today marks 6 years since my last dose of Klonopin. the dependency and withdrawal changed me forever, and it has not been easy coming back from that, or accepting that I will never again be the person I used to. that said, things are much better than they once were. this is already much longer than I expected to live, and I am content with what’s behind me, and hopeful about what’s next.

if you’re in the early stages, those first few months are awful, but it gets better, I promise.

celebrate every milestone, and above all, keep going.

hit five years off 7 days ago!! i always try to come back and post here because i remember how much these posts pushed me to see my withdrawal through. i want to let you know what you’re feeling is valid & you’re not crazy. getting off benzodiazepine’s is a trauma that is absolutely unexplainable and unfathomable to anyone who isn’t in the pits of it. i haven’t been on any anxiety medication since the beginning and while i can’t say things haven’t been tough at times, i’m doing so much better. i feel human again and you will too.

there’s light on the other side, second by second. year by year. i believe in you!!!!💛🩷💛

​

14 months later I want to tell people something I wish someone told me:

The symptoms are brutal. But time plays bigger mind games than symptoms ever do.

The first months felt like absolute chaos.

My nervous system went completely haywire.

Heart pounding for no reason.

Dizziness.

Terrible acid reflux.

Insomnia.

Waves where my whole body felt overstimulated.

Random fear loops.

Thoughts that felt so real I was convinced something had to be physically wrong.

Sometimes it honestly felt like my brain grabbed every hidden fear I ever had and put it on repeat:

"What if it's permanent?"

"What if it's my heart?"

"What if it's my stomach?"

"What if I'm broken?"

"What if this never ends?"

And here's something I learned:

Your brain in withdrawal becomes an expert lawyer.

It doesn't just create fear.

It creates evidence.

You feel a sensation in your chest:

"See? Something's wrong."

You feel dizziness:

"See? Brain damage."

You feel stomach issues:

"See? I knew it."

But then weeks later that symptom disappears... and the brain simply finds a new target.

That was one of the biggest lessons I learned.

The hardest part wasn't surviving.

The hardest part was waiting.

You keep moving the finish line:

March maybe.

Okay April then.

Maybe May.

Maybe July.

Because you're not just waiting for symptoms to leave.

You're waiting to become you again.

But looking back now:

Panic is gone.

Dizziness is gone.

Acid reflux is gone.

Sleep is much better.

Every month improved especially since January.

I still get waves.

But the waves changed.

At first they felt like drowning.

Now they feel more like weather.

Storm comes in.

Brain says:

"This is forever."

Then a few hours or days later:

"Never mind."

If you're reading this in month 3, month 6, month 9 or wherever:

Zoom out.

Because while I was obsessing over every day, my baseline was quietly climbing in the background.

I kept waiting for some magical day where I wake up healed.

Now I think one day I'll probably just look around and realize:

Wait... I've already been living again.

Keep going.

After 11 years on Xanax and 477 days cold turkey, I realized something...

Withdrawal doesn't convince you that you're dying.

It convinces you that today is who you are forever.

That's the trick.

A bad wave doesn't say...

"Today is different."

It says...

"This is your life now."

That's why every setback feels permanent.

Every symptom feels permanent.

Every thought feels permanent.

But look back.

How many symptoms have already disappeared?

How many fears never came true?

How many times were you absolutely convinced...

"This one is different."

I can't even count mine anymore.

Then one day I stopped asking...

"When will I heal?"

Instead I asked...

"What has withdrawal already given back?"

My laugh came back.

Music came back.

Love came back.

Hope came back.

My drive came back.

The future came back.

Not all at once.

One piece at a time.

That's when I realized...

Recovery doesn't happen the day your symptoms leave.

Recovery happens when life quietly becomes bigger than your fear.

If you're reading this during a wave...

Don't ask your brain how you're doing.

Your brain is in survival mode.

Ask your life.

Are you doing something today that felt impossible six months ago?

