Benzodiazepine Withdrawals

In many interviews, Stevie Nicks has famously said that it was easier to get off of cocaine than klonopin. Unfortunately, when many of us were first prescribed benzos, we had no idea how dangerous they can be since the effects are so subtle--they do not make you feel high like alcohol, pot or opioids do. In my case, when I was first prescribed Xanax, I had a very stressful job in a call center and my family life had become very unhappy and full or conflict (I was coping as badly as anyone)--it would have been much better for me to go to therapy than to be given a drug to cope. Eight years later, I still use this benzo, though I have learned it works better when you do not use it daily. I was using it daily during the 3 weeks prior to my PET scan and mastectomy because I was so nervous about the upcoming events. I used the time I was on oxy (4 and a half days after my operation) to stop using it on a daily basis. Who knows how much damage it has done to my brain already? I do think that in order to get off benzos, going to other drugs (even if temporarily) can help. One option is Gabapentin because it has many of the same effects as benzos (but causes weight gain) but is easier to get off off. A neighbor was struggling with his increasing use of xanax to sleep and found that he was able to get off of it by using Pot instead. IMO, Pot (which has its own issues if you have problems with psychosis or want to be sober minded) is much easier to stop (once you get over the benzo withdrawal) than a benzo. I am not a doctor and these are just my opinions based on personal experience and a few anecdotes so using another drug to get off of benzos might not work for everyone. When I went inpatient one time, at that facility, they took away everyone's benzos and opioids (I went inpatient just after having a emergency thoracotomy and was prescribed opioids upon my release from the conventional hospital which released me to the mental hospital) away cold turkey, no matter how much we were suffering--there was no tapering there and some of the people were screaming and pleading for their medications around me. Addiction withdrawal can be terrible and dangerous if handled badly.