(Another) Almost Successful Prazepam/Lysanxia Withdrawal

Hi! Some news from South of France. I don't come a lot anymore on Tinnitus Talk, things I experience are on a long-term path. I do accept this, now. Wow. 4 years and a half since my car airbag blasted and left me with a noise trauma: an eeeee so loud I would have killed myself. It fortunately turned into a less intrusive shhhhh months later.

4 years on benzo: Lysanxia (Prazepam). I decided in May to get rid of this poison. 3 attempts under "medical supervision", my shrink said Lysanxia was a safe medicine without any addiction. So be it. Amen. Is there anyone we can trust there, allo ???

3 attempts, 2 failures (back to square one, 80mg in a single shot in a moment of despair). The third withdrawal started at the beginning of this September. I "feel" – beware - totally free now, but at a cost...

I'm experiencing the bouncing effect (2 weeks after the last and tiny dose intake) since Monday. Ok, I've already been there (Xanax was Hell compared to Lysanxia). So I manage, I hang on : vomiting at wake up, extreme anxiety, flu symptoms, persistent headache, dizziness (during my daily 3km swim at sea, so scarred I have to stop exercising this way until complete withdrawal), and I fainted once on Monday, fatigue, itchiness. Sooooo cool.

On the bright side, my sleep is quite good, so is my tinnitus, which was my main concern. Of course, tinnitus has been a little bit more difficult to tame with anxiety and the lack of relief given by my benzo pills ("my precious").

I have to stress, that, and this was probably the reason for my 2 first failures, I keep on taking my AD (Prozac) even at a low dose. The mistake was to withdraw benzo AND AD at the same time. AD acts like a damper to me.

6 days later, today, most of the symptoms have faded away. I'm still very anxious in the morning and I feel exhausted, well, this is it, I have to probably endure this for a good week now if I'm lucky enough.

4 years after the onset, my T is far more manageable, quiter, and sometimes I don't even hear it except at wake up (well, once I woke up without tinnitus). I went through many benzos (Xanax is the Devil), AD, antiepileptics (Lyrica is a bitch, weight gain 25kg) including the good old Trobalt (RIP). Any of these were probably useful at a given time, but the time had come for me to learn to live without. There are some consequences not only to the brain but also to the liver and the kidneys (my latest complete blood analysis spoke).

One probably never heal from the psychological trauma of tinnitus (even if, by a slight chance, it disappears one day, will it come back as a tumor? Will it worsen? Will you ask yourself every single day of your remaining life…), scars are indelibly stamped (Supertramp album) in your brain. Tinnitus left ashes behind me: I lost my job (close to burnout IT project manager unable to cope with tinnitus, but now switching careers) and I made my family suffer at the beginning, I apologize and I love them for their support and patience. But I'm sure the chemicals I'm getting rid of will maybe be of a great help again the future. Know your enemy…

Tinnitus is always full of neverending surprises. I've some questions again about it. I noticed that I can modulate my tinnitus by pressing my skull on particular points (I read something similar on Tinnitus Talk): on top, on the left side (the injured ear one), all around the ear. Would my head be a resonance box? So, if it's physical too, it's not only a matter of neurons… It's confusing. I noticed too a small muscle ("retractor") behind the ear, which is constantly inflamed, as hard as a stone, painful when it rolls under my thumb. The right side one (the safe side) is fine.

I've barely paid attention to this, so focused on my pills and the way they could help.
Thanks for reading.

 

Would you, or anyone on here, happen to know the similarity of Prazepam and Diazepam? I'm curious what your dosage was, and how that dosage might compare to 4 mg. of Diazepam daily.

My ENT put me on 2 mg. three times a day of Diazepam a long time ago. It didn't help the T at all. But taking a couple of them, 4 mg, at bedtime helped me to get some sleep. The doc said to keep doing that because sleep is so important to living with T. I have and can't say that I have any negative side effects at all.

My curiosity is that I'm wondering if I should not listen to the ENT on this and quit the Diazepam. I don't like drugs of any kind. I have a huge distrust of drug companies. I tend to want to go all natural. But I must say, the Diazepam does help me sleep.

 

I was on 30 mg a day, 10-20mg Prazepam equals 10mg Diazepam (cf. equivalence table) - please correct me if I'm wrong - and both have more or less the same half-life (time required to eliminate half of the dose). The trap is that there are few side effects until withdrawal where your condition can become worse than before the first intake. Of course it helps to sleep, however it might not be a restful sleep, even with a 7-8 hour sleep you can still be tired during the day. Still, it's different for everyone.