Need advice for tapering Valium

[[Ma...]]

Hi buddies, I have been learning so much from you all reading through all the posts. Am so appreciative of this site  A few months ago, my husband decided he wanted to stop taking benzos. He has been alternating xanax and Valium to help him sleep on and off for a few years. He hasn't been on xanax in a while and I think maybe since June, has been using 10mg of Valium to help him sleep. Then around august, he said he just wanted to stop all of it. I called a doctor and she told me to cut to 5 mg for 2 weeks, then to 2.5mg then to go down to 1 then jump. I knew nothing about benzo withdrawal but I just felt like it was too fast. So from 10 mg we cut to 7.5mg on aug 30. Then after two weeks, down to 5mg.  It was at this time that I found this site and realized it was too fast! I was pretty frightened but he seems to be holding up ok. I know he hasn't been feeling 100% great but he hasn't been complaining (he hardly complains, poor guy). So our next cut was to 3.75 mg for 3 weeks and now he is at 3.5mg. This is where things get a bit complicated. Where I live, the smallest Valium pill is 5mg. We got the pharmacy to divide that into 5 so we 1mg in powder. So up to now, he has been taking 2.5mg (half the 5mg) and the powdered 1mg. But we are planning to make another .25 mg this week. If I use vodka to dissolve the 1mg powder, what proportions can I do it so that he takes .75 mg per day?

 

On a side note, this forum may have saved me. I have been taking xanax and Valium sporadically (about 2 - 3 times a week) and have been feeling off for several months. If I hadn't read all of your posts, goodness knows how much longer I would have taken them. I feel like I have been going through inter dose withdrawal. But my story another time. Thanks so much!

[[bu...]]

If you dissolve 5mg valium in 10ml vodka, and add 40 ml water, you will have 50ml of solution*, each ml will contain .1 (1/10th)    mg of valium.

 

Use a 10ml oral syringe to draw out 7.5ml.  That will be .75mg.

 

That will be about a 7 day supply.  Store in a closed container at room temp, and protect from light.

 

 

[[Ju...]]

Hi Mariea,

 

I am so glad you are able to help your husband and that you dodged the benzo bullet yourself. Having a supportive spouse is huge in this process.

Your husband has been making big cuts relatively easily compared to many here. How long have you been at 3.5 mg? You might want to hold that 2-3 weeks to make sure all of the previous reductions have settled down. If the pharmacy is helping you, you might not need the vodka method. Would they be willing to further divide your 1 mg doses into 0.5 or 0.25 mg? Decreasing by 0.5 or 0.25 mg every two weeks or so can be a good way to get off valium, especially if you have a pharmacist willing to help with the dose preparations. Homemade solutions can be helpful if you need them, but I have some concerns about keeping the dosing consistent that way. Another option is a prescription of liquid valium from the pharmacy but some people have stomach problems from that.

 

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JKS

[[Ma...]]

Thank you builder and jks  he has been on 3.5mg for a week. We were planning to wait two weeks before cutting. Unfortunately we don't really have a pharmacy to help us out. I asked a doctor to help us with a prescription for tapering and she wrote down the instructions in her prescription to cut the pill.  It was actually done at one of the larger hospitals here and they are super strict about dispensing Valium. For a while, I wasn't sure they were even going to do it.  That's why I was trying to figure out how to make the cuts myself.

 

Thanks again for the help