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Benzos Finishing Valium taper...

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DaftPunkFan

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Oct 5, 2008
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I'm currently tapering off a 3 year addiction to benzos... mainly Xanax, but also prescribed Klonopin and Ativan.
Anyways, got down to a low dose, switched to 10mg Valium, and started taper from there.
Here's an older thread if anyone cares: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...(Tapering-Off-Benzos)?p=10361330#post10361330

I'm currently down to 0.75mg Valium twice a day (1.5mg daily), and I'm having a REALLY hard time getting lower than this. I've been cutting around 0.25mg a month since I hit around 3mg daily. I realize this is still progress, but it's obviously been slowing down my taper process by quite a lot.

For the record, I do suffer from anxiety, and am dependent on this medication because of real anxiety problems. I've had debilitating panic attacks for the last 4 years on and off, but they've become less frequent. I think that's why it's taken me so long to even get where I'm at right now, because I actually do take this stuff for legitimate reasons. However, I still want to become benzo-free because of the severe side effects I've felt from benzos, and I know that these drugs aren't going to solve underlying issues that they temporarily fix.

At this point, ANYTHING helps! If you've successfully finished a benzo taper, I'd really appreciate hearing about it. If you've finished a benzo taper and have never had anxiety issues, please share too. If you've finished a benzo taper for ANY reason, I'd love to hear about how you got through the final stages of it. If you've suffered from panic attacks and never actually became dependent on benzos, please share that too.

I'm losing hope very quickly. Any advice is REALLY appreciated! Thanks :(
 
your toast pal

lol joking, i been on benzos for last 5 years, not to get high or recreationally i just had a huge stash and its running out, im tapered down to 1 10mg val tab, when i get down to 30 tabs ill split it to 1/2 a tab

from there who the fucks knows whats gonna happen
 
You've tapered about as low as possible.

Try Kava Kava and maybe DXM for a few days after your last benzo.
 
I wish it was that easy...I've been prescribed valium for close to half my life, latest run is 10-15 mg's a day for 13 years. I can usually get by on 10 mg's unless I'm on a plane, around big crowds or working in close quarters (specialty wall/ceiling finishes)
I was first prescribed 2-5 mg's in my teen years for tension headaches/anxiety bouts, was off them from around my early 20's -
to early 30's just using them for "on the spot" anxiety maybe 5-6 times a month.Then attacks/bouts came back w/ a vengeance. Dr. at the time tried faster acting/short lived benzos' they worked but just never felt right (need sharp motor skills for the type of work I provide)

The Dr. explained the long half life of valium, as once I started taking 10 mg's around 11:00pm bedtime it would hold me over until the next night. Guess what ? he was right, after a couple of weeks it built up in my system and it worked like a charm ! always carried a couple of halves (5 mg's) around, just in case but rarely needed them.

So fast forward a couple decades and my 12 year CP Dr. wants me to start tapering because of the pain meds' I'm on
Well, 5 mg's at 11:00 pm gives me about 3 hours of sleep and the anxiety is creepin' again. I realize it doesnt sound like much, but I think the bed-time dosing really fucked up my natural sleep cycle (which is close to zipp w/o the 10 mg dose)

Of course sleeping pills are out of the question, SSRI's are the worst (been through most of em')...zombie/nightmares Tried numerous natural supps' to no avail, except phenibut (experience anyone)
My hope is to get down to 5 mg's in the next couple months being able to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep so I can function all day.

Any helpful insight/suggestions appreciated - If I can help anybody, I'll give it my best shot

Edit: Sorry DPF, didnt mean to hijack your thread...Mods' please feel free to make "new post" or burn it if I F'd up by not doing it myself.
 
Last edited:
ronnin said:
You've tapered about as low as possible.

Try Kava Kava and maybe DXM for a few days after your last benzo.
Click to expand...

I've tried Kava Kava several times, and it doesn't really do anything for me.
Never tried DXM, maybe I'll give it a go...
Thanks!
 
Need4speed said:
your toast pal

lol joking, i been on benzos for last 5 years, not to get high or recreationally i just had a huge stash and its running out, im tapered down to 1 10mg val tab, when i get down to 30 tabs ill split it to 1/2 a tab

from there who the fucks knows whats gonna happen
Click to expand...