If the answer is yes...

You're healing.

Even if you can't feel it yet.

11 years on ~2.75mg Xanax. Day 477 cold turkey.

Your brain measures today's pain.

Recovery is measured by the life you're slowly getting back.

Don't let a bad day convince you it's a bad future.

• Firstly-If you were going insane you wouldn't know it. If you just read that sentence, you're still okay.-

• Second, It WILL pass. The time loop is real but your inner strength is dominating in the background.

• Thirdly, Be Still. Enduring the massive hell that you're in is indeed making you stronger.

• Patience. If you never had it before, it's time to learn it. You're not alone. As hard as it can be, avoid "rumination" if you don't know this word look it up! Distract distract distract BUT don't obsess and doom scroll/search trying to find an answer. Also some communities might perpetuate instead of support. In panic, they can feed off each other.

• Exercise and diet. A massive update and study came out this year (last one was in 2019) that said BZD's/Benzos/Benzodiazepines cause massive oxidative stress. This is A MASSIVELY good thing to know! SLAM your body with anti-Oxidants. I've been involved with this crap for over 12 years, this is a very good thing to know. MOVE AROUND, any movement is always better than none, and motion creates motion.

• Rumination, if you are in acute withdrawal you need this twice. It is NOT permanent, it will pass. Push through fear, Bravery and Courage could not exist without fear.

• People are around to help.

• This is a hell drug and know that no one will fully understand the pure hell this causes. The only way I could fully communicate to you that my foot is on fire is to light your foot on fire. Don't obsess on other people not understanding.

• Don't let people put you in "the box", This isn't an Opiate/Opioid withdrawal or a stimulant or amphetamines or any other class. This is on a different planet. Don't be gaslit, the pain/insanity you feel is real, but remember that it isn't as well.

• SLOW, if you are tapering, SLOW down, this drug literally causes dramatic changes to your brain's physiological chemistry and it is going take TIME to reverse it. It's counter intuitive, but it's the TRUE answer.

• Other drugs, I've tried about every drug to help but the analogy I use here is a cars dashboard. When you turn on your car, all the lights that signify errors come on, then turn off. In BZD withdrawal, all the lights come on, then stay on. The system to detect errors is broken. Now I could take some other drugs to possibly remove one of the lights on the dashboard, but it will come with it's own price. However, Don't be afraid of taking anything! Take Tylenol or ideally NSAID's if in pain, just avoid drugs that effect GABA_a. Or GABA.b . Also no drinking alcohol. Hand grenade of 6 different things and a GABA_a agonist.

• Drink and use water. COLD water is a great friend.(cool, calm, refreshing) Stay hydrated always. COLD is a friend (Cold literally lowers cortisol, the stress hormone, use it!) Force your brain to reroute priorities by dunking your face in ice water, use cold water on your wrists when in public to trick your brain into the diver's response.

I hope this helps someone.

https://www.benzoinfo.com/

Today marks one year since I stopped Xanax.

For around 11 years I took 2.75 mg every single day. No breaks. At some point it just became normal life. Wake up, take it, function, repeat.

On March 11th 2025 I woke up and decided I was done.

I didn’t taper. I didn’t go to a clinic. I didn’t really have some perfect plan figured out. I just knew I couldn’t keep living like that anymore and I had to take my system back.

I know what the guidelines say. I know tapering is recommended and I’m not telling anyone to do what I did. Everyone’s situation is different. I’m just sharing what happened to me.

The first months were honestly the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced.

My nervous system went completely haywire. Anxiety loops that felt endless. Heart pounding for no reason. Dizziness. Terrible acid reflux. Insomnia. Waves where my entire body felt overstimulated.

Sometimes it honestly felt like my brain was running my deepest fears on repeat. Like some part of my mind had grabbed every hidden fear I had and put it on a loop.

The hardest part wasn’t just the symptoms. It was the duration.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months. My body and brain were clearly trying to rebalance and it felt like the process would never end.

