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Benzos Short benzodiazepine taper plan

chrisinabox

chrisinabox

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 27, 2005
Messages
1,496
Location
DFW, TX
Long story short,

5 months ago, I would take either xanax or klonopin, only in 1mg top amounts and sparingly. But in the past 5 months or so, my tolerance has skyrocketed due to several reasons.

I really need to taper down to at least to where I can feel a 2mg klonpin/xanax or close, in the next 2 weeks. I got 30 valium cause I heard it's best benzo to taper down with.

Can someone help me with a possible 2 week taper plan with the valium and maybe some k-pins added in if possible. I know xanax I need to stay away from to taper.

Thanks in advance for any help. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
 
Benzo tapers take much longer than that period. Valium has a very long half-life and you are on the best medication for that, however if you only plan to taper for the same amount of time as say a short opioid taper then you will be in withdrawal if you are physically dependant. Best bet is to talk to a doc about that one, sorry to be the bad-news-bear. Good luck, mon ami.
 
I'm doing a rapid taper right now with valium. I"m down to 10mg a day and feel fucking terrible. This is from 4mg/day k-pin, which is not bad but still fucking hurts. My doctor recommends cutting my dose every couple of weeks but I don't have time or money for that. For me i went from 30-25-15-10 in a 2 week period and I intend to do the same down to 2.5mg in the next two weeks. It's utter hell but better than cold turkeying it.

Do you intend to quit or just lower your tolerance? Tolerance takes forever to go down (think a few months) and when you go back to benzos your tolerance will sky rocket pretty fast. I read somewhere about olanzepine resetting the gaba receptors (ideal for reducing tolerance i would think?) but I don't know much about it.

Really, 2 weeks isn't enough time to fix your tolerance or quit benzos. take it very slowly, lower your dose by 10% each week and if you feel like shit take a tiny bit more and work your way down. If you do it any other way it is going to hurt. Either way if you want to get high try another drug, any other drug.
 
Your tolerance shouldn't be too bad as you haven't been taking them for too long. I would just try taking half a valium every day and see how you function. I've only really been on 2 mgs of xanax/loraz daily for around a year and have never had many problems cutting wayyy down. I take .25 mgs/night of kpins and find I function way better than when I was on them.
 
What benzo have you been taking daily? You say you were using Xanax and Klonopin... We need to really know what daily dose of what benzo you were using to really give the best advice.
 
I think that, regardless of your dose, the first step is to simply and completely replace it with an appropriate dose of diazepam (valium). Find a reasonable place to make the switch and reduce from there.
 
^The problem is, you can't just replace a daily dose of one benzo with another. The switch has to be gradual as benzos don't completely substitute for each other.
 
It would be relevant for us to know how much the OP has been taking per day...
 
This isn't long enough fo a taper.I had a huge habit,like 10 mg's of xanax or clonazepam or 300 mg's of temazepam per day (I always rotated and for me personally,they all substituted for eachother great)

I tapered down in about a month maybe 2,down to 0.5 mg's of xanax a day,and I had hadcore withdawal man.I was in a state of delerium that was like a bad LSD tip or something.Intense sweating,electric bain zaps that went though my whole body,intestinal discomfort and violent shaking.The wost lasted about 3-4 weeks and then started to fade for another month or so,I'd say it took about 4 months for me to feel normal again.It's been like 7 months or so now I think and I still get kind of little sleep paralysis brain zaps at night,like a benzo w/d flashback.

I would say,Go to a doctor,be honest,and see if he won't help you out.I'm sure he will,physical benzodiazepine dependency is no joke.
I wish you the best of luck man.

I just want to add one thing: I went to a detox unit at a hospital while in w/d from 10 mg's of alprazolam daily.The doctor immediately gave me 45 mg's of valium to take and it helped tremendously,but didn't stop it completely.So it must be what the above poster referred to,that they don't substitute completely for eachother.Though I used to alternate daily,as in: monday,xanax tuesday,clonazepam wednesday,restoril etc. etc.
 
Oh sorry, forgot to say, lately I've been having to take around 12mg/day of xanax or klonopin, either/or to feel anything. so that is why I say my tolerance has skyrocketed, but only in these 4-5 months.

