0:00 Introduction 9:33 Chamomile (Apigenin) 12:51 Herbs for sleep. 1. Loose Leaf Chamomile Tea + Supplement 2. Magnolia Bark Powder 3. Lemon Balm Leaf 16:49 Vitamin Deficiencies (see a doctor before supplementing magnesium, b vitamins, vitamin D) 18:10 Assist the Benzo Brain to Control it's Speed to Prevent Overstimulation 23:51 Eat Well and Stay Hydrated 25:50 Neuroplasticity Research - Dr. Dale Bredesen, Dr. Datis Kharrazian 29:30 Three Principles of Treatment 29:57 Principle 1. Eliminate everything that inhibits Neuroplasticity (inflammation/toxins) 30:26 Principle 2. Boost Neuroplasticity. Remedies MUST have neuroprotective affects. 31:02 Principle 3. Assist the brain to control excitation. GABA vs. Glutamate 32:01 In-depth Principle 1 - Very Important - Must cut out inflammatories and toxins 35:59 Eliminate inflammation 37:32 Inflammation source 1. chronic stress/cytokines (counter with deep relaxation brain training) Relax as much and as long as you can. 41:05 Therapy and meditation 42:52 Inflammation source 2. Sinus Infections and any other types of infections (counter by removing dairy, using neti pot, checking for/removing mold in your home) 45:02 Inflammation source 3. Gum and teeth infections. Find experienced dentist. Follow a high fiber, low saturated fat diet. Superfood for gum health: tomatoes. Do not use anti-bacterial mouthwash, drink beets/beetroots. Oral probiotics (make sure it contains Lactobacillus Reuteri, good to have in colon. Example brand hyperbiotics PRO-Dental) 53:36 Inflammation source 4. Throat Infections. Oral anti-bacterials targeted at throat. Gargle salt water. Zinc lozenges. Boost immune system. 54:56 Inflammation source 5. Chest infections. Boost immune system. Decrease cortisol/relax. 57:29 Inflammation source 6. Small intestines. SIBO: Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth. Takes 4-6 weeks to eliminate. See a doctor for anti-biotics OR treat with natural herbs. Starve the bacteria then implement a diet super high in fermentable fibers. Eat flavanoids. Regrow good bacteria. Ingest L. Reuteri (mentioned earlier) and L. Rhamnosus. 1:03:00 Other Inflammation sources: Smoking, Vitamin deficiencies, Excess Omega-6 oils 1:03:34 Oxidative stress damage and Nitrosative stress damage. Eat clean diet high in plant based flavanoids. 1:03:55 Inflammation source 7. Visceral Fat. Switch diet to plant-based diet. Lose weight. Lower cholesterol. Reverse insulin resistance. Eat A LOT of plants regardless of cutting out meat. Plants should be the majority of your diet. 1:07:35 Back to Principle 1 Eliminating everything that undermines neuroplasticity. Any remedy you take should have emphasis on being neuroprotective rather than just stimulating. Benzo brain has heightened levels of glutamate activity and lower levels of GABA activity. Counter with Gastrodia, Magnolia Bark, Chamomile. 1:09:20 Vitamin Deficiencies are common in people recovering from benzos. Have your doctor do full blood work to find out which deficiencies you have. Common deficiencies in benzo recovery are vitamin D, magnesium, B vitamins. If you do not supplement properly you could have adverse side affects so make sure you get your blood work done and only treat what needs to be treated. 1:10:22 Neuroprotective Supplements. Zinc, anti-oxidant. Taurine, anti-inflammatory. Really strong neuroplasticity boosting treatments. Try these further down the line in recovery. Approach slowly. 1:14:22 Back to Principle 2. Boost Neuroplasticity. Stimulate increase in BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) by taking supplements. Examples: low-dose lithium orotate (not to be confused with the Rx mood stabilizer lithium), Curcumin (found in turmeric), Herbs, 12 portions of Flavanoids via juice/smoothies, intermittent fasting, aerobic exercise, high intensity interval training, sleep, hyperthermia therapy (sauna or steam room). Do all techniques not just one. Recovery requires full lifestyle change. 1:20:25 Wrap up. Listen to this guy, for real. He knows what he's talking about and what he says in the video works. This information was gathered from all sorts of different reputable sources that would take you a very long time to find individually. I am 10 months benzo free after a 6 month taper down. I did pretty much everything he said and I'm very happy with where I am. I went through a gum infection, SIBO, insomnia, paranoia, joint pain, muscle pain, destroyed memory, depression, anxiety, etc. First I had to address my infections and have them treated. Then I addressed my other health problems with a physician and now take vitamin D supplements (I had a deficiency). And, now I eat a mostly paleo diet (lots of whole foods and plants), drink a lot of water, exercise, sleep normally and take naps when needed, etc. If you're feeling confused about what diet to try after watching the video, first look into low inflammatory foods diet, you could do that with something like paleo or the auto-immune protocol diet. Google them and you will see a lot of similarities. I thought I would be miserable, left suffering in benzo hell indefinitely but now I feel like a person and I'm starting to enjoy life again after so long. You can beat this addiction. This video is a great source of information and I hope the timestamps and notes help. If you need help, please ask someone. You're not alone.
Thank you so much for the time stamps, 🙏, making the video took me weeks and I needed to take a break from it so didn't go back and do the time stamps. Thanks for the encouragement also.
Many thanks 🙏 currently tapering and it's hell, so anything that makes the information easily found to specific problems with tapering is much appreciated.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments hi droctor. I am suffering pfrom pssd witch is not so bad as many other face. I am feeling that if i contact you for tratment i may get some penifet. Can you please tell me how i can contact you ?
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
I'm a medical doctor from Pakistan and the herbal treatments are accepted and respected in my country.In my opinion your best and respectful audience is in my own country and in India Bangladesh and farther east .Keep up the good work.
Quite possibly one of the most important videos I've seen so far on benzo recovery, during withdraw we all search and scramble for answers and remedies and it can be incredibly confusing and extremely daunting but this video helps to explain all the issues concerned with living benzo free in a clear, honest and precise way. A big thank you to Better Mental Health with Natural Remedies channel.
Thank you for making this video. I really like the way you explain all of this. I really want to get off of Clonazepam and I’m very nervous. I was in 2mg for 16 years as well as antidepressants and when I stopped the Lexapro, I developed withdrawal Akathisia. I had cut my Clonazepam dose from 2 mg to a .5mg and want to continue tapering, but when I was diagnosed with Akathisia, I stopped tapering the Clonazepam because I’m having such a hard time with Akathisia.
@@MsEvie15 How are you doing? Even though you made great progress from 2mg to 0.5 (good job!👍) you know how you feel, what you can and cannot deal with at the moment. I'm also on Antidepressant and Benzo for 17years, trying to get of from at least Benzo. (now 0.5mg clonazepam) Just wanted to say keep the fight. I don't know how it feels with Akathesia, but our brain is miraculous..it can heal, just needs time. And right info. Keep going. 🙋
@@naomimara3340 Thank you, Naomi. By March it will be 17 years of being on Clonazepam. I wish I never got on this. It’s definitely not easy. I also went down to 0.5 mg. I don’t know if it was easier because I had started Lyrica for the the akathisia. I’ve heard that the Lyrica is used for anxiety. I never felt that the Lyrica did anything for my anxiety. I really would like to taper down with the Clonazepam but I admit that I am scared and have a lot of anxiety anyway. How did you taper from 2mg to a 0.5 and are you following the Ashton formula?
I remember this from a few years ago. I want to thank you, you are a delightful, intelligent, generous, handsome, gifted, fellow traveler. I enjoyed every minute.
I was on Xanax for the majority of my 20s and I'm 32 now. I need to mention they were not prescribed. I dealt with my stress the wrong way I got in trouble when I was 29 and needless to say that scared me enough to make me quit. Best thing that ever happened to me. That also means I quit cold turkey which was not smart. I thought I could deal with this on my own so I haven't talked to anyone. Also not smart. I've been sober since Jan 2020. For the first 6 or 7 months everything was great. I felt amazing. Like I had a second lease on life. Then everything changed. I lost all motivation and inhibition. The zest for life was gone. I was constantly tense and uncomfortable in every situation. I was emotionally numb. I never felt excitement, joy, or adrenaline in good ways. I would only feel negative emotions. Stress, anger, sadness, loneliness. I couldn't hold a conversation or sit still. I woke up twice with severe muscle spasms in my legs and couldn't walk for hours both times. I quit my job and didn't work for 7 months because I felt I couldn't face people. I'll say this, it's definitely better now...not 100% but i promise you I'll take the improvements that I have made and be forever grateful. I say all this just to simply say thank you. I'm more thankful for this video than you'll ever know. I thought I was going crazy or that I completely messed my brain up since I battle this alone...but this video has completely reassured me that it is possible and that if I'm seeing progress, even if it's slow, maybe I am doing something right for a change.
Thanks for sharing, I've seen people recover their brain health even after many many years of drug and alcohol abuse, and you are still young so in the fullness of time your brain should be able to fully recover. I believe you can really speed up the process by boosting your neuroplasticity and a super healthy diet, lifestyle and supplements. How wish you every success in your recovery.
Congrats. I’m 29 and very similar to you took Xanax all through my 20’s and have tappered off a couple times only to get back on when I couldn’t sleep and needed to for work. I’m trying again!
Hi Peter. I'm off the benzo now. I just wanted to thank you again for the video and you took the time to make it. It is so helpful. God bless you. Kind regards Louise 🕊️💞
Dr. Peter Smith is EXCELLENT. I really appreciate his knowledge and suggestions. I am VERY GLAD I scheduled an appointment with him. More knowledgeable than any doctor, psychiatrist, or neurologist that I have ever dealt with... LOVE this guy!
Thank you for your compassion. I, too, have Bipolar Disorder. I have been benzo-dependent for 20 years, when I was prescribed 4mg for anxiety and insomnia. My first attempt at decreasing Lorazepam was in 2013, which was a near disaster. Tried again in 2015 and 2019. 2022 is now my fourth attempt. I began at the end of July, now down to 2mg from 2.5mg. The journey continues.
Thanks for sharing, good luck with your healing journey. Withdrawing from benzos is especially challenging for the bipolar brain because we (people with bipolar) have an inherent problem with high glutamate revving the brain up, you could try applying everything to combat excess glutamate.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you! I will get down to business on your benzo-brain prescription. This time around I am not experiencing the physical discomfort I felt on previous attempts. Since May, I have been taking 2400mg Omega 3 for chronic dry eye, as prescribed by my optometrist. Could it be that Omega 3 is a champion for my benzo brain? I am going very slowly, only .5mg every six months, or longer, if necessary.
@@witneyskye5556 Yes absolutely, omega 3 could be making a huge difference. EPA is a powerful anti inflammatory and boots BDNF/neuroplasticity, DHA is a building material the brain is built from. For some people supplementing omega 3 and changing omega 3:6 ratio oil can be a key therapeutic approach to healing their brain. Occasionally when I see a big positive effect from omega 3’s in my practice I experiment with a brief period (say 3 months) of very high doses about 6-7000 mg to bring down inflammation, nourish the brain and stimulate healing. It’s almost always necessary to build up to this dose slowly over a month and you may feel odd effects going on in your brain as is heals; in me it temporary induces mild depression, but I knew it was healing me. Today I take 1200 EPA and 600 DHA for maintenance. To get the most out of your omega 3 you should reduce your intake of omega 6, no takeaway junk food at all, throw out vegetable oils (corn, sunflower et.al) from your kitchen (only olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil allowed in your kitchen), grass fed meet and dairy or better still go plant based to drastically reduce inflammatory omega 6. We need some omega 6, use olive oil and eat brain friendly walnuts, pecans and pistachios. Good luck with your recovery.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
Thanks for the acknowledgment, it did take some time to make:- 30 years of practice to gain the knowledge, 3 months to get the courage to say something different to the Benzo “community”, Over a month to write the script, I filmed it 4 times and dumped the first 3 attempts, each filming took a week, 24 hours to edit the final draft, 11 hours to upload to UA-cam!
