Benzos Do I need a taper plan ?

[waf]

Hi. I'm a diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic. I started using Diazepam as an aid to help me quit Seroquel. It worked very good for that purpose. Helping primarily with sleep, but also relieving alot of the other symptoms associated with Seroquel wihdrawal.
I tapered down from Seroquel, 800mg daily, i think maybe in a matter of two weeks.
Now it's been about 5 months since i quit Seroquel and i'm still taking the Diazepam to get to sleep.

I realize Benzo type of drugs are meant to be used short term and not as a long term solution.

Now I want to quit taking them all together.

The dose i'm currently taking is at 5mg/24h taken aprox at 22 pm every evening.
I've been doing so for about 5 months.
Also using sublingually 2.5mg on occasion when i couldn't sleep, so some days, maybe as high as 7.5 to 10mg in total per 24 H, but for the most part I use 5mg.

I am aware of that this drug has a long half-life and builds up in the bodys tissues.

How do I go about quitting?
Do I need a taper plan at so low of a dosage? or can i just stop cold turkey?
I am familiar with the Ashton manual, but I did not see any plans for such low dosages.

I have a prescription for Quetiapine 25mg which i plan to use as a sleep aid for the withdrawal period, even though it gives a hangover, it provides me with a full night of sleep.

 

[Keif' Richards]

You're in luck because there is this wonderful doctor who's developed a pretty great method for dealing with Benzodiazepine dependence. This information is contained in what is known as "The Ashton Manual". I dont even have any other commentary because she has done such a great job at lining it all out.

Please check out this link and let us know if you have any questions, concerns or need the information "translated" into simpler language. I really hope this helps.

Benzo.org.uk/manual/

 

[waf]

Thanks. I'll look into that when i'm ready to start weaning off. By the looks of it from the Ashton manual, i'm supposed to reduce 0.5mg at a time from 5mg.

The larger the dose you are taking initially, the greater the size of each dose reduction can be. You could aim at reducing dosage by up to one tenth at each decrement. For example, if you are taking 40mg diazepam equivalent you could reduce at first by 2-4mg every week or two. When you are down to 20mg, reductions could be 1-2mg weekly or fortnightly. When you are down to 10mg, 1mg reductions are probably indicated. From 5mg diazepam some people prefer to reduce by 0.5mg every week or two.

But how do I go about doing so? The tablets I have access to is 10mg which can only be halved. I have a tablet splitter which is essentially a razor blade stuck to a box. Would it worked if I weighed the pills on a mg scale, crushed it up and put it in capsules?

 

[OntarioGuy]

fortunately your dosage is on what i would consider the very mild end of the scale. my advice would be se what the lowest dosage you can take to stay comfortable (perhaps 5- 7.5 mg) stay at that and stabilize for 2 weeks, reduce your dosage by 0.5 mg every 2 weeks until you are on 0.5 mg of diazepam once a day. perhaps obtain some pregabalin/phenibut/gabapentin and jump off. use the gabapentanoids sparingly as needed for rebound anxiety and other symptoms. I did just this from a much higher dose (100 mg of diazepam a day) with success. I believe i jumped off at 1 mg of diazepam even if im remembering correctly.

full disclosure; i am totally re addicted again 4 years later after the successful taper