Fibro or Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome?

I was prescribed Clonazepam for 12 years for insomnia and anxiety. I was married to a physically and mentally abusive man, so I also have PTSD. Didn’t know anything about benzos. 6 years ago started having pain in neck, traps, jaw, head, arms, chest, thoracic. I never raised my dose, so I may have reached “tolerance”. Over the years pain gradually worsened and included a few other minor symptoms. 28 mo ago went to treatment for PTSD and chronic pain. They tapered in 10 days. Disaster!!! Pain went from 5 to 8 and has stayed. One day out of 8-10 weeks, might have tolerable symptoms. Muscles burning, stabbing, and pulling in those areas, numb fingers and face, tremor, confusion, dissociation, dizzy feeling of movement, numb hands and face, tinnitus, malaise, bouts of diarrhea, achellis tendinitis, sensitivity and or allergies to medications (can’t take ANY meds usually prescribed for Fibro!) and foods, and plenty more. I’ve seen dr after dr for diagnosis and have been to 4 treatment centers for chronic pain and PTSD. All say it’s PTSD. Last week I was diagnosed with Fibro. But what about benzos and the subsequent Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome? Every symptom is identical! See: benzoinfo.com . It’s hard to believe, but 4 of 4 treatment centers did not acknowledge this syndrome and only 2 out of many many healthcare providers have ever even heard of it. The hypothesis is the two may be linked as a causation. See: Pubmed, How Chronic Administration of Benzodiazepines Leads to Unexplained Chronic Illness. Just curious, how many of you were prescribed benzos, longer than a few weeks prior to Fibro diagnosis? What do you think about this possible link?
Thank You.

Took me two years to taper benzos and 3 years to get through withdrawals - fibro is a cake walk compared to psyche drug withdrawal

Hello everyone, I'm new and this is my first time here. I was on Clonazepam for a couple of years and my PCP stopped mine cold turkey. I do believe that there is some collation between two. I think one leads to the othere. There has to be a traumatic experience and if anyone has suffered withdrawal from benzo's they are aware of how bad they can get. I had no help from my husband and when I told my pcp I was having so much pain, sob, problems sleeping, eating, concentrating I was even having trouble doing my job. She didn't do anything 😕. I suffered, not even my own husband would help me nor did he believe me. 😒 My husband would say it was all in my head. After about 4 months of that I couldn't take much more. The pain was too much. I went to the emergency room and that's where I was told I had fibromyalgia. I went to see my pcp and I told her that the doctor in the ER said I had Fibromyalgia and she asked me where I was in pain. Easter weekend I went to the emergency room. I asked my husband to take me because I was feeling weird, I couldn't walk and my face was numb. My husband made walk in on my own and he left as soon as they took me back. He couldn't even stick around and be there for me. They tried to get me to walk. They did a MRI on my brain and lots of blood work. Sent me to the 3rd floor for stroke victims. This hospital I will not name, they treated me so badly that I wanted to go home after being there for 2 days. Once I was released, I saw my pcp and she said that I could go back to work the following week. I did tell her that I still wasn't feeling well 😔. She said that she couldn't give me any more time off, so I went back to work. Since then I've only gotten worse and because of that I could no longer do my job. Too much time off and not being able to keep up with the work load like I used to. I told my supervisor about my condition but, with a pcp that won't back you up and a supervisor who watched as your work performance go from getting things done to not being able to hold a thought and fail measurably at trying to get my work done. I left my job after 25 years due to medical problems. It was either that or get fired. I finally get to see a rheumatoid arthritis Dr. It's been about a year and my pcp thinks that I should see one 😅 ya. I don't know about the rest of you but, the wheels of Fibromyalgia are turning very slow for me.

Post Edited (Kitten1) : 3/4/2023 1:29:10 PM (GMT-8)