Benzos Safe to stop?

[wooger]

I have (stupidly) been taking around 5mg of etizolam pretty much everyday for the last month.

Clearly, this needs to stop.

Is it safe to stop cold tomorrow?

 

[sekio]

Probably not, it definitely won't be fun.

Taper, taper, taper. Tapering is the name of the game when it comes to GABAergics.

 

[wooger]

do you have any recommendations for a schedeule taper for this drug? I have 53mg left... will this be enough to get me off it?

 

[WarChild]

Yeah taper for sure!! As much as your stash will allow. I came off Valium (diazepam) by tapering and it was tough. I actually found that Chamomile Tea helped A LOT, surprisingly! And i used herbal downers such as Valerian, Passionflower, Hops, etc too which i think took the edge off aswell. Avoid booze. My understanding is that benzos can cause seizures in cold turkey withdrawl. Also, i would pick a good time to do it, preferably when you don't have to work or fulfil any stressfull activities. Good luck! Benzos are so good at what they do, but so damn addictive. I have a real weakness for valium and have been hooked on it a couple of times - nothing banishes anxiety like valium.

GOOD LUCK and remember that you'll be more productive and full without the stuff.

WC

 

[debaser]

Never had any problem to stop a long and large consumption of benzos cold turkey. I must be special, dunno...

 

[WarChild]

I found it even harder than giving up smoking... i had both a physical and psychological dependence on the stuff. I was dosing up 4 times a day, creeping off to toilets and whatnot to hide what i was doing. Really nasty!! I have a friend who has been on valium now for 10+ years and he has ended up curled up in a ball on the floor screaming his lungs out in bad withdrawal. Sorry to scare you, but benzos are serious things!

 

[xxxyyy]

your best bet would be to switch to a long-acting benzo like diazepam, chlordiazepoxide, clorazepate etc. and then tapering off with that. short acting ones like etizolam are generally harder to taper from. also, an anticonvulsant such as gabapentin or sodium valproate would definitely help.

 

[King Hop Head]

Etizolam has clear abuse potential, particularly to its apparent euphoric properties. With all these negative experience posts, I can see this getting scheduled real soon, Phenazepam is about to be made class c in Britain, probably in the next session of parliament after the party conferences.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

do you have any recommendations for a schedeule taper for this drug? I have 53mg left... will this be enough to get me off it?

Cut your dosage down 1mg every other day, then by the time you get down to 2mg/day, decrease by 0.5mg every other day.

Try to get to a point where you can stabilize on a low dosage before quitting completely.

 

[wooger]

Thank you for all the advice people... I just worked out that from your taper schedule (thanks for working that out for me by the way!) I would need around 34mg.. I am starting tonight at 5mg... but since they are 1mg pills I have I was going to cut them up into quarters so I could go down to 0.25mg a day before quitting totally...

Only thing is I think it may be hard to get the pills into quarters as they are only scored in one direction so it might be hard to get the segments to be the same size if this makes sense...

Also.... I am seeing my psychiatrist on wednesday.... he doesnt know Ive been taking these.. should I mention it? Or should I just keep it to myself....

Also, as I have been doing some pretty dumbass things as of late (more so than normal!) I actually ended up getting really drunk a couple of times this last week... will this effect things at all?

Also... back before I realized how bad things were getting with the etizolam... I did order some from a reputable place online that is selling them very cheap but take a couple of weeks delivery, so I may have more to taper with if required.

Sorry for the rants, I'm just pretty concerned as I am going to be TOTALLY alone in my house while I am doing this and so I am a bit scared!