What Benzodiazepines Do to the Nervous System (in Plain Language)

Benzodiazepines—like lorazepam, Xanax, or Valium—are often prescribed in moments of crisis. Anxiety feels unbearable, panic steals your breath, or sleep won’t come. The relief they bring can feel like a miracle.

But many people don’t realize these medications act directly on the nervous system, the body’s most sensitive command center. While they provide short-term calm, long-term use can create dependence and withdrawal that leave people wondering what went wrong.

The Nervous System in a Nutshell

Your nervous system is your body’s wiring, constantly sending signals to regulate heart, breathing, and mood. It shifts between:

• Fight-or-flight (sympathetic): Prepares you for danger.
• Rest-and-digest (parasympathetic): Restores calm.

Healthy systems move fluidly between the two. Stress, trauma, and medications like benzos can disrupt this rhythm.

How Benzos Work

Benzos act on GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), the brain’s natural calming chemical. Think of GABA as a brake pedal. Benzos press that pedal harder, slowing brain activity and creating relief.

The problem? The brain adapts.

• Tolerance: The same dose works less effectively over time.
• Dependence: The brain begins to rely on the drug to function.

Stopping suddenly often sends the nervous system into overdrive.

As one client put it:

“It felt like my body forgot how to relax. Every sound, every sensation was too much.”

Withdrawal and Recovery

Withdrawal can bring racing heart, insomnia, panic, depression, or hypersensitivity. These symptoms don’t mean you’re broken—they mean your nervous system is struggling to recalibrate.

Healing takes time. Research shows GABA function can return, but often slowly, with ups and downs. Many describe it as “windows and waves”—moments of relief followed by setbacks until balance gradually rebuilds.

Supporting the Nervous System

Small, steady practices make a difference:

• Stick to gentle routines for sleep, hydration, and meals.
• Practice slow breathing to calm an overactive system.
• Limit stimulation—reduce noise, screens, and busyness.
• Seek safe support from therapy, groups, or providers who understand benzos.

“The hardest part was believing my body wasn’t broken forever. Little by little, I realized it was trying to heal.”

For Our Community

Here in Bellingham and Whatcom County, benzo recovery is done in silence most of the time. Even many healthcare professionals don’t understand the devastating effects short and long term use can produce. If you’re in this area—or looking for online counseling across Washington—you don’t have to walk this path alone. I’d be honored to walk with you as you rebuild trust in your body, mind, and faith.

References

• Ashton, H. (2005). The diagnosis and management of benzodiazepine dependence. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 18(3), 249–255.
• Lader, M. (2011). Benzodiazepines revisited—will we ever learn? Addiction, 106(12), 2086–2109.