Benzos tapering off 5mg valium? 6 month user, started at 7.5mg. I want to stop.

[dimensiontripping]

i know this question is answered somewhere on bluelight but search function is not quite getting me what i want

i started taking valium 7.5-10mg a day in july of 2013 for chronic muscle spasm issues. it helped, of course. i was doing 7.5mg about 5-7 days a week for 4 months. i brought it down to 5mg a day not wanting to taper but more that 7.5mg seemed to be excessive for what i needed. now, i have been on it for about 6 months. i have a stash of about 100 5mg pills left from left over prescriptions and my goal is to stop permanently. the positive effects are depleting and i refuse to up my dosage.

question 1: if i am taking 5mg on weekdays only, is the half-life so long that i am still technically on valium through the whole weekend? i dont experience any negative symptoms from not taking it on weekends. is this a sign that my body can handle a drop from 5mg down to none?

question 2: now that i take 2.5mg almost every day. do i need go to 1.25mg a day or is 2.5 an ok drop off point to stop from after say 2-4 weeks of 2.5mg use?

question 3: my goal is to be able to take 5mg "as needed" for the next few months as i complete physical therapy for my pelvic pain. is this possible at this point in my use?

I am ultimately just simply afraid of getting addicted as the withdrawal symptoms include muscular tension which would completely disrupt my ability to gauge progress from therapy. If i failed to see a bluelight post that highlights these answers, please link me and i apologize if that is the case.

thank you bluelight

 

[beforethebeginning]

there is no way to be sure,
your safest bet is to gradually taper to 1,25 or even 0,5mg and then quit.
that is if you want to minimize chance to develop a (light?) form of benzo withdrawal syndrome.

using lorazepam "as needed" is more suited than diazepam because of it's shorter half life.
from experience i think using 1mg lorazepam once per week is safe.
doing that twice a week might be as well but i'm not sure.

if you take valium twice a week, it never gets out of your system in time.
i would only commence taking benzos as needed after you've been clean for a few weeks/months.

congratulations on finding out that benzos are enemies in excess (and friends in moderation)
maybe the same could be said about opiates like oxycodone and codeïne,
but i haven't used those long enough to be able to say they're safe in the long term.

people say opiates get "everyone" addicted eventually

 

[dimensiontripping]

there is no way to be sure,
your safest bet is to gradually taper to 1,25 or even 0,5mg and then quit.
that is if you want to minimize chance to develop a (light?) form of benzo withdrawal syndrome.

using lorazepam "as needed" is more suited than diazepam because of it's shorter half life.
from experience i think using 1mg lorazepam once per week is safe.
doing that twice a week might be as well but i'm not sure.

if you take valium twice a week, it never gets out of your system in time.
i would only commence taking benzos as needed after you've been clean for a few weeks/months.

congratulations on finding out that benzos are enemies in excess (and friends in moderation)
maybe the same could be said about opiates like oxycodone and codeïne,
but i haven't used those long enough to be able to say they're safe in the long term.

people say opiates get "everyone" addicted eventually

Thanks. Sounds like I will taper off over the next 6-8 weeks and then avoid it for a month and take it as needed. I only took 2.5mg over the course of 5 days and today, I am feeling withdrawals for the first time so I know I need to taper. Its unfortunate because the withdrawal symptoms are just amplified issues that I was originally prescribed valium to deal with! I am very unhappy with this as the recreational value to level of withdrawal is soooo disproportionate. I will not be taking any form of benzo regularly again. Thank god I dont find them that fun to begin with.