Benzos Benzo taper question

[downerman79]

Hello. So I decided to take a long break from benzos (at least I hope so), but not before a slow and safe taper in order to avoid PAWS. I'm not sure how high my dosages were before I started the taper, not really high, I'd say moderate. Sometimes it was 10 mg of diazepam, sometimes 30, sometimes I'd mix 6-9 mg of bromazepam with 10-15 mg of diazepam. Anyway, I figured a good starting point for tapper would be 20 mg of diazepam. I stabilized myself on this dose without any issues and took it for about 10 days or so. Then I started lowering my dose 1 mg per week. I'm now on 16 mg. With this plan, it will take a little more than 4 months to quit. I figured this would be slow and safe enough to avoid any discomfort since 20 mg is not really a huge dose.

However, on some days I just can't take anxiety and depression related to some personal issues I have to deal with. So 2 or 3 times during the past 4 weeks I had to take an additional dose of 6 mg of bromazepam. Will this mess up my taper plan? Like, if I do it once a week or once in 10 days if I really really have to? 6 mg of bromazepam is little, it equals about 10 mg of diazepam, maybe even weaker than that. I'd highly appreciate your opinions. Thanx.

 

[Conky]

Hello. So I decided to take a long break from benzos (at least I hope so), but not before a slow and safe taper in order to avoid PAWS. I'm not sure how high my dosages were before I started the taper, not really high, I'd say moderate. Sometimes it was 10 mg of diazepam, sometimes 30, sometimes I'd mix 6-9 mg of bromazepam with 10-15 mg of diazepam. Anyway, I figured a good starting point for tapper would be 20 mg of diazepam. I stabilized myself on this dose without any issues and took it for about 10 days or so. Then I started lowering my dose 1 mg per week. I'm now on 16 mg. With this plan, it will take a little more than 4 months to quit. I figured this would be slow and safe enough to avoid any discomfort since 20 mg is not really a huge dose.

However, on some days I just can't take anxiety and depression related to some personal issues I have to deal with. So 2 or 3 times during the past 4 weeks I had to take an additional dose of 6 mg of bromazepam. Will this mess up my taper plan? Like, if I do it once a week or once in 10 days if I really really have to? 6 mg of bromazepam is little, it equals about 10 mg of diazepam, maybe even weaker than that. I'd highly appreciate your opinions. Thanx.

Hey there

I don't see any issues with your current med protocol, slow and steady wins the race!

The bit of extra bromazepam shouldn't really set you back

It took me months to recover from a benzo addiction and I prolonged it by drinking mass amounts of whisky and cheap beer in a unsuccessful attempt to cope with the withdrawal

Keep doing what you're doing and you'll make it

 

[jasperkent]

Yeah, what nomorebenzos said.
I assume you're avoiding alcohol?
If so, you are doing well. Keep it up!

 

[downerman79]

Yeah, what nomorebenzos said.
I assume you're avoiding alcohol?
If so, you are doing well. Keep it up!

Nah, booze is out of the question. My benzo use is moderate and therapeutic today, but back in the day I used to take insane amounts, often mixed with alcohol and it devastated my GABA system, so now I can't drink alcohol. In fact I can, but the hangover is so severe that it's simply not worth it. Not that much physically, but rather psychologically. Every alcohol binge is followed by 3 to 5 days of horrible, debilitating depression, when I just close myself in a dark room, don't communicate with anyone, and don't do literally anything except lying in bed and self-pitying. I just hope that the damage is reversible and that if I take a longer break I'll be able to enjoy a night of drinking with my friends again. If I drink beer and wine only, it's not that severe, but I usually lack self control and end up gulping hard liquor until I pass out, so I have mostly avoided booze during the past 5-6 years.

 

[Endopharm]

The way your doing it is what professionals do in europe, I've used it and it worked great! It's just a long process

 

[downerman79]

Hello everyone. So my first attempt to quit benzos unfortunately failed. Sometime around the end of April I had a terrible, terrible depressive episode combined with nasty panic attacks. Probably the worst episode I have ever had. I don't think this could have been related to benzo withdrawal, 'cause as you can see from my first post. I was going very slow, 1 mg per week and everything was fine for 2 months, up until 10 mg. This was probably due to some of my personal issues related to job, health, etc. So I had no choice but to up my dosages again. There was no other choice, I was going completely insane. So with the help of diazepam, bromazepam and zolpidem, this horrible depressive episode resolved by the end of May.

So since I felt kinda normal again, I decided to start again from 20 mg, it was maybe 25-26. of May. I was going very slow again and now, at the beginning of July I'm at 15 mg. There was no issues at all for a whole month, I thought I was doing great and I thought I had resolved my personal issues in my head, went to some doctor checks, etc, I was again at that state of "ok, I'm aware of my problems, but it's ok, it'll be better". Then suddenly, 2 nights ago, just like that, out of nowhere, a panic attack hit me again. No reason at all, I was just watching a movie and eating snacks, didn't think about anything bad, and just BAM. For the past 3 days I've been feeling really really sad, and the panic attacks randomly come and go. I don't know if this has to do with my benzo taper. You can't go slower than 1 mg per week, I'm barely managing to cut those little 2 mg pills. I tapered many times before, even at a faster pace, never had anything like this happen. I feel a strong urge to just pop 3-4 mg of Xanax and relax and eat and watch a movie and end this hellish feeling. But I don't want to ruin my taper, I don't want my efforts to go to waste again. I already took an additional dose of bromazepam and zolpidem yesterday (not much help tho). What would you guys suggest? Do you think it's withdrawal-related? I'd highly appreciate any advice. Thanx.

 

[En_warp]

I was on various benzos daily for about 5 years
I quit through tapering off with Clonazepam. Took couple weeks. A dr helped with taper schedule.
If you can speak with a dr, you should as they'll help with a plan.

If you want to quit, you can do it.

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

You can't go slower than 1 mg per week, I'm barely managing to cut those little 2 mg pills.

Just gonna put out there what I have learned from this awesome website:
You can. Disolve the 2mg pill in say a solvent of 8ml and each ml will become 1/4mg of bzd. This is just an example of course but ya see?
From personal experience it works.
But the doctor visit may be of help if there are underlying issues that are keeping you in panic attacks.
Best of luck with this.

 

[Slc6a4]

What about crushing some pills to a powder and add the same weight of inositol (inactive, often used as a cutting agent, you can get it at vitamin/health stores). You need to have a precise scale though. Tapering with powder is much better than with pills.