Quitting Oxazepam

[[jo...]]

Hi, I’m a 62 years old female, I suffer from very severe COPD.  Therefore, I have shortness of breath and dyspnea. I developed anxiety and panicattacks last year. Also had a burn-out and lost my job as a teacher. During the time I had the panicattaks, september-november, the doctor prescribed Oxazepam for 3 times a day, 3 x 10 mg. In december went to 2x 10 mg during a revalidation traject.

Since 1,5 week I’m on 3x  5 mg. Now I feel a lot of anxiety during the day, it comes in waves. Did I cut of too soon? Or are they jut withdrawal signs? How long will this last and how do I know when I’m ready to take even less Oxazepam? During the night, I’m still on 2 x 0,5 Zolpidem. This used to be  3 x 0,5 mg in september-november.  I just want to feel ‘normal’ again.....

[[Ch...]]

Hi jokkio.

 

Glad you’re here for support for your Oxazepam taper.  it’s impossible to know for sure what the reason or reasons for your current anxiety might be, anxiety during benzodiazepine withdrawal is normal but can be eased by slowing the rate of taper down. Since you had pre-existing anxiety, it may be intensified by withdrawal.

 

It also is usually best to only taper one drug at a time. Hopefully your doctor will let you wait to continue tapering the zolpidem, which acts nearly identically to benzodiazepines.

 

We recommend at most reducing by 5-10% every few weeks. Let’s get you started posting for help here:  Planning your Withdrawal (Taper Plans)

 

Other members replying to your posts generally prefer to know where you are in the process, so here’s how to add your benzodiazepine information automatically to your posts: go to Profile, then Forum Profile, write your pertinent info (benzodiazepine, dose, taper history) in the text box and save. Thanks! Let us know if you need help with this.

 

Take care,

Challis 

 

The Ashton Manual is a comprehensive and highly regarded free online resource about benzodiazepine use, withdrawal and recovery. If you’re not familiar with it we recommend having a look.