Benzos At what dose did you jump?

[aallaann]

I've been doing an informal taper off clonazepam and diazepam for probably around a year now after steady use about 4 years prior to that. I define "steady" as around 10mg diaz or 2mg clonaz per day. After informal tapering I did a more formal taper of:

7 weeks: 0.5mg clonaz
2 weeks: 5mg diaz
2 weeks: 2.5mg diaz

...which is where I am now. I plan to finish with the following:

4 weeks: 1.25mg diaz
6 weeks: 1.25mg diaz every other day

...at which point I will be out and plan to jump. My questions are:

a) what dose did you jump at (and what benzo if not diaz) and what was it like compared to the taper?
b) i know its not Ashton but is my taper slow enough to to keep me functional IYO, given I am reasonably functional at 2.5mg day now?
c) i read about a standard end dose of 0.5mg diaz - is this too far off from ending at 1.25 every other day?

Mainly I'm trying to figure out if I have to buy some more diaz or if I can get by on what I have. Any thoughts would be very welcome.

 

[RobotRipping]

i jumped off at 2.5 mg diazepam. It felt the same as when i would cut a dose during the taper.

i think your taper is slow enough, i did mine much faster and it ended up being okay. I think you'll be fine jumping off at 1.25mg, especially if you're alternating days, that really helps. At the end try taking 1.25mg one day and wait 2 days in between, then next time 3 days and so on.

 

[DaftPunkFan]

Yeah you should be fine at 1.25mg. I'm currently doing the same thing, but I just cut to 3mg Diazepam daily.
Probably go down to the 1.25-1.5mg dose, then jump off.
I think the idea above is really good, doing the alternating days thing towards the end...

 

[aallaann]

Thanks that helps. That is a good idea. I'll do 2 weeks every other, then a few weeks with a 2 day break, then a few weeks with a 3 day break and so on (or something similar). Thanks again.

Good luck DPF.

 

[aallaann]

By the way, so no one who reads this misunderstands what it feels like to taper off benzos, by "relativity functional" I mean I am able to sleep 5 hours per night (surprisingly) and barely do my job during the day. The whole world is humming right now, tinnitus and also it seems like everything has this electric charge. I feel like what I imagine it would feel like to have been struck by lightning moments before: I'm shaky, my nerves are shattered, any sound alarms me, my mind scrutinizes every thought trying to find something sinister about it and sends me into a panic when even the most trivial thing is found. Things that are legitimately stressful terrify me, due dates loom like omens, I fear losing my job. I'm constantly drowsy but when I lay down every thought jolts me up. Somehow the only relief I get is at night from about midnight to 5 AM when I sleep - not great but not the worst sleep I've had (so far). But at 5 AM I pop up like someone's threw a live wire into my bed. I want to keep sleeping but can't because my mind is *on* and not in a "can't wait to start the day!" way.

Just thought I'd clarify because when I re-read my post it seems like I came off like I was just kicking benzos and not much noticing it. I'm not to the breaking point but its not exactly "comfortable".

When I came off opiates a few times it seems like it was worse at night, not as bad during the day. I was expecting benzo wd to be worse at night but so far its been the opposite.