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 severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome 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 off supratherapeutic doses
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.
Difficult tapers
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.
What to Know About Benzodiazepine Withdrawal
- The higher dose may help ease your symptoms, but it can also increase your risk of overdose and severe withdrawal symptoms.
- Examples of benzodiazepines include alprazolam (Xanax) and diazepam (Valium).
- Dependence and withdrawal can happen to anyone, even if you take your medication exactly as instructed.
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.
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.
In other words, your body may rely on benzodiazepines to function if you take them frequently and for more than a short period of time. Short-acting benzodiazepines, like triazolam, pass quickly through the body, so you’ll likely experience withdrawal symptoms sooner — sometimes within a matter of hours. These factors don’t guarantee you’ll have severe withdrawal symptoms, but they can increase your vulnerability. So, your doctor may recommend a slower taper schedule as a safety precaution. In addition, over half of the survey respondents said benzodiazepines’ side effects or withdrawal symptoms caused them to consider suicide. If you take benzodiazepines infrequently, such as once a week or once every few weeks to treat panic attacks, you can take them for a longer period of time.
Benzodiazepines are a powerful class of medication used to treat anxiety, insomnia, and panic disorder. Examples of benzodiazepines include alprazolam (Xanax) and diazepam (Valium). Though therapy generally can’t address withdrawal symptoms specifically, it can help improve some symptoms, like anxiety and insomnia. If you experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms during your taper, your care team can help you explore options to address those symptoms and get relief. The 2022 survey mentioned above also asked respondents to what extent withdrawal symptoms affected their lives. They could rate each problem as nonexistent, mild, moderate, severe, quite severe, or enormous.
What makes benzodiazepine withdrawal so dangerous?
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.
How to get support for thoughts of suicide
- While they can quickly relieve symptoms of anxiety and panic, these drugs pose a high risk of dependence.
- Consequently, experts recommend you take benzodiazepines for no more than 2 weeks if you use them daily.
- According to the National Center for PTSD, the most beneficial kind of therapy for benzodiazepine withdrawal is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- You may have to pause, slow down, or speed up depending on how your body reacts to withdrawal.
- Depending on your situation, your doctor may reduce your dose on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.
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 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.
