Benzos Diazepam Withdrawal

[Crampz]

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone here could help...

After struggling with fucking benzis for about 2 years I have decided to make a proper attempt to get off them instead of some half hearted effort. I have been on them for just over 2 years.

Over the past couple of weeks I have given up drinking entirely (and I drank ALOT) and have reduced my diazepam from 20mg a day to 15mg (been on 15mg for the past week). I was thinking that I am going to lower my does to 12.5mg today and keep it at that for a week to 10 days, then reduce 2.5mg every 7-10 days until I am off it completely.

Is this a realistic plan? will I be likely to experience very unpleasant withdrawal effects? Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance/suggestions. I would really like to avoid a long, long taper if possible so any input much appreciated.

thanks guys.

Crampz.

 

[Slum Survivor]

maybe a bit slower since u just got off the alcohol.... this gets asked alot tho, the subject in general.

maybe condense your concern down into a couple simple questions to get more response. some folks hate readin these types of posts over and over. not that u wrote a book or anything. i just noticed no one had responded yet and i was suprised so i thought id say that. idk.

btw how does the 15 feel so far?? how long where u on 20? the longer u where on them total, the longer the taper should be imo. at least to a reasonable extent. at least it wasnt more than 20mg valium. some folks are fighting 5-6 mg + k-pin battles. whew.

 

[Crampz]

Thank you for replying! I was on 20 since about august 2011, sometimes less sometimes more depending on how much I was drinking, 15mg feels okay so far, I actually took 15 tonight and its actually made me pretty relaxed etc, which surprises me to be honest, i dont normally get the relaxed benzo feeling from 15mg of diazepam, it seems to be fading though so its only lasted about an hour.

How long do you think I should wait between reductions? Also I only have access to 5mg pills, so my cuts are going to have to be pretty large, will this be a problem?

 

[stray cat]

Thank you for replying! I was on 20 since about august 2011, sometimes less sometimes more depending on how much I was drinking, 15mg feels okay so far, I actually took 15 tonight and its actually made me pretty relaxed etc, which surprises me to be honest, i dont normally get the relaxed benzo feeling from 15mg of diazepam, it seems to be fading though so its only lasted about an hour.

How long do you think I should wait between reductions? Also I only have access to 5mg pills, so my cuts are going to have to be pretty large, will this be a problem?

you could always break them in half... (or quarters)... dropping 2.5 mgs diaz at a time is not that drastic

 

[cj]

Im no expert but from what i have read slower is always better when it comes to tapering.

 

[Slum Survivor]

Thank you for replying! I was on 20 since about august 2011, sometimes less sometimes more depending on how much I was drinking, 15mg feels okay so far, I actually took 15 tonight and its actually made me pretty relaxed etc, which surprises me to be honest, i dont normally get the relaxed benzo feeling from 15mg of diazepam, it seems to be fading though so its only lasted about an hour.

How long do you think I should wait between reductions? Also I only have access to 5mg pills, so my cuts are going to have to be pretty large, will this be a problem?

no i dont... like the person above said. u can cut them down. may not be exact but its gonna have to do.

where r u with drinking at the moment? really not drinking? thats good if not. that would play into this badly if u still did.

but as u can see... the longer u taper the better. and id say use the least amount of alcohol possible, none being the best.

but u already have the best med u are gonna get for benzo tapering probably. be thankful its not off xanax or ativan straight w/o a long acting one...

i think u will do great, it will just take time and patience. good luck!

 

[Tommyboy]

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone here could help...

After struggling with fucking benzis for about 2 years I have decided to make a proper attempt to get off them instead of some half hearted effort. I have been on them for just over 2 years.

Over the past couple of weeks I have given up drinking entirely (and I drank ALOT) and have reduced my diazepam from 20mg a day to 15mg (been on 15mg for the past week). I was thinking that I am going to lower my does to 12.5mg today and keep it at that for a week to 10 days, then reduce 2.5mg every 7-10 days until I am off it completely.

Is this a realistic plan? will I be likely to experience very unpleasant withdrawal effects? Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance/suggestions. I would really like to avoid a long, long taper if possible so any input much appreciated.

thanks guys.

Crampz.

I was on benzos for 8 years and got off of them in July and haven't touched any since, so I have some experience in this area. The first time I tapered I had been at 3mg of xanax daily for a few years, and unfortunately got stuck in a position where I had to quickly taper down to 1mg over the course of a little over a month. That sucked of course, so I decided to go to a doctor to set up a taper. I started at 10mg of diazepam and dropped by 2mg each month. It was comfortable at that pace, other than the first week at the lower dose, but I would say you can reduce your dose by 2mg every 3 weeks and it not be bad.

