Trading Tips and Coping Strategies to Taper off a Medication: Meet @texasduchess

You don't say why you have PTSD, why you want off benzodiazepines, or what you are taking and how much. I am not a doctor, just someone like yourself with a problem who found the Mayo Clinic Connect forum. YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE to learn more and get help.

I am sorry you are suffering and not finding help; the NORM is that doctors don't know how to get someone off a drug. Here's an article where two doctors are bucking "accepted" psychiatric guidelines for getting patients off drugs and recommending a different way-- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-withdrawal-drugs.html.

SleepFoundation.org says, "Treating patients with PTSD for sleep disorders has sometimes been heartbreaking. Until the past few decades, people with PTSD were not treated for it, because the condition had not even been described. Today, treatments have evolved and patients can benefit from them.

"Treatment should be coordinated by an expert in treating PTSD, most often a psychiatrist. The therapies that may be effective are the 'talk therapies,' often in concert with medications. Two drugs have been approved by the FDA to treat PTSD: sertraline (Zoloft®) and paroxetine (Paxil®).

"In an exciting development, recent research shows that an 'old' drug, prazosin, originally used to treat high blood pressure, may be effective in reducing the nightmares in PTSD patients. It is believed that norepinephrine may play a role in causing sleep disturbances and nightmares in PTSD, and prazosin reduces the levels of norepinephrine in the brain."--https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/ptsd-and-sleep

You can get help. It won't be easy, but online sources have opened the world to us. Those of us here on these Mayo Clinic Connect forums weren't satisfied with our doctors' responses to our issues, or couldn't find help locally. Let me encourage you to look around this site--type in PTSD, insomnia and benzodiazepine withdrawal (or tapering off of), see what pops up and READ IT ALL. Good luck and healing to you, bubberonnie.

@texasduchess
Howdy Tex,
The first thing I noticed was how pretty you are. I am a cat person too. We had two cats but they have both passed on now and I don’t want to get any more pets because I can hardly bear it when they pass on even though the last few times we had the vet come to the house it was still hard. I’m really sorry to hear about your terrible illnesses I sure am glad you made it and found your way here, You have helped so many people.
I like Maya Angelou, she wrote,
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. I like that saying.
Oh brother, another dark chocolate nut. What is it about that hideous tasting awful bitter dark chocolate, I’ve tried it and it is grotesque I just can’t understand why everyone here seems to like it so much,
Anyway It was nice learning a trifle bit more about you
Jake

Thanks, Leonard. The photo was almost a deal-breaker. I didn't want to submit a photo. Luckily, that one is a few years old (my hair had come back in after chemo and was no longer a Don-King-the-fight-promoter afro). I keep asking our company photographer to use the "40 40 lens" when I'm in photo shoots—takes off 40 years and 40 pounds; he keeps telling me he's left it in his other camera bag. D*mn.

I certainly understand not wanting to experience another pet loss. It IS hard, but just about anything worthwhile is. All of ours have been/are special and I'd have hated to miss out on any one of them. (We've lost three in the past year--the downside to their being siblings.)

There's dark chocolate and then, there's DARK chocolate. I've tried some of the really high-percentage chocolates and yeah, they're an acquired taste (if you want to acquire one for that). I think most of us who like dark chocolate aren't talking about DARK chocolate. It has to have enough fat to be smooth and sugar to be sweet, but not overly so. Finding out that the dark chocolate Reese's Cups are not as good as the regular chocolate ones was a great disappointment!

Breast cancer can be a killer and its treatment isn't a beauty regimen ... but it's a crisis you get over (if you find it early enough). Those of you who are dealing with life-long conditions (epilepsy), or debilitating ones (MS, ALS, etc.) have it harder ... truly, grace under pressure.

I enjoyed your spotlight some months back and was very excited to see it. You were/are one of the posters I felt an immediate connection to and I liked your no prisoners/no bullcr*p responses.

Hi @texasduchess It's so nice to get acquainted. We haven't been in the same forums so I don't know if our paths have crossed before, but we do have a few things in common - first our love of dark chocolate, although I do go for the ones over 70%!
I love the Maya Angelou quote. So very true.
If your picture is not with the "40 40 lens" then you certainly do not need that.
JK

It’s an endless loop of hell. I developed PTSD when I almost died from an Afib attack, in Feb. 2013...they gave me blood thinners, cuz I had TIA’s (suspected) and I started internally bleeding. Nightmare...that’s when parasthesias and insomnia started. No ne knew what to do. I found a psychiatrist who started me on Xanax, which did the trick. Since then, more doctors, changing recipes and...still addicted. Endless loop. Try to get exercise, but meds put on weight and I got Mor depressed. Very long, involved mess. Meditation doesn’t work. CBT therapy doesn’t help. I’m so fed up. Tried alternative therapies...acupuncture, etc. nothing. 69 years old. Retired at 65 on total disability, because of the heart, the PTSD and being almost deaf. My profession was speech pathologist...so, really needed my hearing. I’m so fed up. New psychiatrist trying new recipe with Klonapin, Spread out through the day. Works sometimes,,... not others.