New and in need of advice

[[se...]]

Hello there

 

I have been following this forum for a while, reading other people's posts and now I'm making a serious attempt to quit so I'm hoping for some advice on my tapering schedule/plan.

 

I've been self medicating using benzos for anxiety for 10 years now, a combination of xanax,valium and bromazepam depending on what I could get. It wasnt a problem for the first 8 years because I was using about 2-3 times a month and didnt develop an addiction. I do have a history of abusing other substances and mixing benzos with them however I have never been addicted to anything before this.

 

Over the last 2 years due to a combination of anxiety, stress and general abuse I've developed an addiction to bromazepam which is easily available where I am. My dosage varies depending on what I'm using it for but I generally use about 9-12mg of bromazepam every 2 days. On a dose of 12-18mg I can last for 3 days before withdrawal forces me to take another dose. I have managed to avoid taking benzos on consecutive days.

 

On new years I tried to C/T quit. I managed to last 2 weeks before I had to reinstate due to a family emergency where I needed to be fully functional. During the 2 weeks of C/T I had moderately bad withdrawal symptoms where I was mostly lying in bed and stuck on my phone unable to do much all day. I had headaches and generally felt out of it with problems concentrating and was very unproductive. However I wouldnt describe it as unbearable the main problem I had was knowing when it was going to end. I did also use gabapentin 300mg 3-4 times to help sleep.

 

I'm planning a taper now instead of going C/T. I decided to change my dose from an average of 9 mg bromazepam every 2 days to 3mg bromzepam/day and plan a weekly taper down from 3mg - 2.25mg - 1.5mg - 0.75mg over the next 4 weeks.

 

I'm wondering if anyone thinks the taper is too fast or too much? I know the usual taper is 10% every 1-2 weeks but I dont want to be on a daily dose for too long. I know physically taking a larger dose every other day is the same as a smaller dose every other day but psychologically the fact that I'm not on a daily dose gives me the confidence to quit. 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice given. This has been a great site for info.

[[Ch...]]

Hi seb.

 

Glad you’re here for support and advice before you start your taper.  It would be best to first see if 3mg daily will be tolerable. If you’re used to 9mg every two days it’s hard to know what daily dose will be feasible.  Then I’d look at the next step.

 

Mine is only an opinion and you’ll want o get others’ opinions on this, so let me give you a link to our taper board:

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.