@@jenniferaudet3446 I’ve been blessed to find a career that’s a vocation, I’ve loved every minute of it and still do. The last decade has been the most exciting with all the new discoveries in neuroscience.
I’m goin through this now. Was so scared to quit cause of the withdrawal symptoms but I’m tapering myself after 2/3 years of clonazepam and lil bit of playing around with Xanax.
@Sillyfamof8 Stay strong and focused on there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Quitting Benzos can be the hardest thing that many people will go through in their life, BUT the brain is repairable so eventually you can fully recover. To speed up the recovery process do everything you can to boost your neuroplasticity. Good luck with your recovery.
What a wealth of information! Very helpful for those suffering from benzo withdrawal but also to those of us who are also helping our clients come off. Thank you 🙏
Just wanted to say thank you for this compassionate video. I'm interested in psychology and healing in the community. If I could follow in your work and bring my experience and education back to people who don't know what's happening to them I could change a hell scape of burnt out neurotransmitters, no emotions and a joyless existence to having meant something meaningful. It's a lovely thing to share research. This video I will keep as a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge and insight. So thank God for your sharing of your knowledge as its a precious resource and must have taken you many hours of personal experience and work to achieve. A gift to humanity. Thank you 💖🙏 I noticed camomile helped with benzo brain. I started to collect teas to note the effect on healing as there isn't immediate access to herbs in a very old fashioned small town in Scotland, main population over 65 or large families of people living on the breadline, mostly everyone else moves to the cities I think. I have to heal benzo brain before escape 🙃. Bipolar is something I may have had but didn't ever have the compassion required for diagnosis, probably why I fell headlong into my chemical bomb testing, benzodiazepines are like plutonium for the central nervous system. Terrifying that I deliberately eliminated the drug, went through the acute withdrawal and have been left with brain injuries due to inappropriate and too brutal tapering, it wasn't a taper,xanax high doses which she didn't prescribe me, asked for help but was only given 30 mg for one month reducing 2mg a week, not rational for the level of tolerance and far too quick. I've been left with chronic inflammation, anxiety (existential terror attacks lasting hours, all day sometimes day and night). I will have to publish the related studies on benzo brain and dump the evidence with the partners at my gp surgery with a letter explaining what has happened. I wouldn't sue because I don't think it was intentionally an awareness of the cruelty she was inflicting but she could have killed me and I was having seizures before she would prescribe any tapering. The tapering when offered was too sudden for the brain to regenerate but it was as if she imagined it would only be the acute pain and then over, again, no awareness of how deep the brain damage these poisonous substances cause. I started to take vitamins and as much different fruits, smoothies and healthy diet as possible. Dr is ignorant to the long term problems associated with patient suffering. Thank god again for you taking care of humanity like this. I have the bloating and feeling of excess water in the upper gi tract, bloating and slow digestion, constipation and for sure probably candida, so I will take as much culture based yogurt drinks, again, hard to come by specialist herbal medicine here. Thank you once againxxmargaret
Currently tapering, it's hell, pure hell, I have never felt this crap in my entire life, any information that helps make this nightmare less horrible is greatly appreciated, they really need more information like this on UA-cam, because these tablets are exceedingly painful and horrible to get off. Thank you for the information 🙏
@@blackmagiccat-6953 Nobody that makes post like this ever answers back I can only conclude they healed and moved on with life. I am 25 days off suboxone and 7 days off xanax. I used gabapentin to help cushion the wds days 2-5. I'm not doing too bad relatively speaking. Still dealing with wd symptoms but I am starting to believe I will heal.
@@Tilr701 Gabapentin definitely helps. It helped from the first day I took. I started taking my second day of withdrawal. I took 600 mg first day, 3-400 second day, 2-300 3rd day, 150, 4th day, and then I took a couple days off ( you may need morenor less, but less is oftenas good in my experience) . I used gaba maybe 3 more times in that next couple weeks when symptoms got really intense. Definitely saved my ass that first couple days when the sh@t really hit the fan. I'm 78 days off suboxone and about 50 days off the xanax now. I am definitely a lot better. Not a 100 % by any means but I feel like I have definitely turned the corner. Good luck!
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
Thank you for taking the time to post this, thank you who posted the time stop, and thank you all for the insightful comments. I'm a 62 year old man. I've been abusing benzos for 45 years believe it or not. And never or very rarely where they prescribed. Unbelievable how they change your brain to being so totally dependent on and not being able to deal with life at all without them. I'm very ashamed at how I lived my life thanks to drugs especially benzos and alcohol. But I'm starting back at AA meetings to start (again after probably literally dozens of times trying to stop throughout my life maybe more) I read somewhere I think in AA literature that benzos are just solid booze. I never was really a raging alcoholic so I don't know if that's true but I imagine benzos are worse than alcohol to get off of and stay off of.
@@bogse well I'm not a doctor or pharmacist. I'm just repeating something I heard or read that makes sense to me regarding my lifelong history of chemical dependency/,, alcoholism. I always loved and abused self soothing drugs (mostly benzos) and alcohol.
@@georgeporge7124 THey both bind to GABA and they are both depressants and when you took them together the effect is stronger and your tolerance skyrockets. I understand if someone says benzos are booze in a pill but they are essentially very different and science doesnt even know all how alcohol effects. Alcohol goes inside your neurons and takes cell water out off them, thats why your pee is like water after few beers because it is almsot pure water that comes from your brain cells that are now filled with alcohol and fucked up. Benxos dont do that, they just bind to GABA receptors but all in all these are very complex things.... but saying Coca-cola is candy in the bottle is more true than saying benzos are alcohol in pills... hope this made any sense =)
Thanks. My next series of vids will be about the bipolar brain, but there still should be things of value for people wanting to learn about improving brain health/neuroplasticity.
@@jrman413 actually the exact same principles apply to antidepressant withdrawal as Benzo withdrawal. The fundamentals of eliminating all sources of inflammation and boosting neuroplasticity are the same whatever the drug. The difference with antidepressants is to focus the neuroplasticity on serotonin systems by including serotonin boosters like saffron, zembrin, tryptophan and or 5HTP (the last 2 only after full discontinuation).
Great video, thank you so much! Could you maybe do a video on SSRI/antidepressant withdrawal (especially protraced), as you said it's kind of different from benzos? There are so many affected people from antidepressant discontinuation syndrome or symptoms when tapering, that would be much appreciated!
Changing my thinking was the only way I survived this. I still have the brain stuff it's not a way to live. We have to hold these doctor's accountable!!!
I am so sorry ... i also wish that functional medicine and integrative medicine doctors were more common, unfortunately this is a new branch and not so commonly practiced but soon its going to be common as its in high demand
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
2 1/2 years off Klonopin and still vibrate, shake and have anxiety so bad almost every day. Last night I took 50mg of Apigenin and 30 minutes later I was calm, no shakes, no anxiety. I hope this supplement continues to help me.
That's great, it shows that your brain can (still) achieve a balanced state, with enough time and the right approach it could be helped to achieve a healthy balance and stay there on its own so to speak. Apigenin is a polyphenols that as many health promoting effects specifically on the brain, it's therapeutic profile is particularly well suited to the needs of people with the benzo brain and many of my patients experienced the same positive results (although not everyone is the same of course). Since you have found apigenin beneficial I would recommend you could try experimenting with other polyphenols. The 1st thing to do would be consumer diet superhigh polyphenols and flavonoids (similar substances), you can see polyphenols and flavonoids in foods, they are the colours in plant foods; so every meal, 3 meals a day should have half plate of coloured plant foods: red tomatoes, red peppers, orange carrots, green spinach, kale, broccoli, purple sweet potatoes, black rice, red cabbage, red onions, black olives, a very smoothly for desert. For breakfast you may not want to eat 1/2 plate of vegetables, no problem, but vegetables and berries in a blender and drink a smoothie with your breakfast. There is an idea that gone around the world that the therapeutic healthy target is 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, this is totally outdated and completely wrong. We now think that the average healthy person to consume 9 portions of fruit and veg a day just to maintain health and prevent disease. But no-one interested in my channel is an average healthy person and for people (I include myself) that have brain issues that need to be treated even 9 portions of fruit and veg a day doesn't deliver the optimum amount of polyphenols and flavonoids. If you want to really change the health of your brain go for a minimum of 12 portions of fruit and veg a day. I tried chewing that amount and it just takes too long, especially breakfast so the way to do it is by putting the coloured plant foods into a blender and consuming them in smoothies. Some time ago I made a video about polyphenols and flavonoids, also see the UA-cam channel by Dr Gregor nutrition facts online, these need lots of videos about polyphenols and flavonoids, how to obtain them and some of his videos discuss how the substances benefit brain conditions including depression and Alzheimer's; is not however an expert in the benzo brain. In addition to diet the other polyphenols supplement that is almost tailor-made the needs of the benzo brain is Magnolia bark. Good luck with your healing journey
I went into a very bad wave after a week of taking Apigen. Seven hours of constant adrenaline one day. I quit taking it.@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments
@@crayzylaydy I’m very sorry to hear that. It doesn’t mean that Apigenin is wrong for you, it needs to be taken in a balanced way with other supplements and at the right dose, these things matter. Also when the brain like any other part of the body starts to heal it can initially hurt or make things worse.
Thank you, i've been on 1MG clonazapam three times a day since my thierties ; i found this vidio very interwsting. My doctor retierd a year an a half ago, tought existance getting off all my med. I can do this !!!
Thank you Mr. Smith. I started taking kratom as a way to stop drinking, using cocaine, and managing adhd, but it had serious consequences physicaly socially and psychologically so I decided to quit cold turkey. My girlfriend had a prescription for lorazepam which she only knew as being an occasional sleep aid, and so as I was dealing with insomnia and restless leg syndrome from rapidly quitting kratom I started taking her lorazepam over a 2 weeks period, between 1 to 3 mg/night depending on my ability to fall asleep. After just 2 weeks of use I am going through intense withdrawals after running out of the pills. I didn’t realize until I looked it up that these new withdrawals were not an extension of my kratom withdrawal but are most definitely from the benzo. I am currently in a hell of my own making, so I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with people going through this nightmare.
Sorry to hear that. Your brain would not have been in a healthy condition so the Benzos would have had a stronger effect effect. Although you are suffering now the brain is incredibly repairable, reduce inflammation, flood your brain with polyphenols, boost BDNF/neuroplasticity with everything you can diet,supplements, exercise and meditation. In time your brain can heal. If you’d like me too help you with this you can book an appointment online: Calendly.com/petersmithuk
You have more information then most, that’s accurate and positive, you deserve much more subscribers. I will use these remedies while i taper my Klonopin in rehab, thank you so much!
Thank you :-) I've only just started my UA-cam journey, gained 83 subscribers in the last 28 days so it's beginning to get going. I'm not trying to do a hard sell but I am available for private consultations for benzo withdrawal if that is something that interests you, see my site for more details. Good luck on your journey.
@@saundrac9 Oh Girl, stay out of the Fb support groups, very triggering, I'm starting my first taper with Peter this week, already had a consultation with him on zoom, taking supplements and anti-inflammatory diet for the last 9 days, doing a slow taper of 5% to start off Klonopin..I will check in with the support groups after I have been tapering awhile, but to read all the horror stories is very discouraging. Good luck to you.
I cannot thank you enoguh for doing this! I have learned so much about so much from your video! I I am not on benzos but I looked in my medicine cabinet and I have some! But your knowledge has given me So Much info that applies to Everyone! And I have a female friend that I have known for over 20 years, she had to have spine , neck surgery to seperate her discs and she was also one bezos for YEARS, among other drugs, activan, her docs told her if anyone else had taken all the stuff she was it would kill them....BUT, because of her spine surgery, that doctor took her off all that...so beside recovering from surgery she dealing with benzo withdrawls but so far has been fairly mild, but You helped me understand and share with her how much her body and mind are dealing with all this! I cannot thank You enough!!! Spot on! :) and I found you at exactly the right time...God bless You Sir!
