Benzodiazepine addiction treatment · Hopkins, Minnesota
Benzodiazepine Addiction Treatment in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Outpatient benzodiazepine rehab for adults who want off Xanax, Ativan, Valium, or Klonopin safely, and want the anxiety underneath treated too.
Northwoods Haven Recovery treats benzodiazepine use disorder on an outpatient basis for adults in Minneapolis, Hopkins, and across the Twin Cities. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, panic, and sleep, and they work, which is exactly the problem: the brain adapts within weeks, the original anxiety comes back stronger between doses, and stopping suddenly is dangerous. Getting off them takes a medically supervised taper through your prescriber. Staying off them, and learning to live with anxiety without a pill, is the work we do here.
In-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica
Benzodiazepine use disorder
Never stop benzodiazepines abruptly. Taper with a medical provider, then come here.
What treatment includes
Care for the reason the prescription was written.
Group therapy, individual counseling with your own licensed alcohol and drug counselor, and treatment for the anxiety, trauma, or depression the prescription was written for. You go home after every session.
Weeks
Benzodiazepine dependence can form within weeks of regular use
2 to 4
Months in IOP, then the Relapse Prevention Program step-down
18+
Adults, including young adults and older adults
0
Nights away from home. Every level of care here is outpatient
What benzodiazepine addiction is
Benzodiazepine dependence, and why it is so easy to fall into
Benzodiazepines are sedatives that calm the nervous system by boosting GABA, the brain’s main inhibitory chemical. Xanax (alprazolam), Ativan (lorazepam), Valium (diazepam), and Klonopin (clonazepam) are the most common. Prescribed briefly for panic attacks, acute anxiety, or a stretch of insomnia, they are effective and relatively safe. Taken daily for more than a few weeks, they become something else. The brain turns down its own GABA response to compensate, so the same dose does less, anxiety rebounds harder between doses, and the person needs the drug just to feel the way they did before they started.
Benzodiazepine use disorder is diagnosed by the familiar pattern: taking more than prescribed, needing the drug to get through the day, failed attempts to cut down, and continued use despite memory problems, drowsiness, or strain at home and work. It can begin with a completely legitimate prescription and a doctor who kept refilling it. It can also come from pills bought or borrowed, sometimes counterfeit and sometimes pressed with fentanyl. Many people mix benzodiazepines with alcohol or opioids, which multiplies the sedation and the overdose risk.
Treatment at Northwoods Haven Recovery is outpatient and begins with a chemical use assessment. We do not prescribe, taper, or provide detox. If you are physically dependent, the taper happens through your prescriber or a medical detox, often over weeks or months, and we help you find that care. Our part is everything the taper does not fix: the anxiety that was there before the first pill, the habits built around the bottle, and the skills to manage panic, sleep, and stress without sedation.
Do not stop on your own
Stopping benzodiazepines abruptly after regular use can cause seizures and can be life-threatening. We are outpatient only: no detox, no prescribing, no medical monitoring. A medical provider needs to manage the taper. Call us anyway. We will help you find that care and begin treatment here as soon as you are medically stable, which for many people means during the taper rather than after it.
Our space
Inside our outpatient treatment center in Hopkins, Minnesota
A safe haven should feel like one. Our suite on Green Oak Drive looks out over water and trees, and the rooms where groups meet were built to feel calm, comfortable, and homey. Not clinical, not institutional. You are more than your diagnosis here, and the space is meant to say so before anyone does.
The lounge
Where people land and catch their breath before group.
The group room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
The view
Water and treeline out every window: the northwoods, in the metro.
Another Group Room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
Quiet corners
Somewhere to sit with a thing before you say it out loud.
Room to breathe
Daylight and treeline out every window. No clinical fluorescence.
Signs and symptoms
Signs a benzodiazepine prescription has become dependence
Benzodiazepine dependence often looks like a well-managed anxiety disorder from the outside. If several of these fit, a chemical use assessment is worth the hour.
Behavioral
Around the prescription
Running out early, asking for higher doses or more than one prescriber, keeping pills on hand at all times, or taking a dose before situations that never used to require one.
Physical
Sedation and memory
Drowsiness, slurred speech, poor coordination, falls, gaps in memory for whole evenings, and a foggy, slowed quality that others notice before the person does.
Consequences
Life around the pills
Driving while sedated, missed work, arguments about the medication, mixing with alcohol despite warnings, or a pharmacist or doctor who has started to push back.
Psychological
Anxiety between doses
Panic or dread as the next dose approaches, anxiety worse than before the prescription began, irritability, and a growing conviction that you cannot function without the drug.
Withdrawal and health effects
Benzodiazepine withdrawal, and why it must be medically supervised
Benzodiazepine withdrawal is one of the few that can kill. After regular use, stopping abruptly can bring rebound anxiety and insomnia, tremor, sweating, racing heart, muscle pain, sensory hypersensitivity, and in some people seizures, severe confusion, or psychosis. For short-acting drugs like Xanax, symptoms can start within a day. For long-acting ones like Valium, they may take several days to appear. This is why no one should stop a benzodiazepine cold, and why the standard of care is a gradual taper managed by a medical provider, sometimes over many months.
