Tapering off of valium - what to expect?

[RobotRipping]

I've been tapering with valium for about 3-4 weeks now, started at 30mg/day which put me into withdrawal for the first couple of weeks and I've made my way down to 7.5mg/day and today I haven't taken any just to see if I would be okay.

My question is: When I am fully tapered off, will I experience withdrawal again? I've felt my body go through the mindfuck stage of benzo w/d and all things considered I don't feel too bad dropping my dose now, I just don't want to experience the insanely sore muscles, schizophrenic like symptoms or extreme rebound anxiety but I also don't want to drag this taper out forever if it's not necessary.

Basically, will it hurt to jump off at 7.5mg? Should I dose 5mg every other day to prevent the above effects, or will I just be dragging it out?

My hope is that the valium got me through the worst part of w/d and tapering slowly off of it should be relatively painless now.

Sorry if this belongs somewhere else; there are tons of benzo related threads but I can't really find an answer about what to expect after the taper is done; will I be back to normal for the most part or will I face another week of benzo w/d?

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

that is not where i would drop off. i would definitely go down to 5mg, and then even 2.5mg.

even though you so desperately want to be rid of the weight, tapering off of benzos is not about muscling though it. it's about not slipping up.

 

[RobotRipping]

well I've done a rather fast taper but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been on 7.5mg for 3 days. was on 10mg for a week before that. Didn't hurt much to go down to 7.5mg (maybe the long half life is tricking me though) and yeah I just want to get rid of this terrible addiction. Would I be at risk for a seizure? I'd ask my Dr. but it will cost me about $80 to go see him. He also wants to taper me verrrry slowly but I'm sure I can get through it as I've cold turkeyed from much larger habits in the past (far more painful than this time around); just don't want to put myself in a dangerous situation.

I have enough valium to drop 1mg per week, but I need to get my shit together and get a new job before I run into financial problems so i'm kind of perplexed as to how to get through this as painlessly and quickly as possible.

 

[effie]

Have you had a look at this thread?

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

i think it has got to be pretty rough on your CNS to rush through a benzo taper. excessive glutamate levels are not good for the brain. cutting as close as you can without having a seizure is not the way i'd do it.

not being your doctor or a doctor at all, i do not want to suggest a taper schedule. just giving general advice, do it once and do it right.

 

[RobotRipping]

yep, i've read through that thread a few times. I think I'll just keep dropping my dose by 25% per week; given how I'm feeling, it should be relatively painless/safe. I have a taper schedule with my Dr. I just feel like i'll be tapering forever rather than recovering. These doses just seem so small to me; a month ago I was having panic attacks while still taking 30mg, now on 7.5mg my anxiety isn't too bad, no serious panic attacks and my sleep is decent (8 hours per day). Appetite still kind of sucks and sometimes I get intense nightmares but overall doing better than I expected.

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

I had been taking benzos for 11 years and switched from Klonopin onto Diazepam and tapered very slow. Slowly went down from 8mg clonazepam onto 1mg and then switched from 1mg to 20mg diazepam. Every month from there I tapered 5mg until I got onto 5mg in which I went down to 2mg first before completely going off. Personally dealing with the psychological withdrawals and rebound anxiety/panic attacks was much harder than the physical withdrawals. By tapering so slow I barely felt any physical withdrawals and you really shouldn't either if you decide not to go straight off the 7.5mg. I'd recommend you go from 7.5mg onto 2mg and then go off of it.

It was not until a couple months later that I started experiencing psychological withdrawals. I started getting panic attacks again and all of the sudden the anxiety came back again. This was accompanied with extreme cravings. I even started feeling the physical withdrawals, or PAWS, coming back again. Tremors, twitching, small spasms...it never went away. So like many times before, I relapsed. This is just one man's experience. Good luck.