This is incredible advice for everyone.. so comprehensive.. recovering from MCAS, which after a decade, seems to have been almost totally resolved with low doses of lithium orotate. I was down to six foods I could eat, and couldn't leave the house without a gas mask. Starting to wean off the meds that were helping me cope with that condition, including benzos, and ketamine, and this information has already been helpful as I begin to implement some of your advice. Thank you so much!
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Would you have.. or be able to point me towards.. any more specific advice regarding recovery from ketamine, or would all of this same advice apply?
@@AronTobasco I haven't developed any specific treatment protocols for Ketamine, so the only treatment I could offer would be a general all-round neuroplasticity boosting combination of supplements, diet et cetera.
To create the ideal healing environment within the brain you have to consider where are the main sources of inflammation ( guts, stress hormones, infections, poor sleep, poor diet, etc. ) and each case needs to be tailored to the specific conditions so there isn’t a one size fits all solution. I know this is not the answer you want to hear but it is the reality of the situation. I do 1-2-1 consultations online and I adjusted each prescription I write according to the individual case. If you want me to develop an individual prescription for you you can book an appointment on my website. www.balancingbrainchemistry.co.uk
Bravo dr. Smith! I mean it! This is an incredibly helpful and informative video! I applaud your effort and your openness regarding such a delicate topic as mental health! I myself have unfortunately been taking benzos for almost 10 years now, and 2 days ago, as many times before, i accidentally forgot to renew my prescription. I am unintentionally in bad, cold turkey withdrawal now, 3rd night of insomnia, racing thoughts, vomiting, spasms, etc. But I want more than anything to be free of these drugs and dependence, and your approach seems as most intuitive and helpful, since I sadly don't do most of the things you talk about (healthy plant based diet, neuroplasticity, exercise, removal of inflammation, etc), and in fact do the opposite. :( fast food almost every day, no exercise, bad gastric health, bad oral health... I hope that once I get back to "normal" in my head on Monday when i get my meds, that i will finally say enough is enough, and kick myself in the arse, and get on with doing what you suggest. Once again, kudos and thank you!
@T.Kristiansen no... I am not. I almost lost my mind and was walking a tight rope between sui*ide and irreversible psychosis, so I decided I would rather live, and so I am still taking X... And you?
@T.Kristiansen i am fully functional, I keep a strict rule to never increase my dose, no matter what... I have a stable job, i live alone, i am fully self- sufficient, and need no help from anyone... But yes, i hate that I cannot live without my X pills. Other than that, I travel, I enjoy life, I do what I want... But if i somehow lost access to my pills, I would lose everything, and that scares me when I think about it. So... I'm making money, trying to balance out my life to a point where I can safely try to get off of these pills.
You are an angel, Peter. Thank you for your contribution to this community. You are truly brilliant and full of great information. We are so grateful for you. XO Rev. Heather Elizabeth
I was afraid to make this video because I’m saying something different and people warned me I would receive a lot of haters but I been pleasantly surprised, only had positive comments except for one “100% Bull shit!” and one “change the title to scam”. First one made me laugh second one offended because honesty is a core value of mine. Thanks for what you said, appreciate it. Let me know there a particular subject you are interested in seeing a video on.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments I am in benzos withdrawals trying my best to get off the mess. I pray for something to help this hell to be easier. I am taking one day at a time. I know me you are helping someone to not have to bad of time getting off. For i am afraid to take a supplement because part of me thinks it could help and part of me afraid. I just want off and praying for the day I am Healed in JESUS Precious Name AMEN
Thank you so much! I finally start to understand what is happening/happened to me! Now I have to start getting rid of my infections! That still seems quite difficult to find out. And to treat. Starting with going to the dentist, using neti, gorgling with seasalt water. And checking out my bacterial overgrow with labtests. Daily meditation. Taking the herbs for sleeping, that is my biggest struggle. Falling asleep.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
In here Finland we have situation what I call "benzo crisis". Doctors aren't prescriping benzos anymore hardly at all, so then strong foreign alprazolam & clonapzepam products are FLOODING to street markets from Eastern Europe. I ate clonapzepam at 6mg almost an year, before I started slow tapering to 1mg then I switched to diazepam & oxazepam. But I couldn't make it, so I continued almost 2 years eating diazepam & oxazepam. +4 years total. But now I have been full month without benzos! I went to rehabilitation center 6 weeks ago to make the final step to quit for good. Thank you for this very informative video! My doctor just gave me a weird look when I told her about remedies. I think because she would wanted that I ate sertralin and there's an interaction. But man, at withdrawal I feel the remedies even more important than normally. I literally feel them! I use this combination daily: B-complex, C-vitamin, zinc and magnesiumhydroxid at the morning. At the evening I take this combo, which really is sedating: Taurine + l-tryptophan, l-thanine, magnesium biglycinate, lemon balm, camomile, ashwagandha, b6-vitamin. Recommendation for supplementing remedies! This helps me sleep whole night 8h without waking up, which I wouldn't do without these (yeah, I've tried :D). They really calms me down the way I can feel it, eyes starting to become heavier and mind peacefull.
So enjoyed learning from you. On benzos following severe ovarian failure and insomnia resulting in a total hysterectomy. It has been 6 years and I am still not healthy or sleeping despite “hormone management”. Would love it if video conferencing was an option. I am in the US. Thanks and best of luck to you
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
I too have no ovaries removed experimental 2012. Been on benzodiazepines since 2004 tapering its brutal. Are you on the Surgical menopause groups ? . Struggling with both
I really had to trudge through the muck and mire to get to this gentleman’s channel. But I’m so thankful I did! I really hope he starts uploading again!
10mg of Valium daily from 2014-19. Tapered to 7.5mg during Covid. Tapered down to 5mg daily by last year. When I went below 5mg a day, it only took a week of 4mg instead of 5mg to land me in the emergency room. Seizures, cold sweats, bowel issues, stomach muscle pain, head aches, nerve and body pain. Just looking for any help before getting ready to go to hell and back again. So scared. Appreciate and inspired by all of you.
@@madelynhernandez7453 Epsom salt is magnesium sulphate. Magnesium is known as 'nature's tranquilizer.' It's fine to take magnesium tablets but you can only absorb so much that way. A hot bath with epsom salt is a great way to absorb magnesium, especially into the muscles. Historically epsom salt has been used to treat seizures and it is still used in the ER to treat many conditions.🙏🙏
Finally the best video I’ve seen thus far I applaud this man for putting this video out there’s a wealth of information people should consider I’m recommend homeopathic remedies over prescription meds unless it’s absolutely necessary to take prescribed medications. Thank you for making and sharing this video many people need to see this video. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Doctor you are good and prefer natural remedies .I have been off benzodiazepines for 7 years and still have protracted withdrawal.Cannot sleep at all no matter what I take.Please help me to sleep.I take a lot of supplements and am gluten free but nothing helps.Please help me .I am 74 and struggling.God Bless and keep doing what you are doing to help people dealing with benzo protracted withdrawal,🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🤩
I very much appreciated this video. Quite informative and very practical! Thanks so much for caring to take the time! Was wondering if you would mind doing a video on restoring sleep/reseting circadian rhythm from benzo withdrawal insomnia?
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
I just listened to 20minutes, I can only say that this is a great video. You should be more visible. Please ignore the trolls on the web, thanks for sharing knowledge, especially how the brain works.
Thank you so much. I’ve gotten used to the haters and trolls now. I’m gonna be much more visible and grow my social media content. I spent 25+ years working in 1 to 1 in a private clinic, in the shadows so to speak. It suited me because I’m both highly introverted and I used to have social anxiety; also my clients wanted total anonymity. Today I’m completely free from the social anxiety and embracing my introverted nature which has unexpectedly enabled me to be more social (in the right doses), also today many people are interested in sharing there stories so I’ll be making a lot more posts over the coming years.
I wish I’d make more videos! But my time is been taken up, there’s been a big shift in my practice since the pandemic. At this point, I’m within a couple of months of starting up UA-cam videos and serialising the chapters of my forthcoming book, Living Well with Bipolar Disorder
Thanks Back in my 20’s when my life hung in the balance with suicidal depression a therapist taught me the positive mental health effects of helping others, of working in service, of giving and it was great advice. It gives me a purpose and sense of meaning. I’ve seen psychology studies that showed acts of random kindness reduces anxiety and depression.
You’re welcome. Let me know what subjects you are interested in seeing videos on, not promising I’ll make a video just for you but it helps to to choose subjects.
Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation! So much great information, and it is so refreshing to hear someone willing to buck the Benzo Old-timers who think it their life goal to frighten patients into actually remaining clinically deficient in the most important vitamins and minerals. Then towards the end, your mention of taurine was certainly an ah-ha moment. I started taurine, and found it to help amazingly well. I look forward to hearing more.
If you're finding taurine good you could also try high intensity interval training exercise, they both stimulate neurogenesis in the hippocampus. It's not my intention to be antagonistic, my style is to just positively promote what I think it's helpful, but I am glad that you found the information refreshing, I did want to do that.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you for the response. I will certainly give the exercise a try. I did not mean to imply that you came off as antagonistic. You certainly did not, and you absolutely succeeded in just positively promoting your ideas. As I find time, I am reading the vast amount of information on your website. I am learning, and look forward to learning more. Great job!
Your videos have been so helpful sir. I can relate to much of your experience. Are you still available to email? I live in Texas btw. I hope you're doing well. I haven't seen any recent videos. Its May of 2023. Most of your videos show they were from 3 years ago. I'd love to hear an update! Thank you for doing what you do to help others as well. 😊
Thank you for this video has helped so much with my understanding do you know anything about withdrawing and having the MTHFR gene mutation? I am Elmo’s I guess and I do not get enough food right and I am also histamine intolerant now because of the benzo’s and I need to eat the food that is good for me but it is so high in histamine it is hard to know what to do
Hello from Denver. Please cover more about GABA. I have a 24 yr old non-verbal autistic son. For a decade Psych and Neurological doctors prescribed Benzos. Off the drugs coming up on a year. At 18 yrs old started having seizures. They called them Epilepsy but I’m not sure it wasn’t a side effect of Benzo dependence. We are now low Carb/Keto / Carnivore.
Wow! Awesome! Awesome! Your reasons for supplement fears makes much sense! Magnesium being OK is one was very informative, as was Chamomile! To all Benzo Brains - watch this entirely. Its long but take it in short moments and take notes.
They all work, citrate is good value and an effective delivery system, it moves the bowels which can be a good thing or too much for others. Glycinate doesn’t affect the bowels. Threanate is claimed to be better for delivery to the brain but it’s incredibly expensive.i personally use citrate.
Hello. Great channel. What a wealth of information. Many thanks I had an idea for a video. You mentioned about being slightly in denial about accepting your bipolar disorder in your early thirties. I also resented and denied my diagnosis. Perhaps you could spend a few minutes making a video discussing why this is in our nature, particularly young men.
Everyone of my doctors thinks im bsin cause (im 54 days off Klonopin) they think i should of been fine after 2 weeks lol ridiculous i still feel like im in acute .. pvcs,pots,hbp,severe anxiety,intrusive thoughts,nausea,gi issues and so much more smh
Glad you like them! I’m working on another big one, introducing my forthcoming book Living Well with Bipolar Disorder. I’ll be covering all the known manifestations of BD and treatment options. Not so sure how helpful it’ll be directly for benzos but there’ll be a lot on making the brain healthier.
Thank you for sharing these ideas. Magnesium has helped me and I will add Chamomile Tea. You are so knowledgeable and so many people can use this information!
