Sudden increase in effect of long term drugs? Persistent effect after stopping?

[WilliamSSS]

Hi all,
For the past 7 months I've been tapering diazepam, down from 40mg in early June 2019 to 8 mgs at the start of december. At the end of December, my regular 8mg dose felt way more sedating than usual, nearly knocking me out, was honestly struggling to stay awake. Felt like 50mg of diazepam. I'm not sure what has caused this sudden increase in perceived sedation from diazepam. It's now been a few weeks since I stopped taking diazepam altogether as the increased sedation was getting to severe and really hindering me in my job. However, despite stopping i'm still left with these 'waves' of extreme sedation.

Is it possible that the diazepam is somehow 'stuck' in my body and not excreted/metabolized properly? If so, has anyone ever experienced something like this?

I would really appreciate any insights or help. Thank you all so much.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I think it's more likely that you're not getting the greatest of sleep and that it catches up to you in waves, maybe, and this particular dynamic goes away with time. How long were you on it?

I don't know if this is NPD material.

 

[polymath]

Could be narcolepsy or some other neurological problem. Some foods can contain enzyme inhibitors or second order GABA-A positive allosteric modulators, which can potentiate the effects of diazepam, but if you're still feeling sedated after weeks then it's probably something else.

 

[S.J.B.]

Moved from Neuroscience and Pharmacology to Other Drugs.