Even with a careful taper, withdrawal is often drawn out. Many people describe waves of anxiety, poor sleep, irritability, and a strange, unsettled feeling that come and go for weeks or months after the last dose. This is not a sign that the anxiety disorder is untreatable. It is the nervous system slowly relearning how to regulate itself without help. It is also the stretch when people are most likely to go back to the pills, and the stretch our outpatient program is designed to carry you through.
Long-term benzodiazepine use is linked to memory and concentration problems, falls and accidents, depression, and a dangerous interaction with alcohol and opioids that suppresses breathing. Combined with opioids, including the fentanyl found in counterfeit pills, benzodiazepines are involved in many overdose deaths. Most of the cognitive effects improve after the drug is gone. The anxiety underneath, treated with CBT, DBT skills, and trauma-informed care rather than sedation, tends to become manageable in a way it never was on the medication.
If someone is in danger now
A seizure, severe confusion, hallucinations, or extreme agitation after stopping or cutting back a benzodiazepine is a medical emergency. So is slow or stopped breathing after mixing benzodiazepines with alcohol or opioids. Call 911. Treatment here can begin once the person is medically stable.
Who it is for
Outpatient benzodiazepine treatment is probably the right fit if you
- Have been taking Xanax, Ativan, Valium, or Klonopin daily for months or years and cannot picture getting through a day without them
- Are in the middle of a medically supervised taper and want counseling and a group to hold you through the anxiety that comes with each step down
- Have finished a taper or detox and need structure and skills while the nervous system recovers and the old anxiety returns
- Are mixing benzodiazepines with alcohol or other drugs and know the combination is dangerous but have not been able to stop
- Want the panic, trauma, or insomnia that led to the prescription treated with therapy, not just managed with a different pill
Not sure yet
A comprehensive assessment answers it.
A chemical use assessment establishes whether you meet criteria for benzodiazepine use disorder, how severe it is, and whether you need a medically supervised taper before or alongside outpatient care. If you do, we say so and help you find it. Bring your prescription history. If you have a recent assessment from another provider, send it over and we will review it.
For families
About half our calls are from someone else.
You can ask a question without committing anyone to anything, and family involvement is part of the work when the client wants it.
How we treat it
How benzodiazepine addiction treatment works at Northwoods Haven Recovery
The taper belongs to a medical provider. The rest belongs here. Most people begin outpatient treatment while the taper is still underway, because the anxiety it stirs up is exactly what group and individual counseling are for.
Step one
Chemical use assessment
An hour with a licensed counselor that produces a diagnosis and a level of care, and a clear answer about whether a medically managed taper has to be arranged first.
Where everyone starts
Most people start here
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Three-hour groups most programming days, individual counseling with your own counselor, and treatment for anxiety, trauma, or depression alongside. About two to four months.
Explore IOP →
Then
Relapse Prevention Program
Ten to twelve weeks of lower-intensity care with the same counselors. A written plan for the panic attack, the sleepless week, and the refill that would be so easy to ask for.
Explore relapse prevention →
Therapies
Evidence-based addiction therapies, taught as options, not prescriptions.
We’ll walk you through every approach we use and why, then build your plan around the ones that fit your beliefs and your life. No single pathway, no ideology, no judgment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Find the thought patterns that drive use, and learn to interrupt them.
Dialectical behavior therapy
Skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and hard relationships.
Acceptance & commitment therapy
Move toward what you actually value, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Motivational interviewing
Your reasons for changing, in your words. Nobody lectures you here.
Individual counseling
Your own licensed counselor, where the plan gets built and adjusted.
Group therapy
Three hours a day with people who know the terrain you’re crossing.
Addiction counseling
One-on-one counseling with your own chemical dependency counselor.
Trauma-informed care
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what’s wrong with you.
Relapse prevention and aftercare planning run through every level of care rather than sitting off to the side, and whole-person care means mental health psychoeducation happens alongside all of it.
Substance use
Every substance use disorder we treat in Minnesota
Seven groups, one outpatient path. The substance shapes the withdrawal risk and the early weeks, not the level of care or the counselors you work with.
The most common reason people call us, and the one most often hidden behind a functioning life.
Prescription opioids, heroin, and the fentanyl that now contaminates most of the illicit supply. Detox often comes first. We do not provide it, but we help you find it.
Methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription stimulants. Group work is where most of the traction comes from.
Benzodiazepines, sleep medications, and other prescriptions that started as treatment. Stopping abruptly can be dangerous, so a medical provider guides the taper.
Legal does not mean harmless. Cannabis use disorder is a real diagnosis.
