[NorCalRepub]

I was taken off like any other drug in a hospital....even addictionologist know nothing about protracted wd....after 3 months off I was so bad i couldn't talk on phone, cook etc....I found people on yahoo groups that went thru this and there are some major posters out there.....it basically shocked my whole body, I couldn't function, the first year if I walked to mailbox that was it for the day...this stuff effects the HPA (hypothalamus pituitary adrenal) axis. Most people can come off with little problems but if you are in the 15% that don't, Heroin is a Sunday school picnic...there are hundreds of people just in US that have had their lives destroyed but this shit.....they know much more about it in England and Australia.....I am good friends with the woman who brought this to light more in the US.....this stuff alot of the time starts to be like toxic so it can start effecting you while you are on it, getting weaker and weaker, more hostile, more anxiety, poor judgment, weight gain or loss......I had over 59 symptoms and let me tell you......I know people who went thru this and had cancer one time in their life......They would chose cancer again before this......it was worse than being in war and I DO NOT JEST

[Bones75]

NorCal,

I am sincerely glad you made it through okay. I have read the horror stories of protracted benzo withdrawal. This is coming from somebody who has been through full blown opiate withdrawal before, and despite how agonizing that was (so painful, you can't even imagine it unless you've lived it) I was always deathly afraid of (and thankfull that it wasn't) benzos because of what I knew about them.

I can't beleive the irresponsiblity of doctors who let that happen to a patient. Some doctors are just plain ignorant about the drugs they give.

Hope that you're feeling better now, and I wish you the best, I honestly do. Even though opiates is a whole different ball game, I know what it's like to feel something that there are just no words to describe and nobody could even come close to understanding unless they'd lived it.

And with opiates you start to feel better in a few days, I shudder to think of going through something like that for MONTHS.

regards,
Bones

[starlababy22]

do you know how severe w/d will be after my pdoc switched me 1-1.5mg of lorazepam for sleep for 4.5mons and then to wean me off with klonopin i take .25mgAM and .25mgPM and will be tapering over a month. am i going to have problems??? i went c/t on the lorazepam for 6 days cause i didnt know there were any dangerous side effects. any suggestions on what you think. no one here in the usa is familiar w. the ashton manual. what do you think?????????