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Jana
Administrator
1547 Posts |
 Posted - 02/10/2009 : 6:25:18 PM
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Most people now know that no matter how small their benzo doses are they can't just stop taking them. The benzo augmented the effect of normal GABA amounts. The body responded by maintaining less GABA. After all, it doesn't need as much while a benzo is making the existing GABA more effective.
The liver is constantly clearing out benzos and other toxins. When the benzo supply is interrupted, the levels are reduced quickly. This leaves the benzo patient with too little GABA to do the work of managing neurotransmitters. The resulting symptoms are varied. They can be bizarre, painful, dangerous. They may be both physical and psychological. They also are commonly mistaken for symptoms of other conditions. The array of consequences of a too-small supply of GABA at its receptor is amazing and not commonly understood by the physicians who are asked to treat these victims.
We do repair this situation. Our bodies do make more GABA at that site. The problem is that this takes time. Even post taper the repair goes on for years. So the big problem is that we can reduce the drug to zero very quickly, but we can't repair the GABA damage right away. This leaves the nervous system unable to work properly.
The essence of the problem is that the new GABA isn't synthesized nearly as fast as the benzo levels drop.
So why does the idea that "getting the drug out of the body is the problem" flourish? Why do physicians insist that the benzo doses be suddenly made inadequate and not close to enough to properly augment the existing GABA? Why do detox businesses thrive? Benzo victims need to know the actual scientific facts.
It's clear that we must reduce the benzo dose to keep in step with the production of GABA. That is ignored. Physicians also fail to understand that Xanax and Klonopin are very potent. We hear of people being told that 1.0mg of either is a "very small dose". It is not.
The next problem is finding how to reduce the dose in keeping with the body's ability to fix the damage. We have to determine that rate. The process is a DIY thing. No doctor can tell us when the limit is reached. We have to make detailed notes and respond to our bodies' symptoms.
An MD can prescribe a longer half life benzo. This person also can monitor vital signs and order blood tests. Maybe an auxiliary drug is needed. However, the decisions to make dosage changes and dose timing changes belong to the benzo victim.
In a world of parceling out our decisions to experts, this is a scary responsibility. Contact with successful benzo taperers can make a big difference.
The essence of this is this:closely match the benzo cuts to the ability to repair. That ability can be supported by nutrients. There's a lot more information today than there was two years ago. Services that measure neurotransmitters are available. More nutrient forms are available. The real work is still encouraging repair as the doses decrease minutely. This is where the old methods fail and cause more damage. A titration that responds to the actual needs of a body is absolutely the key. The individual body determines how much can be cut at one time
Our bodies make the rules. We have to determine what our bodies really require. If we can lose X mg of Valium in a day, that's what we do. We can't say that we'll just lose Y mgs or so in order to be finished by Christmas. It doesn't work that way. Many people still believe that it does. They can suffer for years more while not knowing what went wrong. This is what went wrong: the cuts exceeded the ability to make repairs. That's not a difficult concept, but it's not mentioned.
Jana
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