Benzos Has anyone not had a horrific time quiting valium?

[Brutal BMW Driver]

Hi,

I have been on 5-10mg valium daily for about 2 years now, mostly 5mg, but the last 2 months 10mg.

I have been reading all the horror stories on the net of people withdrawing for like a year after quitting, however all the medical literature states that most people fully recover a few weeks after completely stopping (after a taper) with extreme cases lasting up to a month.

I wonder though if its like reading car forums, for example even if you went to the Toyota Camry forum, judging by the posts you would think they were the least reliable car in the world, what im trying to say is no one would make a post on bluelight saying "I had a surprisingly easy time quitting benzo's".

Anyway, Just want to hear others opinions on whether "most" people withdraw as per the medical literature (IE are pretty much back to normal within a month after stopping a taper) or if the withdrawals do hang around for months to years after quitting.

Also, Since I have only been on 10mg for a few months i was thinking about going straight to 7.5, then a week later dropping down to 5, then drop it by 1mg every two weeks until im clean.

I do not take any other drugs, however my Dr recommended that i take a small dose of lexapro when starting on the withdrawal to ease the increased anxiety. I have had lexapro before and had no major problems with it.

I would never have started taking valium if I knew the withdrawals would be so long and bad. years ago I quit a 3 month 60mg a day oxy habit and apart from feinding for the drug, I was physically and mentally back to normal after a week or two max. I have been on many drugs throughout my life, but this bloody valium is the last one left that i need to shake. I am surprised how much it is prescribed considering its addictiveness.

Any advice would be great,
Cheers.

 

[Tommyboy]

Hey there, I came off of that same dose almost 15 months ago now, so I have some experience with this. First a little history;

I was first prescribed xanax in 2005 and was up to 3mg a day in 2009 when I switched to valium. Due to being away at school and not being able to get it scripted there I had tapered down to 1mg of xanax a day, and so when I finally got to see a doctor I was just happy to be getting a script again and wanted to stay at a lower dose so I got on 10mg of valium a day.

In 2010 I decided to taper off of the valium, so went down by 2mg a month until I was at 1mg a day in 2011 and got down as low as 0.5mg of valium a day but unfortunately couldn't get off as my anxiety got worse after graduating from college (less structure in my day plus all of the unknown got to me) so I got back on 5mg a day and then 10mg a day a few months later.

I ended up staying at around 7.5mg a day for 2012, and then I went to detox in 2013 at which time I was mostly taking just 5mg a day. I was in detox for opiates and wasn't planning on staying off of benzos but after being off of it for a week I decided to give it an honest try since it was the longest I had been without a benzo since I had started 8 years earlier. Basically I knew that it was probably my only shot to get off of it and once I made it that week I didn't want to look back.

For me, it wasn't too horrible but stayed pretty bad until it peaked at the 2 week mark. It took about a month before it started getting noticeably better. After I got off it I never looked back. I took a benzo maybe 3x since I detoxed from it and I didn't like it and definitely got rebound anxiety from it.

I know that tapering is said to be the best way to go but for me a detox was. I actually told them I didn't want the librium there (that's the long-acting benzo they give you in detox facilities) since I was already on day 3 of no benzos and knew I wouldn't begin to kick them until after I got out of there if they gave me it and I wanted to be under medical supervision while I had nothing in me at first so if I had a seizure I would be around doctors, but they made me take the librium anyway.

It was a way higher dose than the equivalent in valium I was on but they do that so it builds up in your system then slowly leaves you due to the long Half-Life.

I recommend trying to taper before considering a detox, but make sure that you have structure and stability in your life before you get off of it. See if you can get the 2mg pills from your doctor and go down by 1mg a month (I went down by 2mg a month until I got below 5mg and went down by 1mg a month after that).

The way I did it was like this. If you are at 4mg looking to drop to 3mg then take the 3mg during the day and save the 1mg for night. Then alternate days on and off where you take the nightly dose and then don't take it. Also, wait as long as you can before taking the daily dose so it makes the nights without it easier.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[Greyhounder]

You are quite right, benzo withdrawls are not necessarily horrendous or long lasting but they quite often are.
As you will be aware that benzo's are very good at reducing anxiety symptoms, they work by enhancing the effect of the neurotrasmitter GABBA. In the very short term your body produces GABBA which is added to by the benzo and you feel calm and sedated, in the medium term your body figures that it doesn't need to produce so much of its own GABBA anymore and relies on you taking the benzo. If you stop taking the benzo at this point then your body is not bothering to produce much GABBA of its own and you aren't taking any so you are actually worse of than before you started and have a lower quantity of GABBA available at receptor sites. Too little GABBA results in anxiety symptoms, poor sleep, panic attacks etc, and these will continue until your body finally gets its act together again and ups its own GABBA production.
So far, so good, if the reason you started taking the benzo's was for an anxiety state, well as soon as you stop or even start to reduce (unless very, very slowly) you will get back all of your original anxiety symptoms and some more for luck, if you were able to manage them before then you will probably be able to manage them now although they will be worse for a bit. If you were taking them for fun then when you stop you will notice yourself being on edge and unable to relax, you will be irritable and find sleep difficult but if you carry on and dont focus on them you will be over it fairly quickly.
The biggest problem is that since anxiety, by definintion, includes worrying about things beyond what is reasonable as a main symptom it is easy for the thing people focus and worry about to be the anxiety produced by withdrawls itself leading to a nasty vicious circle where you become aware of your anxiety so you get anxious about that and the more anxious you get the more you get anxious about how anxious you were before you got more anxious....etc. The second problem is that benzo's are bad for your memory so whilst your recall of how things felt before your reduction is all a bit hazy you will recall every last second of your withdrawls.
Good luck and if you manage it try not to relapse, there are so many better ways to deal with anxiety.
Compared to many you are on a low dose so that is in your favour

 

[star15389]

Everyone is different. Some get horrible (or worse) withdrwals lasting weeks (or longer) while others will barely experience anything. 10mg diazepam is a low dose even if you have been taking it daily for two years; your withdrawal will probably be mild. See how you feel on 5mg, if it's bearable I'd go with that and jump off as soon as you can. You'll be surprised how much better you feel once you're off benzos; it's nothing like oxy in that respect. Would not recommend lexapro or any antidepressant for this. By the time it starts working you should be feeling better anyway. Use phenibut or hydroxyzine to manage anxiety if you need something.