Right... hope that works out.
I don't have the problem of running out because I'm prescribed this stuff.
 
Fire&Water said:
I wish it was that easy...I've been prescribed valium for close to half my life, latest run is 10-15 mg's a day for 13 years. I can usually get by on 10 mg's unless I'm on a plane, around big crowds or working in close quarters (specialty wall/ceiling finishes)
I was first prescribed 2-5 mg's in my teen years for tension headaches/anxiety bouts, was off them from around my early 20's -
to early 30's just using them for "on the spot" anxiety maybe 5-6 times a month.Then attacks/bouts came back w/ a vengeance. Dr. at the time tried faster acting/short lived benzos' they worked but just never felt right (need sharp motor skills for the type of work I provide)

The Dr. explained the long half life of valium, as once I started taking 10 mg's around 11:00pm bedtime it would hold me over until the next night. Guess what ? he was right, after a couple of weeks it built up in my system and it worked like a charm ! always carried a couple of halves (5 mg's) around, just in case but rarely needed them.

So fast forward a couple decades and my 12 year CP Dr. wants me to start tapering because of the pain meds' I'm on
Well, 5 mg's at 11:00 pm gives me about 3 hours of sleep and the anxiety is creepin' again. I realize it doesnt sound like much, but I think the bed-time dosing really fucked up my natural sleep cycle (which is close to zipp w/o the 10 mg dose)

Of course sleeping pills are out of the question, SSRI's are the worst (been through most of em')...zombie/nightmares Tried numerous natural supps' to no avail, except phenibut (experience anyone)
My hope is to get down to 5 mg's in the next couple months being able to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep so I can function all day.

Any helpful insight/suggestions appreciated - If I can help anybody, I'll give it my best shot

Edit: Sorry DPF, didnt mean to hijack your thread...Mods' please feel free to make "new post" or burn it if I F'd up by not doing it myself.
Click to expand...

Not sure what your question is, but I agree with you on short-acting benzos causing motor skill impairment.
Valium is nice due to its long half-life, but for "on the spot" anxiety that you brought up, I'd way rather have something quick like Xanax or Ativan.

Anyways I hope your taper goes well!
 
I was prescribed 8 to 10 mgs Xanax a day for about 4 years. It took me another year to taper with Valium. I won't lie to you it sucked!!! I jumped off the taper at 2 mg Valium a day. It took me about 6 months to get back to "normal". You have to really want to get off the Xanax. It was the toughest thing I have ever done in my life. Keep going down in dosage and good luck. If I can do it anybody can believe me.
 
I guess I feel it would be somewhat easier if I never started taking them @ bedtime... It's now the proverbial "warm glass of milk" (yack!) But I know its not much easier whichever factors are involved or not... Getting down to 1.5 mg's sounds like quite the feat to me.
 
HCandKROD said:
I was prescribed 8 to 10 mgs Xanax a day for about 4 years. It took me another year to taper with Valium. I won't lie to you it sucked!!! I jumped off the taper at 2 mg Valium a day. It took me about 6 months to get back to "normal". You have to really want to get off the Xanax. It was the toughest thing I have ever done in my life. Keep going down in dosage and good luck. If I can do it anybody can believe me.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... you finished your taper at 2mg Valium? Maybe I should just stop at this point and see if I can do it, since I'm at 1.5mg a day.
Or maybe alternate days at this point? Someone suggested that to me a while ago, like a low dose one day (0.5mg or something), nothing the next, etc.
Thanks.
 
If I could do it all over again I wouldn't have stepped off till I was down to 1 mg a day. I don't know if that would have made a difference. It's your decision. Just remember if you are lowering your dose it's still progress.
 
HCandKROD said:
If I could do it all over again I wouldn't have stepped off till I was down to 1 mg a day. I don't know if that would have made a difference. It's your decision. Just remember if you are lowering your dose it's still progress.
Click to expand...

Alright thanks! I think I'll keep going down to 1mg daily then, stabilize for a while, then maybe alternate days... what do you think?
Or maybe once I get there, I could do 0.5mg one day, nothing next day, back to 0.5mg, etc.
 
