What is it like at the end, for you? What symptoms are the strongest?

[[St...]]

As of today, I’m at .58mg liquid Valium- compounded. The buzzing is constant and distracting. It’s in my feet and lower legs, and occasionally my head/mouth/jaw/tongue to a lesser extent. The worst for me are the muscle spasms. My shoulders/neck/head feel like they are being stabbed with knives. On the other hand, my nausea is much, much, much better. I can sleep deeply most of the time, and anxiety is only made worse around PMS. My muscles ache all over and my feet burn again. That symptom had gone away for 6 months!! And then bam! Out of the blue, it’s back.

  If you consider yourself towards the end, what does this phase look like for you?

If you jumped, what did the end of your taper look like, and how prepared were you for the jump?

  I just drastically changed my diet, and it’s helping! Really hard, but I went totally strict keto. I’m taking 5-HTP and theanine. So far, no adverse effects, but I started on a low dosage.

  My “plan of attack” for jumping is to get as healthy as I can with a new keto diet, mild exercise, stretches, trying to sleep as much as I can, and taking a couple of new supplements regularly now since they didn’t bother me during a trial run.

  I’m able to drink half-caffeine coffee which is a HUGE deal for me, mentally. Puroast coffee is the brand, it has less acid, way more antioxidants, like green tea basically. I think it’s organic too. I don’t feel ANY different after a cup of it, half strength, my symptoms stay the exact same. Mentally and emotionally for me, it’s a nice routine from my previous normal life! I cling to that morning routine, and it helps my peace of mind.

  This taper has been hellacious for me. I saw my psych today, and she was so happy for me to be doing “well” as I’m getting off. When she met me, I was injured, bedridden, deeply depressed and in agonizing chronic pain- 24/7. We didn’t have any hope of a full recovery. The doc said that she knew from our visits that no matter what people had told me, I didn’t give up hope of recovery, and she thinks that that played a part in it. Mentally willing the best to happen- make it be SO! I beat the odds, made a full recovery only to discover that yes, Valium works great for muscle spasms SHORT TERM. Shouldn’t have been part of a long term treatment plan!

  Hindsight is 20/20 I’m afraid. So now I’m battling the iotragenic illness caused by the “cure” for the nerve injury. Benzo withdrawal/sh*t storm, pardon my french.

 

  So fellow sufferers, please give me your life in a photograph. In one moment, what are you going through?

[[Dt...]]

St Teresa! Congrats on your progress and achienements, awesome to hear, well done!!

 

I sound like you, but when you were at the start...

Bed ridden, chronic pain, constant anxiety and depression etc...

Currently on 7.5 mg V and 10mg baclofen, the devil drug that was given to me to ‘get me off’ benzos!

 

I’ve just started supplements, diet etc a few weeks ago with the same plan as you, getting better before getting off. Have Lyme and other issues which is hard to work out what’s going ehat etc but anyways..

 

How have you gotten to wheee you are? From where you were?

[[St...]]

I had a physical injury, then was prescribed Valium as a muscle relaxer. The original injury took 2.5 years to heal. Then, I realized everything that was leftover, was a side effect of medication. This whole taper has been brutal. Just grit my teeth and told myself it wouldn’t last forever. I absolutely cannot wait for this to be over!

[[ca...]]

I'm not near the end per say but getting close (1 mg) and after reading your post I feel like I'm headed in the direction of having the same sxs that you're experiencing. I have vibrations in my legs, feet burn or feel numb. I have this burning nerve pain in my neck, and awful pain at times above my temples .  When I have the pain above my temples it affects my vision as I can't not focus and last for an hour or so. I can deal with those but the worse is the feeling of off balance, like I'm being pulled to the side at times or have no sense of balance. It makes me feel weak so I tend to sit and try to relax as much as possible. My sleep has improved but awake sometimes with surges like I'm being scared and hr seems to race. My HR seems to increase with little exercise .

The only time these sxs calm down is around bed time, sometimes I just want to stay in bed so I don't have them or experience them.

[[Ra...]]

Not tapering from V but I am within the final two weeks of my taper.

The most difficult is sleep. I only sleep in 2-3 hour stretches maximum and I wake at least twice a night with anxiety. It takes an hour or two after waking to get rid of the morning “jitters”. Not really anxiety but a shaky/ nervous type of sensation. It’s purely physical.