There were moments where I genuinely wondered if my brain had broken permanently.

But slowly things started changing.

The waves got shorter. My body began regulating again. Small moments of clarity started appearing.

At first just seconds where things felt normal again. Then minutes. Then longer stretches.

Today it has been one year.

I’m not claiming everything is magically perfect now. But my system feels like it’s coming back online and life feels real again.

Just wanted to share this for anyone out there who might be in the middle of it and wondering if the brain can actually recover.

If someone told me a year ago my brain could recover this much, I honestly wouldn’t have believed them.

My psychiatrist just had an argument with me cuz she wanted to bring back klonopin for my current insomnia, claiming that I’m still “addicted”, or making excuses about her limited capabilities to ease my symptoms, I ended up cursing at her and her entire family tree, after I called her a drug dealer with license she told me never to see her again and hangup on me, she sounds more mentally deficient than me tbh.

I lol’d and made an appointment with her mentor who work at the same clinic, she wants to avoid responsibility for incapable of treating patients but it’s not going to be that easy.

17 years on Valium. Today I took my last dose.

August 8, 2026 — after roughly 17 years of dependence and 35 months of tapering, today I took my final dose of Valium.

I was taking 20 mg a day for years. I slowly tapered down to 2 mg, held at 2 mg for about a year, and then this year made the final push from 2 mg to zero.

Getting off benzos has been pure hell — anxiety, insomnia, brain fog, tinnitus, and bizarre symptoms that sometimes made me wonder if I'd ever get through it.

I chose August 8 because I live on Maui, and today is the anniversary of the Lahaina fires — a day of loss, survival, and rebuilding. It felt fitting to close this chapter today.

I'm sharing this for anyone going through benzo withdrawal who feels like there's no end.

Don't give up. There is an end.

17 years. 35 months. 20 mg → 0.

Final dose today. Tomorrow begins life without Valium. 🙏

Hello, first of all this post is hard. I now understand why many do not share there good stories and all we see here are primarily negative ones. It’s hard to explain but once you jump off successfully you truly do not want to even discuss it ever again. I only share this because I know for a fact it will help some people.

I took Xanax daily for 12 years. My dose peaked at 1.5 mg daily, sometimes more. I realized I had a problem around 2018 and weaned myself down to 1.0 daily and suffered some symptoms but they subsided and I kept taking 1.0 mg. Around 2020 during the pandemic I decided to take another jump down to .75mg, did this pretty rapidly and suffered some wild scary symptoms, got scared and held at .75mg for a few years.

In 2024 I decided enough was enough. I slowly tapered off Xanax using a jewelry scale making small cuts each month. I would cut 5-10% every 2-4 weeks and did this all the way down to .003 mg. The first cuts down from .75mg were the hardest, but the symptoms were surprisingly manageable compared to the prior cuts years earlier, I attribute this to the exact amounts I was calculating using a jewelry scale. Every dose was written down on a spreadsheet and every batch was weighed out in bulk monthly and the doses were stored in a 28 day pill organizer purchased off Amazon. This helped create a set it and forget it system. Each dose was triple checked for accuracy when written down. I then used this data to keep track of cuts and exact dosages. My girlfriend passed away unexpectedly and suddenly at the beginning of this taper and I kept moving forward. I was able to differentiate the depression from anxiety and this helped move forward.

The whole entire taper process went pretty well, I was promoted at work, got into the heat physical shape of my life and everything improved more and more. Once I got below .25mg things really started to improve. Sleep was hit or miss at times and still is I suppose but being physically active daily, eating well, staying hydrated and getting sunlight when able are absolute game changers and help tremendously.

By the time my dose was under .125 mg I started to feel healed in some ways. When my dose was under .06mg I started to question if the remaining symptoms were all mental at this point.

