There are probably no other two words more common in the benzo communities than "glutamate" and "GABA." Most new clients I have, even people at the beginning of their tapers or preparing for a taper, already know these two terms. And they already have a sense of what is happening.
However, no one seems to be talking about what parts of the brain glutamate and GABA impact and why. For the last decade, this has been shocking to me. It's like talking about an inhaler medication but never mentioning the lungs. I want to try to expand on these concepts and bring them into harmony with what I teach my clients/students.
Firstly, Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter produced in the brain by glial cells. In simplest terms, its function is to excite, stimulate, and speed up brain processes. Glutamate increases during vigorous physical exercise, trauma, heightened fear, and chemical withdrawal. Hence, as we come off benzos, which introduce GABA to our brain, an inhibitory neurotransmitter (slows down the brain), glutamate levels can spike, and our brains speed up, creating more anxiety and more withdrawal symptoms. However, studies also show a strong correlation between low glutamate and high stress. Anxiety levels are at their best, not in cases of extremely low glutamate but in normal ranges of glutamate. Hence, glutamate isn't our enemy.
Still, the prevailing logic in the benzo community is that we must lower glutamate as much as possible to mitigate symptoms. This makes me wonder if we aren't doing ourselves a disservice by going to such great lengths to reduce our glutamate. It might seem confusing because we lower glutamate, or so the belief is, by avoiding stimulation, exercise, certain foods, and doing a slow, gradual taper.
A slow, gradual taper is probably the most significant predictor in that equation, not because of direct glutamate response but because of sheer withdrawal symptomology. However, it is true that by initially avoiding stimulation, we might help calm glutamate response, but that comes with a risk and shouldn't become a way of life. There's a tipping point there. Before long, it's almost like an addiction, by which we are chasing that calming feeling through greater and greater acts of stimulus avoidance until we become dangerously fragile.
Further, studies have shown a specific correlation between glutamate and the hippocampus, a dynamic part of the limbic system, our fight-or-flight center. But before we talk about that, let's take another close look at GABA. Benzos bind to GABA and enhance feelings of safety and peace by slowing down the brain's overfiring, specifically glutamate excitatory actions.
It's not that GABA is in itself some kind of "feel-good" neurotransmitter, but that it slows down overexcitability, which allows us to feel more calm. It also allows us to lower fight-or-flight chemical reactions, which arrest those feel-good chemicals.
For example, when we are running from a bear, the body prioritizes its functions.
There's no time to stop and smell the roses" when a grizzly bear is chasing you.
There's no time to feel all safe, sweet, and lovely inside while trying to avoid life-threatening danger, as this would defeat the very purpose of the fight or flight center. Imagine seeing a bear, and it worked the other way around. Instead of a rise in glutamate, we experience a surge in GABA. We would then have even less instinct to evade the bear and might feel so at peace and calm we might try to pet the bear.
Naturally, this would end very badly for us!
All of this chemistry isn't new to the brain. It's there for a very good reason, and it shares a symbiotic relationship with the limbic system.
As fear, even falsely perceived fear, increases, our brain becomes more excitable. It becomes calmer as we calm our nervous system and show the limbic system we are not in danger. A more excitable brain is going to produce significantly more severe withdrawal symptoms than a calm brain.
This isn't anything new to the benzo community. However, how people have been going about this has been complicated, I believe. They tend to focus too much on lowering glutamate via diet or by avoiding stimulation, especially exercise.
While it's true that exercise can increase glutamate, that's not entirely a bad thing.
As the saying goes, "We must agitate to alleviate." Vigorous exercise can increase glutamate, but it also helps lower cortisol and norepinephrine levels and releases other feel-good chemicals. So, while it may initially raise glutamate slightly, it can also lower glutamate post-exercise (mild-to-moderate exercise) and create neuroplasticity in the brain.
In other words, at the very least, it's a necessary risk.
There's too much throwing the baby out with the bathwater within the benzo community.
Magnesium, L-theanine, or Vitamin D3 can work wonders, but because some people don't tolerate them, they're preached against in the benzo communities. I argue we need to get away from this mentality and return to a rational recovery approach.
Also worth mentioning is that one usually shouldn't engage in vigorous exercise while in acute withdrawal!
It isn't exercise that's a risk but vigorous exercise. None of us reading this are likely climbing mountains, running marathons, or preparing for bodybuilding competitions in our current state. In that case, of course, we should engage in mild exercise frequently. It's quite literally one of the best things we can do for our recovery and after.
On the topic of exercise and glutamate, why do so many people feel better after they exercise? Because exercise lowers stress hormones and promotes feel-good chemicals. It also produces neuroplasticity and helps remove waste from cells. Exercise improves every system and cell in the human body! We are designed to move. Not only do our bodies respond positively to exercise, but so do our brains. For many of us, mental health is likely more important than physical health perks.
I know many people who exercise for mental health and will do so for the rest of their lives.
Other excitatory neurotransmitters are epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are released during stress. This is why I talk so much about the limbic system; it is the stress-regulating center of the brain, and we are coming off a powerful anti-stress medication. Our brain uses GABA to slow down the brain's over-excitability, thus resulting in both mental and physical benefits. Our blood pressure decreases, and hyperarousal turns off. Our body can enter the parasympathetic state needed to rest and digest. Naturally, this has life-changing positive benefits for our mental health.
In a sense, the entire East has been preaching through its various religions how to access feel-good chemicals and suppress stress via the practice of initiating and entertaining a parasympathetic state of being. That's what meditation does: it accesses the parasympathetic system.
GABA is an inhibitor. It slows the brain down and allows our normal state of being to reemerge, which is a state of peace, compassion, passion, etc. The problem with this process is that, at some point, we became injured and neurotic. Our chemically fueled minds took over, and we left the Garden.
GABA levels have been shown to increase by 27% or more through just 60 minutes of meditation. Think about that for a moment. That's greater than any supplement you could find. And through practice, that number can grow, and one can begin to rewire their brain completely. This means living in a more continuous state of balance, peace, and regulation.
Still, no one talks about meditation in the benzo communities, probably because no one truly knows how to do it or what it is. That's been my experience. Meditation is not "emptying my mind" or "removing thoughts."
Let's drive this home.
Benzos are powerful cocktails of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps slow down the brain and keep our central nervous system in a rest and digest (parasympathetic) state. This means better mental, physical, and spiritual health. This means a greater chance of survival and facilitation of our species, which is how nature designed us.
Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that speeds up the brain. This is important for making life-saving, quick decisions. It can also put the body in a fight-or-flight (sympathetic) state. This happens through multiple brain parts working together to interpret mental, physical, and environmental cues. Coming off benzos can create a dynamic increase of glutamate with downregulation of GABA.
This process shares a symbiotic relationship with the limbic system, as GABA is essentially a limbic system tranquilizer. If you take enough of it, you can become dangerously fearless.
As we ruminate and come to fear our recovery, glutamate increases, and GABA is further depleted. This drops us below the expected levels or threshold of mere chemical withdrawal. While there's little we can do for Benzo withdrawal symptoms, as they relate to the uncontrollable variable of withdrawal, we can still significantly engage our recovery. We can learn how not to make mild or moderate symptoms become unbearable. We can learn how to stop feeding the bear.
Many of you reading this are likely suffering more than you need to be simply because your brain has slid into chronic fight or flight. Your symptoms are being greatly amplified and even created by our fear-driven rumination.
Benzo's withdrawal and recovery are more nuanced than glutamate and GABA. Other neurotransmitters and hormones have a powerful impact on our symptoms and recovery. The more we open our minds to this, the better we can realize the utilized tools at our feet.
Until next time. You are healing.
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