Hi Peter, love your work, i,m just startint a valium taper and would love some advice from you on the best thing to aid with sleep because thats the reson i started taking them, does the chamomile and magnolia bark work like benzos, if so i will look into buying some, let me know thanks
Thank you for this highly informative video. This video couldn't have come at a better time, I am in the midst of getting over a strong benzo and etizolam. I was not informed by my doctor of how difficult they are to get off of, neither was I informed that they need to be tapered off. I was told to stop them cold turkey. As a result, I have been going thru some awful withdrawal symptoms. So thank you very much for all this information. I have subscribed to your channel. Keep up the great work. Along with watching your video carefully, I have also downloaded e-book versions of the books by Dr. Bredesen and Dr. Kharazzian.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
@@annad.1471 I've been on 3mg/day Xanax and 5mg Ambien for 18 years. I can barely function anymore. I hope this YT page can help others. I just found it recently. 🙏
I’m very interested in talking to you. I’ve been trying to get off benzos for 5 years. I did finally taper off .50 K a year ago, but i still have 3 mg Valium to taper. I had to stop tapering during the pandemic! I have been working with a neural retraining program (DNRS) which has helped a lot with many of the stress related illnesses that develop during benzo wd, things like POTS, MCAS, Chemical & Food sensitivities, dysautonomia, Burning Tongue syndrome, etc. However, I am still unable to stop fight/flight/freeze that occurs typically when I get a bit anxious, especially related to health anxiety as well as doing anything novel - like driving somewhere new. Anyway, I believe you make a lot of sense and you are a doctor, not just a person who is trying to taper off benzos.
Hi Doctor, I am glued to your video so far and want to ask you if you can explain which supplements you speak of cross the blood-brain barrier (I hear about that in a lot of my resources online), and also very important to me is the right magnesium to take? My issue is weaning off 1 mg of clonazepam which I've been on 30 years. I'm just doing 1/4 less to start with, and when I feel ok with that, I will try another quarter, which then would be .5 mg. My story is long so I won't tell it all here. Just little bit which is more important to me which is getting off the one drug I take, only drug I take. I successful now for 2.5 years on Keto, and 70 years old, go to gym atleast 3 times per week and love my 2 mile walks at about 4 mph. Thank you for your videos, I am happy to find you. I was put on drug for anxiety/depression and slight tremor. Everything is worse now, especially tremor, Denise Pacific Northwest Oregon
Do you have any suggestions for panic disorder and how have you been doing this past year? I haven't seen any updated videos so I'm just making sure everything's going well.
Thank you Sir good job. I have been on lorazepam 2mg for 10 plus years. I was using 5htp and tyrosine alongside with the meds with the intention of easing off the meds. I started having bad headaches . Upon hearing that these herbs cannot work with my meds and causes headaches I stopped 3 days now. Headaches are lessening. I have started reducing inflammation by my diet and taking omegas. Started a bit of vegetables and fruits. Doing dental checks. Using probiotics, liver supplements for gut care. Doing some excercises. I started to use half the dose of lorazepam 1mg . I started to use valerian, magnesium, bcomplex to help with tapering. Can I use ashwagandha as well. What other vitamins can I take to help with tapering. I really appreciate all the help I can get am so grateful for taking time to assist me.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
@@aashish551 They do much more than nothing. They helped MA approve a law so that doctors cant just stop prescribed benzos due to the damage the meds cause with abrupt stoppage. They are getting the word out about slow tapering. Please check them out online. And trust me, I understand the struggle. I've been in 3mg xanax and ambien for approximately 18 years now so I know the struggle all to well. Each person is different so unless your willing to try different herbs/supplements on your own your SOL. Or pay a lot of money for a functional medicine doctor. I was on a very low, controlled dose of vicodin and was yanked of that in 2016 and withdrawal was nothing compared to trying to self taper even small amounts of xanax.
Do you prefer chamomile and magnolia to herbs like valerian, passionflower, hops etc? Also what about lions mane mushroom? Isn't that supposed to be high in nerve growth factor?
When treating the benzo brain the most important thing is to select remedies that have anti-inflammatory, and neuroplasticity enhancing properties. Passionflower and hops do not significantly possess these qualities, I really like both of these herbs, I often use them for cases of anxiety but in the benzo brain the focus has to be promoting synaptic plasticity. Passionflower is a great herb for anxiety, it is nonaddictive so it's perfectly safe to use, it also has useful dopaminergic effects, I use it in cases of anxiety and bipolar disorder with comorbid anxiety (the dopaminergic effect is useful for the bipolar brain). I always have a bottle myself at home and you take some occasionally following significantly stressful events prior to significantly stressful events. Hops is a great sleep aid, even just inhaling it if you can get your hands on very fresh hops, stuff it into a sock or small pillowcase and put it inside your pillowcase it can knock you out to sleep. Valerian is quite a strong herb, some people feel great on it other people don't like the way it makes them feel at all, I've taken it before bed and although I slept deeply I had horrible nightmares and just didn't like the way it made me feel. Many people report similar experiences. Having said that there is some interesting research suggesting that it is a GABA antagonist (yes I said antagonist) and that this may stimulate neuroplastic repair by putting the GABA synapses under even more stress and in the process speed up the recovery of the benzo brain. The problem with this however is that if it's working as a GABA antagonist it may end up making you feel awful until it has repaired healthy GABAergic function. In the end you always have to do personal experimentation, trial and error to see how these remedies affect you in the real world. As I said elsewhere I have been using these remedies for a few decades now and they never produced any dependency or habituation, when properly used they are to all intents and purposes totally safe and side-effect free, therefore you can experiment using them in combinations to manage your symptoms and with the herbs that have neuroplasticity boosting effects speed up your recovery.
Great video! When will you be making one about the supplements you are currently taking to control your bipolar? I also have bipolar ll. I’m very interested in controlling mine in a natural way as well.
I wish I could give you an exact date but I can't, this whole process of getting out the videos is much slower than I thought it would be, and I do have some other projects/videos to do first
Yes! I am very interested in hearing about your transitioning off of lamotrigine for example, and supporting the system naturally for someone with bipolar disorder. My husband is on meds and after coming off of antidepressants and benzos I am fearful for him! I would love to have him taper and support his system naturally!!
hey man, I appreciate you putting this video together. Thanks for taking your time and helping the best you can. I have just started watching your video -- I am sure that it will help :]
I was on Alprazolam 0.5mg three times a day for anxiety. I have been off Alprazolam since November 6, 2021 and am dealing with dizziness. How long will it last? Do benzos suppress the vestibular system?
Thank you. Very interesting that you started restoring health in the nineties. That’s when I was put on klonopin. No instructions on the side effects. 2024, I’m on my 3rd year of titration. Origin 2mg prescription. Now I’m at 5mg. It’s been brutal even my titration has been.
That’s tough, stay strong and determined, it’s a long and brutal journey but once you get off the drugs you can stimulate the growth of brand new synapses that have never been exposed to benzos and are fully functional and normally calibrated. The brain can regrow and you can eventually recover your life. Good luck with your recovery.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments I sent your video to me via text in order to watch over and over. I am very hopeful. My goal, post my 2018 craniotomy was to get off all my psychiatric and seizure meds ( seizures caused by the meningioma, right temporal lobe) success with Wellbutrin and seizure meds over a year of titration. First step for me is to understand the neurological pathway as you have described and the withdrawal symptoms; insomnia, increased anxiety and complete disillusionment with life. What a relief. Next I will implement the supplement suggestions. With no intention of placing blame on my psychiatrist of 30 years for not walking me through this process as you have, it would have been helpful. I am a “better late then never” reasoning type of person. I was subject to maternal narcissistic abuse all my life up to 2020, when the 96 year old mother finally died, and teen years paternal molestation. I buried the pain because of the era I was born and the family normalization of this toxic behavior. My craniotomy healing included an uproar of PTSD. That also has been brutal and also life saving for me to address it with clarity and reason than masking my emotional pain with the psychiatric meds. Thank you for your support and validation. It’s powerful to be heard and supported.
0:00 Introduction
9:33 Chamomile (Apigenin)
12:51 Herbs for sleep. 1. Loose Leaf Chamomile Tea + Supplement 2. Magnolia Bark Powder 3. Lemon Balm Leaf
16:49 Vitamin Deficiencies (see a doctor before supplementing magnesium, b vitamins, vitamin D)
18:10 Assist the Benzo Brain to Control it's Speed to Prevent Overstimulation
23:51 Eat Well and Stay Hydrated
25:50 Neuroplasticity Research - Dr. Dale Bredesen, Dr. Datis Kharrazian
29:30 Three Principles of Treatment
29:57 Principle 1. Eliminate everything that inhibits Neuroplasticity (inflammation/toxins)
30:26 Principle 2. Boost Neuroplasticity. Remedies MUST have neuroprotective affects.
31:02 Principle 3. Assist the brain to control excitation. GABA vs. Glutamate
32:01 In-depth Principle 1 - Very Important - Must cut out inflammatories and toxins
35:59 Eliminate inflammation
37:32 Inflammation source 1. chronic stress/cytokines (counter with deep relaxation brain training) Relax as much and as long as you can.
41:05 Therapy and meditation
42:52 Inflammation source 2. Sinus Infections and any other types of infections (counter by removing dairy, using neti pot, checking for/removing mold in your home)
45:02 Inflammation source 3. Gum and teeth infections. Find experienced dentist. Follow a high fiber, low saturated fat diet. Superfood for gum health: tomatoes. Do not use anti-bacterial mouthwash, drink beets/beetroots. Oral probiotics (make sure it contains Lactobacillus Reuteri, good to have in colon. Example brand hyperbiotics PRO-Dental)
53:36 Inflammation source 4. Throat Infections. Oral anti-bacterials targeted at throat. Gargle salt water. Zinc lozenges. Boost immune system.
54:56 Inflammation source 5. Chest infections. Boost immune system. Decrease cortisol/relax.
57:29 Inflammation source 6. Small intestines. SIBO: Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth. Takes 4-6 weeks to eliminate. See a doctor for anti-biotics OR treat with natural herbs. Starve the bacteria then implement a diet super high in fermentable fibers. Eat flavanoids. Regrow good bacteria. Ingest L. Reuteri (mentioned earlier) and L. Rhamnosus.
1:03:00 Other Inflammation sources: Smoking, Vitamin deficiencies, Excess Omega-6 oils
1:03:34 Oxidative stress damage and Nitrosative stress damage. Eat clean diet high in plant based flavanoids.
1:03:55 Inflammation source 7. Visceral Fat. Switch diet to plant-based diet. Lose weight. Lower cholesterol. Reverse insulin resistance. Eat A LOT of plants regardless of cutting out meat. Plants should be the majority of your diet.
1:07:35 Back to Principle 1 Eliminating everything that undermines neuroplasticity. Any remedy you take should have emphasis on being neuroprotective rather than just stimulating. Benzo brain has heightened levels of glutamate activity and lower levels of GABA activity. Counter with Gastrodia, Magnolia Bark, Chamomile.
1:09:20 Vitamin Deficiencies are common in people recovering from benzos. Have your doctor do full blood work to find out which deficiencies you have. Common deficiencies in benzo recovery are vitamin D, magnesium, B vitamins. If you do not supplement properly you could have adverse side affects so make sure you get your blood work done and only treat what needs to be treated.
1:10:22 Neuroprotective Supplements. Zinc, anti-oxidant. Taurine, anti-inflammatory. Really strong neuroplasticity boosting treatments. Try these further down the line in recovery. Approach slowly.
1:14:22 Back to Principle 2. Boost Neuroplasticity. Stimulate increase in BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) by taking supplements. Examples: low-dose lithium orotate (not to be confused with the Rx mood stabilizer lithium), Curcumin (found in turmeric), Herbs, 12 portions of Flavanoids via juice/smoothies, intermittent fasting, aerobic exercise, high intensity interval training, sleep, hyperthermia therapy (sauna or steam room). Do all techniques not just one. Recovery requires full lifestyle change.
1:20:25 Wrap up.