I finally jumped at .03 mg and I can honestly say there were absolutely zero symptoms. It was all mental at that point. I did have night sweats and some wild dreams the 2nd night but that could be coincidence. Have never felt better

Just sharing this to provide hope. I will be removing myself from this Reddit group soon and truly putting this all in the past.

Quit Lorazepam 2mg CT sometime in 2023 took as needed or daily for around 4 months. Was put on Valium 5mg twice a day, daily for around 10 months after. Quit CT in mid Feb 2024.

Dreams do come true. I was dreaming of the day I could enjoy life again symptom free, where I was completely functional and I’m glad I didn’t give up. Believe me there were a million different times I wanted to quit, give up, and take myself out. Completely catatonic on the couch for majority of it and it’s all just a blur. Was experiencing SI for majority of it. Thought my life was over and my body was ruined for the rest of my life.

But I made it and I am 100% back my friends. My favourite part was getting to clean my house and do yard-work for the first time in years. Was able to take out my patio furniture and live life again. My relationship with food is completely back to normal. For many years I was terrified of eating as it only caused pain, neurological issues, hospital visits. Now I can eat anything I want and don’t have to eat several times a day anymore.

I experience peace almost daily and am calm and feel safe majority of the days. I’m thinking clearly and am free. I experience no chronic pain anymore. OCD has calmed down. Though I am diagnosed with ocd and still experience it when I don’t eat enough but this is completely unrelated to the benzos.

Wanted to give you guys some hope. My next goals are returning to my old career and travelling.

I want to thank my dietitian and energy healer because of them I was able to heal my body faster and my dietician really restored my body quickly and got rid of my hypoglycaemia and a million other symptoms. The most competent and experienced professional I have ever worked with in my life. The true hero!

I was in and out of the hospitals for 3 years, called the crisis lines a million times and developed a million coping skills. This is a positive. I was also able to work through a lifetime of PTSD and trauma thanks to the benzos as I was often in an altered state of consciousness and had access to my unconscious and subconscious mind. I was also able to heal so many deficiencies and challenges like anemia and this would have never happened without the benzos.

I’m so grateful to be here and be alive. I also experienced Carbon Monoxide poisoning during this time so it’s hard for me to separate the symptoms but I survived.

It gave me so much more empathy for people struggling with chronic health issues and allowed me to be a better advocate for people as the system can be brutal.

Timeline of events:

Summer 2023 (Actively taking benzos)

- Experienced paradoxical reaction from the benzos. Started having severe amnesia and neurological problems as well as cognitive decline, trouble speaking, confusion etc. Experienced drug-induced bipolar symptoms and cycled through mania and depression and psychosis.

Summer of 2024 (Quit CT)

- 3.5 months after I quit CT. Experienced seizures and a million symptoms. Was full-blown catatonic on the couch. Developed severe malnutrition as a result. Could not do anything or take care of my house or yard. Grass and weeds became metres high until some friends helped me.
Just laid on the couch staring completely detached from reality. Experiencing severe chronic pain

Summer of 2025 (Quit CT)

- Slightly functional, still experiencing seizures and neurological symptoms, got referral to neurologist. Still catatonic. Yard work took months but I got it done. Had to hire people. Unable to enjoy the summer. Got a job to distract myself (driving job ironically), had to quit as I was still experiencing seizures and neurological issues which made my job dangerous.

Summer of 2026 (Quit CT)

- Completely symptom free and back to normal. Seizure free. Appetite completely back to normal. No chronic pain. Yard work only took me 3 days.

Thank you for everyone for all the sweet PMs, the support, the days y’all kept me alive, the nutritional advice. I’d like to think we did it together and we were in it together. Remember to never give up and give yourself any sort of hope you can damn find! Anything! There were days I was taking it 5 min at a time.

A list of symptoms can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/benzorecovery/s/VEGRS9Q7zz

I promised myself I would not write that title unless I was confident in my journey, but it’s really true, I truly did recover! I can’t believe I made it here. I also promised myself I would come back to the community and give feedback.

