flirting with a renewed benzo habit - need some advice.

[psytaco]

Hey guys. Halfway through last year I had a bit of a benzo habit. Not as severe or as long as alot of what I read on here. However, it still required a careful tapering regime and was very distressing and uncomfortable. I would NOT want to go through that again.

At the beginning of this week I stopped taking zoloft after tapering for 3 weeks. The withdrawals when stopping completly were intense and I was surprised by how bad the anxiety was. I was originally given 25x 10mg temazepam for sleeping. At first I had a bit of fun with them and went through 10 in one night. the next two days I would go through about 4 a day for sleep and to keep the anxiety at bay (not very good at this). I went to a doctor who prescribed me 25x30mg oxazepam which I have found very good at managed the axiety. but not so good for sleep. I am keeping close to therapuetic doses between 45mg and 60mg a day. Which is equivlent to 15-20mg vals a day. When I was abusing vals and got addicted I was doing around 40-60mg a day.

My question is, if you have had a previous addiction to benzos, how long does it take for the addiction to be reinstated? I have been taking the benzos for a week now at these doses. It shouldn't be cause for concern should it? I heard withdrawal can happen quickly if you start taking benzos again. Is this right? Or more a case if you start taking them soon after withdrawing.

I just don't want to go through another lot of drug withdrawal after getting off the zoloft. Incidently, that is going very well and I have few withdrawal symptoms today.

 

[panic in paradise]

a week?
i dont know for certain, but im guessing you will experience mental cravings more then physical.
with benzos, the latter is surely worse once established, but the sick is pretty motivating. mental addiction, i feel that to be much more intrusive, but safe.

compared to your previous habit, this should be very manageable.
keep us updated..!

 

[duneplanet]

it ook me 5 days tog et addicted again.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Quit before you have physical withdrawal symptoms.

If you have physical withdrawal symptoms, start tapering immediately by cutting your dose down by 10% to 50%, depending on what your dosage is like. If you are at a huge dose and have been going at it for a while, 10% reductions at a time is more ideal. If you aren't yet physically addicted, but it's starting to feel like you have "withdrawal" when you come off it, try cutting your dose in half first.

 

[wooger]

Hi

I think its called kindling when withdrawal symptoms start sooner/more intensely than the previous withdrawal.... theres some info on it here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(substance_withdrawal)

I know its not benzos but alcohol can do this too and when I started drinking after detoxing from alcohol it only took a couple of weeks to get physical withdrawal symptoms...

but yes its better to be safe than sorry and listen to your body and taper off if you are feeling withdrawals...

good luck

 

[AfterGlow]

I'd be more worried about the metal craving sucking me back into a habit that would be hell to quite AGAIN! Good luck to you!