Tapering: Worse Withdrawals at the Beginning or at the End?

Rebel Maven

Bluelighter
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Jul 1, 2012
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For those of you who have tapered did you experience your worst withdrawals at the beginning or the end of your taper?

I'm doing a 10% taper every 10 days now and I seem to be getting worse with each dose change. Does this ever level off and start to get better or does it just get worse all the way to the end and then what? I tried tapering back up but at this rate I will never get off this drug and I have a limited supply available to me.

Thanks.
 
Well that depends on a lot of things. What are you tapering? How long have you been on it? Generally, in my experience, the worst is at the beginning as well as the end, but PAWS can make both of those seem like a piece of cake--the end end, so to speak, might be most horrible.

I don't have any more information except that you're tapering, but in the vast majority of cases of withdrawing from even the most addictive drugs, things get substantially better, meaning you have a brighter future to look forward to!
 
....but PAWS can make both of those seem like a piece of cake--the end end, so to speak, might be most horrible.

What is PAWS and could you elaborate on "the end end" statement about it being most horrible please?

Thank You.
 
PAWs is an acronym for Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome which are persistent ailments that follow after the immediate withdrawal. They could vary depending on the drugs you've used, but symptoms could include a lot of things: anhedonia, insomnia, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, mood swings, persistent bodily sensations such as aches, pain or soreness. Cognitive deficits/impairments. Basically lingering side effects that persist fore a while after you've gone through the initial detox and withdrawal.
 
Sure. PAWS stands for Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Acute_Withdrawal_Syndrome. Basically you have various cognitive and psychological inconsistencies months or years after stopping a substance, which often mimics a psychiatric disorder. Officially this only happens as a result of withdrawal from what the government designates as abusable drugs, but I believe people can experience PAWS symptoms from withdrawing from pretty much any drug so long as they had taken it long enough.

I won't push it any further, but if you tell me what you're withdrawing from and how long you've been on it I can better help you.

PAWS is what I meant by the end end.

Cheers
 
My Signature

I'd be ever so grateful for any advice. I'm tapering off 5 drugs, one at a time doing 10% cuts every 10 days. The withdrawals from the first drug I'm coming off are horrendous. Textbook PAWS.

This is my signature on other forums and I have other threads on this forum as well.

Thank you all so much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I will not be medicated to make the unacceptable acceptable to me."

Neurontin/gabapentin:
2010: 900mg SID for mood stabilization
06/04/2012: 1200mg-600mg BID
06/27/2012: 900mg-600mg AM, 300mg PM
07/02/2012: 900mg-300mg TID
07/07/2012: 600mg-300mg BID
07/07/2012: 600mg-300mg BID
07/09/2012: Added rescue dose of 250mg
07/10/2012: to present: 825mg-275mg TID

Xanax/alprazolam:
Mid 1990's: 0.25mg for sleep
02/28/2002: 1.0mg PRN for panic/sleep
03/05/2012 to present: 2mg SID for sleep, 0.5mg-1.0mg for anxiety PRN

Desyrel/trazodone:
02/28/2012: 50mg SID for sleep
03/05/2012 to present: 100mg for sleep

Prozac/fluoxetine:
02/06/2012: 20mg SID
03/05/2012 to present: 40mg SID

Prilosec(Nexium)/omeprazole magnesium:
Mid 1990's to present: 20mg SID
 
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Glad to help.

Alright, but please bear in mind that I'm not a licensed medical professional.

While I agree that being on medication sucks in many ways, I also think you should beware of how your body feels at each successive step you take, and make sure that each step is slow, or your brain might incur damage. I think that its good you want to get off the meds, though.

I'd imagine that the gabapentin/alprazolam will be the most difficult to get off, citing their GABAergic activity, the latter probably more addictive than the former. Gabapentin is actually becoming more popular as a less addicting benzodiazepine substitute. But I'd still imagine it extraordinarily painful to even taper down slowly. As a side note, gabapentin's mechanism of action isn't fully known.

If I remember correctly their was a big scandal a few years ago when gabapentin was being marketed for bi-polar; its not supposed to be approved for that disorder, so I believe you should at least re-evaluate the person who gave it to you for that.

Basically, if you have to stay on gabapentin or alprazolam (on a GABAergic, in short), gabapentin would probably be the better choice (citing addiction and tolerance issues), but this would be a good thing for you to research on the internet too. I would also strongly recommend that you in the future not be on two GABAergics at once, since they may be very caustic to the brain in the long-term, not to mention short-term cognitive difficulties that almost all experience as a result of GABAergic drugs (even if they don't notice it!).

It looks like you've been on this higher dose of alprazolam for only a few months (not enough time for the really heavy addiction to set in). You may want to think about sparing yourself some future pain by trying to reduce your dose of that soon.

As you're looking at reducing or eliminating those first two meds, it would help tremendously to have some valerian root and/or kava root around (they work on the GABA receptors). The store-bought pills many say are useless, so try buying the whole root powder. It shouldn't be too expensive. Something to keep in mind though is that the pain of withdrawing is actually what you want, as your brain will, through this discomfort, eventually learn to make more of its own chemicals, and can't work its own muscle as well while being supported artificially. Bearing this in mind, try to never take enough valerian/kava or gabapentin/alprazolam that you feel perfectly comfortable, and your brain will heal faster.

You may want to look at raising your trazodone dose in the short-term so that you might sleep while withdrawing from the GABAergics. Melotonin and the aforementioned herbs would help too, not to mention skullcap and passionflower. Its not uncommon for people to lose days upon days of sleep while getting off this, shall I say, crap?

The omeprazole doesn't appear to be psychoactive. Were you planning on keeping this medication?

Peace
 
Thank you for your reply.

Here is some more insight:

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/632056-Paradoxical-Reaction-to-Gabapentin

The gabapentin has to go first. I don't want to go through trazodone withdrawals so the benzo is staying for now. It is going to be my "rescue" drug. The benzo will be the second to last to go, the last being the omeprazole. I've been on the benzo since 1990.8) But at PRN or low doses only and only SID and I have no plan to swap it for the gabapentin so hopefully it won't be a big deal.

Something to keep in mind though is that the pain of withdrawing is actually what you want, as your brain will, through this discomfort, eventually learn to make more of its own chemicals, and can't work its own muscle as well while being supported artificially.

That statement gave me great hope.

Thank you.
 
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