I also have been unable to get rid of almost constant jaw tension throughout this whole taper. At times it almost causes me to gag.

But I have no more mood swings, depression, or any other real physical symptoms so it is getting better.

[[Go...]]

Getting close to the end of my taper from Valium. Symptoms seem to change all the time, and something new always seems to sneak up on me just when I think things are starting to get better. Then the symptoms just start to cycle over again. Headaches and TMJ pain have been constant.

 

The most troubling after my last taper have been:

Feeling like I'm on a boat and taking waves. Sometimes it's hard to walk a straight line.

And tinnitus so bad that it hurts. Just can't find relief from that one.

[[ca...]]

I've been holding for about 2 weeks and the muscle jerking in my legs are getting worse. Seems to last throughout the day and until I go to bed. I woke up this morning with my legs muscles jerking. When I take my 1 mg pill , feels like I'm not taking anything.

 

[[No...]]

I'm almost at 0.5mg but am struggling with WD symptoms including continuous Tinnitus, inner tremors, joint/muscle pains and anxiety/panic attacks. The inner tremors are a bit better today but I had them for 4 days solid, just awful. I tried going to the gym yesterday as a distraction and used the cross trainer but it initally made it worse. I'm still glad I went as exercise does help me.

 

I'll be honest, I've found this last bit of the taper particularly hellish and have struggled to function some days. I sometimes wonder if I am losing the plot with some of the WD symptoms I've had. I've had to wait 5 weeks for a GP appointment and will finally being seeing them next week. Apart from on here no one understands what I'm going through. I plan to jump from 0.5mg in the next couple of weeks. I've been on Valium for almost 7 years ....

[[Re...]]

I'm doing liquid titration and down to 1.2 mg from 5 mg Valium.  My worst symptoms are psychological.  Looping thoughts over mistakes I've made. Pure torture. I will finish the taper at the end of March.  I am also having numbness in my hands, nightmares, and the feeling of a tight band around my head.  Still have to WD from Prozac and Mirtz, as I was poly-drugged when I was having inter-dose WD from Xanax and didn't know it and ended up in psych hospital back in September.  Trying to survive one minute at a time. Why are there not laws around informed consent?  These drugs ruin lives.

[[Tr...]]

.0125 K and speeding up my taper to be off in a month. I have the benzo flu, faster heart rate, a slightly ramped up feeling, burning limbs ears face scalp, tinnitus, tight gut, tight everything really, neck head and jaw pain, inner tension, weakness, etc. I'm not sure if it's the K causing half of this though as it's now paradoxial too me (I feel much worse right after I dose for several hours).

[[Go...]]

My plan was to jump from .5mg Valium in the next few days. But this last titration has been incredibly tough and I'm just not stabilizing as expected. It's been more difficult that previous titrations. My doctor and I have decided to hold until things settle down (in my less hopeful moments I wonder IF things will EVER settle down) and then switch to a very slow liquid taper. I'm so disappointed. I thought I was getting close to the end. But apparently I'm very sensitive to this withdrawal and we're looking at adding months to the process to make it easier on me. 

 

I'm so tired of all of this. But I refuse to give up now. I'm just going to have to readjust my expectations and try very hard to be patient. Maybe micro tapering will

make the symptoms easier to handle. I really hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to "gracefully" handle too much more of this.

 

Sorry my experience isn't more positive. But I do tend to be sensitive with meds so it's not all the surprising - just very disappointing. I hope you have an easier time.

 

We'll get through this.

[[St...]]

I’m at .5v too, and my body feels like it’s on fire. I can’t eat, headaches, too weak to walk. I got slammed, badly, at .5. Surely, surely it will get easier at some point??

[[Tr...]]

For those suffering at a very low dose, I and many others found we hit a wall once we crossed into non-therapeutic doses. For many of us, by slowing down, holding, or pushing forward we stabilized and it got better. It's like a mini cold turkey until your brain gets used to the very low dose.

[[Mi...]]

I think I am coming close to stabilization.  I have that buzzing feeling throughout my body that comes and goes. My biggest symptom right now is my vision. It is very distorted,  so much I can't drive because my vision thinks it drunk, lol. My depth perception is off and it's like my body doesn't know where it is in space. Also, I'm hypervigilant to people and 5hings around me when I'm in a store or anytime I'm outside my house. I just want to see straight so I can function!