Once you get down to 4mg then you should reduce by 1mg each time, then by 0.5mg when you get to 2mg. I had the 2mg pills so it wasn't that hard to break up. I got down to about 0.3mg and was able to take it every other day but then gave up and got back on 5mg of valium a day, which was soon back to 10mg a day. After another year or 2 like that I went to a detox when I was taking around 7.5mg of valium a day, and that's how I finally got off.

I don't know why I couldn't stay off of it after the taper, but I could after the detox, but the main thing is that I've been completely off of them for close to 4 months now. The withdrawals peaked about 10 days after detox actually, so I wasn't in withdrawal at all in detox, just after (seems pretty pointless and I even told the doctors there that I didn't want the librium they gave in detox but they told me I had to if I wanted to stay) but maybe it left my body slow enough to make it a little easier on my and that's why I was able to stop. Once I made it over a week it didn't matter that the withdrawals were getting a little worse because I wasn't looking back so taking benzos wasn't even a possibility in my mind.

 

[Crampz]

^^ thats great!

I havent gotten drunk in about 2 weeks, and I intend to keep it that way for the foreseeable future (may have to make an excuse not to go to a party on saturday though!). I am cutting down to 12.5mg today for sure, I'm just worried about the lower dosages, especially when it gets round to the 5mg mark as people tend to make really tiny cuts from there (as tommy boy did; I guess I could could the 5mg into quarters for 1.25mg reductions).

I'm also quite concerned about sleeping once I come off them, as I know I will get severe rebound insomnia, I always have done in the past whenever I have stopped drinking. I am doing some other positive things though, like exercising and eating a much more healthy diet than I was before, will this make much of a difference to how horrible the withdrawal will be?

Also, I am quite concerned about how I am going to deal with life after I go completely 'substance free' *sigh* and I am worried I will just fuck up again and start drinking/taking more benzos when things get tough or I get depressed, which to be honest, is very frequently.

 

[MagickalKat777]

@Crampz, you might want to look into a low dose of Delsym to help you. It prevents most of the serious physical withdrawals, it has natural anti-depressant properties, and it is anti-addictive. I stopped a handle of 95% Everclear every 2-3 days and a pack of cigarettes a day habit cold turkey about a week after I started taking it and I'm a month and a half in to my taper from 20mg and I'm down all the way to 12.5mg, I sleep every night (I normally had to take trazodone in order to sleep), and other than the psychological withdrawal I have had a relatively smooth taper whereas I couldn't cut even 1.25mg without it. Not only that but I haven't even had any cravings for alcohol or smokes and I am definitely an alcoholic (2-3 day binger, generally take a day or 2 off before entering the next binge) and I've been smoking off and on since I was 17.

It is perfectly safe as long as you don't take anything directly contraindicated with it (serotonergics like MDMA especially).

Here's my notes on my taper thus far: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...e-(part-2)?p=11917484&viewfull=1#post11917484

 

[Crampz]

thats awesome you are doing so well and thank you for the recommendation but unfortunately we do not have Delsym available over here *sigh* is diphenhydramine going to be okay for sleep?

 

[MagickalKat777]

I would use trazodone if you can get that. It is much less likely to trigger additional side effects when you're in withdrawal. Anticholinergic agents like DPH are going to add side effects.

On various benzo withdrawal forums, the common theme is to avoid additional medications as much as possible during a taper. Trazodone is commonly prescribed for sleeping problems with benzo withdrawal though and it is quite effective.

You can use regular DXM cough syrup to help but I would ask in the thread I linked you to for help with the doses and timing with that one as I've only ever used Delsym.

 

[Crampz]

thanks... I see... Also I just wanted to add, I say I've been taking 20mg (which is the prescribed amount) but on reflection I really am not sure, I have been putting away alot of alcohol and of course they are cross tolerant so some days I have been taking no benzos at all (just drinking myself into oblivion) but sometimes when i have been drinking, it has caused a very rapid heart rate and I have taken benzos and it calmed down.

I know this was extremely foolish which is why I am trying to get my shit together.

I guess my question is, now I am not drinking at all and havent for the past couple of weeks (previous to that I was drinking about 3 bottles of wine a night, for about 2 weeks and so on) where exactly should I start my taper from? Ive been fine on 15 for I'm guessing about 10 days or so and cut it to 12.5mg tonight; should I continue tapering from here or do you think I could get away with a bigger cut?

 

[Slum Survivor]

just carry 12.5 mg for a few days first and see how it goes. it may take a few days to fully know what to expect from the mount u lowered. diazepam has a long half-life. any long lasting med like that would work the same really. so i would stay at 12.5 for at least a few days if not a week. then go from there. maybe down to 10 if u can handle it. that would be an easy dose, rather than trying to get it down to something like 11. where really u would need some of the 2mg pills to break down.

so maybe talk with your dr eventually about getting 5mg pills and then eventually 2mg ones.

im geussing u get the 10's right now.

