Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be a challenging experience, marked by a range of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. One of the more uncomfortable symptoms is “life review,” wherein individuals may be bombarded with memories, often disturbing, leading to negative self-judgment. In this blog post, we will explore strategies to help you cope with life review during benzo withdrawal and ways to mitigate their impact on your overall well-being. Not everyone experiences life review, but for those who do, it can be overwhelming. I experienced it, and at times, I felt I was going crazy; I had no control over the thoughts and feelings that tormented me.
Acknowledge and Observe Your Thoughts and Feelings
The first step to dealing with challenging memories during benzodiazepine withdrawal/BIND is to acknowledge and observe your thoughts and feelings. It’s essential to recognize that the thoughts and emotions you’re experiencing are part of the withdrawal process and that it’s okay to feel whatever it is you are feeling. By acknowledging your feelings, you’re better equipped to process them and move forward. By observing them, you can let them pass without getting caught up in their drama or believing them. Remember, “state drives story.” Your nervous system is most often in the protect state (fight, flight, freeze) during benzo withdrawal/BIND; therefore, your thoughts and feelings will be primarily negative. Our default state, the connect state (a parasympathetic ventral vagal response), is where we experience positive thoughts and feelings. Many memories that bubble up during benzo withdrawal/BIND create negative feelings. Don’t buy into that negativity! It’s your hyperexcited nervous system causing those thoughts and feelings.
Practice Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation can be powerful tools for managing life review. By focusing on the present moment and observing your thoughts without judgment, you can develop greater control over your emotions and memories. This practice helps create space between you and your thoughts, allowing you to view them more objectively and make better responses.
Journaling and Expressive Writing
Journaling can be a helpful way to process and release difficult memories during benzodiazepine withdrawal. By writing down your thoughts and emotions, you can better understand your experiences and develop a sense of closure. This process also provides an opportunity to reframe negative thoughts and create a more balanced perspective on your life.
Seek Social Support
Having a support system in place can be invaluable when dealing with the challenges of benzodiazepine withdrawal/BIND. Reach out to friends, family members, or support groups to share your experiences and seek guidance from others who have been through similar situations. Connecting with others can help to normalize your feelings and provide a sense of camaraderie as you go through withdrawal.
Engage in Meaningful Activities
Focusing on activities that bring you a sense of meaning, purpose, or joy (which may be difficult for some to feel) can be an effective way to shift your attention away from challenging memories during benzodiazepine withdrawal. Whether engaging in hobbies, volunteering, or spending time with loved ones, these activities can provide a sense of accomplishment and help to counterbalance the negative emotions associated with life review.
Be Patient and Compassionate with Yourself
It’s essential to practice self-compassion and patience during benzodiazepine withdrawal/BIND. Please recognize that the healing process takes time and that it’s natural to experience uncomfortable symptoms. By being kind to yourself and acknowledging your progress, you can foster resilience and maintain a more positive mindset throughout this challenging journey.
Gentle exercise
Incorporating gentle exercise into your routine can help to soften the effects of benzodiazepine withdrawal/BIND, including life review. Physical activity releases endorphins, improving mood and reducing anxiety, making it easier to manage challenging memories and negative thoughts and feelings about yourself. Exercise also helps to metabolize stress hormones, which is a big plus.
Focus on Gratitude and Positive Experiences
While it’s natural to dwell on negative memories during life review, it’s essential to balance these thoughts with a focus on gratitude and positive experiences. Each day, take a few moments to reflect on the good things in your life and express gratitude for them. Doing so can create a more positive mindset and mitigate the impact of challenging memories during withdrawal.
Consider Professional Help
If you find life review or other withdrawal symptoms overwhelmingly or significantly impacting your daily life, don’t hesitate to seek benzo-wise professional help. True, it isn’t easy to find benzo-educated professionals, but there are some. There are alternative healthcare providers who don’t necessarily need to be educated about benzo withdrawal symptoms—a massage therapist, healing touch therapist, etc. can be helpful. Remember that doctors or therapists who are not educated about benzo withdrawal/BIND may misdiagnose you or offer you medication that is contraindicated in the benzo community.
Practice Acceptance and Letting Go
Acceptance is critical to coping with life review during benzodiazepine withdrawal/BIND. (Acceptance is part of the four cornerstones of well-being, which help us to be as healthy as possible.) Instead of trying to suppress or avoid challenging memories, accept them as part of your life experience. Understand that everyone makes mistakes and that these experiences have contributed to your growth and development. By embracing acceptance, you let go of negative self-judgment and move forward with greater self-compassion and understanding.
Conclusion
Dealing with life review during benzodiazepine withdrawal can be daunting and emotional. However, by implementing the coping strategies outlined in this blog post, you can better manage difficult memories and work toward a healthier, more balanced state of mind. Remember to be patient with yourself, seek support when needed, and focus on the positive aspects of your life as you navigate this challenging journey toward healing and recovery.
Join The Conversation
Leave a comment and share your experience of life review during benzo withdrawal/BIND. What has helped you the most to cope with it? Thank you for your participation.
Thank you so much for your blog! It helps a lot to know the thoughts and feelings and nightmares are common in BIND. They are sometimes just overwhelming and hard to cope with. At the moment especially the awful time at the hospital and clinic flares up again. No understanding whatsoever… sad but from what I’ve learned very common. Hopefully the doctors attitude will change in the future! thanks for your valuable work!
You are very welcome! It is truly an honor to be able to help the benzo community. The new course for healthcare providers that will launch in May is an exciting step for me to be able to serve them as well, so they can better serve their patients. Benzo withdrawal/BIND is needless suffering. It’s a lack of education on the medical community, and we can solve that.
