post hospital addmission

[[Ma...]]

 

hi, was hoping some one could help me, thanks for reading my post. i was on lorazapam 2 mg for 4 months, which u c/t having no idea what is was meant to do! i know this is a small ammount of time and dosage compared to alot of people on here and my prayers go out for you. then after i stopped next days got agonising muscle pain , flu like symptoms, waves of anxiety , night sweats , shaking, jerking when i go to sleep, insomnia. took a few days to realise what was going on through google. then just got on with trying to tough out the cold turkey thing hoped things would settle, was struggling to function that much that my mum and dad were struggling to cope with me , so got admitted to the local psyhatric hosptial, the cold turkey thing lasted about 30 days. the hospital reinstated me on 20mg of valium which took away the majority of the withdrawal symptoms, apart from aching legs and arms. they left me on this dose for a week. the they reduced it from 20 mg to 10 in 13 days, did nt feel any different till the 12 mg mark and then the withdrawal came back. i know this taper was miles to fast, so i was discharged today. in a crap state, with a visit to the community psychatrist tomorrow, i need to be able to cope at home or its straight back the hospital, what im hoping someone could help me with is what would be the best course of action from this point forward, any ideas appreciated ! i live in the uk and are also not sure how hosptals can get away with taking you off like that when it clearly states in the n,i,c,e guidlines, and also the bnf advice. my preference would be to start a slow taper but from a place of relative comfort which i feel miles away from at the moment, really aprreciate it.    Owen

[Guest [ma...]]

Hi Owen, sorry for what happened to you.

 

I can provide a bit of info that might help you to see why this reinstatement did not help your situation.

 

You were on 2 mg of Ativan for 4 months. That is enough time to become dependent on benzos as you found out when you stopped c/t. You were then put back on 20 mg of Valium which is actually the same benzo equivlalent dose as 2 mg of Ativan so that was a good thing............BUT Valium has a long half life and it can take up to 3 weeks for the drug to reach steady state in your body.......so what happened was they had you start your "taper" before the drug was even at steady state. The same thing happened to me.

 

You are right when you say the taper was way too fast. Suggested taper rate from Ashton Manual is 5% to 10% every 10 to 14 days and even that is too fast for some people.

 

With the long half life of Valium it can take one or two weeks before some people feel the effect of the drop in dosage or the cuts in the dose.

 

Are you currently taking 10 mg still? If you have a dr who will support a slow taper then you would need to decide what dose (I would not go higher than the original 20 mg) might help you to feel somewhat less symptomatic, stay on that for a few weeks to "stabilize" and then taper from there.

 

There is also a Support Group on BB for those tapering directly from Valium.....you might want to post your question there as well?  http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=96753.0

 

Glad you were able to figure out what was going on. This is doable.......just educate yourself like you are and you will figure this out.

 

All the best, mandala

 

 

 

[[Ma...]]

hi, mandela,  south africa was where this nightmare started !! was working over there and was just given them like sweets with no conversation of any drawbacks to these crapbag pills, im from the uk and knew they were super addictive as they are hardly ever prescribed here in any amount, the sa doctors were getting paid though haha yes i am currently on the 10mg with the psycatrist to see tommorrow, so in terms of finding that dose that made me feel not to bad, how would one go about that? do you just pick one out of the air like 16 or is there any kinda process to it? really appreciate your quick reply thanks owen

[Guest [ma...]]

Hi again Owen,

 

You are welcome. Sadly what you are going through is very common. Even though you went c/t from the Ativan you are now on the 10 mg of Valium so posting on the c/t section of BB is not likely to get you the feedback you need. There is not a lot of activity in this section.

 

So based on that my suggestion would be to post the same questions re what dose to go back to before tapering again.....on all or any of the Taper sections of BB.

 

The General Taper Plan section http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=56.0

 

The Withdrawal Support During you Taper http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=145.0

 

and the Valium Support Thread link posted in my other post.

 

Ultimately what dose you go back to for starting your taper is something that you and your doctor should discuss. But if your dr is not familiar with the Ashton Manual it would help to print out the impt parts and take those with you to your appointment

 

Here is a link to a taper Schedule eg from the Ashton Manual. This might help you?

 

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s8

 

It would also help you a lot if you took the time to put your history in your signature.....you will get more replies on BB b/c members always look there before replying to a post.

 

Hope this helps, mandala