Benzo taper danger points

[Allein]

So I'm starting a Taper off Diaz 1/11/2011, dosage in illicit tabs is always a tricky one as you don't really know how much active chemical is in them but I'm on about 100mgs a day, some days more but I'm starting the taper at 100Mgs and tapering over the 2 moths with the aim of being off by th new year.

My question is at what point am I in most danger of having siezure beginning end or middle or at any point and, any advice on how to avoid them.

Many thanks

 

[painenduser]

Congrats atm, really with benzo's it could happen at anytime although the biggest concern is usually in the first 72 hours after your last dose, but if you taper slowly as your saying, the risk is pretty low. You really have to start worrying about that if you stop cold turkey or you taper way to quick, but again the severe health concerns would more then likely occurr in the beginnig. Tapering of benzo's is very similar to people who are trying to come down from alcohol, infact that's why benzo's are given to taper an alcoholic down. Just keep a vigilant eye on yourself and if you feel off and you'll pretty much know if you do, then get yourself some professional help. Thats a fairly high dose of valium on a daiy bases so just keep tabs on your taper and how your feeling. Just don't stop cold. One additional thing to note is that while tapering from that high of a dose, you may have panic / anxiety attacks on the way down. The only other thing to watch for is even with a taper once you've tapered off completely, you may a number of weeks later have some pretty bad lows and anxiety issues, this is quite common for longtime high dose users of benzos. Oh an one more note, I'm not sure how your blood pressure is but hypertension is always a concern when tapering from alcohol or benzo's. Check out this link, I believe this may help you greatly..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_syndrome

Keep in mind that none of what I'm saying here trumps your Dr's recommendations, make sure if you can to keep him in the loop, as there can be some complications from coming down, for example if you come down to quickly your blood pressure and heart rate could increase ect. Just take it slow and don't look back. There may be some uncomfortable times ahead during the taper, but these could be considered as being expected, but if you are making good progress and your tapering slowly, don't mess yourself up by breaking off of the taper to make yourself feel better as you might as well start your taper off anew. I have alot of experience with alcohol (because that was my D O C) and Benzo's as every time I was in rehab for alcohol, there were just as many people in there for benzo's. If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me or ask here an I'll help you out best I can since this is pretty much my area of expertise (not sure if I should be proud of that or not). Good luck atm, you'll get through it just fine. Hope you find this useful.

PS keep in mind that how your body and mind behave during the taper can vary from person to person, some people may have no reaction while others may go through difficult times.

 

[Allein]

did the whole shit along side comming off of alcohol back in June, how I manged to get back here I'll nevre know, at least I'm still off the booze.

Thats for the advice, may well be PMing you for the odd qiestion tips etc.

 

[painenduser]

did the whole shit along side comming off of alcohol back in June, how I manged to get back here I'll nevre know, at least I'm still off the booze.

Thats for the advice, may well be PMing you for the odd qiestion tips etc.

Your welcome atm, I wish you all the best, and I'm not going anywhere as far as I know so feel free to PM me at anytime day or night if you have any questions, or just need someone to talk to while your quitting. Quitting drinking and / or benzos are very difficult to come down from with out a regimented detox, however it certainly can be done, you just have to do it smart and safe. Do not hesitate to get a hold of me if you need to chat as sometimes just the passing of a few PM's is all that it will take to keep you inline, keeping your taper in check. If you have successfully quit drinking on your own, then you should not have much of a problem quitting the valium as for the most part they are equally difficult to stop, and the detox from them is relatively the same.

So, just to recap, by all means shoot me a PM if you need anything and I'll help you to the best of my ability. Best of luck. Let me know how your doing!