Hi
I follow your blogs and they are so helpful. I am Canadian and we have the same issues here. Education is important. I am 5 months benzo free and it is a real struggle. I am taking a CBT course just to help deal with the anxiety. I am 71 years old. I am totally into exercise running swimming meditation of all kinds. See windows but hoping for more soon. Keep posting as you are my lifeline.
Is it possible, now with a somewhat clear mind having this ‘life review’ that we are heading towards recovery-especially if the physical symptoms have cycled off? 🤞
We are headed to recovery every day we are taping, and every day we are off! Our symptoms do not represent our degree of healing, time does. We can become very symptomatic right before we are done with recovery, but that doesn’t mean we have redamaged our receptors and that we need to heal again. Time is our biggest healer.
I am glad you are working on your recovery. I’ll keep working on education and awareness. :). Thank you so much for your comment. Keep in touch. Let us know how you are doing. And be careful not to run too much, as too much exercise can rev us up. Easy does it.
This is my second taper. First one 4 years ago after 12 years on Ativan. I started benzos again because of insomnia from health issues. On low dies for 7 months and went gold turkey even though I knew better. Had moved to a small town with no health providers with any knowledge. They did me more harm than good. I drive 2 hrs for a benzo wise provider. I got stable from November and started tapet at the end of the month. A lot harder this time someone said because of the 3 week cold turk y I attempted. On my 4th step down from only 1.25 and Benzo belly abd anxiety started up again. Hope it doesn’t last long cause I want to keep lowering my dose. 10 percent every 20 days. At this rate it will be at least a year and I was only on 1.25 one time per day. Seems like it will take forever b
Sorry to hear you are having symptoms. Hopefully, they will diminish soon. Keep going! You can do this! We are here for you. Thank you for sharing your story with us.
I am happy to have a name for this experience. I didn’t fully realise it was part of BIND but since I was never prone to these thoughts before, it did make me wonder and wait on some serious decisions until I have fully recovered. Thank you for your very informative posts!
You are most welcome.
Thank you, Dr. Leigh. My husband is now almost 10 years free of benzos, and his withdrawal still affects him. But your past blog was a saving grace in those early hellish years, and your new blog is such a well curated guide, I am finding it so helpful to review. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you for your kind words. Sending you and your husband my best.
hi Jenn
Thanks for the article. This brings to mind another somewhat related topic that occurs post benzo withdrawal that I have found can have profound effects on our recovery well-being. After coming off of benzos there is an acute awareness of the state of one’s life and the severe effects that that benzo itself and the taper had on one’s life. You had addressed this a few months back in an interview (I don’t remember which one) wherein you had stated that there is a loss of one’s identity. And the awareness itself, I have found, in my particular case, was completely blocked while I was on the benzo (this makes perfect sense!). During benzo usage and taper there is very little awareness of this because of the pharmaceutical effects of the drug, and then the severe life altering effects of the taper. We are in our own world and we don’t realize all of the various facets of our life dropping away….
There are lost jobs and professions, lost friends (this one is the most painful), broken relationships, etc….. The recognition for me came on in a subtle manner and then hit hard recently. I am 13 months off of the benzo and it hit me hard about 4 months ago. I am guessing it is the normalization of the various neurotransmitters, especially the dopamine which provides our motivation and drive, amongst other things.
One is left with and ever increasing motivation and a life that has to be put back together. And this is very daunting and challenging to say the least and, in and of itself, can create anxiety, which is the last thing we need. My post-benzo recovery would be a lot easier if I could have the profession and friends and relationships back, but that is not how life works.
I admire you Dr Jenn. You have such a wonderful post-benzo life and you are a model for post-benzo recovery, and building one’s life back, not necessarily to what it was before, but to a level of satisfaction and inner contentment…..
warmest regards…
What sucks is that most benzo damaged folks can not afford these services!
I can relate to your message. It can be a challenge to move forward after benzo withdrawal. However, most of us do feel that we are better versions of ourselves and that the answers to what is next, what is my purpose, etc., do come in time. Keep your heart open as you are doing, and the pieces will fall into place. I appreciate your sharing your thoughts and experience with us. Sending you lots of love.
That is so true. It is one of the reasons I started a live solution-focused support group that I host three times a week and offers many channels for community and education. It is hopefully more affordable for those who do not have the budget for one-to-one coaching. I went through all of my savings during BWD/BIND. My family kept me afloat for a long time. Many of us are hit hard financially.
Thank you, Dr. Jenn!
Four years later you continue enabling me to weather this storm.
While the waves come farther apart and typically less intense has time goes on, I always come back to your guidance and encouragement to see me through.
You are a godsend. Be well.
I just read about toxic naps! Another symptom I did not know was from benzo tolerance!
I’m not off clonazepam yet, but hope to get brave enough to start the journey! I have no idea how to start, I don’t trust the drs. Weaning schedule!
Many people use the Ashton Manual as a guide for tapering speed. You don’t have to crossover to Diazepam, as the manual suggests. Most people can taper off the benzo they are on. (Xanax may be more difficult as it is short-acting.) Most of us taper ourselves and rely on our doctors for our prescriptions, as there are so few medical professionals who are educated about benzos. You can get benzo free! We are here for you.
Thank you for your kind words. Keep healing! I know it’s a long journey for some of us, but we finally get to our destination of health and happiness. Sending you love.
EVERYTHING that occurs is done for your highest potential. NOTHING can EVER be taken away from you that was not ULTIMATELY you to begin with. TRUST your soul, you will be guided every step of the way and just BREATHE. BREATHE. BREATHE.