Listen to this guy, for real. He knows what he's talking about and what he says in the video works. This information was gathered from all sorts of different reputable sources that would take you a very long time to find individually. I am 10 months benzo free after a 6 month taper down. I did pretty much everything he said and I'm very happy with where I am. I went through a gum infection, SIBO, insomnia, paranoia, joint pain, muscle pain, destroyed memory, depression, anxiety, etc. First I had to address my infections and have them treated. Then I addressed my other health problems with a physician and now take vitamin D supplements (I had a deficiency). And, now I eat a mostly paleo diet (lots of whole foods and plants), drink a lot of water, exercise, sleep normally and take naps when needed, etc. If you're feeling confused about what diet to try after watching the video, first look into low inflammatory foods diet, you could do that with something like paleo or the auto-immune protocol diet. Google them and you will see a lot of similarities. I thought I would be miserable, left suffering in benzo hell indefinitely but now I feel like a person and I'm starting to enjoy life again after so long. You can beat this addiction. This video is a great source of information and I hope the timestamps and notes help. If you need help, please ask someone. You're not alone.
Thank you so much for the time stamps, 🙏, making the video took me weeks and I needed to take a break from it so didn't go back and do the time stamps.
Thanks for the encouragement also.
Thank you for taking the time to input the time stamps and share your experience. Very helpful
Many thanks 🙏 currently tapering and it's hell, so anything that makes the information easily found to specific problems with tapering is much appreciated.
@Der Kommissar here is my email address teresajordan461@gmail.com.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments hi droctor. I am suffering pfrom pssd witch is not so bad as many other face. I am feeling that if i contact you for tratment i may get some penifet. Can you please tell me how i can contact you ?
Where'd you go? It's been 2 years. We need you now more than ever.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
Seriously. We need more people like him.
Yep this is typed in 2024 February
@@No_ReGretzky99 Glad you made it. Your videos really helped me figure things out. Got my head straight.
Searched for him on Instagram and Facebook also… No activity since 2020. I hope he is well and healthy.
I'm a medical doctor from Pakistan and the herbal treatments are accepted and respected in my country.In my opinion your best and respectful audience is in my own country and in India Bangladesh and farther east .Keep up the good work.
Thanks. 🙏
No remove India now 😢
Quite possibly one of the most important videos I've seen so far on benzo recovery, during withdraw we all search and scramble for answers and remedies and it can be incredibly confusing and extremely daunting but this video helps to explain all the issues concerned with living benzo free in a clear, honest and precise way.
A big thank you to Better Mental Health with Natural Remedies channel.
Thanks for your comment, it made me feel good.
Good luck with your healing journey
Trying to get off zanex, can you help me
Thank you for making this video. I really like the way you explain all of this. I really want to get off of Clonazepam and I’m very nervous. I was in 2mg for 16 years as well as antidepressants and when I stopped the Lexapro, I developed withdrawal Akathisia. I had cut my Clonazepam dose from 2 mg to a .5mg and want to continue tapering, but when I was diagnosed with Akathisia, I stopped tapering the Clonazepam because I’m having such a hard time with Akathisia.
@@MsEvie15 How are you doing? Even though you made great progress from 2mg to 0.5 (good job!👍) you know how you feel, what you can and cannot deal with at the moment. I'm also on Antidepressant and Benzo for 17years, trying to get of from at least Benzo. (now 0.5mg clonazepam)
Just wanted to say keep the fight. I don't know how it feels with Akathesia, but our brain is miraculous..it can heal, just needs time. And right info. Keep going. 🙋
@@naomimara3340 Thank you, Naomi. By March it will be 17 years of being on Clonazepam. I wish I never got on this. It’s definitely not easy. I also went down to 0.5 mg. I don’t know if it was easier because I had started Lyrica for the the akathisia. I’ve heard that the Lyrica is used for anxiety. I never felt that the Lyrica did anything for my anxiety. I really would like to taper down with the Clonazepam but I admit that I am scared and have a lot of anxiety anyway. How did you taper from 2mg to a 0.5 and are you following the Ashton formula?
I remember this from a few years ago. I want to thank you, you are a delightful, intelligent, generous, handsome, gifted, fellow traveler.
I enjoyed every minute.
So nice of you,you made me blush.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments are you taking new pts. ? I think I’m going bananas.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments oops it’s ok you humble sweet man.
I was on Xanax for the majority of my 20s and I'm 32 now. I need to mention they were not prescribed. I dealt with my stress the wrong way I got in trouble when I was 29 and needless to say that scared me enough to make me quit. Best thing that ever happened to me. That also means I quit cold turkey which was not smart. I thought I could deal with this on my own so I haven't talked to anyone. Also not smart. I've been sober since Jan 2020. For the first 6 or 7 months everything was great. I felt amazing. Like I had a second lease on life. Then everything changed. I lost all motivation and inhibition. The zest for life was gone. I was constantly tense and uncomfortable in every situation. I was emotionally numb. I never felt excitement, joy, or adrenaline in good ways. I would only feel negative emotions. Stress, anger, sadness, loneliness. I couldn't hold a conversation or sit still. I woke up twice with severe muscle spasms in my legs and couldn't walk for hours both times. I quit my job and didn't work for 7 months because I felt I couldn't face people. I'll say this, it's definitely better now...not 100% but i promise you I'll take the improvements that I have made and be forever grateful. I say all this just to simply say thank you. I'm more thankful for this video than you'll ever know. I thought I was going crazy or that I completely messed my brain up since I battle this alone...but this video has completely reassured me that it is possible and that if I'm seeing progress, even if it's slow, maybe I am doing something right for a change.
Thanks for sharing, I've seen people recover their brain health even after many many years of drug and alcohol abuse, and you are still young so in the fullness of time your brain should be able to fully recover.
I believe you can really speed up the process by boosting your neuroplasticity and a super healthy diet, lifestyle and supplements.
How wish you every success in your recovery.
@@artekodessa I just looked it up. How do you consume those and avoid toxicity?
@@artekodessa ok I'll do that. Thank you
Congrats. I’m 29 and very similar to you took Xanax all through my 20’s and have tappered off a couple times only to get back on when I couldn’t sleep and needed to for work. I’m trying again!
Love the integrity, and proud of you, if I may.
Hi Peter. I'm off the benzo now. I just wanted to thank you again for the video and you took the time to make it. It is so helpful. God bless you. Kind regards Louise 🕊️💞
So proud of you! I know how hard it can be to let go it feels like life or death, it essentially is...
Louise Bam, how long did it take you to get off Xanax and how many milligrams were you on?
Dr. Peter Smith is EXCELLENT. I really appreciate his knowledge and suggestions. I am VERY GLAD I scheduled an appointment with him. More knowledgeable than any doctor, psychiatrist, or neurologist that I have ever dealt with... LOVE this guy!
Thanks Mark,
How are you getting on with your healing?
How do you get an appointment with him?
I can't get a hold of him 😢😢😢😢
I am a husband/care provider to a wife, 60+ who is struggling to withdraw from alprazolam. I will be listening and applying what I learn.
Post 1 year after encountering drug addiction. Your videos gave hope! Grateful I ran into them. God bless.
Thank you for your compassion. I, too, have Bipolar Disorder. I have been benzo-dependent for 20 years, when I was prescribed 4mg for anxiety and insomnia. My first attempt at decreasing Lorazepam was in 2013, which was a near disaster. Tried again in 2015 and 2019. 2022 is now my fourth attempt. I began at the end of July, now down to 2mg from 2.5mg. The journey continues.
Thanks for sharing, good luck with your healing journey.
Withdrawing from benzos is especially challenging for the bipolar brain because we (people with bipolar) have an inherent problem with high glutamate revving the brain up, you could try applying everything to combat excess glutamate.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you! I will get down to business on your benzo-brain prescription. This time around I am not experiencing the physical discomfort I felt on previous attempts. Since May, I have been taking 2400mg Omega 3 for chronic dry eye, as prescribed by my optometrist. Could it be that Omega 3 is a champion for my benzo brain? I am going very slowly, only .5mg every six months, or longer, if necessary.
@@witneyskye5556 Yes absolutely, omega 3 could be making a huge difference. EPA is a powerful anti inflammatory and boots BDNF/neuroplasticity, DHA is a building material the brain is built from.
For some people supplementing omega 3 and changing omega 3:6 ratio oil can be a key therapeutic approach to healing their brain.
Occasionally when I see a big positive effect from omega 3’s in my practice I experiment with a brief period (say 3 months) of very high doses about 6-7000 mg to bring down inflammation, nourish the brain and stimulate healing. It’s almost always necessary to build up to this dose slowly over a month and you may feel odd effects going on in your brain as is heals; in me it temporary induces mild depression, but I knew it was healing me.
Today I take 1200 EPA and 600 DHA for maintenance.
To get the most out of your omega 3 you should reduce your intake of omega 6, no takeaway junk food at all, throw out vegetable oils (corn, sunflower et.al) from your kitchen (only olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil allowed in your kitchen), grass fed meet and dairy or better still go plant based to drastically reduce inflammatory omega 6.
We need some omega 6, use olive oil and eat brain friendly walnuts, pecans and pistachios.
Good luck with your recovery.
L theanine was a supplement that really helped me
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
What an amazing video. The amount of time, energy and experience that obviously went into making this is incredible. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the acknowledgment, it did take some time to make:-
30 years of practice to gain the knowledge,
3 months to get the courage to say something different to the Benzo “community”,
Over a month to write the script,
I filmed it 4 times and dumped the first 3 attempts, each filming took a week,
24 hours to edit the final draft,
11 hours to upload to UA-cam!
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Oh wow Amazing. Thankyou so much Such dedication
@@jenniferaudet3446 I’ve been blessed to find a career that’s a vocation, I’ve loved every minute of it and still do. The last decade has been the most exciting with all the new discoveries in neuroscience.
hello, i was pretty scared and desperate but your video made me feel like i am not hopless, thank you!
I’m goin through this now. Was so scared to quit cause of the withdrawal symptoms but I’m tapering myself after 2/3 years of clonazepam and lil bit of playing around with Xanax.
@Sillyfamof8 Stay strong and focused on there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Quitting Benzos can be the hardest thing that many people will go through in their life, BUT the brain is repairable so eventually you can fully recover.
To speed up the recovery process do everything you can to boost your neuroplasticity.
Good luck with your recovery.
Finally a doctor that understands my brain for my entire life! 🙏🏼🙏🏼
This is the best video I have ever seen regarding withdrawal of Benzos!!! I’m so glad I came across this video!
What a wealth of information! Very helpful for those suffering from benzo withdrawal but also to those of us who are also helping our clients come off.
Thank you 🙏
Just wanted to say thank you for this compassionate video. I'm interested in psychology and healing in the community. If I could follow in your work and bring my experience and education back to people who don't know what's happening to them I could change a hell scape of burnt out neurotransmitters, no emotions and a joyless existence to having meant something meaningful. It's a lovely thing to share research. This video I will keep as a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge and insight. So thank God for your sharing of your knowledge as its a precious resource and must have taken you many hours of personal experience and work to achieve. A gift to humanity. Thank you 💖🙏
I noticed camomile helped with benzo brain. I started to collect teas to note the effect on healing as there isn't immediate access to herbs in a very old fashioned small town in Scotland, main population over 65 or large families of people living on the breadline, mostly everyone else moves to the cities I think. I have to heal benzo brain before escape 🙃. Bipolar is something I may have had but didn't ever have the compassion required for diagnosis, probably why I fell headlong into my chemical bomb testing, benzodiazepines are like plutonium for the central nervous system. Terrifying that I deliberately eliminated the drug, went through the acute withdrawal and have been left with brain injuries due to inappropriate and too brutal tapering, it wasn't a taper,xanax high doses which she didn't prescribe me, asked for help but was only given 30 mg for one month reducing 2mg a week, not rational for the level of tolerance and far too quick. I've been left with chronic inflammation, anxiety (existential terror attacks lasting hours, all day sometimes day and night). I will have to publish the related studies on benzo brain and dump the evidence with the partners at my gp surgery with a letter explaining what has happened. I wouldn't sue because I don't think it was intentionally an awareness of the cruelty she was inflicting but she could have killed me and I was having seizures before she would prescribe any tapering. The tapering when offered was too sudden for the brain to regenerate but it was as if she imagined it would only be the acute pain and then over, again, no awareness of how deep the brain damage these poisonous substances cause. I started to take vitamins and as much different fruits, smoothies and healthy diet as possible. Dr is ignorant to the long term problems associated with patient suffering. Thank god again for you taking care of humanity like this. I have the bloating and feeling of excess water in the upper gi tract, bloating and slow digestion, constipation and for sure probably candida, so I will take as much culture based yogurt drinks, again, hard to come by specialist herbal medicine here. Thank you once againxxmargaret
It's very good videos for many people who got sick and did not have any way to get out.
