Benzos Important question about Librium taper!

[DexyDevil]

So... I've more or less been taking one benzodiazepine or another (Valium, Xananx, Ativan, Restoril, Versed, Librium, you name it...) on and off (well, mostly on) for the better part of eight years. I was originally prescribed Ativan to treat the side-effects of a medication called Geodon, which I should never have taken in the first place. Then each sucessive doctor would continue to prescribe a benzo and I would continue to take them to avoid the hell of withdrawal.

So I decided to finally get off of them! I'm excited and nervous. I have been taking 3mgs of Klonopin for several months, 30mg of Valium for a couple years prior to the Klonopin, and on and on...

My p-doc prescribed three 25mg Librium a day to be taken for 10 ten days. Then 10mg three times a day to be taken for 10 days. Then 5mg two times a day for ten days. Then 5mg once a day for 7 days.

Does this taper sound appropriate? I'm a bit concerned because according to every bioequivalency chart I've checked, 25mg of Librium is equal to .5mg of Klonopin. This means my p-doc immediately cut my dose in half. I don't think he meant to do this.

I'm feeling a little strange. Should I call him and tell him about his mistake and see if the taper can be tweaked or should I ride it out? Is this a massive drop? Coming off benzos is hell for me.

 

[Where Wolf?]

Yes, it'as a massive drop: call him. You should be tapering on diazepam, not librium, given the half-life and potency. Frankly, you may need a new doctor - you don't halve benzo doses: the taper programme your doc's suggested is insane. You need to find your stable dose of diaz (owing to its long half-life), and taper slowly, dropping 1-2mgs a week to every two weeks. Get your doc to read the Ashton manual, or find another doctor. Diaz is the taper drug of choice, and 50% drops are way too steep. Call him because this:

'...three 25mg Librium a day to be taken for 10 ten days. Then 10mg three times a day to be taken for 10 days. Then 5mg two times a day for ten days. Then 5mg once a day for 7 days.'


Is ridiculous. Don't worry, if you've been on K'pins for a while you'll have a backlog in your system, so there's no need to panic, but he doesn't know what he's doing. I'm on a taper, having switched from a mix of alprazolam, nitrazepam, temazepam and so forth to diaz - I was taking up to 12mgs of xanax a day, at one point, but when I started to taper seriously stabilised at 100mgs of diaz, took a feww big jumps down on my own, and then kept rebounding from 50-60mgs upwards. My doc suggested 2mg drops every two weeks, I started out by insisting on trying for 5mgs instead, but now that I'm down to 44mgs a day, 2mg drops are the way to go. In general, 1-2mgs (of diaz, it's by the best benzo to taper from) every week to two weeks, or 10% of you dose should be your maximum drop. He's setting you up for relapse with a schedule like that. Do you have anything but librium at the moment, or access to it?

Regardless of the doc, get hold of some diazepam if you can, and read the Ashton manual (just google it). Benzo tapers need to go slow and steady, especially after 8 years: it's going to take a long time to taper, and librium isn't the drug to do it on. But if you're stable on 30mgs diaz, then 15 2mg drops over six months or so and a slow liquid titration once you're down to 1mg should see you through it with minimal discomfort. You can't safely kick an 8-year benzo habit in a couple of weeks, and librium's one of the weakest benzos there is: it sounds like he's trying you on a taper programme that might make sense for moderate alcohol withdrawal, not long-term benzo addiction.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Kicking benzos is serious business.. it's usually not even something that's recommended to do on your own. But if you are going to do it, and you don't want it to be the most painful thing ever... then you definitely need a revised taper. If you were to do this..taking on day 10 75mg's of librium, and then on day 11 you took only 30mg's... you'd be sick as a dog.. potentially dangerously sick. That's a 60% reduction in just one day... That is insane. It'd be an extreme shock to your system.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Geodon has a lot of complaints against it, why did you take it in the first place?

 

[DexyDevil]

I was misdiagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and a whole long list of ludicrous labels. Geodon was given to level out my moods... I guess.

 

[DexyDevil]

The problem is my doctor won't be in until Monday. I flushed the Klonopin. Yesterday I had ringing in my ears, restless legs, and this really funky feeling when I moved my head too quickly. I cheated and took the three more Librium. I felt bad but I was feeling a whole lot worse beforehand. Hopefully he will make an adjustment on Monday so I don't run out early.

 

[Where Wolf?]

You really, really need to get switched to diaz and a slow taper. Read the Ashton manual and make sure you're forearmed with information before you talk to him. The schedule he's proposed is potentially dangerous.

 

[DexyDevil]

You really, really need to get switched to diaz and a slow taper. Read the Ashton manual and make sure you're forearmed with information before you talk to him. The schedule he's proposed is potentially dangerous.

I actually requested Librium over diazepam because... well... I like Valium and I don't think I'd ever get off benzos on a Valium taper.

ANYWAY, my doctor amended my taper schedule; 2x 25mg caps x3 daily for 4 days; 1 25mg cap 4x daily for seven days; 1 25mg cap 3x daily for seven days; 1 25mg cap 2x daily for seven days; 1 25mg capsule 1x daily for seven days...

I don't think this is going to be terribly comfortable BUT I still have three pre-amendement scripts for 30 10mg capsules and 27 5mg capsules.

With the 25mg capsules and the additional 5 and 10mg capsules, what would be the most painless taper schedule?

Once again, I have a total of 90 25mg Librium, 30 10mg Librium and 27 5mg Librium.