How it went
Did it last?
- 3 of 9 said the benefit wore off (including the 1 who relapsed).
- No one said they needed to keep it up to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 1 | 11% |
| Near-full | 3 | 33% |
| Substantial | 2 | 22% |
| Partial | 2 | 22% |
| Relapsed | 1 | 11% |
| No benefit | 0 | 0% |
Only 9 accounts. Treat these percentages as anecdotes, not rates.
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 1 | 100% | |
| Severe | 3 | 67% | |
| Very severe | 3 | 33% |
2 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
Right-hand number: share describing a full or near-full recovery. Pages that sell something, and advocacy sites, tend to publish only the successes.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Benzodiazepines and Klonopin, per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 3 | 184 | 16.3 |
| 2010 | 2 | 682 | 2.9 |
| 2011 | 12 | 704 | 17.0 |
| 2012 | 8 | 1,491 | 5.4 |
| 2013 | 16 | 1,708 | 9.4 |
| 2014 | 3 | 2,352 | 1.3 |
| 2015 | 25 | 2,158 | 11.6 |
| 2016 | 9 | 1,431 | 6.3 |
| 2017 | 15 | 3,110 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | 9 | 2,201 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 2 | 1,075 | 1.9 |
| 2020 | 44 | 2,581 | 17.0 |
| 2021 | 6 | 1,867 | 3.2 |
| 2022 | 4 | 1,166 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 2 | 1,000 | 2.0 |
| 2024 | 1 | 1,237 | 0.8 |
| 2025 | 9 | 1,019 | 8.8 |
| 2026 (so far) | 4 | 840 | 4.8 |
Posts in the forum threads we archived, 26,806 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These threads all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
All 9 accounts
-
Relief! I still have CFS but am a MILLION times better
julienl42's own title is his hedge: after 13 years and a long, actively-managed stack of prescription, antifungal, sleep and supplement treatments, he has gone from being in bed all day with 3-4 crashes a month to about one crash every one to two months,…
-
How I got in remission/cured my ME/CFS
Ali_Mardiyev, disabled for 1.5 years with POTS/dysautonomia/severe fatigue/PEM, layered a stellate ganglion block with beta-blocker, a testosterone course, several psychiatric medications, intermittent fasting and a slow graded-exercise ramp starting April…
-
Martin's Paradoxical Temporary ME/CFS Remission Story
Martin became ill after EBV reactivation, Lyme disease and food poisoning, and was bedbound for the last three of his ten years of illness with severe post-exertional malaise. Lyrica, benzodiazepines, tianeptine, quetiapine, rapamycin and methylprednisolone…
-
Robyn Dale
Robyn's treatment combined short courses of propranolol, zopiclone and diazepam early on with medium-term amitriptyline for insomnia, mood and muscle spasms, alongside daily walking, yoga, meditation and graded activity. She crashed severely in December 2021…
-
Robyn Dale
Robyn was prescribed short-term propranolol for heart arrhythmia and palpitations, at doses that were increased despite her objections, short-term zopiclone and diazepam to help her rest, and medium-term amitriptyline for insomnia, mood, and to stop cluster…
-
I experience possible cognitive improvement by lamotrigine and clomipramine
Nine years into ME/CFS, this poster reports memory, concentration and problem-solving symptoms "improved" on a combination of lamotrigine, clomipramine and clonazepam, and "worsen when I stop taking them for a few days" - a within-subject pattern she takes…
-
How I recovered.
Combined a multi-part protocol -- twelve $325 Oxford "homeostasis" peptide shots starting September 2013, a rotary diversified (Theron Randolph) elimination diet, vitamin D, low-dose naltrexone, Remeron, the Gupta amygdala-retraining program, and removing…
-
Feel much better on methylation and pyroluria treatment, but still weird symptoms
After years of chest pain and anxiety severe enough to require benzodiazepines, combining B12 injections, folate, P5P and a kryptopyrroluria (KPU) protocol of high-dose zinc and B6 resolved chest pain he'd had for over 2 years, sharply reduced anxiety, and…
-
Antihistamines for sleep
Used Benadryl (diphenhydramine) regularly for years as one layer of a multi-drug sleep regimen alongside chlorpheniramine, Dramamine, doxylamine and Atarax, for chronic insomnia with ME/CFS affecting both falling and staying asleep. He says he "swore by" it…