I realize it will be painful but unless I get a legitimate benzo script from doctor (which they won't prescribe, even though I have generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, OCD, and depression) I have legit reasons to have benzos scripted to me IMHO, but the reason for the short taper is that unless I taper down and can't get script, I'm gonna be in a place that won't help me, i.e. not a hospital.
 
You probably will get a scipt fo Diazepam if you honestly tell your doctor you take 12 mg's a day of xanax a day.Im sure he or she would feel obligated to help you if they knew you were going to go through a potentially lethal withdrawal syndrome.
 
chrisinabox: holy shit man you are going to hurt. Go to a Dr. tell them you were self-medicating and your tolerance got too high over time and you want to taper slowly. Do not cold turkey that shit; you may not die but there's a chance of it, go to ER and get valium they will not deny you. Then see a Dr and work on a plan. It's not that w/d is painful, like an opiate w/d; you're going to feel like you've lost your mind. 4mg of clonazepam to 30mg of valium put me in some bad fucking withdrawals; so taper yourself down to a reasonable dose and seek help immediately. You won't be comfortable but you will at least be alive and able to get out of bed without freaking out. I've also cold turkeyed from a much bigger dose and trust me you do not want to go there; i get flashbacks of how bad it was, traumatizing shit.

If you can't do any of the above then get some valerian root, some alcohol and any gaba agonists you can find. There is a real risk coming off a dose like that, especially in such a short time. Then see a Dr., no matter what route you take you will have to see a Dr if you cannot get more benzos.

I have legit reasons as well to use benzos but they are not a long term solution, as you will find out if you have to face the horror of w/d; avoid it at all costs!
 
Surprisingly enough, I've been able to go 2-3 days without any benzos lately, to try to lower my tolerance a little. Maybe if i do that and then only take the valium after, it might help some?

And remember, up until 5 months ago, I was taking 1mg tops of xanax or klonopin. It's only been these few months my tolerance has increased a lot.
 
It can take awhile to set in. I was only on Xanax for a week, and four days later a bad withdrawal set in. It's been 3 weeks now and I still don't feel right--insomnia from time to time, panic attacks, depression, etc. The first four days of the withdrawal were hell, though. Not something I would ever want to repeat, and mine was a very minor withdrawal. There are benzodiazepine withdrawal forums I've been reading, where people are talking about not being functional, not able to sleep more than 3 hours a night and not able to work, 2+ years out. One lady claims her withdrawal was so bad her heart started failing and her legs began to fill up with fluid. I'm saying, I think you should go see a doctor and have him/her taper you off. Benzodiazepines are horrible drugs.
 
Since you're switching back and forth between benzos, you're surely not addicted to a full dose of other. Lucky, since 12mg is an insane amount to taper from. I'd settle on clonazepam for now and see how much it takes to maintain. Once you get a firm number of how much clonazepam you are actually addicted to, you can start to taper/ switch to diazepam. For the record, a two week taper is not possible in your situation; this is going to take some time to safely taper from.
 
good advice above; also remember that clonazepam has a pretty long half life. I went about 5 days before w/d would fully set in; with phenazepam it was at least a week before i really started to lose it. A few months of daily use will certainly create a serious dependency. All that clonazepam will build up and the xanax will shoot your tolerance up; be careful with it. Switching from clonazepam to valium would be ideal as valium has an even longer half life.
 
You mentioned you cannot get a prescription? Well, if you go into an ER or a doctor they will not and cannot deny you. As the above posters mentioned it's a potentially lethal situation, unlike opioid/opiate withdrawal. Since this is a health risk, they do have to get you onto some sort of substitution regimen. Please keep us updated on how this goes. I feel for you man.
 
Well, I know a short taper like this isn't really possible, but I unfortunately don't/might not have a choice if you know what I mean, so I'd like to see a doctor to get a decent script beforehand so I'll have it in case I have to 'go somewhere'. and I think I will also go to another doctor and say I'm dependent so I can get some more valium and maybe they can suggest a good taper plan. Thanks for the help so far guys.
 
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