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Protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal

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Guest

I was prescribed nitrazepam 40 years ago for myoclonic epilepsy.  I tapered off it over three months.  I then had a six month delayed reaction before becoming severely ill.  I was bedridden for two years.  I am gradually recovering but don't know if I wll make a full recovery.  I hope I do.  I am finally free from depression after four decades.  I had no idea nitrazepam was making me so ill.  Has anyone else been so badly affected by benzodiazepines or by the withdrawal process?

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  • jessie51
    jessie51 Guest

    Posted

    Hello Fiona,

    just reading your reply to Arnold,  were you disabled before you came off the Nitra. or is this and being bed ridden - thigh muscle contracting as a result of coming off them?    My thighs and arms are dreadful,  I do suffer a lot with arthritis in various joints so the muscle problems on top of this are having quite a devastating affect on my life.........   life !  ha !     My mind is clearer and my spirit is willing,  but even those positive things are starting to wane as time passes and I am still struggling so much with the physical problems.   I am two yrs off Diaz.   Same group of Z medications.    I am reluctant to waste my time going to the doc  as they are no help at all,  never have been from the start of this carry on and I am in no mood to put up with the lack of care and concern and  the attitude they have adopted of not even acknowledging that there is a problem coming off the drugs.   They have closed their minds to it  ... end of.

    I have rambled,  I just wondered how much of your current situation is attributable to coming off the drugs.

    Warmest regards

    Jessie x

    • Guest
      Guest jessie51

      Posted

      All my problems are down to withdrawal.  I am lucky not to have any other health problems.  I don't even have epilepsy which is why I took nitrazepam in the first place.  I am finally free from 40 years of depression which was obviously caused by the nitrazepam.  So now I just can't function physically and my cognition is impaired also.  I can't read very much at all.  Memory is a lot better.  Re muscles, the messages don't seem to get from my brain to my muscles.  Anal muscles don't work properly.  Going to the toilet is difficult  That has been the worst aspect of all this for me.  Legs are difficult to lift - very heavy.  They were better for a while in the summer.  Arms are a lot better now, moving more freely - making a cup of tea is easier.  

      I don't go to the doctor either because they have no idea what to do.  There isn't really anything that anyone can do.  GPs in the UK are being advised to get older people off these drugs because research suggests that they increase the risk of falls, cancer, premature death and Alzheimer's.  However, GPs don't realise how very ill patients can become as a result.    

      I am trying to covey this message to anyone who will listen.  I have written to the British Medical Association at some length.  

      Take care

      Fiona xx

    • jessie51
      jessie51 Guest

      Posted

      Hello Fiona,

      well I now know why we were taken off them,  but I thought all older patients ran the risk of having these illnesses,  that they are a part of the aging process.   Makes you wonder what they based their findings on.  

      You are doing well trying to make people aware and the work you are doing with BMA,  you would think after the length of time this problem has been going on that doctors would have some idea of how to help the patients they have who are suffering and have no quality of life.  It seems so unfair to get to your final years and have to go through all this along with all the other problems that ageing brings.   Maybe they think ahh well they have had their lives anyway and have nothing else to do but sit at home and let the days just drift by.....  I don't know,  I just know it is not right and should not be happening.   When you can't turn to your doctor when you are ill who can you turn to ?

      Wishing you all the very best and hoping that you will get relief and feel better soon.

      Thanks for your reply Fiona.

      Warmest regards

      Jessie xx

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