 

[Crampz]

cool! thanks for the advice! and i am sorry to be a pain but I was thinking of drinking chamomile tea (I probably drink about 2 cups of green tea a day as it is, and i know the caffeine decouples benzos from their receptor sites, should I cut out the green tea altogether?

Also I was thinking of having chamomile & peppermint tea at night (im a bit of a tea fanatic at the moment). Chamomile has a mild effect on gaba receptors so would this be a problem with tapering??

 

[MagickalKat777]

I wouldn't recommend chamomile but peppermint is fine - green tea is fine as well because of the l-theanine content but maybe switch to decaf if you want to be safe.

As for your taper, hold the cut for two weeks. Valium's long half life could mean that you won't feel it until 10 days after the cut and you don't want to be shit up a creek without a paddle.

Optimal for 5's would be 1.25mg a week, 10s try to get it as close as possible to an 1/8th of a pill.

 

[Crampz]

Cool, thanks for all the advice guys, its the 5mg pills I've got so yeah, realistically the smallest cuts I'm going to be able to make are 1.25mg but I think I am going to make the first 2 2.5mg over a month or so until I am down to 10mg then go from there with 1.25mg cuts. Going to the doctor is out of the question, as the last time I told him I wanted to get off them he wanted me to drop 5mg a week, fuck that.

 

[Crampz]

Also, one last question, will my cognitive function return to 'normal' or how I was before I started abusing alcohol and benzos (which I have done for years) or have I fried my brain permanently?

 

[Gratuitous Grace]

Just a note on splitting or breaking up pills. This from my psychiatrist and a family member who is in pharmaceutical manufacturing. (Those are two different people in case my sentence structure makes that confusing!)

A tablet with a score line can be broken in half to yield half the amount of actives (assuming a perfect half and half split). Beyond that, you're just hoping. Hoping, that is, for an even distribution of actives throughout that half. IOW you can't make further and further splits and legitimately assume that 1.0 became 2 x 0.5, that 0.5 became 2 x 0.25, that 0.25 became 2 x 0.125 and on and on. This isn't an issue of perfect half and half splits; it's an issue of active ingredient distribution. Pills aren't as "perfect" as they look.

Anyway, I know this may seem like an overly-technical and possibly small matter. But, miniscule doses of Benzos might strike someone as overly-technical and small matters, too. Those of us who have dealt with them know that they're not.

Good luck with this, OP (and everyone else)!

 

[MagickalKat777]

^ Yeah that is a complaint that I've made myself in an argument to get liquid diazepam.

What I was told was that they are required to have no more than a 45/55% distribution disparity when you break the pill in half and it should balance over time. The same thing goes for pills that split into 4 pieces (Xanax bars). There is supposedly a maximum allowable disparity with them.

That said, Mylan got busted by the FDA a few times for not having an accurate amount in their pills in the first place, let alone at the pill split points. I'm currently using Mylan 345 5mg Diazepam pills for my taper though and they seem to be just fine.

In any case, the only guarantee is in regards to splitting the pill at the score. Any further cuts are not guaranteed. The companies have gotten better over the years with ingredient distribution throughout the pill though.

If you're that worried about it you can do a liquid titration.

 

[Devilinsideme]

I've been suffering with extremely severe depression for years. I had finally found a boyfriend who I feel was my soulmate. Didn't need antidepressants anymore however after talking about getting married and being so in love he decided "he's not good enough for me" which I think is a bullshit excuse. I've taken six 1mg Xanax and am still crying from the time I wake up til the time i go to bed (after taking several more Xanax til I pass out). I got laid off over a year ago and my unemployment has ran out. I have a bachelors degree and have applied to literally hundreds of jobs (even at the University I graduated from but apparently a degree from there isn't good enough to get a job there that only requires a HS diploma). My family (I only have my parents and two brothers who don't speak to me left in my family. I need advice on how many 1mg xanax I can take so I can sleep. I don't want to overdose I just want the pain to go away. I was planning on checking into a mental health facility but of course I don't have insurance and have been over drafting my bank account and going over my credit limits on my cards just to be able to pay my mortgage and utilities and get enough food so I don't starve to death and to buy my pets food and basic necessities. I'd end it all now if I didn't have a niece and nephew that love me even though they don't like me. I'm so lost that I'm feeling so hopeless and hurt. Anyone who can over advice on how many Xanax I can take at once would greatly be appreciated. I feel as though if I can't sleep my life away I will blow my brains out. Thanks for any suggestions as I will take it to ensure I don't do anything to hurt the people who so called love me. Please email me privately at [email protected] bc I'm new to this site and not sure if I will be able to find the responses. Again thank you to anyone who can help and I'm sorry about that rant.