Benzos Going from roughly 50mg valium a day to cold turkey?

[jetamine]

Hi,

I'm currently a student and got valium off the internet to help me get to sleep. Because in halls as it's ridiculously loud, I ended up taking 50mg a night about 5 days a week..

Been doing this for the past 2 months and I've been reading stuff online about coming off it and it's frightened so much!

Should I just go cold turkey, how bad will it be and how long will it last? I really have the urge to go the doctors ASAP as I'm worried for my health but will this also go down on my health record and will it jeopardise being employed in the future if they ask to view my medical records? I can't believe I've gotten myself in this situation I feel so stupid and ashamed.

Would be really grateful of any help.

 

[Trying2Iso]

Definitely taper
That's my advice with medication withdrawal, tapering is key just ween yourself off 1/2 dose every week or so and you will have a better time.

 

[MGLA]

Don't do it, iv seized from cold turkey benzo's, if you can get more taper very slowly, are you not going through WD's on the two days you have off? Im sure someone else can tell you a lot more

 

[jetamine]

Half the dose each week until 0?

 

[jetamine]

Don't do it, iv seized from cold turkey benzo's, if you can get more taper very slowly, are you not going through WD's on the two days you have off? Im sure someone else can tell you a lot more

I haven't had withdrawals really apart from shaky hands but I get that anyway so that may not be related to it.

 

[MagickalKat777]

50mg is more than I've ever taken and I ended up in the ER cold turkey from 20mg. Seriously bad idea. I didn't sleep for days... By the time I went to the hospital I was hallucinating, my pupils were so dilated that the light from the TV was enough to brighten up the entire room and the final straw was when my heart rate shot up and I started having chest pains. I went to the ER and they gave me IV Ativan and it was all gone after the second dose. I went to the pharmacy and picked up my prescription refill I had left the very next day and began a taper in September of 2013 and I'm still tapering because i failed to taper the first time and went from 10mg back to 20mg plus alcohol until I decided to try again. Right now I'm alternating 5mg in one dose one day and 10mg every other day split between 5mg every 12 hours.

With your usage, I would taper 5-10% a week to minimize the risk of withdrawal. You wouldn't believe how horrible benzodiazepine withdrawal is. I've quit every other drug I've ever done cold turkey without much issue. Benzos? No way in hell.

Oh and with the long half life of Valium the worst doesn't usually hit til the second week. Then you'll have a good week. Then another bad week as intense as the second. Don't fool yourself into thinking that just because you feel fine now, you're good. Metabolites figured in, you can have up to 200 hours worth of half life before the full withdrawals start.

 

[billbuilds]

No not even attempt it.
Go to a medic detox as benzo withdrawals can kill you quite easily

 

[jetamine]

50mg is more than I've ever taken and I ended up in the ER cold turkey from 20mg. Seriously bad idea. I didn't sleep for days... By the time I went to the hospital I was hallucinating, my pupils were so dilated that the light from the TV was enough to brighten up the entire room and the final straw was when my heart rate shot up and I started having chest pains. I went to the ER and they gave me IV Ativan and it was all gone after the second dose. I went to the pharmacy and picked up my prescription refill I had left the very next day and began a taper in September of 2013 and I'm still tapering because i failed to taper the first time and went from 10mg back to 20mg plus alcohol until I decided to try again. Right now I'm alternating 5mg in one dose one day and 10mg every other day split between 5mg every 12 hours.

With your usage, I would taper 5-10% a week to minimize the risk of withdrawal. You wouldn't believe how horrible benzodiazepine withdrawal is. I've quit every other drug I've ever done cold turkey without much issue. Benzos? No way in hell.

Oh and with the long half life of Valium the worst doesn't usually hit til the second week. Then you'll have a good week. Then another bad week as intense as the second. Don't fool yourself into thinking that just because you feel fine now, you're good. Metabolites figured in, you can have up to 200 hours worth of half life before the full withdrawals start.

I told the doctor today and she put me on 20mg a night to start off with.. your post has made me seem like this is incorrect dosage? I took 20mg last night and feel fine.. I haven't been taking 50mg every single day.. but the majority of the week. Can you recommend any sort of exercise or vitamins to help me through this?

 

[cook]

Dr probably put you on 20 because you havent been taking it for too long, and possibly not that tolerant that it would be justified to taper from full 50mgs.

You may not need a very long and gradual taper but some taper you will need. Its best to just follow the Drs advice now, and do not worry too much you probably are going to be fine and not suffer tremendously. You may not even suffer at all, its all very individual when it comes to benzos and the level of physical dependency. Thing with Valium is the long half life which means you need to give it a couple of days to a week after major reduction in dose to see if youre gonna have symptoms. No reason to get overly worried, lot of people do this and get away easily. Just never CT, that can set you back a lot and mess up your body big time.

 

[sweetsurrender]

I posted this in another thread.

Benzo withdrawal is hell. I was hospitalized for three weeks to withdraw from benzos ( I was prescribed 20-25 Mg Valium a day for about 2-3 years) - I was tolerant but it had built up in my system) and a shit-load of other meds my doc prescribed me - I lowered antidepressant and built up another, my mood stabilizers were cut dramatically, I was withdrawing from Neurontin (which made me fall all over, pass out affect my gait)
The withdrawal was hell - i didn't sleep for 8 or so days, i had some psychosis, I chattered like crazy, I puked constantly, I was in serious la-la land, was feverish and had massive anxiety. My doc wouldn't even give me a Compazine, Zofran or even a Tums for the nausea - they told me to chew ice chips - bullshit.

Benzo withdrawal has high potential for seizures. my doc said, "who is going to save you when you seize out? (if i went home)
Opiate withdrawl is cake compared to benzos.

I would go to the hospital or ER to get the meds you need.

Better to be safe than dead.