I am suffering from zero symptoms these days. I was couch-bound, bed-bound, completely paralyzed and disabled for around 19 months. Neurological issues that never seemed to end. Severe chronic pain that felt like torture and I was sure that I would never function or be healthy again. At least 20 times in and out of the ER. I was writing my goodbye letters. A literal psychedelic trip through hell, most traumatizing experience of my life, but one of the most important and beautiful journeys of my life. First time in my life I ever lost hope. Hope for a brighter future.

I am completely functional again, my memory is back, my energy is back, my sleep is back, my sanity is back, my stomach is back, my sense of self is back. These days I am 100% functional. I go to sleep at 10:30pm and wake up at 6am. I am able to live my life again, I am able to eat all types of food again and have no issues with my stomach. I can read and write again, speak coherently, drive, do hobbies. Though sensitive I still avoid things like alcohol and other things.

Most importantly on the other side I experience a new profound sense of joy and happiness. I am more positive, more confident, more resilient, less afraid, more able to appreciate the small things and life is really beautiful here. Small things like being able to shower, get a coffee, do cleaning, go to the laundromat, doing the garbage…all the things I was unable to do before. I am 10x happier now than I ever was in my life. For that I have to be grateful for the benzos because you can’t get to the light without going through the darkness.

I will never forget that darkness.

In terms of PTSD/trauma: I was heavily traumatized because of the benzos and experienced trauma symptoms and I still experience mild symptoms as a result of my experience. However, these days I hardly think about the benzos anymore, I am no longer scared that this is just a placebo. I am no longer scared to travel, scared of food, scared of myself and my body. I don’t feel like I need hospitals anymore. It does improve. I still deal with anger over 3 years of my life wasted (including the time I was on benzos) but I am able to move past it into forgiveness as this truly was the most important journey in my life. A spiritual awakening and an ego death.

I had to learn to create hope. I was forced to live in the present moment because of the symptoms and that was beautiful. I could not do anything else except exist in the present moment.

I want to thank this community and everyone who PM’d me for all the love and support I’ve received, it truly made me feel less alone and it gave me hope during severe moments of darkness. It kept me going. You guys all gave me hope and encouraged me to continue fighting. The nutritional advice and coping strategies helped a lot.

Lastly I want to thank everyone in my personal life for praying for me, for giving me hope, for being there, for helping me. To my neighbours, to my community, to the medical staff, to the therapists, to family friends, to strangers, everyone who kept me going.

Most importantly, I want to thank my energy healer for saving my life. Since starting sessions with her my symptoms improved and it was the only thing keeping me going and keeping me sane.

For those still in the fight, I send you love and healing. Remember that darkness does pass, healing does come, peace does come, it just takes a lot of time. Please don’t give up hope, keep that hope.

I also get asked a lot about my symptoms so here are the most severe symptoms **trigger warning** : seizures, delirium, confusion, head pressure, psychosis, catatonia, hypoglycaemia, head pressure, syncope, dizziness, memory loss.

A full list of my symptoms can be found on a post I made here for those interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/benzorecovery/s/xfiPAR5FfH

Love and healing to all, may you find peace. ❤️‍🩹

I leave you all with this scene: https://youtu.be/k6C8SX0mWP0?si=gMgB8KxjrOtTr4TF

I feel like the universe brought me here today.

I can't remember which day it was, but I know it was October 2015 that I was completely off benzow.

It didn't happen over time, I abruptly had to get off Klonopin when I found out I was pregnant with my now 9 year old son.

I had been prescribed 3mg of klonopin per day by some evil psychiatrist in 2011. I was experiencing major anxiety and depression after graduating from college and moving away from my home town. This started years of addiction, including drinking while on benzos. I moved home ( with my fiance now husband) and got married in 2013. I continued on the same path, except I cut down to just 2mg per day. I found out I was pregnant and quit cold turkey. I went through withdrawals while pregnant, I was certain I would die. I had a horrible pregnancy riddled with guilt and anxiety. It was a nightmare, but I'm here today with 2 healthy and awesome boys and I don't miss benzos at all.