 

.0125 K and speeding up my taper to be off in a month. I have the benzo flu, faster heart rate, a slightly ramped up feeling, burning limbs ears face scalp, tinnitus, tight gut, tight everything really, neck head and jaw pain, inner tension, weakness, etc. I'm not sure if it's the K causing half of this though as it's now paradoxial too me (I feel much worse right after I dose for several hours).

[[ci...]]

My plan was to jump from .5mg Valium in the next few days. But this last titration has been incredibly tough and I'm just not stabilizing as expected. It's been more difficult that previous titrations. My doctor and I have decided to hold until things settle down (in my less hopeful moments I wonder IF things will EVER settle down) and then switch to a very slow liquid taper. I'm so disappointed. I thought I was getting close to the end. But apparently I'm very sensitive to this withdrawal and we're looking at adding months to the process to make it easier on me. 

 

I'm so tired of all of this. But I refuse to give up now. I'm just going to have to readjust my expectations and try very hard to be patient. Maybe micro tapering will

make the symptoms easier to handle. I really hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to "gracefully" handle too much more of this.

 

Sorry my experience isn't more positive. But I do tend to be sensitive with meds so it's not all the surprising - just very disappointing. I hope you have an easier time.

 

We'll get through this.

 

I can definitely relate to the disappointment of having to slow down.  I’m currently at .87v equivalent.  Just reduced my taper 5 days ago to see if I could minimize physical sxs that are ramping up.  No change yet.  I was hoping to not have to hold.  The lower I get, it seems like the further the exit is!

 

Let’s try and encourage each other through this.

 

 

[[Mi...]]

 

Definitely! This too shall pass 

 

My plan was to jump from .5mg Valium in the next few days. But this last titration has been incredibly tough and I'm just not stabilizing as expected. It's been more difficult that previous titrations. My doctor and I have decided to hold until things settle down (in my less hopeful moments I wonder IF things will EVER settle down) and then switch to a very slow liquid taper. I'm so disappointed. I thought I was getting close to the end. But apparently I'm very sensitive to this withdrawal and we're looking at adding months to the process to make it easier on me. 

 

I'm so tired of all of this. But I refuse to give up now. I'm just going to have to readjust my expectations and try very hard to be patient. Maybe micro tapering will

make the symptoms easier to handle. I really hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to "gracefully" handle too much more of this.

 

Sorry my experience isn't more positive. But I do tend to be sensitive with meds so it's not all the surprising - just very disappointing. I hope you have an easier time.

 

We'll get through this.

 

I can definitely relate to the disappointment of having to slow down.  I’m currently at .87v equivalent.  Just reduced my taper 5 days ago to see if I could minimize physical sxs that are ramping up.  No change yet.  I was hoping to not have to hold.  The lower I get, it seems like the further the exit is!

 

Let’s try and encourage each other through this.

[[...]]

At .5 mg valium it’s the relentless fatigue and weakness that are the worst for me. Mornings are spent in one circle of hell or another. I never expected that I’d feel like this at a very low dose. I’m cutting to .25 mg in a few days anyway. Stabilization is a moot point.

[[Ho...]]

My plan was to jump from .5mg Valium in the next few days. But this last titration has been incredibly tough and I'm just not stabilizing as expected. It's been more difficult that previous titrations. My doctor and I have decided to hold until things settle down (in my less hopeful moments I wonder IF things will EVER settle down) and then switch to a very slow liquid taper. I'm so disappointed. I thought I was getting close to the end. But apparently I'm very sensitive to this withdrawal and we're looking at adding months to the process to make it easier on me. 

 

I'm so tired of all of this. But I refuse to give up now. I'm just going to have to readjust my expectations and try very hard to be patient. Maybe micro tapering will

make the symptoms easier to handle. I really hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to "gracefully" handle too much more of this.

 

Sorry my experience isn't more positive. But I do tend to be sensitive with meds so it's not all the surprising - just very disappointing. I hope you have an easier time.

 

We'll get through this.

 

I can definitely relate to the disappointment of having to slow down.  I’m currently at .87v equivalent.  Just reduced my taper 5 days ago to see if I could minimize physical sxs that are ramping up.  No change yet.  I was hoping to not have to hold.  The lower I get, it seems like the further the exit is!

