Withdrawing from Benzodiazepines: Symptoms, Safety, and Treatment

But when you start removing benzodiazepines from your system, suddenly your clogged neurons become an open freeway with no traffic lanes. All those extra chemicals flood your brain, and the excess activity causes symptoms like anxiety and sweating. They can range in severity, though for some people, they remain mild and manageable. If you’re predisposed to seizures, your risk of having a seizure may also increase during the withdrawal period.

Tapering off supratherapeutic doses

In fact, if you take your medication every other day, you may notice rebound symptoms on the day between doses. It’s incredibly important to follow your doctor’s guidance when you stop taking benzodiazepines. If you stop taking them “cold turkey,” or all at once, you may experience severe, even life threatening, withdrawal symptoms. If you want to stop taking benzodiazepines after consistent long-term use, your doctor can help you gradually taper off your medication. Tapering can help take the edge off withdrawal symptoms like tremors and nausea, though it may not prevent withdrawal symptoms entirely.

Short-term symptoms

This type of therapy can help you challenge and reframe unhelpful beliefs and behaviors and replace them with more productive ones. People tapering off the same original dosage of medication can have drastically different tapering experiences. Consequently, experts recommend you take benzodiazepines for no more than 2 weeks if you use them daily. If you only use them once every few days, you may be able to take them for up to 4 weeks. You may have to pause, slow down, or speed up depending on how your body reacts to withdrawal.

Tapering changes

Medical experts continue to debate the best way to taper these medications, so there’s no single agreed-upon approach. That’s what makes it essential to stop taking benzodiazepines slowly, with support from a medical professional. If you take away the blockades gradually, your brain can reduce its chemical traffic to match. But if you remove the drug all at once, your brain doesn’t have enough time to prepare, and you can develop life-threatening symptoms like seizures.

• If you experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms during your taper, your care team can help you explore options to address those symptoms and get relief.
• If you’re predisposed to seizures, your risk of having a seizure may also increase during the withdrawal period.
• Among respondents whose symptoms lasted months or years, over half said caffeine or alcohol worsened their PAWS symptoms.
• Though therapy generally can’t address withdrawal symptoms specifically, it can help improve some symptoms, like anxiety and insomnia.
• Tapering can help take the edge off withdrawal symptoms like tremors and nausea, though it may not prevent withdrawal symptoms entirely.

Some supplements, such as valerian and melatonin, might also help you get some relief from your symptoms, but research has found mixed results. You can call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Helpline and get compassionate, confidential support from trained crisis counselors. When benzodiazepines attach to your neurons, they invite a bunch of chloride ions inside. These ions change the neuron’s electrical charge, so it has to work much harder to activate and send signals.

How to get support for thoughts of suicide

Among respondents whose symptoms lasted months or years, over half said caffeine or alcohol worsened their PAWS symptoms. Dependence and withdrawal can happen to anyone, even if you take your medication exactly as instructed.

Rebound symptoms

• But if you remove the drug all at once, your brain doesn’t have enough time to prepare, and you can develop life-threatening symptoms like seizures.
• Short-acting benzodiazepines are much more likely to cause rebound symptoms.
• Some supplements, such as valerian and melatonin, might also help you get some relief from your symptoms, but research has found mixed results.
• In fact, if you take your medication every other day, you may notice rebound symptoms on the day between doses.
• This type of therapy can help you challenge and reframe unhelpful beliefs and behaviors and replace them with more productive ones.

Experiencing rebound symptoms means the symptoms you had before taking benzodiazepines come back even stronger than before. If you take an intermediate-acting benzodiazepine, like alprazolam, or a long-acting benzodiazepine, like diazepam, it may take longer for withdrawal symptoms to appear. Read on to learn more about benzodiazepine withdrawal, including the signs, how severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome long it lasts, and how to get support with tapering off safely. In the first week of tapering off, your doctor may reduce your dose as much as 30% to get you to a safe amount. After that first leap, the steps become smaller, usually 5% to 10% of the original dose. Depending on your situation, your doctor may reduce your dose on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.

If you experience severe withdrawal symptoms during tapering, tell your doctor so they can adjust your care plan as needed. People with benzodiazepine tolerance may take supratherapeutic doses because the recommended range no longer provides relief for their symptoms. The higher dose may help ease your symptoms, but it can also increase your risk of overdose and severe withdrawal symptoms. While they can quickly relieve symptoms of anxiety and panic, these drugs pose a high risk of dependence.