I love your videos please come back
You are a true worrier hero… thanks for leading the way in this fight for sanity!
Learning something new every time listening to video
I can’t tell you how much hope and help this has given me.
Currently tapering, it's hell, pure hell, I have never felt this crap in my entire life, any information that helps make this nightmare less horrible is greatly appreciated, they really need more information like this on UA-cam, because these tablets are exceedingly painful and horrible to get off. Thank you for the information 🙏
How are you doing?
@@blackmagiccat-6953 Nobody that makes post like this ever answers back
I can only conclude they healed and moved on with life.
I am 25 days off suboxone and 7 days off xanax. I used gabapentin to help cushion the wds days 2-5.
I'm not doing too bad relatively speaking.
Still dealing with wd symptoms but I am starting to believe I will heal.
@@chriskeith5742 does gabapentin help? How long it has to be taken?
@@Tilr701 Gabapentin definitely helps. It helped from the first day I took. I started taking my second day of withdrawal.
I took 600 mg first day, 3-400 second day, 2-300 3rd day, 150, 4th day, and then I took a couple days off ( you may need morenor less, but less is oftenas good in my experience) . I used gaba maybe 3 more times in that next couple weeks when symptoms got really intense. Definitely saved my ass that first couple days when the sh@t really hit the fan.
I'm 78 days off suboxone and about 50 days off the xanax now. I am definitely a lot better. Not a 100 % by any means but I feel like I have definitely turned the corner.
Good luck!
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
This is great. Thank you. ❤️ To all coming off benzos I wish you the best and you will most certanly heal, believe it and. dont panic.
You are so welcome
That’s my thing I was panicking
Thank you for taking the time to post this, thank you who posted the time stop, and thank you all for the insightful comments. I'm a 62 year old man. I've been abusing benzos for 45 years believe it or not. And never or very rarely where they prescribed. Unbelievable how they change your brain to being so totally dependent on and not being able to deal with life at all without them. I'm very ashamed at how I lived my life thanks to drugs especially benzos and alcohol. But I'm starting back at AA meetings to start (again after probably literally dozens of times trying to stop throughout my life maybe more) I read somewhere I think in AA literature that benzos are just solid booze. I never was really a raging alcoholic so I don't know if that's true but I imagine benzos are worse than alcohol to get off of and stay off of.
Benzos are solid boooze, that pretty ridicullous who ever says that. yes they both bind to gaba but are essentially very different..
@@bogse well I'm not a doctor or pharmacist. I'm just repeating something I heard or read that makes sense to me regarding my lifelong history of chemical dependency/,, alcoholism. I always loved and abused self soothing drugs (mostly benzos) and alcohol.
@@georgeporge7124 THey both bind to GABA and they are both depressants and when you took them together the effect is stronger and your tolerance skyrockets.
I understand if someone says benzos are booze in a pill but they are essentially very different and science doesnt even know all how alcohol effects. Alcohol goes inside your neurons and takes cell water out off them, thats why your pee is like water after few beers because it is almsot pure water that comes from your brain cells that are now filled with alcohol and fucked up.
Benxos dont do that, they just bind to GABA receptors but all in all these are very complex things.... but saying Coca-cola is candy in the bottle is more true than saying benzos are alcohol in pills... hope this made any sense =)
So helpful. This kind information is so needed. It’s sadly too rare . The man is a hero .
Thanks.
My next series of vids will be about the bipolar brain, but there still should be things of value for people wanting to learn about improving brain health/neuroplasticity.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatmentsCan you do one for SSRI withdrawal?
@@jrman413 actually the exact same principles apply to antidepressant withdrawal as Benzo withdrawal.
The fundamentals of eliminating all sources of inflammation and boosting neuroplasticity are the same whatever the drug.
The difference with antidepressants is to focus the neuroplasticity on serotonin systems by including serotonin boosters like saffron, zembrin, tryptophan and or 5HTP (the last 2 only after full discontinuation).
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatmentsThanks, I thougjt Saffron impacted dopamine
@@jrman413 It may have some dopaminergic effects but my experience and the research suggests it’s primarily a serotonin boosting supplement.
Great video, thank you so much! Could you maybe do a video on SSRI/antidepressant withdrawal (especially protraced), as you said it's kind of different from benzos? There are so many affected people from antidepressant discontinuation syndrome or symptoms when tapering, that would be much appreciated!
Agree. I suffer from horrible protracted withdrawal from SSRI. How is it different from benzos?
Changing my thinking was the only way I survived this. I still have the brain stuff it's not a way to live. We have to hold these doctor's accountable!!!
I am so sorry ... i also wish that functional medicine and integrative medicine doctors were more common, unfortunately this is a new branch and not so commonly practiced but soon its going to be common as its in high demand
What do u mean changing mind set?help your withrawal?
How exactly did you do that?
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
What do you mean the brain stuff?
2 1/2 years off Klonopin and still vibrate, shake and have anxiety so bad almost every day. Last night I took 50mg of Apigenin and 30 minutes later I was calm, no shakes, no anxiety. I hope this supplement continues to help me.
That's great, it shows that your brain can (still) achieve a balanced state, with enough time and the right approach it could be helped to achieve a healthy balance and stay there on its own so to speak.
Apigenin is a polyphenols that as many health promoting effects specifically on the brain, it's therapeutic profile is particularly well suited to the needs of people with the benzo brain and many of my patients experienced the same positive results (although not everyone is the same of course).
Since you have found apigenin beneficial I would recommend you could try experimenting with other polyphenols. The 1st thing to do would be consumer diet superhigh polyphenols and flavonoids (similar substances), you can see polyphenols and flavonoids in foods, they are the colours in plant foods; so every meal, 3 meals a day should have half plate of coloured plant foods: red tomatoes, red peppers, orange carrots, green spinach, kale, broccoli, purple sweet potatoes, black rice, red cabbage, red onions, black olives, a very smoothly for desert. For breakfast you may not want to eat 1/2 plate of vegetables, no problem, but vegetables and berries in a blender and drink a smoothie with your breakfast.
There is an idea that gone around the world that the therapeutic healthy target is 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, this is totally outdated and completely wrong. We now think that the average healthy person to consume 9 portions of fruit and veg a day just to maintain health and prevent disease. But no-one interested in my channel is an average healthy person and for people (I include myself) that have brain issues that need to be treated even 9 portions of fruit and veg a day doesn't deliver the optimum amount of polyphenols and flavonoids.
If you want to really change the health of your brain go for a minimum of 12 portions of fruit and veg a day. I tried chewing that amount and it just takes too long, especially breakfast so the way to do it is by putting the coloured plant foods into a blender and consuming them in smoothies.
Some time ago I made a video about polyphenols and flavonoids, also see the UA-cam channel by Dr Gregor nutrition facts online, these need lots of videos about polyphenols and flavonoids, how to obtain them and some of his videos discuss how the substances benefit brain conditions including depression and Alzheimer's; is not however an expert in the benzo brain.
In addition to diet the other polyphenols supplement that is almost tailor-made the needs of the benzo brain is Magnolia bark.
Good luck with your healing journey
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you so much!
I went into a very bad wave after a week of taking Apigen. Seven hours of constant adrenaline one day. I quit taking it.@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments
@@crayzylaydy I’m very sorry to hear that. It doesn’t mean that Apigenin is wrong for you, it needs to be taken in a balanced way with other supplements and at the right dose, these things matter. Also when the brain like any other part of the body starts to heal it can initially hurt or make things worse.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you very much for this amazing video. Please can we use Relora as magnolia bark source?
Great Job, Sir. This information is Immensely Valuable. I can't thank you enough.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, i've been on 1MG clonazapam three times a day since my thierties ; i found this vidio very interwsting. My doctor retierd a year an a half ago, tought existance getting off all my med. I can do this !!!
Thank you Mr. Smith. I started taking kratom as a way to stop drinking, using cocaine, and managing adhd, but it had serious consequences physicaly socially and psychologically so I decided to quit cold turkey.
My girlfriend had a prescription for lorazepam which she only knew as being an occasional sleep aid, and so as I was dealing with insomnia and restless leg syndrome from rapidly quitting kratom I started taking her lorazepam over a 2 weeks period, between 1 to 3 mg/night depending on my ability to fall asleep.
After just 2 weeks of use I am going through intense withdrawals after running out of the pills. I didn’t realize until I looked it up that these new withdrawals were not an extension of my kratom withdrawal but are most definitely from the benzo.
I am currently in a hell of my own making, so I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with people going through this nightmare.
Sorry to hear that.
Your brain would not have been in a healthy condition so the Benzos would have had a stronger effect effect.
Although you are suffering now the brain is incredibly repairable, reduce inflammation, flood your brain with polyphenols, boost BDNF/neuroplasticity with everything you can diet,supplements, exercise and meditation. In time your brain can heal.
If you’d like me too help you with this you can book an appointment online:
Calendly.com/petersmithuk
You have more information then most, that’s accurate and positive, you deserve much more subscribers. I will use these remedies while i taper my Klonopin in rehab, thank you so much!
Thank you :-) I've only just started my UA-cam journey, gained 83 subscribers in the last 28 days so it's beginning to get going.
I'm not trying to do a hard sell but I am available for private consultations for benzo withdrawal if that is something that interests you, see my site for more details.
Good luck on your journey.
Tzars this
How are you doing? I haven’t started yet, but I’m in a FB support group, the stories are terrifying.😌
@@saundrac9 Oh Girl, stay out of the Fb support groups, very triggering, I'm starting my first taper with Peter this week, already had a consultation with him on zoom, taking supplements and anti-inflammatory diet for the last 9 days, doing a slow taper of 5% to start off Klonopin..I will check in with the support groups after I have been tapering awhile, but to read all the horror stories is very discouraging. Good luck to you.
@@saundrac9 what's the name of the FB group page?
I cannot thank you enoguh for doing this! I have learned so much about so much from your video! I I am not on benzos but I looked in my medicine cabinet and I have some! But your knowledge has given me So Much info that applies to Everyone! And I have a female friend that I have known for over 20 years, she had to have spine , neck surgery to seperate her discs and she was also one bezos for YEARS, among other drugs, activan, her docs told her if anyone else had taken all the stuff she was it would kill them....BUT, because of her spine surgery, that doctor took her off all that...so beside recovering from surgery she dealing with benzo withdrawls but so far has been fairly mild, but You helped me understand and share with her how much her body and mind are dealing with all this! I cannot thank You enough!!! Spot on! :) and I found you at exactly the right time...God bless You Sir!
This is incredible advice for everyone.. so comprehensive.. recovering from MCAS, which after a decade, seems to have been almost totally resolved with low doses of lithium orotate.
I was down to six foods I could eat, and couldn't leave the house without a gas mask.
Starting to wean off the meds that were helping me cope with that condition, including benzos, and ketamine, and this information has already been helpful as I begin to implement some of your advice. Thank you so much!
You are very welcome, glad you found it helpful.
Good luck with your healing journey
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Would you have.. or be able to point me towards.. any more specific advice regarding recovery from ketamine, or would all of this same advice apply?
@@AronTobasco I haven't developed any specific treatment protocols for Ketamine, so the only treatment I could offer would be a general all-round neuroplasticity boosting combination of supplements, diet et cetera.
