My Benzodiazepine Tapering Experience

Hi there. It's great to see you. Benzodiazepine tapering. That's a question that I've been getting some messages on. And so Shiva and I just wanted to pop in so I can tell you a little bit about my experience tapering benzodiazepines as a part of my anxiety journey. The symptoms can be really debilitating, right? Where anything that will just take some of the pressure off, some of the anxiety to bring it down is worth it. Because when our anxiety is so severe, when our panic is so extreme and so unrelenting, sometimes we need medicine, sometimes we need benzos. And that was part of my story. And I'm grateful for what they did for me in helping me get through one of the worst times of my life. And I'm grateful that I had natural, holistic remedies to help me with the process of tapering off. When it comes to benzo tapering, it's really individualized. The one thing that's generally across the plane for everybody is that slow and steady wins the race. And so some people can taper more quickly than others, whereas other people, it may take a long time. And some factors that may impact taper, how quickly you can taper may be how high of a dose of the benzos that you're taking. Higher doses, it takes longer to come off of that as well as are you still in the current situation. So, for example, if you were given benzodiazepines because you were dealing with anxiety from a chronic illness, but that chronic illness isn't recovered yet, then it may be harder to come off of the benzos. And another factor is how long you've been on them. If you've been taking benzodiazepines for 10 years, it will take generally quite a lot longer to come off of those than if you were on them for a short duration. So, really, individualization is key. Slow and steady always wins the race. But there are solutions that are generally helpful for most people when it comes to benzodapering, and these are the things that I used to help me, and I want to share that with you. And so one of the first things that we know about benzodiazepines is that they are antihistamine, so they reduce inflammation in the brain. And so as you start to taper off of your benzodiazepines, that suppression of inflammation reduces. And so your brain, your body may get a rebound amplification of inflammation, you may get more inflamed. So one of the solutions Is to make sure that you're eating an anti inflammatory diet so that you're not adding more and more inflammation. And so focusing on things that are high in omega 3 fatty acids like fish oil and wild Alaskan fish. Brightly colored fruits and veggies are generally anti inflammatory, like organic kale or raspberries or blueberries, things like that, or supplements, you know, turmeric also a great seasoning, they can be helpful. And so that's one thing as you're coming down off the benzodiazepines is be really mindful about any rebound inflammation. Signs of inflammation may be just your symptoms getting worse, your anxiety getting worse, your brain fog getting worse, getting more difficult as you're tapering. It could also be, are you getting heat intolerance, Is your skin itchy, do you get a rash, Are you feeling flushes of heat or difficulties regulating your body temperature? Those could all be signs of inflammation spiking, Are you getting joint pains, body pains, headaches, things like that? Those may be indicators that the inflammation is spiking. The second key thing as you bring down your benzodiazepine is that you need to support gaba. Benzodiazepines work by increasing levels of GABA in your brain. And GABA calms the nervous system. And so if you're taking GABA in a pharmaceutical, your brain and body do not need to make as much of their own. And so they'll down regulate production of its own gaba. And so as you taper down slowly on your benzodiazepine, you may get symptoms of GABA withdrawal, which makes you feel more anxious, more panicky, more restless. You may notice that some of the symptoms that have been gone start to come back. You might notice, I call them brain zaps. You might notice neuropathies, you might notice heart racing, but maybe you don't feel your heart in your chest at all. It's just more like your stomach is churning. It could be different. There are eight types of anxiety, and depending on which type or conglomeration of types, it could be different for each person. But the solution is to create a GABA bridge. A GABA bridge will help to bridge the gap between the amount of GABA that your brain is making and the amount of GABA that you were getting from the medication. So it can help slow that taper. I love using Happy sleepy powder as a GABA bridge. You can read about it on my website, drnicolecane.com I have the ingredients there. You can buy them, but you could also Find them at your local health food store. So go and check it out and read about it. And there's a long video explaining how to use it. And then talk with your doctor about how you might dose the ingredients and Happy Sleepy Powder so that it's right for you where you are on your journey. And so to give you context, I started out on 10 milligrams of diazepam, which is a lot. It's a lot of diazepam. And over about a year, I was able to completely taper off of the diazepam and get off of the benzodiazepine successfully. And a big part of that was diet, lifestyle supplements, and doing a lot of counseling to get to the root of why I got anxious and needed the diazepam to begin with. But it is possible. So if you're on benzodiazepine medication and you feel like, okay, now's the time, I'm interested in looking at how I can start to taper down and taper off of this, then know that it's possible. There is hope. You can. You just have to be really patient with yourself. There are good tools and resources out there, and I'm here to support you in that process by providing you with education and resources. So if you have questions, write them here. You can leave a comment. And you're not the only one that has them, I'm sure. So, yeah, please, please let us know what we can do, how we can answer it, know it's possible. There is hope. We've got your back. All right, this has been Dr. Nicole and Shiva, and hopefully this was valuable for you. Today we were talking about holistic supports for tapering off of benzos. All right, I'll see you later.