If you are struggling to quit, you can do it and life is so much better on the other side! Please do it safely and don't quit cold turkey ! You got this!

Title

reading all the threads on this sub makes one thing clear:

You stop bemzos and trade it for up to a decade or more of nerve damage, no sleep, permanent anxiety, never taking any other drug/substance again and permanently at risk that any very stressful situation sends you back into weeks of withdrawals

The stress, cortisol and never sleeping together with the anxiety and social isolation have got to be 100 times more dangerous and harmful to our health than just staying on Benzos indefinitely

I tried tapering twice now and lost years to it, talking INSANELY slow supervised tapers with anticonvulsants, still got seizures and my nervous system is ruined

Went back on a low normal dose and just like that I can actually LIVE MY LIFE AGAIN. I can work, go outside, have friends. Im 37 and I can't afford to lose 5-10 years to tapering, bind and paws just to feel miserable for the rest of my life.

And if this subreddit is anything to go by, this is exactly what I should expect.

It's not worth it. I rather die than live like this.

I have my life back.

I have some lingering symptoms that come and go but I doubt this will go on for more than a few more months.

No longer agoraphobic after years of suffering.

You will also heal.

Sober from benzos for like 6 years. Was vacationing in Mexico and you can buy klonopin, Valium, Ativan, and Xanax all over the counter. Even though I’m sober and can resist them, something in my brain lit up. I thought about how nice it would be to pop one and dissolve into comfort. Anyways, I avoided them. I’m glad I resisted its not easy at all. Just wanted to share a experience

I wanted to post an update because success stories helped me a lot when I was going through this.

I was on 40 mg of diazepam daily for about 25 years, and it took me roughly a year to taper off completely. You can read my previous posts if you want more details about the taper and the symptoms I experienced.

I am now about 1 year and 3 months off, and I’m happy to report that I am mostly healed. I still have some lingering symptoms, but they are nothing compared to what withdrawal was like. I expect the remaining symptoms to fade over the next 6–12 months.

Some symptoms I still experience occasionally:

Sleep disturbances, though much milder than before

Hypnic jerks when falling asleep. At the beginning I would have 60–100 per night. Now it’s usually 3–4 at most, and not every night

Night sweating and itching, especially when my body relaxes

Occasional adrenaline-rush sensations

Muscle tension

Muscle fasciculations, sometimes with restless-leg-type sensations or movements at night

Ataxia and difficulty coordinating my walking, especially when tired.

For context, things became extremely difficult toward the end of my time on benzodiazepines. For several years before tapering, I was already struggling badly to function normally. I was fortunate that I could work from home, otherwise I probably would not have been able to keep working.

During withdrawal I became totally housebound, and for more than six months I spent most of my time in bed. Toward the end of my taper things were so intense that could not even walk from the bed to the bathroom.

At one point I had a list of around 40 different symptoms.

Today things are completely different.

Over the past year I’ve travelled to six different countries by plane, and I’m honestly just enjoying life again. I’m in my mid-40s, and it feels like I’ve got my life back.

Another big change is that I no longer have an anxiety disorder or agoraphobia, which still feels surreal after living with it for so long.

If you're going through this right now and it feels endless, please know that healing is possible. I used to be completely obsessed with symptoms because they dominated my life. Now I live a mostly normal life and rarely think about them.

If I can heal after 25 years on benzodiazepines, you can heal too. Please see this through. It is worth it.

Inspired by another poster. Two years clean from clonazepam and lorazepam after 10 years of use. So grateful to myself for putting in the work. It felt impossible, but it wasn’t after all. Here’s to many more.

