Harder towards the end?

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Hi,

 

I've been tapering Valium for several months; I'm currently at 2.5mg. I have 2mg pills I take 3/4 of a pill in the morning and 1/2 a pill at night. My plan is to decrease by .5mg (1/4 of a pill) every two weeks or so. Things like restless anxiety and sensitivity seem to be getting particularly bothersome as I go lower, even though the cuts I'm making now are smaller than when I had 5mg pills.

 

Does anyone else find that the sxs are more intense towards the end? Thanks.

[[be...]]

Some people find it harder and others easier. If your sxs are not too severe I'd stay on track but if they increase I'd ask for liquid Valium to make smaller cuts. B

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I'm no expert but looking at your signature I think your cuts are too big. Ashton says 5 to 10 percent every two weeks. I learned the hard way and am now in the middle of a horrible wave. 

Like I said, I'm not an expert  so hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in.

[[be...]]

Mena are you on liquid?

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No I am not. I was thinking of switching but I'm so sensitive I'm afraid to make any changes.

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Thanks for the replies. My pdoc is fairly clueless around available dosages. I had to inform him that Valium came in 2mg pills, lol. I get the sense that hes got a raft of patients on much higher dosages and he looks at me and thinks I'm overrating. Ah well. If things get unmaintainable, I'll ask about liquid.

[[Be...]]

As a rule, things get harder as you get lower, as you're taking a larger amount of the whole out of the total dose.

I had 3 GPs tell me that 'of course it's easier when you're on a tiny amount!'.

That is absolutely NOT the case for many and I think most people.

People on this forum have taken a year to go from 3mg to 0.

As always, it's whatever pace you can deal with but I think it pays to go easy as you near zero. Your cuts are, compared to most people's, really quite big. .5mg at 2mg is a 25% cut. 50% at 1mg...

You might get away with it but most people here would probably suffer quite badly. As you're not in hell tho after those big drops, you may well be lucky. Well, 'lucky'. It's all relative!

[[bu...]]

Let me kinda rephrase what you've said...

 

Cuts don't get harder because you get lower, they get harder as the become a bigger percentage of your current dose.

 

If you keep the %age cut at an acceptable level, you should have no problems as your dose get smaller.  If you could tolerate a .5mg cut from 10mg, you probably won't have any problem with.05mg cuts from 1mg.

[[Be...]]

Beautifully put. Yes.

[[Sh...]]

Let me kinda rephrase what you've said...

 

Cuts don't get harder because you get lower, they get harder as the become a bigger percentage of your current dose.

 

If you keep the %age cut at an acceptable level, you should have no problems as your dose get smaller.  If you could tolerate a .5mg cut from 10mg, you probably won't have any problem with.05mg cuts from 1mg.

 

Is there any evidence to suggest that it's the percentage of dose being taken away that causes all the issues though? That's just a guess. Some people who do better at the lower parts would argue that because you are taking less away from your body its easier.

[[ph...]]

Mine was so weird and random. It was much harder after 4 milligrams, and each cut after that, no matter how small, was brutal... but then, when I jumped, I was sick for about two weeks and now... completely fine. I expected MUCH worse...

[[Be...]]

If I've learned one thing about benzos it's that there are broad patterns / rules of WD effects, and exceptions to every one. It is the most maddening, mysterious, non linear process. You can do your best, and hope for the best. That's as good as it gets in terms of certainty.

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A lot of great feedback and reminders of things I already had read and forgot. Thanks everyone!

[[Go...]]

For what it's worth, I went through my first couple of months with no terrible waves. Just symptoms of DR/DP, apathy, lethargy, and increased insomnia. All of which, were manageable. When I got to around .1 i was hit with a bad wave that rivaled my initial C/T attempt. I had to be functional so I did a one time updose of .25 mg that seem to stabilize me (though I dont necessarily advocate this).  a few cuts later, I was hit with another wave at the end of .06. That seems to be lifting now. We shall see what the future holds.

 

Best of luck!