Ending a Diaz taper

[Allein]

So I managed to get myself into another mess with Diaz and ended up popping them all day and taking a good couple of large doses in the evening, 50-60mgs a go although probably not that much as these are illicit tabs, dialy dose (based on the claimed contents of the tabs) around 200mgs it took about 3 months to get to that and I was at that level for about 3-4 weeks.

I'm down to 60Mgs on the taper but I take it all in the evening, I know it has a very long half life but I dont want to end the taper and suffer too much insomnia, which I'm prone to anyway.

Do you think there is any value in starting to break the dose up so that I'm not so up on it when I go to bed? I don't have booze to fall back on as I gave that up in July this year and I can't go back there. I'm also on 150 Mgs of Venlafaxine XL which I take in the morning, if that has any bearing ?

 

[effie]

As diazepam's half-life is so ridiculously long, I can't imagine it making much difference if you take it once a day or in divided doses, unless you start feeling the taper a lot more in the mornings.. venlafaxine can make some people feel a bit jittery and anxious after taking it, so if you're not feeling great then it might help you to take a small dose of diaz with it but overall I can't see it making much difference really.

Congrats on getting down to 60mgs again, and good luck with the rest of the taper!

 

[Allein]

The mornings are shit but then they have been for a long time now...I hate mornings, thats how I eneded up taking the dam stuff all day. Getting up early and necking pills.

Your right I'll stick to the evening dose at least that way I dont have pills on me during the day with the temptation of then doing evenmore then my schedule in the evening.

I think I'm juts getting anxious about having no comfort blanket

 

[Nimshie29]

I have got down to 5mg diaz / day over 4 months. Should I still be getting the shakes and jerks?
Nimshie29

 

[Allein]

How long and at what dose have you been taking it ? that's going to have large influence on the situation. I've caught in a bit of a cycle of binging for 3 months or so getting up to silly daily intakes and then tapering off quite hard.

This is the last time for me, its just isn't worth it for me any more the bit of the binge where I was really enjoying it didn't last long at all and my tolerance rose daily to the point I could take handfuls and really be getting nothing from it.

The whole taper thing is painful to say the least, if I thought it was safe I'd just stop cold and take the consequences but it is just isn't so slowly down the helter skelter I go !

 

[alkap555]

You should be fine with once daily dosing. I have been Rx'd clonazepam for roughly 1.5 yrs at 2mg/day and has gradually gotten down to 0.5mg/day (with once daily dosing) over a period of ~3 months. Everyone reacts differently, but in my case I have not experienced any substantial withdrawal symptoms other than a mild increase in anxiety for roughly 1 week after a dose reduction. SLOW is the name of the game. Do what works best for you. Benzo taper/withdrawal CAN be a bitch, but if done slow enough it can be virtually painless. With the right taper schedule you should experience little w/d symptoms.

Given diazepam's loooong half-life and active metabolites, I doubt QD or BID would make much of a diff. Maybe do a trial period of BID for a week or so to see if that minimizes discomfort. As long as you have a steady supply, I would argue that slower is better, not only in terms of attenuating acute w/d symptoms but also in terms of lessening the chance of protracted withdrawal. In my experience, it is imperative to be stabilized on the lower dose before attempting another dose reduction.

A great resource is the "Ashton Manual" which has been developed from years of clinical experience:

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

Good luck

 

[effie]

^ thank you very much for the good advice and the link, alkap. However, we don't use "swim" here - it doesn't protect you at all and just makes posts hard to read

 

[alkap555]

thx for the tip...I'm obviously new here and I just assumed the SWIM rules applied as they do in many other forums...

 

[Allein]

^^^

Yeah thanks for the info alkap, I've read the manual, its a really useful source of info. I guess I'm trying to wean myself off getting anything off the stuff and I can still feel a bit from dropping the 60mgs as well as my levels being higher when I go to bed so helping me sleep. But I guess as the taper goes on that will resolve itself anyhow. I'm planning on being off by new year its a bit harsh but I reckon I can do it.

Then I can add Benzos to the list of things I never want to ingest again I'm dropping the dose about every 5-6 days so have just gone down to 50mgs today, but I'm not a long term user, this schedule worked for me last time. I'll have to make a judgement as I drop the dose, I may extend the end just to ensure I don't have a seizure.

I find tapering mentally really hard, I'd rather suffer a bit of anxiety etc. than I would draw this out any longer than I have to and have the Benzos in my possession any longer then I have to, I could just fall off the schedule at any time with a supply just sitting there.