OK, let me explain.
First of all the fact that these symptoms come and go is a very good sign. That means your body is still trying to adjust to being without the medicine. One thing you can do to help decide on the permanency of your condition is to keep a journal. Lets take for example the tinnitus. Lets say that your journal says you have it for 5 days, a little for 3 days and none for 4 days. Then you have it again for 4 days a little for 2 days and none for 4 days. You can see from this example that the symptoms overall are slowly getting better. You may need to keep this journal for a couple months to establish a clear picture but when occurrence of the symptoms level off for a couple months then you are probably at the end of your withdrawal. Whatever you are left with is what you are left with. This journal will make things a lot clearer than your paranoid memory can. This eliminates guess work and uncertainty.
In thismoments case yes he was left with symptoms even a couple 3 years after stopping BUT you have to remember that these symptoms, while still present, were greatly less than during withdrawal and he was able to adjust to them. Also that is one of the few cases of long lasting symptoms. There have been a couple others but when you consider how many members have went through this forum that is not too bad.
Now let me explain why there are bad withdrawals and slow recovery with long lasting symptoms.
Your body naturally produces serotonin, noradrenaline, adrenaline, histamine, dopamine and other compounds that react with nerve endings called synapses. These compounds, called neurotransmitters, bond with these synapses and send a signal to our brain to be happy, sad, mellow, depressed, etc. Normally the two areas of the brain that have the greatest control of these emotions are the amygdala and the hippocampus. Once we are exposed to severe stress the body overreacts and looses control of these neurotransmitters. We can start producing to much or to little serotonin, adrenaline, dopamine, etc. These imbalances cause use to become depressed, anxious, etc.
The medications we take such as antidepressants and benzos help regulate these compounds for our brain causing our emotions to stabilize (assuming you are on the right medicine, lol). Here is where we have problems. These compounds do not fit exactly right with the synapses. With time the synapses will change shape so that the medicine fits better. That is why it takes so many medicines weeks to fully kick in.
Once we decide to get off the medicine our body has a hard time controlling the neurotransmitters because they no longer fit the synapses on the brain. With time the synapses will return to their normal shape and our neurotransmitters will begin to react normally. This takes time. Studies on benzos, heroin, meth, etc. show that these synapses typically take 2 years to recover and sometimes longer. That is why a very slow wean is so necessary. As we have less control from our medicine we have to give the nerves a chance to recover. In benzo therapy they say once you come completely off a benzo you need to wait at least two years to go back on a benzo. Any sooner and it will have considerably less effect, rapidly become addictive and harder to withdraw from.
That is one of the reasons I strongly recommend the use of clonidine, hydroxyzine and diphenhydramine (Benadryl). They do NOT change the shape of the synapses. They just block the synapse in order to control the emotions. That is why they do NOT have a withdrawal.
I hope this clears things up for you. If there is anything that you need clarification on just let me know.