u/Valuable-Feature2121

Month 5 off benzos and I realized I don’t really get full windows or full waves. (I hear ppl can get a window for weeks)

It’s more like pieces of both throughout the day. A few calm hours, then some anxiety or mental symptoms, then things settle again later.

Physical symptoms are mostly gone now, but the mental stuff is still annoying: hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, OCD-like uncertainty, feeling mentally fried.

Anyone else improve this way instead of getting clear full-day windows?

I’m 4.5 months off of CT xanax (one year use roughly) what I have are the mental symptoms which are imo worse than the physical symptoms, I’m working full 8hrs shit in office, time here drags it’s as if the 8hrs are endless, i try my hardest to distract myself by doing tasks but the tasks take up three hours only what am i supposed to do with the rest of the time, my brain keeps running in circles i feel mentally exhausted and fatigued fighting off withdrawal induced depression. Whoever decided that regular daily work hours should be 8hrs is crazy.
How do u cope with work?

I definitely have temporary brain damage with the way my brain flags some ordinary situations!! I know that these flags are nonsensical but tell that to my brain.

I’m just in shock of how much withdrawal I went through given my light use
Omg !! What kind of poison is benzo

Sorry for posting often. I’m 4.5 months off of one year xanax use. Hyper vigilance started roughly at the beginning of month 4. My mind keeps scanning the environment and finding illogical and absurd fears, it’s as if everything feels shady. Just wondering when will this fade away cuz it’s annoying.

I’m 4.5 months out and after my physical symptoms subsided the mental symptoms barged in, (ocd like symptoms, intrusive thoughts, non sensical thoughts… etc) they are weird and they morph whenever I think i beat one another would show up. They are nuts.

Plz share ur experience on how to beat and deal with them.

Greetings fellow benzo survivors, just wanted to share my story.

I’m a dude in his thirties, a father, a husband, sole provider for my family. I dabbled with xanax around four years ago recreationally i used to take them only on weekends and enjoy my time with friends watching movies listening to music enjoying great delicious
I loved every minute of it, xanax on weekends was an escape from a hectic workweek and a way to stop and smell the roses if you will. Back then i used them for couple of months intermittently and stopped cold turkey with no trouble at all. And whenever I needed a breather I would repeat the same pattern. After a while I decided to stop using them and was adamant about that, for a solid three years I didn’t use xanax and everything was ok. Fast forward to the beginning of 2025 i missed them and managed to get my hands on a good quantity that can last me for a year, i was excited i put them in the fridge and treasured them as they were a guaranteed good time and a mood booster, again i was using them intermittently only this time my usage was four days a week instead of only weekends, my daily dosage ranged from 1mg to 2.5mg.

In my mind and based on my previous experience i was ok with that cuz i can stop them with no issues, boy little did I know how wrong i was , after one year of this consumption (dec 2025) I remember i was driving my car and had one 10mg nicotine pouch (which later i knew that nicotine pouches raise blood pressure) couple of minutes after i took the nicotine pouch i had strong palpitation with tingling and numbness in my arms , I didn’t know what that was , it was the first time I experience something like this i was worried i’d crash the car, luckily my house was nearby i did something breathing exercises while walking around the block, after a while i calmed down , I couldn’t wrap my head around what had happened and at this point I didn’t know it was the beginning of an awful withdrawal from xanax, my body started the withdrawal cuz my use was intermittent and my body wanted more. Later I started getting insomnia coupled with strong palpitations and from there all the text book symptoms started (except for the extreme ones) my amygdala started firing threat signals 24/7 i had this constant and crippling sense of doom, at this early stage it was all terrible physical symptoms.

I finally figured out that it was a xanax induced withdrawal and since I was using it recreationally I knew nothing about tapering nor did i have a doctor, so i decided to cold turkey and stop everything, man that first phase was hellish and me being the sole provider i had to show up for work (full 8hrs shift) I don’t know how I managed to do that, and I didn’t tell a soul about this not even my friends, I figured that im a big boy i can handle it. Now im 4.5 months out all the physical symptoms went away except for the peripheral vision thing, and the mental symptoms are dominating now just weird inexplicable mental symptoms along with intrusive thoughts and episodes of depression, nevertheless I still show up for work and i workout two days a week. This current phase is bad but definitely better than the first 6 weeks. I just wish I could take a leave from work for like six months and focus on healing.

Just wanted to blow off steam.
I hope we all recover