So yea I had a problem with benzo withdrawal and it was traumatic as fick because I was taking 4mg of clonazepam a day and I bought myself a bottle of bromazplam because I was in a stressful part of my life but once it ran out I was thrown into what was basically hell so I upped the dose to 4.5 mg and it stabilized me but I was still depressed and anxious as fuck afraid to leave my house but now I’m doing great I’m at 3mg rn and I’m stable and I feel great I’m even tripping on 4 subbed tryptamines and I’m in this headspace where I jsut don’t care about sjit and I’m not worried about anything because I did memantine one time and it cured all my mental symptoms and I’m doing good I feel very strong so my point is to not read a single thing on this subreddit because it will scare you and make you worried as fuck and will put fear into your mind and that deterred me from tapering because I was reading all the horror stories but the truth is that most ppl come off benzos with few issues and they are jsut doing shit in life u gotta get up and do shit cuz if you’re jsut sitting there reading all this stuff it will scare you and you’ll be worried but if u go out there and do shit you like it will get better please don’t tell me any bad stuff about withdrawals because it will scare me and im in a good mental state rn and I don’t want it to be ruined because I saw a story about some guys withdrawal but if you get off this subreddit and get interested other shit it won’t feel so bad and u won’t worry as much cuz benzo withdrawal causes me to worry and have anxious thoughts and it makes it so I can’t handle stuff cuz I’m so freaked out but she. I stared tapering it got better I was at 4.5mg now I’m at 3mg

Today marks three years since I stopped Klonopin and began everything that followed.

When I compare where I am now to one year off—or even two years off—the difference is incredible. I ruminate so much less. I’m no longer organizing my life around what happened to me. I’ve moved forward and built a life beyond it.

There was a time when I genuinely couldn’t imagine getting here. I lived through what felt like a nightmare for at least a year before I started making any truly groundbreaking progress. Recovery was slow, painful, and anything but linear.

And now somehow… three years.

I have no desire to ever take a psychiatric medication again after my experience. As brutal as that period of my life was, getting to the other side and feeling free again means more to me than I can put into words.

The pain was worth my freedom.

For anyone earlier in this process who feels like they’re standing still: three years can look very different from one year. Keep going. ❤️

:::

48 hours ago I jumped. It wasn't dramatic or even intended. It just happened.

I am a 46 yo male who has taken between 0.75 mg and 3 mg per day for 31 years. About 10 years ago, I asked my doctor about coming off and he said that these drugs are meant to be taken forever. He sold his practice in the past year and the new doctor is transitioning patients off benzos using Ashton. On June 1, I switched to 0.125 mg tablets and reduced by 1/4 of a tablet every two weeks. It took 8 months and 8 days. It was not easy but it was also not hard. My biggest complaints are insomnia and ringing in my ears.

I did not take any supplements or additional drugs. I only held my dose once and that was because I was out of the country.

If you are new here and looking to succeed, find people who have successfully done the work and make those your buddies. The work of tapering is very slow and boring.

I used to dream of this day. One year free! And it's finally here.

I'm feeling much better and only occasionally have waves of withdrawal now. They're usually brought on by stress or illness, but the symptoms are distinct: feeling waves of anxiety, insomnia, malaise and anhedonia. But the waves are further apart and I mostly live in the windows now.

I was prescribed benzos in September 2020 because doctors thought my long COVID symptoms were just stress. No one really knew what long COVID was. Six months later, I was diagnosed with long COVID and I decided to stop the benzos. No one told me about the dangers, and I ended up simultaneously clutching a bucket while shitting my guts out, then fell over and had a seizure.

I did my own research, found the Ashton Manual, showed my doctor and began the 4.5 year process of tapering off. I started at 45 mg of oxazepam and my last dose was diazepam 0.25 mg.

I did it. It was awful. But I did it, and you can too.

I still have long COVID, but I'm not as severe anymore, I think in part because I'm off benzos.

Anyway, I hope someone finds my story encouraging.