JENNA'S STORY: From Xanax withdrawal to living life again

[WebDevElijah]

JENNA'S STORY:

 

What a nightmare this has been. I didn’t find this site until I had already been through five months of a rollercoaster ride I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I only took Xanax for a couple of months due to a health scare that had me panicked (all is fine now), but those two short months of taking that little pill disrupted my life for almost a year.

 

I stopped cold turkey, not knowing anything about tapering or withdrawal, and spent the first month at doctor’s offices, spending a fortune on tests that gave me no answers. Eventually, I came across the benzo.org website and realized what I was experiencing was withdrawal. Thankfully, I had the wonderful support of my husband of 25 years, and together, we rode out the storm. I think I experienced nearly every symptom on the withdrawal list, except for seizures, at one time or another.

 

It felt like the symptoms were on a rotation—one would disappear only to be replaced by another. The last wave of symptoms, which began in January, included morbid thoughts, a sore scalp, persistent insomnia, and continued anxiety. These drove me back to searching the web for answers, and that’s when I found this amazing place. Coming here brought me so much relief. Reading about others going through the same thing eased my symptoms and helped take my mind off myself for a while. Thank you to everyone here for your encouraging words, humor, and ideas on how to manage some of these symptoms.

 

Finally, after some blood work revealed my progesterone levels were almost zero, my doctor prescribed natural progesterone. It took about a week to start working, and by the first week of March, I started feeling perfectly normal again. I’m 43 years old, so maybe it’s early menopause, but I’ve read that benzos can deplete progesterone levels. Whatever the reason, it worked, and I finally feel like myself again—something I thought was unattainable at times.

Today is April 23rd, and I had to come back to share my success after my first trip to Atlanta to visit my sister—something I didn’t think I’d be able to do just a month earlier. We even went to a Bon Jovi concert, and I had a blast!

 

I think about you all often and say a prayer for everyone going through this, hoping you’ll get through it quickly. Don’t forget to exercise, read your Bible, and eat healthily—these all helped me on my journey to recovery. God bless you all!