 

Let’s try and encourage each other through this.

 

I'm near the end of my xanax taper. I'm at 0.044 mg today, and I'm reducing by 0.002 mg per day. And it's getting to be too much! I realize the percentage of my cuts is high, but at some point you have to do that. You can't keep tapering 10% every 2 weeks all the way down or you'll never get there. I mean, it takes me more than 10 days to finish off 1 measly tablet! Surely I could just start zooming on down at some point. Where the hell is that point?

[[Tr...]]

My plan was to jump from .5mg Valium in the next few days. But this last titration has been incredibly tough and I'm just not stabilizing as expected. It's been more difficult that previous titrations. My doctor and I have decided to hold until things settle down (in my less hopeful moments I wonder IF things will EVER settle down) and then switch to a very slow liquid taper. I'm so disappointed. I thought I was getting close to the end. But apparently I'm very sensitive to this withdrawal and we're looking at adding months to the process to make it easier on me. 

 

I'm so tired of all of this. But I refuse to give up now. I'm just going to have to readjust my expectations and try very hard to be patient. Maybe micro tapering will

make the symptoms easier to handle. I really hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to "gracefully" handle too much more of this.

 

Sorry my experience isn't more positive. But I do tend to be sensitive with meds so it's not all the surprising - just very disappointing. I hope you have an easier time.

 

We'll get through this.

 

I can definitely relate to the disappointment of having to slow down.  I’m currently at .87v equivalent.  Just reduced my taper 5 days ago to see if I could minimize physical sxs that are ramping up.  No change yet.  I was hoping to not have to hold.  The lower I get, it seems like the further the exit is!

 

Let’s try and encourage each other through this.

 

I'm near the end of my xanax taper. I'm at 0.044 mg today, and I'm reducing by 0.002 mg per day. And it's getting to be too much! I realize the percentage of my cuts is high, but at some point you have to do that. You can't keep tapering 10% every 2 weeks all the way down or you'll never get there. I mean, it takes me more than 10 days to finish off 1 measly tablet! Surely I could just start zooming on down at some point. Where the hell is that point?

 

I agree. I'm doing daily cuts and praying for protection now. If I kept cutting when I was feeling good to OK symptom-wise I'd be on the poison another year. As long as I'm functional enough I'll keep pushing forward. I'm so worn down mentally from this process as much as from the symptoms themselves.

[[De...]]

I’m 21 days away from jumping, I have tachycardia every day and I’m still constipated.

Is anybody else suffering from tachycardia and constipation at the end of their taper?

Best.

[[Tr...]]

I’m 21 days away from jumping, I have tachycardia every day and I’m still constipated.

Is anybody else suffering from tachycardia and constipation at the end of their taper?

Best.

 

I don't technically have tachycardia, as my HR is below 100, but it's in the 90s at rest. I'm on a beta blocker and fit (or used to be). My usual HR is high 60s to 70s. I sometimes get POTS when I walk about or stand too though, and my HR shoots up to 110 or more just walking to the bathroom.

[[...]]

Tachycardia could be due to potassium deficiency. I started tracking my daily food intake and found to my surprise that my K+ intake was way low. I added in dried apricots and low sodium V8 juice and my tachycardia is gone.

 

Yeah, pushing through this nightmare. What the hell is the point of stretching it out any longer than needed? At the very low dose level it’s a crap shoot. I force myself to exercise every day and eat a healthy diet. I try not to feel despair. I read and write. I make sure I get out to morning coffee and interact with others. It sounds pretty good. In fact it’s brutally tough and takes all my strength of will to push through exhaustion.

[[ci...]]

My worst symptoms are night (and now day) sweats, burning arms & legs, inner vibrations, nerves on edge, sleep only 2-3 hours.  Sxs are worse in the mornings and get somewhat better in afternoon.

 

[[...]]

Wondering if my sx are actually due to valium poisoning more than w/d per se. TrustGod, like you I feel worse immediately after a dose and for several hours thereafter.

[[Tr...]]

Sila I’ll have to look into the potassium thing. If you’re feeling better at lower doses it could be paradoxical but then again I didn’t turn paradoxical until the lower doses.

 

Circlestar—I feel worse in the morning too. I think it’s cortusol. Then it peaks around noon and wanes from then on. It used to spike on the late afternoon again but now it really doesn’t. Something with hormones.