Taking a benzodiazepine, even as prescribed, can damage the calming system in our bodies. The consequence of that happening is that we are easily emotionally triggered. Anger or rage can erupt instantaneously, or fear, terror, or panic engulf us in the blink of an eye. It’s not our fault that our emotions are easily activated— our hyperactive nervous system causes such extreme reactions. What can we do while our nervous system recovers from the benzo damage? We can do two things. One, understand why we react as we do, and two, find ways to cope with the intense feelings.
- Downregulated GABA receptors. Benzodiazepines can cause our calming system, the GABA receptors, to stop working. Without enough functioning calming receptors, our nervous system can’t calm down, which means we are in a state of hyper-excitability. Knowing this can help us accept our uncomfortable reactions and take them in stride. It’s common to be easily triggered, even over innocuous things. One morning I was triggered when I lifted my hand to pet my sleeping cat. Fear flashed through me for no apparent reason. I remember I pulled back my hand, unable to pet him, even though I KNEW there was no danger. It’s easy to judge ourselves when we are triggered and think we are weak-minded or going crazy, but that’s not helpful— having compassion for our damaged nervous system is. It is also beneficial to know that the brain is a make-meaning organ. It categorizes and labels things so that we know if they are safe or dangerous. This “make-meaning” happens almost instantly, without our having to think about it. With the brain in a hyper-excited state due to a lack of calming GABA, it stands t reason that it will often make the wrong meaning of people, places, or things. If our nervous system becomes too activated with anger or fear, it can shift into a state called a parasympathetic dorsal vagal freeze, and depression or overwhelm can occur. It is less common to be instantly depressively triggered, but it can happen.
- Coping mechanisms are unique to each person; what works for one may not work for another. You’ll have to find what works best for you. Anything that helps metabolize stress hormones is beneficial: walking (especially out in nature), yoga, shaking your body (here is a video that shows the release of stress hormones), prayer, meditation, chanting and saying a positive mantra. I gardened to help me cope with benzo withdrawal symptoms. (Every year, I plant a demonstration garden to teach and encourage others how to use gardening as a therapeutic healing/coping tool.) Distraction and learning something new are good ways to take our focus off our feelings and sensations in our bodies. Reminding yourself that you are safe is an essential coping tool. Safety is the prescription for everything, allowing our nervous system to shift into the default state called connect, a parasympathetic ventral vagal response. It is in the connect state where we are happiest and healthiest.
What triggers you? What coping skills might you use to help soothe your over-excited nervous system? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Right on Dr Jenn. I appreciate all that you do.
“Having compassion for our damaged nervous system.” —
This is so well said. When I have a symptom flare I have to remind myself of this. If I don’t I will start thinking I have something else wrong with me like MS or Parkinson’s disease. It is a damaged nervous system and that’s why there are many unusual and challenging symptoms.
What triggers me is reading other peoples benzo stories. This seems to be more intense as I get further along. The stress of others stories becomes my stress. A normal non benzo withdrawal person can be affected by another person’s suffering, so most certainly a person with a damaged CNS is even more susceptible. Our systems are like vulnerable sponges.
Going on benzo forums is a double edged sword. Looking for reassurance can have us reading a bunch of negative. I think just looking for constant reassurance is almost a “dopamine release” type of behavior in itself. It can be hard to tell. The line can be blurry between wanting to know we’re going to be okay (which is totally understandable in our predicament) and when it’s time to turn it off and go distract & live life, the best we can safely on the days we aren’t feeling that well.
There are definitely well meaning good people on every forum, but it’s important to turn it off for good, or at least for a long, long time. Stay on safe sites such as yours, and even turn that off for long periods of time too.
How I’ve coped:
The thing is you can’t just “turn it off” (at least I can’t.) It has to be replaced with something else. Something healthy. We just bought the empty lot next to us and we are making it a green space with flower beds, digging in the dirt, and fall decor keeping me out in nature even more. I FINALLY feel good enough to do something like this on a bit of a more consistent basis. This time last year I was not able to handle something like this because it was too much for me physically back then.
I still have to pace myself and there are still days I have to “be little” and camp out in the recliner most of the day, but I’m happy to say I will be playing outside in the dirt more.
The “being little/recliner” days are challenging for me. I have books, I’ve done sculpey clay, painted rocks, and as of late, I just learned cross stitch. Being in the chair for hours is hard because I still can sometimes have issues with watching TV/movies. I only watch them on my smart phone when I do. On the days that watching a movie doesn’t affect me, I rejoice and indulge in that.
During symptom flares and all of the downtime, of course having a smart phone device is a blessing, but I gotta be disciplined in what I look at on the internet. The convenience of having all information available all the time, right in our hands, especially for a sick person who has a lot of downtime, a person who’s brain is healing with the unique vulnerabilities that we have in B.I.N.D., it can easily become a source of many things triggering.
It is nice to have one device to play games , watch TV , read etc. .. but I’ve had so much downtime in recovery to be able to do that, that I grow tired of it. I think to myself, when I heal even more, and I’m able to physically do more – be outside more, drive more, attend some normal life things more– I fantasize about throwing the smart phone out the window… because I won’t want to sit around playing on the darn thing! I will be living life!
And, as you mentioned above, like with just petting your cat. Sometimes during challenging rough patches, fear can come out of nowhere (that chemical fear) for no reason, & hang around longer than I’d like. I think as of late, I’ve been hanging around in the recliner when that happens too much and it’s better to try getting up and “changing gears” ie: a short walk in the yard, “swiffering” the floors, etc to metabolize the stress hormone.
Thank you Jennifer and thank you Shelly. Here lately it seems like I stay triggered! I’m having anxiety issues with some of my prescription meds being changed to a different manufacturers and I’m stressing about the inactive ingredients. Also I am trying to get an appointment with a local therapist and it has been such a challenge…they are in high demand. My stomach gives me fits and that fuels my anxiety and vise versa.
I try to distract by getting outside but some days I can’t even do that. This is a hard journey.