I usually consumed about 40 oz of Diet Mountain Dew per day. The headaches were bad the first two days, but I took two tylenol twice a day and that took about half the pain away. You know how you don’t feel like yourself when you are recovering from the flu or some illness? It was like that, noy very enjoyable but I could function.

After the second day it eased off considerably. I might have taken a couple single doses of tylenol. Two trying days and two or three light days and it was over. About a week into it, one day my joints ached, it was uncomfortable to bend over and walk. I took a sodium naproxen to relieve myself of that. Thankfully it was gone the next day – very weird.

My withdrawal experience was not bad, and I would recommend it to anyone. There is some suffering, but if you determine to do it (and pop some pills to help with the pain) you can get through it. I have zero desire for any pop now, haven’t had any in two months.

So what was I going to substitute for it? I think I was a bit dehydrated following the withdrawal. However bad drinking 40oz of pop was, it was easily half of my fluid intake, sadly, and I had cut that out. I bought some instant lemonade and sipped some of that for awhile, but now I am drinking more water. As long as it’s ice cold, I enjoy having it. I can’t say I’ve had any weight loss, there is still the matter of calorie intake and exercise there. But it’s weird walking around the store and realizing how prevalent pop is, and knowing I can skip that aisle from now on.

I got pop free at work, so I didn’t always have to pay for it. But 40 oz is easily $1/day if you went to the trouble of puring it from bottles, $2/day if you got it from a soda fountain. Anyone that had to pay full price could easily be saving $500/yr or more.

I wonder if I’ll ever be on a long drive and need a boost? Would I have a can of pop then? I think the answer is yes. I will try to avoid doing so, but I think I could easily have one can of pop and then be done with it. But I’ll put that decision off as long as possible…

I’m 35 and started drinking diet coke when I was about 13, by the age of 15 I was suffering from manic depression, 5 years later I had horrendous insomnia. Next I got IBS and now I’m sufffering from fibromyalgia.

The articles and information that I have read have led me to believe that aspartame poisioning is the reason behind all of my illnesses.

This is day 2 on my aspartame withdrawal. I am still taking small amounts of caffiene in green tea. So far I feel really drained and weak, I also feel angry and aggressive. I have a constant thirst that will not go away. I’m continually drinking water but it makes no difference. I also feel like my skin is crawling and I’m getting tingling sensations all over my body.

I’m disgusted. It is only now that we are seeing the effects of aspartame. It takes time for the damage to be done. Hopefully now people will see how dangerous it is and eventually get this hideous chemical out of our food chain. The company owners that makes this crap should be forced to consume stacks of it every day for years and see how they like the ill effects.

Rant, rant -it just makes me so mad. The truth will come out though, the truth is coming out….

As FINGERS CROSSED mentioned the benzo’s turned me in to a hermit just like I assume they do to anyone who takes them. WHY in the world would doctors prescribe these personality/mood altering drugs to people with minor anxiety??? Absolutely unbelievable. The problem is they change your personality/behavior/outlook on life very slowly that you don’t even realize it. You completely forget the kind of person you used to be.

Worse is old friends go off in different directions and so do family because they think you have changed. This does not happen over night. I have read that in Europe doctors do not prescribe benzos often because they understand the severe consequences of the drug. Wish that was the case here in the states. Not to get too far off topic but ever heard of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith? These are just a few of the famous examples that have appeared in the news the last few years. They were all drugged up and most likely had no control (as far as using sound judgement) over their actions. Sounds silly but I have been there and barely made it out alive.

On to the diet coke topic. I stopped drinking Diet coke a few months after quitting the med’s. I felt the withdrawal from the med’s but they subsided and than I quit the diet coke (5-9 cans a day). The diet coke gave me terrible short term memory as well as a grumpy personality which was totally abnormal for me considering I had always been very friendly and energetic.

Does diet coke cause memory loss? Hell yes it does. I couldn’t remember the titles or details of movies I had watched mere hours before. The first two months were terrible after quitting diet coke I had to read this thread 2-5 times a day to remind myself I wasn’t going crazy. It has been 8 1/2 months now and I still feel spacey. However, not nearly as bad and the memory loss issues are almost completely better with a few fuzzy moments now and than. It’s a process where I notice little improvements every couple weeks. It seems that some people have it bad where things improve within weeks and for some others they have it really bad where it takes months and months for others.

There is a lot of info on the web about Aspartame poisoning you just got to take the time and look for it. I will post later on my progress. For all of you who have written above please come back and tell us about your progress and what you have learned. Good luck to you all!

I had insomnia and my doctor prescribed a benzo to help me sleep, horrible idea… he kept me on these for 5 years, yes years, call me stupid but I did not know what a benzo was… during my sleep treatment he prescribed xanax ANOTHER BENZO… I went to get my annual checkup and told him the sleep help was no longer helping so he prescribed Ambien..

I decided to give my system a break so stopped the original pill for a couple of weeks… well on day two I thought I was having a stroke, my whole left side went numb and had heart palps and horrible dizzyness… called my sister for help and she told me to go to the emergency room.. being stubborn I started to search the internet… and stumbled on the withdrawals of benzos… OH MY GOD.. I was in full withdrawal… not sure what to do I sat a cried for a full day..I read the symptoms of being on the stuff for long durations and realized what was wrong with me… I had developed agoriphobia, dizzyness, fear of everything, even afraid to visit family, cannot even list everything and had not live my life for 4 years but got stuck in my bedroom… I was able to grocery shop, etc… but that is about all…did not realize I was so bad as I dont work outside the house so the symptoms crept up on me slowly…

I have lost years… well, now to the diet soda… to give me a pick me up from chronic insomnia I started my morning really pounding the diet pepsi, I had been using DP for YEARS, .. 2-4 liters a day… caffene free in the evenings, what trouble could that cause, this is now 6 months into my benzo withdrawal and still feeling pretty bad but at least off the drugs, may I add, I hate taking medications and try to rely on supplements… I should have known but my insomnia was so bad I just gave in… still feeling bad and watching my money go down the diet soda drain I thought maybe I should try to drink more water… then just cold turkey on the soda…

WOW… it is only day 2 and my head is clear, a little stuffy as if I have a cold and hate to say a bit gasous… but just think the toxins are leaving my system… still not sleeping much but my fuzzy headedness is much better today… I have been thru hell and back and just crossing my fingers that this is my last adn final withdrawal… taking magnesium, calcium, B1, C, mild thistle… three months ago I gave up as much white flour, high fructose corn syrup and most bad fats… eat mainly fish and chicken and try to do many fruits and veggis that I can scarf down… bottom line.. I was so dehydrated from so much caffine I could not function… my withdrawal from seems backwards from most posts… I am feeling much better today only day 2… my head is much clearer and so far my moods are already changing…maybe the worst is to come but enjoying today… something I will do everyday of my life…

this is probably very hard to read but had to get it off my chest to feel better… I am down 18 pounds from the diet change 3 months ago.. not really fat i now weigh 128 at 5′4″… oh, my tummy is actually flatter from the carbination bloat…

Good luck all..

FINGERS CROSSED