WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
If you consider what the drugs do, i.e. control anxiety, relax nerves and muscles, help you sleep, and slow down heartbeats and breathing, it is understandable that your body will complain loudly when they are cut down or stopped.
The opposite of the desired effect can be expected (in some people) for a time. This is called the rebound reaction.
Do not be alarmed by this list of symptoms. You may only experience a couple of them, particularly if you reduce carefully:
increased anxiety, increased depression: insomnia: panic attacks: suicidal feelings: agoraphobia: outbursts of rage flu-like symptoms: hyperactivity: craving for tablets hallucinations (seeing and hearing things): confusion headaches: dizziness: sweating: palpitations: slow pulse tight chest: abdominal pain: nausea: nightmares: restlessness: increased sensitivity to light, noise, touch and smell: sore eyes: blurred vision: creeping sensation in the skin, loss of interest in sex: impotence: pain in jaw or face: sore tongue: metallic taste: pain in the shoulders and neck: sore heavy limbs: pins and needles: jelly legs: shaking. Fits have been reported but only where drugs have been stopped abruptly.
Remember that some people don’t get any of the above symptoms and also that there is now much more help than in previous years for those who do have discomfort.
Why some people become physically dependent on tranquillizers (or any other substance), and others don’t is unknown. It is possible that people who become addicted to benzodiazepines are those who are also allergic to them. Dr Richard Mackarness, in his book A Little of What You Fancy, describes masked allergies in alcohol and cigarette dependence. When even small doses of the substance are taken the masked allergy is under control. There are certainly many allergic-type symptoms in withdrawal, and they appear after complete withdrawal.
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April 21, 2009 - 5:10 AM