

...I i took gabapentin 300mg for 2 days for insomnia and tinnitus ringing in brain after a couple of weeks... will this be causative

Yea, it is permanent. I’ve been off klonopin for 16 and a half months and my brain feels like someone is constantly squishing it and I feel pulsing and throbbing sensations constantly no relief. This started June 17, 2022, two days after I was ripped off klonopin after 12 years. I’m in a constant hell from this feeling.

I was fine..

I think you are wrong! Improvement is not 100 percent. Thank you for pointing me away from your channel and away from you.

Because it’s very often women who become dependent on benzodiazepines and because the dependence usually lasts for many years, they are often getting into their late 40s and early 50s by the time they realize they should withdraw from these drugs. So at that point, they are often dealing with benzodiazepine withdrawal, as well as perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms. I personally believe that HRT can be very helpful for women in that age group who are withdrawing from benzodiazepines. I think HRT is good for women who have anxiety disorders in general but can also mitigate and help heal some of the damage from benzodiazepines and benzo withdrawal.

I’ve been on .5 mg Klonopin for many years for sleep. I’ve tapered off to .25 mg over the past 3 months. I’m feeling fine, my question is concerning benzo induced hair loss, and tapering off hair loss. Will hair grow once I’m completely tapered off?

Not going through this. I will go to Canada instead. End it. Being euthanized is far better then this. I won't give up my full and productive life for this

I’ve been using Valium for about two months now and while I’m on methadone… mostly I take one ten mg or two a day… but I’m also on 120 mg of methadone daily as well.. can I just stop the Val’s and suffer for a few days? Or weeks?

I've been off over 12 years now and have permanent brain and nerve damage.

Thank you, Doc, for your info. I need all the help I can get. It is a nightmare living through this. I have only been off the benzos for 7 weeks. I feel really alone even though I have a loving husband and grown children who are supportive but obviously can not really understand what it is like. I am so angry at my doctor for putting me on these long term.

I’m still tapering off Diaz and it’s been so hard the last 2 and half years. Also suffering with histamine intolerance due to the Diaz, I’ve been on them since 2015 and in dec 2020 i wanted to come off them because I was feeling horrible due to having to keep up dosing, my Psychiatrist tried to put me on xan I said no, so he dropped my dose of Diaz to 5mg day I didn’t know any better, I never knew anything about benzos, I ended up feeling very unwell over a period of 2 wks then it was worse where I was bed bound didn’t want to leave my room, cldnt enjoy my adult kids and husbands company, cldnt watch tv, cldnt stand the sun, my body felt so heavy depression, heart was also racing high low blood pressure, I lost my cleaning business (worked on my own ) I kept begging my normal Gps to help me because I didn’t know what was wrong with me, they misdiagnosed ne as being post menopausal which I became post menopausal in 2017 so at the time it didn’t make sense, but they put me on HRT patches, then I ended up in hospital to find out from a dr that I was going through benzo withdrawals 5 months it had to take a dr to tell me in emergency it’s benzo withdrawals, he was disgusted in how I was treated and put me bk on to 10mg a day I’ve been tapering since late 2021 and I’m at 5mg I lost so much weight in the first 12 mouths I’m still losing weight I’m 5 ft 7 and weigh 52kgs and still my drs will say that’s a healthy weight, they ignore me and now I’m tapering off Hrt patches because they’re not helping with the histamine problems I’m having, it’s been a few hard years but I wish we had some sort of natural supplement that can help us through tapering and when we’re off them!

You're doing good work here Doc.

I've been on benzos years I'm going through very rough withdrawls. I'm on 1mg a day it's a slower taper I'd rather just be off but I can't. Very scared.

Off 5 years and having very bad time. I feel like it’s a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I did a slow taper over years before I jumped. I get very little sleep, exhaustion, depression, anxiety, weight gain.

I'm on year 4.5 still in windows and waves. I had a setback from antibiotics. Gradually improved. I've had some long windows too.

Ill weigh in on this subject as i went throught it, id say it can be permanent. The body can heal but to what degree?

After 5.5 yrs I wonder if I’ll ever get better

Do you guys take out of state patients if we come to your clinic for subscriptions if our MD decides to stop prescribing during a long taper?

Been struggling with severe symptoms for over 2 years after coming off klonapin. I barely leave my house. Feels like this suffering will never end. I’m losing hope. Haven’t experienced a window from symptoms.

I could say its 100% sure your brain heal from benzos in time, completely. Brains adapt. Your brains after 10 years from now are not the same they are now. By this I mean synapses, neurons, neurotransmitters, they all change constantly and if you quit benzos they wont have any impact on you lets say after a year or 2 after last dosage.
You may have symptoms but there is million different reasons why you may have symptoms.

Im talking now about patiences who have doc prescribed benzos, not people who take benzos, heroine, alcohol etc, their brain get destroyed permanently even they may have significant improvements if they ever get sober.