May l ask what you used honestly l can't get my head around all the vitamins etc. So thankful l stumbled across this after a year looking.
To create the ideal healing environment within the brain you have to consider where are the main sources of inflammation ( guts, stress hormones, infections, poor sleep, poor diet, etc. ) and each case needs to be tailored to the specific conditions so there isn’t a one size fits all solution. I know this is not the answer you want to hear but it is the reality of the situation.
I do 1-2-1 consultations online and
I adjusted each prescription I write according to the individual case.
If you want me to develop an individual prescription for you you can book an appointment on my website.
www.balancingbrainchemistry.co.uk
Thank you for a very informative and comprehensive video Sir. It gives me hope and a lot of new insight into the recovery process..
Glad it was helpful!
Bravo dr. Smith! I mean it! This is an incredibly helpful and informative video! I applaud your effort and your openness regarding such a delicate topic as mental health!
I myself have unfortunately been taking benzos for almost 10 years now, and 2 days ago, as many times before, i accidentally forgot to renew my prescription. I am unintentionally in bad, cold turkey withdrawal now, 3rd night of insomnia, racing thoughts, vomiting, spasms, etc. But I want more than anything to be free of these drugs and dependence, and your approach seems as most intuitive and helpful, since I sadly don't do most of the things you talk about (healthy plant based diet, neuroplasticity, exercise, removal of inflammation, etc), and in fact do the opposite. :( fast food almost every day, no exercise, bad gastric health, bad oral health...
I hope that once I get back to "normal" in my head on Monday when i get my meds, that i will finally say enough is enough, and kick myself in the arse, and get on with doing what you suggest.
Once again, kudos and thank you!
@T.Kristiansen no... I am not. I almost lost my mind and was walking a tight rope between sui*ide and irreversible psychosis, so I decided I would rather live, and so I am still taking X...
And you?
@T.Kristiansen i am fully functional, I keep a strict rule to never increase my dose, no matter what... I have a stable job, i live alone, i am fully self- sufficient, and need no help from anyone...
But yes, i hate that I cannot live without my X pills.
Other than that, I travel, I enjoy life, I do what I want...
But if i somehow lost access to my pills, I would lose everything, and that scares me when I think about it.
So... I'm making money, trying to balance out my life to a point where I can safely try to get off of these pills.
You are an angel, Peter.
Thank you for your contribution to this community.
You are truly brilliant and full of great information.
We are so grateful for you.
XO
Rev. Heather Elizabeth
You are welcome
Good luck with your healing journey
Thank you for the video. Sorry for the mean people remember it's not about you it's about them. God bless you 🙏🏻
I was afraid to make this video because I’m saying something different and people warned me I would receive a lot of haters but I been pleasantly surprised, only had positive comments except for one “100% Bull shit!” and one “change the title to scam”. First one made me laugh second one offended because honesty is a core value of mine.
Thanks for what you said, appreciate it.
Let me know there a particular subject you are interested in seeing a video on.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments I am in benzos withdrawals trying my best to get off the mess. I pray for something to help this hell to be easier. I am taking one day at a time. I know me you are helping someone to not have to bad of time getting off. For i am afraid to take a supplement because part of me thinks it could help and part of me afraid. I just want off and praying for the day I am Healed in JESUS Precious Name AMEN
If you eat well and exercise the brain is capable of healing itself but it’s slow. Natural remedies and intensive diet therapy can speed it up.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Could you do videos on eat healthy for the healing for the brain
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Can you please talk to me i am not feeling well i still tapering off benzodiazepine
Thank you so much! I finally start to understand what is happening/happened to me!
Now I have to start getting rid of my infections! That still seems quite difficult to find out. And to treat. Starting with going to the dentist, using neti, gorgling with seasalt water. And checking out my bacterial overgrow with labtests. Daily meditation. Taking the herbs for sleeping, that is my biggest struggle. Falling asleep.
What is this infection stuff people talk of? Is it related to Valium ?
This is Unbelievably the best video I've seen on benzo recovery yet. This man is really the bright 🌞 I have been searching for.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
In here Finland we have situation what I call "benzo crisis". Doctors aren't prescriping benzos anymore hardly at all, so then strong foreign alprazolam & clonapzepam products are FLOODING to street markets from Eastern Europe. I ate clonapzepam at 6mg almost an year, before I started slow tapering to 1mg then I switched to diazepam & oxazepam. But I couldn't make it, so I continued almost 2 years eating diazepam & oxazepam. +4 years total. But now I have been full month without benzos! I went to rehabilitation center 6 weeks ago to make the final step to quit for good. Thank you for this very informative video! My doctor just gave me a weird look when I told her about remedies. I think because she would wanted that I ate sertralin and there's an interaction. But man, at withdrawal I feel the remedies even more important than normally. I literally feel them! I use this combination daily: B-complex, C-vitamin, zinc and magnesiumhydroxid at the morning. At the evening I take this combo, which really is sedating: Taurine + l-tryptophan, l-thanine, magnesium biglycinate, lemon balm, camomile, ashwagandha, b6-vitamin. Recommendation for supplementing remedies! This helps me sleep whole night 8h without waking up, which I wouldn't do without these (yeah, I've tried :D). They really calms me down the way I can feel it, eyes starting to become heavier and mind peacefull.
Same in Sweden. They cut it off directly. In rehabs with specialst psychiatrists they cut max. 5 days. Insane
@@belizejuliette7223 That's really sick...
I'm now 5 months off from benzos 😎
Doctors here in Finland and Fweden are idiots
Thank you, Dr Peter. I know you are sharing good wisdom and knowledge and experience. I am overwhelmed. But I will keep trying.
You can do it!
I'm trying to get an online appointment but you don't answer mails @NaturalMentalHealthTreatments
So enjoyed learning from you. On benzos following severe ovarian failure and insomnia resulting in a total hysterectomy. It has been 6 years and I am still not healthy or sleeping despite “hormone management”. Would love it if video conferencing was an option. I am in the US. Thanks and best of luck to you
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
I too have no ovaries removed experimental 2012. Been on benzodiazepines since 2004 tapering its brutal. Are you on the Surgical menopause groups ? . Struggling with both
I really had to trudge through the muck and mire to get to this gentleman’s channel. But I’m so thankful I did! I really hope he starts uploading again!
10mg of Valium daily from 2014-19. Tapered to 7.5mg during Covid. Tapered down to 5mg daily by last year. When I went below 5mg a day, it only took a week of 4mg instead of 5mg to land me in the emergency room. Seizures, cold sweats, bowel issues, stomach muscle pain, head aches, nerve and body pain. Just looking for any help before getting ready to go to hell and back again. So scared. Appreciate and inspired by all of you.
That sounds horrendous. 1kg of epsom salt in the bath daily might help🙏Good luck.
@@The_New_Abnormal_World_Orderhow does the Epson salt help?
@@madelynhernandez7453 Epsom salt is magnesium sulphate. Magnesium is known as 'nature's tranquilizer.' It's fine to take magnesium tablets but you can only absorb so much that way. A hot bath with epsom salt is a great way to absorb magnesium, especially into the muscles. Historically epsom salt has been used to treat seizures and it is still used in the ER to treat many conditions.🙏🙏
Jumping down an entire milligram
Is too much do it the taper much slower
Magnesium helps a good quality one
Try running and praying
Finally the best video I’ve seen thus far I applaud this man for putting this video out there’s a wealth of information people should consider I’m recommend homeopathic remedies over prescription meds unless it’s absolutely necessary to take prescribed medications. Thank you for making and sharing this video many people need to see this video. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Doctor you are good and prefer natural remedies .I have been off benzodiazepines for 7 years and still have protracted withdrawal.Cannot sleep at all no matter what I take.Please help me to sleep.I take a lot of supplements and am gluten free but nothing helps.Please help me .I am 74 and struggling.God Bless and keep doing what you are doing to help people dealing with benzo protracted withdrawal,🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🤩
Thank you so very much for your help, God Love You and be Good to You and Everyone effected from medication and or drugs, may God restore us ALL
I very much appreciated this video. Quite informative and very practical! Thanks so much for caring to take the time! Was wondering if you would mind doing a video on restoring sleep/reseting circadian rhythm from benzo withdrawal insomnia?
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
Ty! So greatful to have found you. Gbless you. 🙏🏻
I just listened to 20minutes, I can only say that this is a great video. You should be more visible.
Please ignore the trolls on the web, thanks for sharing knowledge, especially how the brain works.
Thank you so much. I’ve gotten used to the haters and trolls now. I’m gonna be much more visible and grow my social media content. I spent 25+ years working in 1 to 1 in a private clinic, in the shadows so to speak. It suited me because I’m both highly introverted and I used to have social anxiety; also my clients wanted total anonymity. Today I’m completely free from the social anxiety and embracing my introverted nature which has unexpectedly enabled me to be more social (in the right doses), also today many people are interested in sharing there stories so I’ll be making a lot more posts over the coming years.
Thank you.
This is empowering and hopeful. ❤️
I wish you would make more videos but I'm doing it myself. Researching stuff now for more mental health issues.
I wish I’d make more videos! But my time is been taken up, there’s been a big shift in my practice since the pandemic. At this point, I’m within a couple of months of starting up UA-cam videos and serialising the chapters of my forthcoming book, Living Well with Bipolar Disorder
Thank you so much for this....I cant express my gratitude
You give me some hope. Thank you so much.
This is exactly what I have been looking for!
You are a good dude, something most people don't have inside of them the care to help others on a mass scale..
Thanks
Back in my 20’s when my life hung in the balance with suicidal depression a therapist taught me the positive mental health effects of helping others, of working in service, of giving and it was great advice. It gives me a purpose and sense of meaning.
I’ve seen psychology studies that showed acts of random kindness reduces anxiety and depression.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments any advice about Niacin??
tremendous amount of wisdom
Thank you 😊
Daniel how r u now. friend
Thank you for your real information
You’re welcome
Is there a particular subject you want to see a video on?
Excellent video, one of the few I could find with up to date information on new research and approaches to treatment
I’m glad you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for this video. It really helped clear up alot of things for me.
Please are you going to make anymore videos, please do as I like them so much 🙏
So glad I found you, learning what I needed to hear.
You’re welcome.
Let me know what subjects you are interested in seeing videos on, not promising I’ll make a video just for you but it helps to to choose subjects.
Hi I been on kolonapine 1mg 3 times a day.8yrs I beleave I herb healing you are nice informative. Thank you friend.😊
Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation! So much great information, and it is so refreshing to hear someone willing to buck the Benzo Old-timers who think it their life goal to frighten patients into actually remaining clinically deficient in the most important vitamins and minerals. Then towards the end, your mention of taurine was certainly an ah-ha moment. I started taurine, and found it to help amazingly well. I look forward to hearing more.
If you're finding taurine good you could also try high intensity interval training exercise, they both stimulate neurogenesis in the hippocampus.
It's not my intention to be antagonistic, my style is to just positively promote what I think it's helpful, but I am glad that you found the information refreshing, I did want to do that.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments Thank you for the response. I will certainly give the exercise a try. I did not mean to imply that you came off as antagonistic. You certainly did not, and you absolutely succeeded in just positively promoting your ideas.
As I find time, I am reading the vast amount of information on your website. I am learning, and look forward to learning more. Great job!
you made absolute sense, thank you
Your videos have been so helpful sir. I can relate to much of your experience. Are you still available to email? I live in Texas btw. I hope you're doing well. I haven't seen any recent videos. Its May of 2023. Most of your videos show they were from 3 years ago. I'd love to hear an update! Thank you for doing what you do to help others as well. 😊
I can not thank you enough for your information. Love your presentation .. super
Brilliant Man... miss your videos!
