How to taper from sporadic use of low dose diazapam

[[Go...]]

Hi,  I have been taking 2.5 mg diazapam sporadically for about 2 and a half years.  I would only take it every two or three days most weeks when needed for panic attacks.  Or sometimes for insomnia.  I am not really sure how to taper down from this.  I already went down to about 1mg every other day, but I started having heart racing and vertigo episodes.  Is this withdrawal??  It's so hard for me to tell bc I have other health issues that cause fatigue, nausea, dizziness.  Should I go to a strict daily schedule?  Was dropping from 2.5 to 1mg too fast?  Thanks!

[[Di...]]

It's always a bit difficult to know how to taper when your use has been sporadic, because you don't have a consistent baseline to start from. You may have been taking it just a few times a week, but it has been for a long time, so there is a good chance that you have developed quite a dependancy.

 

Valium has a long half life (up to 8 days), so let's work out how much you've been averaging in a week. You've been taking roughly a total of 7.5-10mg over the period of a week, so let's average that out to say 1.3mg per day. So I would say that dropping your dose to 1mg every second day has brought on withdrawal symptoms, because your body has been used to a higher average dose.

 

This is just my opinion, but I think you could start by taking 1mg per day and see what happens. Taking a more consistent dose will help level things out and prepare you for a more controlled taper. You might find that 1mg isn't enough, but I'd rather see you shoot for a lower dose initially because I don't see there is a lot of point in going higher if you don't need to. Of course if you feel you need to go higher, do that because you really need to find a consistent dose that you feel comfortable on.

 

Then once you feel stable I would suggest you think about a daily liquid taper, because you will find it very hard to make small enough cuts if you are just on, or around, a daily dose of 1mg. A daily liquid taper will also be a good way to increase your dose by tiny amounts until you find the right dose to start your taper on (eg if it ends up being 1.2mg that you need to start from, you will have a lot of trouble being able to cut your tablets to equal that amount).

 

There are lots of ways of doing a daily taper. I have the methods I used in my signature below. See what you think of it and if you have any questions you can post them on either of those threads.

 

I'm sure you will do fine. The upside to this is that whatever dose you end up starting from, it will be a very low dose, and that means you will be valium free in no time.

 

[[Da...]]

I agree with Diaz Pam. Youre at a very low dose so it will be much quicker for you. Check out heather Ashtons manual.