withdrawal of diazepam advice needed

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hi I was on 15mg per day of diazepam from January 2014 for 3 months ,prescribed for anxiety disorder and depressive disorder.i have been reduced by 1mg every day for two weeks and so on .I found this not too bad at first until I have hit the 5mg a day .I wake up groggy ,headaches ,fatigue ,feel want to cry all the time ,my anxiety is still bad but no where like it was back in January ,dizziness .where as I had these symptoms before on taper they eased off after a few days ,but now they are staying and have done for a while now .im due another taper on Monday any advice would be most helpful thanks .wish I could have my life back .

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You need to do a progressive drop. If you plan on dropping 1 mg from 5 mg, then that's a 20% drop, much too high. I would drop no more than .5 mg, and even I personally would drop by .25 mg. I'm a weenie. ~~ Bets

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hi thanks for your reply ,its very helpful ,unfortunately the lowest tabs I have are 2mg so would have trouble doing the 0.25mg .not sure if my doc would give me liquid either .my psych isn't very good either hes been putting pressure on me to come off them .hes not very good told me to just stop taking them .I refused .

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hi thanks for your reply ,its very helpful ,unfortunately the lowest tabs I have are 2mg so would have trouble doing the 0.25mg .not sure if my doc would give me liquid either .my psych isn't very good either hes been putting pressure on me to come off them .hes not very good told me to just stop taking them .I refused .

 

If you wanted, you could easily make your own liquid V by dropping the 2mg pill into full fat whole milk and use a syringe to measure any dose you wish.

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hi thanks for your reply ,its very helpful ,unfortunately the lowest tabs I have are 2mg so would have trouble doing the 0.25mg .not sure if my doc would give me liquid either .my psych isn't very good either hes been putting pressure on me to come off them .hes not very good told me to just stop taking them .I refused .

 

So if you've been on it since January, then chances are you have a pretty good dependency on it now. A lot of people on those low doses often need to take it nice and slow, and a lot of them also need to switch to a daily taper, rather than a cut and hold taper that you've been doing.

 

You don't need liquid valium. As SG said you can make your own "home brew" with milk. There are also other options that you can use with your tablets - a tiny amount of vodka will dissolve your valium tablet, then you can top up with water to make a 100ml solution which is very easy to reduce from. You can also use a suspension agent called Ora-Plus or Ora-Sweet. Some people also use a jewellers scale that will weigh really tiny amounts, so they can cut very small amounts off their tablets each day.

 

Whatever you do at this stage, continuing to reduce is probably not a good thing. You've done really well so far, but now it would be best to just hold at your current dose until you feel a bit more stable. While you're doing that you can think about how you want to proceed with your taper.

 

Have a look at the first two links I have in my signature. They are the methods that I used throughout my taper from 5mg, and I'm now happily valium free!!

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Hi thanks for your reply I was totally baffled by the daily taper . My husband has read through it and understands it . So is going to do it for me and I am going to give it a go as I am struggling at the moment and on Monday due another drop and haven't recovered from my last two drops . With the milk solution how long can it be kept or am I better doing daily luckily I have enough tablets to be able to do this . Thanks

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The milk mixture can probably be kept for a few days, or however long the milk stays good for. I used to make a personal rule to only kept my batches for 4-5 days, regardless of what method I was using. I wasn't certain if the valium still had the same potency after that time.

 

Good luck. I'm sure you'll be fine. Just give yourself a chance to stabilise first and then you can start your daily taper. Before you know it you'll be FREE!!!

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Thanks for your help . I was due for a drop tomorrow but going to put on hold for a week I see my doc weds and he will be ok with me holding , I have been feeling so unwell lately and the waking in the morning is awful has been for weeks . Def going to do the milk taper I'm going to do 1mg over two weeks , I found it all confusing with the doses especially reducing the mg over two weeks but my hubby understood it all and he's gna make it up for me and tell me how much to take . I know the tablet side it's just the solution . I do hope this reduces my symptoms , it's had a big impact past 6 weeks . I know I suffer anxiety and depression anyway it's just made it harder . At beginning of taper I did it easily but now realise that's because the percentage was right . Problems started more as I got to the 7mg mark . I wish doctors and psyc understood , when I tell them they deny it's the withdrawal as they say I'm on slow taper .luckily I have plenty extra tabs . Hopefully I should be free by November  by my hubby's chart he done for me . You are so kind thanks for your help

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Sorry fgot to ask . I know everyone is different should it ease some of the withdraw symptoms . I know you mentioned about stabilising but don't think I have for weeks . I don't get out much as haven't driven in months as my anxiety in the car kicks in . I will admit if I do get out I feel better . Main issue is going bed hate it as I know I will feel like crap when I wake up . Do hope this will go .