Health - How exactly do benzodiazepine withdrawals differ from opiate withdrawals?

[samuraigecko]

Just SWIMs opinion . . .

Opiate withdrawals and benzo withdrawals are not even comparable.
For SWIMs own personal experience he has found the opposite - for benzo withdrawal to be a walk in the park as compared to Opiate withdrawal.


For SWIM benzo withdrawal mainly caused psychological effects such as depression etc whereas Opiate withdrawal cause actual Physical pain for him. Now some might think that perhaps SWIMs benzo habit was small etc. But this is not the case. At the time SWIM was using AT LEAST a full bottle of 10's a day (valium) and would use other benzo drugs whenever he came across them. A friend of his used to get bottles of clonazapam which SWIM gobbled like lollies. He did this over a long period of time and when he decided enough was enough all he really experienced was the psychological effects. When SWIM has a large opiate habit he finds it a little harder to cope with it (even though he chooses to "dry out" for about 6 months every year and continues to do so EVERY year).

This is not to say that others will experience the same thing, addiction and withdrawal can be different from person to person. This was SWIMs experience alone.

[Sklander]

SWIM had a terrible problem with benzo's at one point. Namely Alprazolam. When SWIM decided to get sober he had some of the most frightening nightmares ever. SWIM would wake up and run around the house and out into the street running from monsters or the law. SWIM has talked to others with similar symptoms and found that these dreams are called "bar dreams." If SWIY did not have these dreams thank God, because this is truly one of the most horrific things one can go through.

SWIM agrees that benzo's are more of a psychological withdrawal, however, many friends of SWIM's have had seizures as a result of not being able to find benzo's after a long bender of several pills a day for an extended period of time. This has landed more than a few of SWIM's friends in the hospital.

Benzo's are sneaky in nature. After only 14 days of continued use one can become dependent on them. SWIM urges all to only take benzo's as prescribed. SWIM now sees that there is nothing good that comes out of them as a "fun" drug.