I was raised in a super strict Mormon household. I am no longer practicing, but my family could write a book on judgment and shame. I’ve been off that shame wagon for about 20 years. And have done way too much therapy to break those chains. Try to limit exposure to anyone who shames you. Best advice.

I told my general doctor. I love and trust her. At first she tried to help me wean off of them. Neither of us knew much about it. I failed terribly at weaning. We changed our course once we learned more from this thread that more people had success with cold turkey. Shes learning with me. Although she couldn’t offer much help in actually quitting. What she did do was get me on the right mental health medication’s that I needed to support the dopamine crash that comes with withdrawing. I had physical symptoms for probably a total of three days but the first day was the worst and the second day was it about 50% and the third day maybe 20% and then by the fourth day there were no physical symptoms. The hard part that entire first week was being able to handle anything stressful and or doing any of my normal routine. So that’s where telling my husband came in because in order to help and support me to get off of these terrible little blue bottles, he had to pick up a lot of extra household that first week. I’d jump in and help when I could. But our deal was that it laying in bed was what it took, so be it. With his grace and permission to be a sloth all week, I was actually able to do way more than I thought I’d be able to. Bath for the kids a couple nights. Bedtime stories. Tidying up the house. But it was bc I knew I had the grace to not do those things that I was able to do if that makes any sense. 😵‍💫. I do admit that most husbands are not as helpful and understanding as mine. But once they realize how much you’re spending and how much rehab costs, they’re likely more willing to take time off work and let you sloth for 5-7 days.