Taper plan for enormous benzo tolerance

[FrogWarrior]

I somehow build up such a massive tolerance that I go through 50mg of alprazolam per day. I would run out, and usually restock after 2 or 3 days. The last time, on day 3 I had 2 grand mal seizures and ended up in hospital. They were giving me 6 librium tablets, 3 times per day and that worked. I don't know what dose, I'm guessing 10mg. But they recklessly left me with a 6 day taper plan and some sodium valproate when I left. Even when the first psychiatrist who saw me said he generally does taper plans over the course of 6 months. The first doc who asked me what dosages I was taking had a look of shock in his face. I'm near out of alprazolam and had enough of this, its gone too far so I'm seeing the doc tomorrow to get on a taper plan. Diazepam doesn't work on me, but the librium does but I don't know what to ask her. Should I just tell her that I need a proper, slow taper plan. What they started me on at hospital worked, but the symptoms got worse and worse as the dose lowered, and by the time I got out of hospital I was withdrawing badly, the taper plan was way too fast.

Does a taper plan starting at 180mg chlordioxepine, sound reasonable for a tolerance of 50mg alprazolam? Maybe I should get an appointment with that first psychiatrist I talked to in hospital, I'm waiting to see if I will be accepted to a detox facility. The doc might not understand benzo withdrawals, so I might need to explain in depth to her.

 

[spacejunk]

wow. yeah, i had a similarly massive tolerance to you when i was using RC benzos. i think i went through a gram of flubrpmazolam in about 2 months at one point - which is obscene. it was scary.
and yeah, i had seizures, hospital, etc - it was really, really bad.

imo the only way you should consider doing this is through an inpatient detox, probably followed by a slow taper, that is what i did in the end - i was in detox for a week, dramatically cutting my dose, and i think they stabilised me on 10 or maybe 15 mg of diazepam which i tapered off over a couple of months or something.
doctors will know about benzo withdrawal, but you probably ant to go with the most knowledgable doctor you can when it comes to tapering off them.
for me, it was really quite painless, i didn't suffer any WDs besides some insomnia - i had a really good doctor who i trusted.

you're in dangerous territory - that's a fucking shitload of alprazolam. how's your memory, from day-to-day? i have some big gaps from my benzo days, it's pretty disturbing.
i'd definitely go see your doctor as soon as you can, because yeah- detox places often have a big wait list

 

[Tranced]

Yip, also been there with RC benzos & alprazolam powder.

Correct me if in wrong but the only safe way to taper from benzos, which avoids the resulting damage to your glutamate receptors/withdrawal symptoms/seizures/etc, is using a benzo. I'd imagine the reason diazepam didn't work for you is because they gave you a normal dose, whereas your benzo tolerance is at 50x. I'd also imagine that the reason you felt okay in hospital is because you'd had a seizure and to put it very simply, had released somewhat.

Seriously, this time last year I was in your situation and now I'm doing fine. My anxiety/depression are almost completely gone; so by tapering it isn't going to be as hopeless as it might seem. The way that I did it was by reducing my dose by a few mg and dosing once every 48 hours. I had to be careful because after roughly 72 hours i.e day three I'd have a seizure, but I had to leave it at least about 48 hours for my tolerance to drop slightly. Eventually I got it down to enough to be given a diazepam taper by my GP.

I've got no idea if this is the right thing to do, but it is how I did it, so I'm just putting it out there. I'd imagine a detox clinic would do something vaguely similar, possibly faster/slower. If you can't attend one then it might help to have a friend/family member administer your dose.

 

[spacejunk]

yeah, i found that i needed to be tapered with benzos, but that not all of them are cross-tolerant in the same ways. in other words, i was lucky that large doses (like 180mg) of diazepam seemed to hold me out of withdrawal, though i was using heaps more (flubromazolam) than that each day.

i have no idea what the cross tolerance is like between alprazolam and diazepam - but yeah, they'd need to have you on high doses, as well as anti-seizre meds like sodium valproate.

wishing you all the best with this - it's been two years since i went through it, and like tranced, i'm totally fine now. i was expecting long term memory problems and anxiety, but so far, so good.
with the right taper plan, i found the whole detox was actually pretty painless, for the most part. the seizures that preceded it weren't, but once i checked into detox it really wasn't so bad.
i hope you can find the right doc to help you through it.

 

[Tranced]

Yip, tapering is always the answer. So many people seem to try cold turkey and inevitably relapse/scare themselves away. Apart from the seizures (admittedly a pretty dark/dangerous thing to experience), I experienced no real problems either. Maybe some anxiety/depression after 1-2 days of not using benzos, but I'd been experiencing anxiety/depression when I started anyway.

 

[FrogWarrior]

wow. yeah, i had a similarly massive tolerance to you when i was using RC benzos. i think i went through a gram of flubrpmazolam in about 2 months at one point - which is obscene. it was scary.
and yeah, i had seizures, hospital, etc - it was really, really bad.

imo the only way you should consider doing this is through an inpatient detox, probably followed by a slow taper, that is what i did in the end - i was in detox for a week, dramatically cutting my dose, and i think they stabilised me on 10 or maybe 15 mg of diazepam which i tapered off over a couple of months or something.
doctors will know about benzo withdrawal, but you probably ant to go with the most knowledgable doctor you can when it comes to tapering off them.
for me, it was really quite painless, i didn't suffer any WDs besides some insomnia - i had a really good doctor who i trusted.

you're in dangerous territory - that's a fucking shitload of alprazolam. how's your memory, from day-to-day? i have some big gaps from my benzo days, it's pretty disturbing.
i'd definitely go see your doctor as soon as you can, because yeah- detox places often have a big wait list

My memory is started to go a bit haywire. I'm forgetting what day, week, even month it is. I'm forgetting all kinds of things. I don't even remember the seizures and didn't believe my brother when he said I had one in the car on the way to the hospital. The fact I was almost crippled with back pain made it pretty obvious something had happened though. Its been over 3 weeks and my back still hasn't recovered fully. I wasn't accepted into a detox clinic but I think I can get in if I talk to the right person, I found someone whos been there and knows who I should contact.

It wasn't just alprazolam I was using (in fact the hospital told me no alprazolam showed up in my urine so whatever this is, its not alprazolam), I was also using huge amount of flubromazolam, clonazolam and etizolam. The librium in the hospital definitely worked, so if I can get on a taper plan with that, I think I'll be fine. Starting on 180 mg should work. I just hope the GP understands.

 

[spacejunk]

I don't even remember the seizures and didn't believe my brother when he said I had one in the car on the way to the hospital. The fact I was almost crippled with back pain made it pretty obvious something had happened though. Its been over 3 weeks and my back still hasn't recovered fully

yeah, sounds pretty much identical to my experience. scary stuff
good luck man, life is much better without that shit