credit: MarylandFilmFestival (original)Supernino (derivative work) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
American actress Lena Dunham struggled with benzodiazepine cessation after taking the benzodiazepine Klonopin she was prescribed for anxiety. According to a 2018 Chicago Tribune interview, every doctor Dunham saw believed she was suffering from anxiety and needed medication, while none of them told her how horrible it would be to detox when she stopped medicating. Lena recounts:
When you try to get off this, it’s going to be like the most hellacious acid trip you’ve ever had, where you’re … clutching the walls and your hair is blowing off your head and you can’t believe you found yourself in this situation.
In a 2018 Vogue interview it is revealed that while Dunham felt that Klonopin was a fruitful tool for her in the beginning, it ultimately wasn’t quelling her suffering—but she was too afraid of the withdrawal symptoms, which range from headaches and fatigue to thoughts of suicide in more extreme cases, to come off of it. She laments:
Nobody I know who [is] prescribed these medications is told, ‘By the way, when you try and get off this, it’s going to be like the most hellacious acid trip you’ve ever had where you’re f*cking clutching the walls and the hair is blowing off your head and you can’t believe you found yourself in this situation,’ Now, the literal smell of the inside of pill bottles makes me want to throw up.
I am dr addicted to Klonopin and it has taken my life. I think I live in an area where I will not get the right help. I feel like my drs. are drug dealers. I never knew what the outcome would be. I’ve lost most of my life but still trying.
Sandy, hang on whatever you do. Continue the good fight. I was taking Xanax for 25 years, after going through a rough divorce. I never planned on ceasing my medication since it had worked well for me; that is, until I woke up one morning and I was in awful anxiety (Xanax started giving me anxiety rather than taking it away.) I didn’t know what else to do except increase the dose. I had no health insurance at the time to go into a treatment facility. I learned from a friend about water titration, and I know that it saved my life. It allowed me to wean off at a much slower rate, but it was SO worth it! I did titrate a little faster than other people, and; therefore, it took me longer to wean than others. I did have protracted withdrawal symptoms for 2.5 years and now it has been 7 years of being free from Xanax. Practice the following: have faith; wean slowly; find supportive people, i.e. AA and you WILL make it, and you will fall in love with life again–better than ever. Recovery is a process and an education that you will never forget. Cling to God. He knows you.
I’m curious how AA was a support for you. I am at the tail end of tapering off of Klonopin. I take the dose because I know what will happen if I do not. Aka-Hell returns! Making me physically dependent. I’m not addicted. I don’t crave it. I don’t take it to “check out.” In fact, many nights I almost forget to take it. It doesn’t do anything for me at this point.
Thus, again, I am wondering how AA was helpful to you since the root of the problems are so different.
I feel very similar to what you shared. It’s been 5 years since a NP cold Turkey’ed me off Klonopin. She said it was a bad drug and I shouldn’t take it. I had been taking it for restless leg syndrome for 10 years. The nurse did not tell me what to expect after I took my last pill. The lasting effects took me to hell. Each night I prayed for the Lord to take me.
Indeed it takes away your life. I live in a shell of my former self. Unemployed and disabled- without disability benefits. There’s no quality to my life. I’m inspired by stories like Stevie Nicks. Perhaps, like she has, I’ll recover someday.
Are you OK?
You lose your hair?
Everything