 

[painenduser]

ATM, when are you officially starting your taper? From the date you put, 1/11/2011, I am not sure which way your date format is or if the year is wrong, so it's either November 1 2011 or Jan 11, 2012? I am assuming your starting November 1 2011. I just wanted to clear that up so I know when to start keeping my eyes out for your PM's, Posts, or questions to me directly, if I am not longer here at blue. I want to make sure I have you in mind during that time, so I can help you stay on track and be there to help answer any questions, give your so tips, or what ever. If I havent PM'ed you my info, which I think I did, let me know and I'll send it to you. The worst thing about quitting any drug or med that tends to have a tight hold on the user is doing it alone, and I want to assure you that you wont have to do this alone. Not to mention one of the beautiful things about helping your fellow addict is as I help you, I help myself by remembering why I became sober, of coarse, if I pick up again, it's not so much going to be a simple as just putting it back down, it will be more about, if I pick up again, the little time I have left before I get a transplant will be shorter, and to qualify for a transplant, I have to have retained my sobriety for at minimum 1 full year, so even 1 drink for me starts that clock from the beginning again, and time at this point it not on my side. So let me know if you need that info again, and keep me in the loop as to when you start and you won't have to worry about going at it alone.

 

[PerfectKiss]

Hello,

This is actually my first post on the board but I have been reading them for a while and the messages have helped a friend of mine accomplish a lot and get him
through hard times. He very much appreciates this. My friend went through an 14 year opiate withdrawal earlier this year and just completed a pretty heavy Alprazolam withdrawal 2 weeks ago, so I'll tell you his experience on his Benzo taper. From him and others I have read, it was easier to cut down pretty dramatically right away
and then of course gets harder as you work your way down. He was on 10 mgs/day of Alprazolam for 3 or 4 years and he was able to cut down to 8mgs/day very easily and then to 7mgs/day a week after that without a problem. He knew conventional wisdom says to switch to a longer lasting Benzo, but he was familiar with Alprazolam so he stuck with it. In the meantime, he was building up his Topamax dosage, fairly easy to get from any physician he told me for migraine prevention, 25mgs per
week to help combat seizures from the taper and also began using Lyrica 150mgs 2x daily to also add in anti-seizure protection and he told me it was approved for
Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Europe, which could not hurt. From my friend's experience, the seizure rate increased after dropping 40% of his daily dose. So, he went from 7mgs/daily to 6.75 mgs/daily for a week, to 6.5 mgs/daily for a week, etc. He experienced no negative effects from stopping Topamax (he was up to 100 mgs 2x daily) or Lyrica at the end of the taper. Of course he tells me he still feels very strange and it might take a long time for that "strange" feeling to finally go away but he feels comfortable after 2 weeks+ he is out of danger from seizures. I hope my friend's story helped somewhat.

 

[ControlDenied]

I'm very interested in this being on 2 mg of clonazepam daily and 900 mg gabapentin for the last 3 months or so. they help me too much to stop taking them right now, but i definitely dont want to be on them for more than 9 months or so [then taper for like 3 months to nothing].it should be okay, what ill do is taper the klono first then the gaba will help with residual withdrawals, then taper the gaba down. altogether about 1 - 1.5 years i guess to make sure its max. comfortable. should this be painless?

there are so many different opinions about how bad benzo WD is, obviously because every body is different. some say a slow, meticulous, liberal taper [i.e. go up a bit if the taper gets too sketchy, then resume tapering] is relatively painless. some say its hell and that the last .125 mg of klono is impossible to stop. then again i cold turkeyed methadone and various other opiates countless times. in my experience people exegerrate withdrawals sometimes but benzo, would be horrible because i can imagine how twitchy you get after tapering from a long therapeutic benzo use. ive CT'd from high dose benzo daily but only after 3 -4 weeks use, i would just be a little more introverted and my muscles twitched but that went away after a month completely. it is an uncomfortable and strange feeling though, but i really cant compare to the hell of opiate withdrawal, what with the cravings and twisted memories of dark alleys and shady drug dealers. so id say a benzo taper under medical advice would be much much less painful. ive also CT'ed cigarettes no problem. so im guessing i should be okay. but im a bit scared and wonder what it looks like from my case in terms of how easy it will be to stop. especially because i am naturally so anxious and these prescribed drugs help immensely. i zone out enough to look at things clearly and not be hiding from people and society all the time. and can calm down enough to do simple tasks like feeding myself which is quite hard otherwise due to my high strung nature.

 

[ControlDenied]

does anyone haveany advice/info on how hard it is weaning of this dose it should be ok as long my doctor does it slow.