LSD, ecstasy and MDMA, ketamine, and PCP. Usually part of a wider pattern, which is what the assessment sorts out.
Inhalants, nitrous oxide, and substances that show up faster than the research does.
Not on the list?
This list is not a filter. Call us and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit, and help you find who is if we are not.
Mental health
Co-occurring mental health conditions we treat alongside addiction
Treating one and ignoring the other does not work. Northwoods Haven Recovery treats co-occurring mental health conditions alongside chemical dependency programming. If your needs are mental-health-primary, a program built for that will serve you better, and we will help you find one.
Trauma and PTSD
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what is wrong with you.
Depression
The loop between using and feeling worse, treated from both ends at once.
Anxiety
Using to quiet it works for an hour and costs more than that.
Bipolar disorder
Care that steadies mood episodes while chemical dependency programming continues.
ADHD
Structure and skills for adult ADHD when stimulants, alcohol, or cannabis became the coping strategy.
Something else?
If a mental health condition is tangled with substance use, tell us. We treat both together or help you find who can.
Paying for treatment
Insurance-covered addiction treatment that's accessible to anyone who wants it.
Medicaid was the first network we joined, on purpose. We’re also in-network with major commercial plans. We’ll verify your benefits and tell you plainly what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Minnesota Medicaid
Blue Cross Blue Shield
HealthPartners
UnitedHealthcare
Hennepin Health
Medica
Private Pay
Not listed? Call and we'll check.
Common questions
Questions people ask about benzodiazepine addiction treatment
If yours is not here, ask us directly. We would rather tell you honestly that we are not the right fit than have you find out later.
LegitScript Certified
Verified addiction treatment provider
Can I stop taking benzodiazepines on my own?
No. Stopping abruptly after regular use can cause seizures and can be life-threatening. Benzodiazepines need to be tapered gradually under a medical provider’s supervision, often over weeks or months. We do not manage tapers, but we help you find a provider who does, and treatment here runs alongside it.
Can benzodiazepine addiction be treated in an outpatient program?
Yes, once a medical provider is managing the taper or it is complete. Outpatient benzodiazepine rehab at Northwoods Haven Recovery gives you group therapy, individual counseling, and treatment for the underlying anxiety several days a week while you live at home. If you need a higher level of care first, we help you find it.
Do you provide detox or a benzo taper?
No. We are outpatient only and do not prescribe, taper, or provide medical monitoring. The taper is handled by your prescriber or a medical detox, and we help you connect with one. What we provide is the counseling, group support, and anxiety treatment that make staying off the medication possible.
My doctor prescribed it. Is it really addiction?
It can be. Dependence develops on benzodiazepines even when taken as directed, and addiction is defined by the pattern: needing the drug to function, escalating doses, and continuing despite harm. Where it came from does not change what it does to the brain or how treatable it is.
What happens to my anxiety when I stop?
It usually gets worse for a while, then better than it was on the medication. Rebound anxiety during and after a taper is expected, and it is the reason treatment here focuses on CBT, DBT skills, and trauma-informed care for the anxiety itself. Co-occurring anxiety, panic, trauma, and depression are treated throughout the program.
Can I take a non-addictive medication for anxiety while in treatment?
Yes. Many people take an antidepressant or another medication a medical provider prescribes during and after a taper. Tell us during the assessment so your plan accounts for it.
How long does outpatient benzodiazepine rehab take?
Most people spend about two to four months in our Intensive Outpatient Program, then ten to twelve weeks in the Relapse Prevention Program. Because benzodiazepine tapers can be long, the timeline is set with your counselor and reviewed as you go.
Does insurance cover benzodiazepine addiction treatment?
We are in-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica. Share your plan information on the first call and we will verify benefits and tell you plainly what is covered.
Related articles
Related reading on benzodiazepines and recovery
Getting started
How to get started: four steps, no waiting eleven days.
Reaching out doesn’t commit you to anything. It means you asked a question, and we answered it.
01
Call
We listen to what’s going on and where you are in the process. No script, no pressure.
02
Chemical use assessment
A comprehensive assessment to determine diagnosis and the level of care that fits.
03
Referral to the right care
Ideally with us. If another program fits you better, we’ll connect you to it.
04
Intake
Programming starts immediately after intake. Already have an assessment? Send it over and we’ll review it.
Your team
Meet the counselors who answer the phone and guide your treatment.
Take the first step
When you're ready, we're here.
Reaching out doesn’t mean you’ve committed to anything. It means you’re asking a question, and we’ll answer it honestly, even if the answer points somewhere else.
100% confidential
Insurance verified fast
No commitment to ask
Outpatient only
Referring professionals
Send a comprehensive assessment, plus treatment plan reviews, discharge summary, med list, and insurance information if applicable. A list, not a portal.
Visit us in Hopkins
Northwoods Haven Recovery
5900 Green Oak Drive, Ste 306
Hopkins, MN 55343