Xanax to Valium?

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Now that I am below 2.0 mg Xanax in my taper plan, I'm suffering intolerable inter-dose withdrawals. Literally within 2-3 hours after a Xanax dose I'm shaking and having terrible withdrawals.  I've read so many posts on here about switching over to Valium but wanted to ask on here does it really, really help with the inter-dose withdrawals?  Will it really stay in my system longer and alleviate some of these horrific symptoms?  Not even sure if I can get my doc on board with this, but wanted to get some feedback on whether it's worth it or not.  Thoughts?

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Never mind, talked to my doc this evening and she doesn't want to do a full c/o from Xanax to valium at this time.

[[sk...]]

I know you said never mind, but I wanted to chime in on this for ya just incase you wanted to give it another go.  I was on 1.5mg Xanax, and couldn't taper for crap.  My pdoc crossed me over to valium, and way under the equivalency according to Dr Ashton's method, and I did fairly good given the withdrawals I was having while on Xanax.  I tolerated 10mg Valium pretty well after about 2 weeks without Xanax.  I started an aggressive taper, pdoc wanted me to drop from 10mg Valium (when i was stable) to 7.5mg.  It was/is gnarly, but i'm still alive to speak to it.

 

I will be trying to balance back out on 7.5mg, but long story short, Xanax has gnarly interdose withdrawal symptoms if not tapered slowly enough.  I wish you the best of luck.  Take care.

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Thanks skittles. I haven't visited this forum for a while so I just saw your message. I've been struggling so much with the Xanax withdrawals and trying to decide if I should take my doctor up on the one thing she did offer, swapping out my 5 MG of Ambien at night with 5 MG Valium. I know that adding another benzo and not doing a "real" crossover is frowned upon by a lot of folks on here. But I was desperate for some form of relief and the thought that since Valium lasts longer in the system than Xanax sounded like it was worth a try. Plus, getting rid of the Ambien straight out sounded good to me because it was only getting me about 4 hours of sleep a night anyway. So I did it. When I added the Valium about 2 weeks ago I was stuck at 1.875 MG Xanax. The Valium has helped a lot. My Xanax withdrawals are much less now, some days I have none.  I was able to resume my Xanax taper and now I'm down to 1.5 MG Xanax a day. I realize that's still 1.75 MG total benzos in my system when I add the 5 MG Valium at night, but at least I feel human again and have been able to continue cutting the Xanax down. I also realize I will have to taper off the Valium as well once done with the Xanax, but I will deal with that when the time comes. And at least on the Valium I take right before bed I am getting 7+ hours of uninterrupted sleep a night now.  It's not the recommended way to go from what I've read on here, but hey, we are all different and if it helps me function enough to keep my job during the days of my Xanax taper, then I'll do it as long as it keeps working for me.

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Is the doc willing to do an even a partial C/O? I know that saved me from giving up.

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Benzogirl, Unfortunately, the most she will do is this 5 MG of Valium at bed time. This has helped me to at least continue my Xanax taper. I am no longer stuck at 1.875, I'm down to 1.375 of the xanax. Not sure for how long that 5 MG of Valium will keep helping because I know I'm probably building up a tolerance to that as well in my system. But for now, at least I feel like I'm making some progress again. And I'm glad to be rid of the Ambien in my system, one less thing to taper off of down the road.

[[be...]]

Benzogirl, Unfortunately, the most she will do is this 5 MG of Valium at bed time. This has helped me to at least continue my Xanax taper. I am no longer stuck at 1.875, I'm down to 1.375 of the xanax. Not sure for how long that 5 MG of Valium will keep helping because I know I'm probably building up a tolerance to that as well in my system. But for now, at least I feel like I'm making some progress again. And I'm glad to be rid of the Ambien in my system, one less thing to taper off of down the road.

 

 

Hi: BG:

 

Well, 5 mg is better than none. I know of one BB who could not handle her taper very well and too much Valium made her sick, so she just took 2 mg to keep the edge off. I have been on Valium for more than two years and it still knocks me out, so I am not yet tolerant to it. Perhaps this will be your case. I am guessing that you cannot find a more amenable doctor? Xanax can be really tough, tho people here taper off it with success. BTW, you need to update your sig to include the Valium.

 

Betsy

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Thanks Betsy. So far the 5 MG of Valium has been helping me to continue to taper the Xanax and has significantly reduced my Xanax withdrawal symptoms during the day. And thanks for the reminder to update my profile. I did.

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See, I told ya! It also helped that other person as well. Wishing you the best with this.

 

Betsy