Please HELP, any suggestions (PLEASE!!!)

[[md...]]

 

 

Hello,

 

I am desperately looking for some feedback and suggestions.

 

I screwed up on my taper and do not know what to. After being put on and off multiple meds, and c/t off most of them after no results in eluding Ativan for anxiety and insomnia, I restarted previous prescribed Klonopin in late May, which was not helping after a month, so I quickly reducing .75 mg K to .5o k, then switched from .65 K and 5 mg V for 1 week and then dropped k and did 8 mg of V and started 1 mg taper per 7 to 10 days, tapered it down to 5mg while experiencing multiple symptoms and have been feeling awful!! I thought since I was only on the K short term ( all together over 3 months this run) I would be able to taper off fast.  ended updating 1 mg of V for 3 weeks the did not help. I am now getting micro sleeps, waking in sweats, bladder retention/issues, headaches, flu symptoms and more and I'm still on this poison. Idk if I should switch back to Klonopin after 2 months and taper from that, or just suffer through this valium taper that is making me feel worse and try to keep tapering down?

 

Any suggestions would be a life saver!

 

Best! mdv

[[co...]]

I would suggest you slow down.. You're tapering way to fast for my liking. Diazepam (any benzo) should be tapered gradually, not 1mg a week like you're racing to come down. I would suggest holding the taper where you currently are until you feel better (at least 4 - 8 weeks) and then continue reducing 1mg every month or so.

 

You're simply tapering way to fast. Your body has no chance to keep up with the drastic changes, and the result is that you're experiencing all these terrible symptoms.

 

Best of luck to you.

I also suggest you read and follow the Ashton method on tapering benzos. Go very slowly. Even slower when you're below 5mg diazepam.

 

 

[[md...]]

Thanks for your feedback. I did read the Ashton but it was after my Psychiatrist had already directed down this pattern. It also states not to hold to long and grin and bear it and continue taper.

[[dd...]]

Agree with above post. There are some amazing posts on other forums and blogs on the benefits of super slow tapers and I know this as a fact for me. I was tapering 2% a month and functioning quite well. Slow yes-but if you can maintain a decent life (I have to work and support myself), and had already tried the fast taper and it almost destroyed me. I think we get into this mindset that we have to get off this stuff as fast as possible...but the reality is if I can spend 2 or 3 years going slow and maintain a decent existence and heal on the way down, as opposed to horrible taper sx and then possible 6-18 months or post taper hell, then why not taper slow? Just my thoughts...

[[md...]]

Thanks, I was not aware of the process and trusted my psychiatrist to guide me. What’s done now is the damage shared, looking for suggestions moving forward and taking is slower but not healing damage resulted. Some have up dosed, but I have also read that can also turn on you.

[[dd...]]

yes-different thoughts and experiences with updosing. The most common theme I see is that when you updose give it at least a few weeks or longer for it to kick in. I have updosed a couple times and it kept me from a fate worse than death. This entire process for every one is different with no rhyme or reason-hence why it is so hard to know what advice to take. For me its the fact that I either have to maintain a functional life or end up on the streets-I do not have a support system at all....so my decisions have all been based on necessity in terms of getting or keeping myself stable and functional. That being said-I have mad emy share of mistakes and also having to switch to another brand has certainly been challenging....and I think when you are in the throes of bad withdrawal sx you just don't think clearly at all. Hence I have a notebook filled with "notes to myself" that I wrote while feeling good to remind myself that when I am not feeling good and doing catastrophic thinking or not even thinking clearly, it helps ground me and remind me that the "benzo brain" is a liar :-)

[[or...]]

About updosing. Having been on here a loooong time and seen many, many folks get "in the weeds" from going too fast, here's what I've learned. And I think the veterans on her would agree. If you are having rotten s/x, don't try to push through. Stop tapering. Instead, go back up to the last dose where you felt comfortable. Stay there until you feel well enough to start tapering again.

 

A buddy of mine and I were at 2.5 mgs. I had tapered gradually down to that --he dropped way too fast. He felt terrible. He went back up to 5 mgs and still felt rotten, then 7.5. Nope. Finally he went back to 10 mgs which was the last dose at which he felt okay. Then he tapered down slowly. So . . . we all do what we have to do when we get "in the weeds". (Not saying you will have to do something so drastic, just sayin'  )

 

Hope this helps you,

 

Katz

[[dd...]]

So you are taking K and valium? if so-you might try to get stable on just one...and having had to do something similar (different brands), it took me a good 2-3 months to adjust and then an updose on top of that. I held there for a couple months and just started tapering again. If you start tapering at a place where you feel like sh*t, chances are you aren't going to magically feel better on the way down. Almost everything I have read shows that if you can start at a stable place and taper SLOW you will faire much better.

[[md...]]

 

Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate you sharing what helped you get through this. I suffer from anxiety disorder and insomnia when prescribed this and had grown tolerant to higher dose of Klonopin before making the switch. One thing that scares is me is up dosing to high dose and getting no relief to just have to work work back down, but I guess that would be the chance you take? Do you mind me asking what are the intolerable symptoms you experienced when you now up dosing was the only choice. My worst symptoms is the chronic insomnia, rapid palpation's, sweats, urinary retention through the night, racing thought and feeling crappy from no sleep. I question if uo dosing would help with these symptoms or if this is part of the the w/d process?

 

Thanks again!

[[md...]]

oregankatz, Did Gabepentin help you with your taper and sleep?

[[md...]]

ddjohn, I have been on Valium as of the incorrect transition 2 months ago. My Dr is giving me the option to switch back to Klonopin, I did feel tolerant on .75 mg which I still was not getting sleep and feeling sick and why I down and then switched to Valium. I have up dosed 1 mg a month ago on Valium and did not help? I'm really torn if this is just something that is going to take time to heal as the insomnia originally started after a cold turkey of Ativan this past January and then was later reinstated to Benzos after failed multiple sleep aids? Not sure

 

What were your worst symptoms?

[[or...]]

mdv I was taking gabapentin for many years before benzos, so I'm really not sure. I was taking it for neuropathic pain (not related to my taper), and when the pain relented, I decided to get off the gabapentin. I waited until my benzo taper was over. Tapering the gaba was very hard. I had lots of w/d effects.

 

So, no, I would say that it was a drug that did not help me. 

 

Katz