DaftPunkFan said:
I'm currently tapering off a 3 year addiction to benzos... mainly Xanax, but also prescribed Klonopin and Ativan.
Anyways, got down to a low dose, switched to 10mg Valium, and started taper from there.
Here's an older thread if anyone cares: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...(Tapering-Off-Benzos)?p=10361330#post10361330

I'm currently down to 0.75mg Valium twice a day (1.5mg daily), and I'm having a REALLY hard time getting lower than this. I've been cutting around 0.25mg a month since I hit around 3mg daily. I realize this is still progress, but it's obviously been slowing down my taper process by quite a lot.

For the record, I do suffer from anxiety, and am dependent on this medication because of real anxiety problems. I've had debilitating panic attacks for the last 4 years on and off, but they've become less frequent. I think that's why it's taken me so long to even get where I'm at right now, because I actually do take this stuff for legitimate reasons. However, I still want to become benzo-free because of the severe side effects I've felt from benzos, and I know that these drugs aren't going to solve underlying issues that they temporarily fix.

At this point, ANYTHING helps! If you've successfully finished a benzo taper, I'd really appreciate hearing about it. If you've finished a benzo taper and have never had anxiety issues, please share too. If you've finished a benzo taper for ANY reason, I'd love to hear about how you got through the final stages of it. If you've suffered from panic attacks and never actually became dependent on benzos, please share that too.

I'm losing hope very quickly. Any advice is REALLY appreciated! Thanks :(
Click to expand...

I have done a ton of benzos tapers. The right and wrong ways. and if you are that low just stop man. Nothing can happen. No seizures. Your gonna feel off but that is unavoidable.
 
As said before, kava might be worth a shot. The thing with kava is usually when people take it for the first time they don't feel anything even with large doses. I recently just had my first kava experience the other day after about a month of taking doses here and there. I got hit by a drunk feeling for a couple of hours even though I had taken more than that previously and had only felt a little relaxed. Kava is really weird and I still don't understand it but it is legal and from what I've experienced can make you really relaxed with no rebound anxiety or any ill feelings the next day. Although I wouldn't compare it to a strong benzo such as xanax it definitely has its effects.

I was taking xanax a bunch when I was 18 and had to stop when I was put on probation. Honestly at that time I didn't know what withdrawal was but I remember being miserable for a while. I'm sure weed would have helped tremendously but I couldn't smoke that either. But my advice, if you really have a serious on going anxiety problem you might just have to make the jump to see what the deal is. After that long with benzos I can only imagine the PAWS which for me seemed like it lasted months. Weed/kava/kratom would be my advice if you really need something.
 
Spadez87 said:
I have done a ton of benzos tapers. The right and wrong ways. and if you are that low just stop man. Nothing can happen. No seizures. Your gonna feel off but that is unavoidable.
Click to expand...

True, you could have stopped at 10mg a day and not worried about seizing. It's getting your brain used to no benzo's is the point of a long taper. The mental shit I went through was much more than feeling a little off. It was pure hell. Maybe some people can get away with a quick taper but that wasn't my experience. If you have the meds and can keep to a reduction schedule thats what I would do.
 
HCandKROD said:
True, you could have stopped at 10mg a day and not worried about seizing. It's getting your brain used to no benzo's is the point of a long taper. The mental shit I went through was much more than feeling a little off. It was pure hell. Maybe some people can get away with a quick taper but that wasn't my experience. If you have the meds and can keep to a reduction schedule thats what I would do.
Click to expand...

i hear you man, Benzos w/d is the defination of pure evil .when i did no taper off 4 mgs a day of clonazepam for 2 years i went mentally insane.

i tapered once with valium after a 1 year binge on lorezepam over 6 months and I felt awful but could function.

slow will make it bearable (to a degree) i was at 7.5 mgs of valium recently after a 50 days taper but fucked it up and am back at a stable 40 mgs and drinking 2-4 beers a night with it.

fuck benzos
 
OP, the 1.5mg you are on now isnt leaving you in any danger if you stop but I can understand that last bit is always the hardest to drop. I know people that were stuck on 1mg a day for months before making the leap. Its important to remember that the WD from 1mg is only psychological and any excess anxiety is just fuelled by fear of being without the drug you have come to rely on, not any actual danger to your health. Pregabalin could be useful to you if your really struggling. Im currently ending a 2 year addiction the zopiclone and the pregabalin has been a godsend, virtually eliminating WD symptoms.
 
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