Where have you been the last 12 years..... Hope to learn much more 🙏 the universe may bless you
Thank you for this video has helped so much with my understanding do you know anything about withdrawing and having the MTHFR gene mutation? I am Elmo’s I guess and I do not get enough food right and I am also histamine intolerant now because of the benzo’s and I need to eat the food that is good for me but it is so high in histamine it is hard to know what to do
Hello from Denver. Please cover more about GABA. I have a 24 yr old non-verbal autistic son. For a decade Psych and Neurological doctors prescribed Benzos. Off the drugs coming up on a year. At 18 yrs old started having seizures. They called them Epilepsy but I’m not sure it wasn’t a side effect of Benzo dependence.
We are now low Carb/Keto / Carnivore.
Wow! Awesome! Awesome!
Your reasons for supplement fears makes much sense!
Magnesium being OK is one was very informative, as was Chamomile!
To all Benzo Brains - watch this entirely. Its long but take it in short moments and take notes.
Thanks Robert I hope it helps.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments we should take magnesium?
@@mindytice6965 What kind of Magnesium is best there are so many please reply
@@teresaj7796 Magnesium Glycinate
They all work, citrate is good value and an effective delivery system, it moves the bowels which can be a good thing or too much for others.
Glycinate doesn’t affect the bowels.
Threanate is claimed to be better for delivery to the brain but it’s incredibly expensive.i personally use citrate.
Thankyou so much you’ve given me much hope and positive thoughts. ❤
Happy to help.
Hello. Great channel. What a wealth of information. Many thanks
I had an idea for a video. You mentioned about being slightly in denial about accepting your bipolar disorder in your early thirties. I also resented and denied my diagnosis. Perhaps you could spend a few minutes making a video discussing why this is in our nature, particularly young men.
Glad you like my channel.
I like your idea thanks.
this video is pure gold! thank you so much🙏🙏🙏
Glad it was helpful!
Everyone of my doctors thinks im bsin cause (im 54 days off Klonopin) they think i should of been fine after 2 weeks lol ridiculous i still feel like im in acute .. pvcs,pots,hbp,severe anxiety,intrusive thoughts,nausea,gi issues and so much more smh
I really like your videos. Thanks for your hard work!
Glad you like them!
I’m working on another big one, introducing my forthcoming book Living Well with Bipolar Disorder. I’ll be covering all the known manifestations of BD and treatment options.
Not so sure how helpful it’ll be directly for benzos but there’ll be a lot on making the brain healthier.
What great information Doctor thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much! Fantastic information, appreciate you.
Thank you for sharing these ideas. Magnesium has helped me and I will add Chamomile Tea. You are so knowledgeable and so many people can use this information!
Great, I hope the additional chamomile helps.
Hi Peter, love your work, i,m just startint a valium taper and would love some advice from you on the best thing to aid with sleep because thats the reson i started taking them, does the chamomile and magnolia bark work like benzos, if so i will look into buying some, let me know thanks
What about the CNS? No one seems to talk about this. GabaA and Glutamate are the only factors explored. But the CNS/PNS almost never gets explored.
thank you so much sir i learned a lot from your authentic videos
You are most welcome
Thank you for this highly informative video. This video couldn't have come at a better time, I am in the midst of getting over a strong benzo and etizolam. I was not informed by my doctor of how difficult they are to get off of, neither was I informed that they need to be tapered off. I was told to stop them cold turkey. As a result, I have been going thru some awful withdrawal symptoms. So thank you very much for all this information. I have subscribed to your channel. Keep up the great work.
Along with watching your video carefully, I have also downloaded e-book versions of the books by Dr. Bredesen and Dr. Kharazzian.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
@@frebrd78 thank you so much for the suggestion
@@annad.1471 I've been on 3mg/day Xanax and 5mg Ambien for 18 years. I can barely function anymore. I hope this YT page can help others. I just found it recently. 🙏
love your content, really looking forward to you posting more :)
Thanks
My time is tied up with something else just now but through 2023 will be serialising chapters of my upcoming book
Living Well With Bipolar
I’m very interested in talking to you. I’ve been trying to get off benzos for 5 years. I did finally taper off .50 K a year ago, but i still have 3 mg Valium to taper. I had to stop tapering during the pandemic! I have been working with a neural retraining program (DNRS) which has helped a lot with many of the stress related illnesses that develop during benzo wd, things like POTS, MCAS, Chemical & Food sensitivities, dysautonomia, Burning Tongue syndrome, etc. However, I am still unable to stop fight/flight/freeze that occurs typically when I get a bit anxious, especially related to health anxiety as well as doing anything novel - like driving somewhere new.
Anyway, I believe you make a lot of sense and you are a doctor, not just a person who is trying to taper off benzos.
Where did you the DNRS
OMG this man has said so many things that are the root of my sickness,teeth! omg oral health is so important
Hi Doctor, I am glued to your video so far and want to ask you if you can explain which supplements you speak of cross the blood-brain barrier (I hear about that in a lot of my resources online), and also very important to me is the right magnesium to take? My issue is weaning off 1 mg of clonazepam which I've been on 30 years. I'm just doing 1/4 less to start with, and when I feel ok with that, I will try another quarter, which then would be .5 mg. My story is long so I won't tell it all here. Just little bit which is more important to me which is getting off the one drug I take, only drug I take. I successful now for 2.5 years on Keto, and 70 years old, go to gym atleast 3 times per week and love my 2 mile walks at about 4 mph. Thank you for your videos, I am happy to find you. I was put on drug for anxiety/depression and slight tremor. Everything is worse now, especially tremor, Denise Pacific Northwest Oregon
Denise. he hasn't uploaded a video for 3 years.
@@citizenjournalist2533 thanks for this, I will look at dates next time I view a video ;)
This is amazing content 🙏🏻
Thanks.
Good luck with your healing journey
Do you have any suggestions for panic disorder and how have you been doing this past year? I haven't seen any updated videos so I'm just making sure everything's going well.
I don't see his activity here in the past year?
Great stuff Peter. Many blessings.
Thanks, you too!
I honestly can't take it all in. 😢 Thank you glad l found this video. Wish l had found it sooner 80mg prescribed 20 years down to 10mg .
It is a lot to take in, but that’s the nature of brain science…
Good luck with your recovery.
Thank you Sir good job. I have been on lorazepam 2mg for 10 plus years. I was using 5htp and tyrosine alongside with the meds with the intention of easing off the meds. I started having bad headaches . Upon hearing that these herbs cannot work with my meds and causes headaches I stopped 3 days now. Headaches are lessening. I have started reducing inflammation by my diet and taking omegas. Started a bit of vegetables and fruits. Doing dental checks. Using probiotics, liver supplements for gut care. Doing some excercises. I started to use half the dose of lorazepam 1mg . I started to use valerian, magnesium, bcomplex to help with tapering. Can I use ashwagandha as well. What other vitamins can I take to help with tapering. I really appreciate all the help I can get am so grateful for taking time to assist me.
Check out Benzodiazepine Information Coalition for validation of tolerance, withdrawal, protracted withdrawal. They don't provide functional medicine assistance, mainly validation. God Bless 🕊
@@frebrd78 yes now this is again scary and confusion. Not dping anything also isn't making things better
@@aashish551 They do much more than nothing. They helped MA approve a law so that doctors cant just stop prescribed benzos due to the damage the meds cause with abrupt stoppage. They are getting the word out about slow tapering. Please check them out online. And trust me, I understand the struggle. I've been in 3mg xanax and ambien for approximately 18 years now so I know the struggle all to well. Each person is different so unless your willing to try different herbs/supplements on your own your SOL. Or pay a lot of money for a functional medicine doctor. I was on a very low, controlled dose of vicodin and was yanked of that in 2016 and withdrawal was nothing compared to trying to self taper even small amounts of xanax.
Great video!!! I was expecting for you to list the supplemnrs to take. Do you have another vidoe that lists these to help in benzo recovery?
Do you prefer chamomile and magnolia to herbs like valerian, passionflower, hops etc? Also what about lions mane mushroom? Isn't that supposed to be high in nerve growth factor?
When treating the benzo brain the most important thing is to select remedies that have anti-inflammatory, and neuroplasticity enhancing properties. Passionflower and hops do not significantly possess these qualities, I really like both of these herbs, I often use them for cases of anxiety but in the benzo brain the focus has to be promoting synaptic plasticity.
Passionflower is a great herb for anxiety, it is nonaddictive so it's perfectly safe to use, it also has useful dopaminergic effects, I use it in cases of anxiety and bipolar disorder with comorbid anxiety (the dopaminergic effect is useful for the bipolar brain). I always have a bottle myself at home and you take some occasionally following significantly stressful events prior to significantly stressful events.
Hops is a great sleep aid, even just inhaling it if you can get your hands on very fresh hops, stuff it into a sock or small pillowcase and put it inside your pillowcase it can knock you out to sleep.
Valerian is quite a strong herb, some people feel great on it other people don't like the way it makes them feel at all, I've taken it before bed and although I slept deeply I had horrible nightmares and just didn't like the way it made me feel. Many people report similar experiences. Having said that there is some interesting research suggesting that it is a GABA antagonist (yes I said antagonist) and that this may stimulate neuroplastic repair by putting the GABA synapses under even more stress and in the process speed up the recovery of the benzo brain. The problem with this however is that if it's working as a GABA antagonist it may end up making you feel awful until it has repaired healthy GABAergic function.
In the end you always have to do personal experimentation, trial and error to see how these remedies affect you in the real world. As I said elsewhere I have been using these remedies for a few decades now and they never produced any dependency or habituation, when properly used they are to all intents and purposes totally safe and side-effect free, therefore you can experiment using them in combinations to manage your symptoms and with the herbs that have neuroplasticity boosting effects speed up your recovery.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments ll
Thank you very much great video.
Great video! When will you be making one about the supplements you are currently taking to control your bipolar? I also have bipolar ll. I’m very interested in controlling mine in a natural way as well.
I wish I could give you an exact date but I can't, this whole process of getting out the videos is much slower than I thought it would be, and I do have some other projects/videos to do first
Yes! I am very interested in hearing about your transitioning off of lamotrigine for example, and supporting the system naturally for someone with bipolar disorder. My husband is on meds and after coming off of antidepressants and benzos I am fearful for him! I would love to have him taper and support his system naturally!!
hey man, I appreciate you putting this video together. Thanks for taking your time and helping the best you can. I have just started watching your video -- I am sure that it will help :]
You are welcome.
Good luck with your healing journey.
I was on Alprazolam 0.5mg three times a day for anxiety. I have been off Alprazolam since November 6, 2021 and am dealing with dizziness. How long will it last? Do benzos suppress the vestibular system?
Thank you. Very interesting that you started restoring health in the nineties. That’s when I was put on klonopin. No instructions on the side effects. 2024, I’m on my 3rd year of titration. Origin 2mg prescription. Now I’m at 5mg. It’s been brutal even my titration has been.
That’s tough, stay strong and determined, it’s a long and brutal journey but once you get off the drugs you can stimulate the growth of brand new synapses that have never been exposed to benzos and are fully functional and normally calibrated.
The brain can regrow and you can eventually recover your life.
Good luck with your recovery.
@@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments I sent your video to me via text in order to watch over and over. I am very hopeful. My goal, post my 2018 craniotomy was to get off all my psychiatric and seizure meds ( seizures caused by the meningioma, right temporal lobe) success with Wellbutrin and seizure meds over a year of titration. First step for me is to understand the neurological pathway as you have described and the withdrawal symptoms; insomnia, increased anxiety and complete disillusionment with life. What a relief. Next I will implement the supplement suggestions. With no intention of placing blame on my psychiatrist of 30 years for not walking me through this process as you have, it would have been helpful. I am a “better late then never” reasoning type of person. I was subject to maternal narcissistic abuse all my life up to 2020, when the 96 year old mother finally died, and teen years paternal molestation. I buried the pain because of the era I was born and the family normalization of this toxic behavior. My craniotomy healing included an uproar of PTSD. That also has been brutal and also life saving for me to address it with clarity and reason than masking my emotional pain with the psychiatric meds. Thank you for your support and validation. It’s powerful to be heard and supported.