Urgent Recovery Situation
My mom (56yo) has used benzodiazepines for nerves her whole life. In 2001, she got pregnant with me and abruptly stopped taking them. She states that she thought it was like Tylenol. She went into hallucinations and was hospitalized. She was “not right” for a year, screamed and cried, until they put her on Olanzapine that she says made everything right for her, and everything was clear.
After her psychosis episode then of course she was put back on a benzo. And stayed on one for the next 25 years. She was taking a combination of 3mg-5mg Xanax, 5mg olanzapine, 40mg celexa.
FF to April of this year, she took too many of her pills and ran out before the month was out. She then went into this psychosis and hallucinations again over these course of a week, hospitalized again for 7 days. She says she does not remember anything that happened during this episode compared to the 2001 episode.
Upon release from hospital she was put on a small dose of Ativan (.25 x3 daily now down to .25 x2 daily), 40mg celexa, and they put her on 2mg rispiridone. They also added back in 2.5mg of olanzapine along with the rispiridone about a month after discharge.
When she came home from treatment she seemed pretty close to herself. Over the course of the past couple months she has declined rapidly, cannot care for herself, cannot get out of bed. The last couple days I’m noticing even more of a decline, can’t even form sentences, whole body shaking. Her psychiatrist has a suspicion she is suffering from psuedodementia. Her rispiridone dose was also tapered over down to .5mg twice a day, from the previous 2mg twice a day.
She states she has no knowing, no past memory. No matter how much I try to convince her the damage is reversible with time, she is dead convinced she’s permanently damaged.
Now she is having bad panic attacks where she shakes uncontrollable, grunts and moans, and has a hard time settling down. Sometimes they are 15 minutes apart and can last for up to a couple hours. She says her muscles are sore when she’s settled from it.
Has anyone seen a long term benzo user recover after similar phenomenon?
Is there any medications that would help with the symptoms if withdrawal or pseudodementia symptoms?
Her psychiatrist has yet to message me back. Not to mention it’s the holiday weekend. 🤦♀️
Thanks everyone