Thanks, Chris. Only two days in to week 2 and already I've reduced my daily Valium equivalency from 200mg to 140mg without any adverse effects. Except that now due to splitting up doses three times throughout the day, I've noticed I'm often fatigued and drowsy from the constant benzo plasma concentrations. My binge which led me to this decision to taper off consisted of massive doses administered once daily at night. So I'd enjoy the high for an hour, then sleep most of the half-life off, then remain anxiolytic throughout the majority of the following day due to the massive dose administered the previous night. I find that this method resulted in less sedative effects lingering throughout the day, but the beneficial anxiolytic effects remained till the following nights mega-dose. Which raises interesting questions in developing a more effective withdrawal taper than even the Ashton Method, albeit perhaps for shorter-term acute abusers - not long term benzo dependent users.
I say this because my productivity and motivation is declining day by day since I've commenced the taper, and I believe this to be attributable to the frequent (3 times/day) dosing. Plus it also appears to be making me more apathetic, which I never encountered during my binge of one daily massive dose. You have to remember that although Alprazolam has a very short half-life a single massive dose administered at night is going to get you high, put you to sleep, then the following day all that remains of the still remaining declining half-lives are the anxiolytic effects - not the sedative effects. This is a good thing, and may also prove an effective method for withdrawal tapering. Nightly doses comprised of the Ashton suggested three daily doses, consisting of majority Xanax in Valium equivalency, gradually reversing this ration to increasing dose in Valium while reducing Xanax dose in Valium equivalency. This would work especially well considering the much longer half-life of Valium. As the harder phases approach, a higher Valium intake is administered in one big nightly dose effecting anxiolytic effects lasting well into the next nightly dose!
I think I've discovered a breakthrough! This method also gradually reduces the dependants dependency on frequent benzo administration. I should be a psychopharmacologist!
Anyway. All is going very well in my taper. So well I think I may increase decrements and periods sustained at certain equivalencies by 25-50%
i heed your advice, Chris, as I approach the final phase, hence why I want to maximize dependency reduction while I can. Because I am cognizant of the probable difficulty in the final phase. This is where I have encountered a logistics problem:
My normally reliable prescription filler is unable to fulfil my Valium requirements to complete this taper. In fact, I only have enough left for another day. I have enough Xanax to continue the taper until I can refill my Valium scripts, but how long will this necessitate me adhering to this taper using nothing but Xanax? And this might present unwanted and unnecessary difficulty if I only had the Valium on hand. Nevertheless it should be one week maximum until I can fill my Valium script which means one week of adjusting the taper to facilitate the use of only Xanax - which can be done, which will have to be done!
And unfortunately I only have 5 and 10 mg Valium available at my pharmacy, but precise enough division of pills can accommodate the finer tapering process. But I believe I will be fine finishing my taper on 5, albeit for 4-7 days alone. Remember, I've only been on benzos for 35 days/5 weeks. My taper should last not much longer than that at all and because of my extremely short binge period I should find it much easier to withdraw absent the worst effects.
tl;dr: Taper plan going great. Down from 200mg daily Valium equivalence to 140mg daily Valium equivalence in 9 days. No negative symptoms. I am a genius, call me Al.
BTW I now have some Zolpidem, and am deciding the best way to incorporate these to reduce my taper schedule, especially in the absence of Valium and also due to the fact that my abuse of benzos were in effort to address my insomnia which I now have THE RIGHT PILLS FOR! I'll start a new thread for this.
-Albert
