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Benzos Anxiety - Lowest effective valium dose.

M

Mugwin

Greenlighter
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
3
Hi all. I've just got a quick question and I'd very much appreciate your help with it.

I've got a severe anxiety/panic attack problem and have had for several years. I deal with it using the following methods: antidepressants (50mg sertraline daily), beta blocker (atenolol 50mg daily), natural remedies (valerian, lemon balm, chamomile tea), CBT exercises, and just general good living (healthy diet, 8 hours sleep a night, plenty of exercise etc...)

The combined effect of all those medications and lifestyle changes is ...(drumroll)...fuck all. None of this stuff helps (apart from the beta blocker, which helps control the somatic symptoms but which obviously does nothing for the actual anxiety). Sertraline is my fourth anti-depressant. None of them seem to do anything. In desperation I went to my doctor and he prescribed a short course of valium (2mg tablets). I had a very bad panic attack today and I took one and within 30 minutes I was feeling pretty much 100% better. That's never happened before. Also, my panic attacks tend to be "rolling" panic attacks which can last for 1-3 hours, so I'm pretty sure it would have carried on for longer without the valium.

Now, here's the point: I very much want to avoid getting hooked on valium so I intend to take it as infrequently as I possibly can, even if that means suffering through panic attacks every now and then. I also want to take the lowest dose I can. Can anybody who has experience with valium give me some pointers in helping to avoid addiction? For example, one idea I had was to cut the pills in half and only take 1mg when I have an attack. Is that a good idea? Any extra info would help. Cheers!
 
How often do you get panic attacks, like daily? Several times a day?

Cut the tablets in half & see if 1mg will help you......I'm sensitive to benzos, so 2 MG's keeps me good all day.

If 1mg helps you, that's good, keep it at that dose until it doesn't work anymore.......& antidepressants don't do jack sh*t for anxiety.

All doctors want to give out antidepressants like its candy for anxiety & anything else under the sun.
 
2mg should do the trick nicely, even doses of 5 +10mg are completely safe as long as you limit their use to once or twice a week (and as long as you dont drive etc while sedated)

10mg sounds excessive but ill try and justify that - back in the day when my tolerance was low and i was first prescribed diazepam., 10mg was my standard dose for anxiety. When i started to get panicky, id take 10mg which would be active within 15 minutes (diazepam is quite special as its one of the few long acting benzodiazepines to start working quickly when taken orally). Yes, id be floating on cotton woll for the first 4 hours, but then the effect would plateau into a constant anxiolosis which would slowly fade over the next 12 - 18 hours, reducing or completely removing any rebound effect as soon as it had worn off.

Ive found the rebound effect more problematic if i have to redose short/medium acting benzos or low dose long acting.

Better to just kill the anxiety dead then give yourself a day to regroup and resurface
 
2mgs is all it takes for to have an anxiolytic effect for me, although i usually dose 5mg due to taking them for many years.
your dosage plan is sensible, but over time it will increase, thats inevitable. use the valium as instructed by your doctor and work on a longer term solution e.g.: lifestyle changes.
 
I take 5mg for a panic attack, having tried the 2mg tablets and found they were ineffective.

I've been managing panic attacks this way (with valium as needed) for twelve years, with no dependence or tolerance issues. I only take it very rarely, though - maybe three times a month? If your panic attacks happen more frequently than this, you probably shouldn't rely on Valium as monotherapy.
 
i used to take 10mg three times a day for a couple years and stopped with no real WD at all when i decided i my rapid cycling bipolar DX was all bullshit and went off all my meds. That turned out real well for me :/

Right now i'm getting back back on meds and i take two 10mg a day but will probably go back to three at my next shrink appointment. The effects are almost imperceptible to me, but i dont bite people's heads off nearly as much, i don't get stuck in circular thought patterns over analyzing things and worrying about stupid shit i cant control... it works for me in combo with my other meds to generally smooth out my mood overall. Again i don't really even perceive the effects myself, but i and other people notice it in my behavior.

I've been down the road of benzo addiction with Xanax, where i started chasing the high and that's not a place i ever want to go again. Now i just use them as prescribed and for a therapeutic value. A lot of people will say dont take benzos long term, but for me valium seems to work and i never have had to increase beyond 30mg a day and i can still take 1 or 2 30mg restoril 3-4 times a week for sleep and they're effective, if i take them more than that, and they stop working.

As if anyone cares my magic med combo is Valium 10mg TID, Celex 40mg QD, Topamax 150mg BID, 24mg suboxone QD, 30-60mg Restoril PRN and to reduce my caffeine intake/increase my focus my shrink is talking about adding some Vyvanse which i think is probably a good idea d/t the cognitive side effects of topamax and the increased risk of kidney stones further increased with dehydration from too much coffee :/.
 
If 2mg took care of a severe panic attack for you then you are very lucky.

My advice is keep the dose as low as possible, if half a tab helps you then great! Try to keep it that way.
Valium tolerance will build fairly quickly and quite... sneakily. You can find yourself upping your dose without really thinking it through.

Personally I take 5mg for moderate anxiety or insomnia... No less than 10mg for panic.
I am of quite big build, though.. & have a mild tolerance.
 
I have 0 tolerance. Over last week I took 30mg Valium in total iirc each time at 10mg doses. Im sure there's little to none of the drug left in my system and I feel pretty anxiolytic. Only times I get edgy is in extreme adrenaline spiking situations.

So I think 2-5mg will work. Though I enjoy most of the anxiolytic effects from Valium after the initial effects... if that makes sense?
 
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