Need advice: can't finish Valium taper

[[Ta...]]

Hi all,  the good news:  I am at a very low dose of V (.160 mg) after 16 mos of tapering from 2 mg.  This is my 3rd try to get off V. and I think I must be quite kindled.  Been at the various tapers for almost 4 years!

The bad news:  once again I believe I tapered too quickly and am totally stuck where I am.  I have severe brain fog and eye irritation and vision problems morning,  noon & night.  A ton of cognitive impairment and trouble talking a lot of the time.

 

I need to get off this crap !

 

Option 1:  just jump and accept the consequences.  I am scared that it might be very,  very rough due to kindling and the severity of the symptoms on the .160 mg dose

Option 2:  taper further -- have been stuck for over 6 mos and it just gets worse & worse (tolerance ?).  A 5% taper every 2 weeks from there would take many months and would be painful

Option 3:  Updose to perhaps .5 mg and taper @ 5% every 2 weeks -- again a long long time.

 

I am leaning towards Option 1

 

Please advise your thoughts.  Thanks !

[[je...]]

Hi Take3

 

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. Were you planning to taper to zero? I jumped at the Valium equivalent of 0.5mg Valium. Without a detailed signature it's difficult to comment but it seems as if you tapered 2mg in 10 months which seems very reasonable to me and not too fast. I do think you probably have kindling issues and currently you're getting very little therapeutic value from the drug. As per the Ashton Manual:

 

In any case the 1mg or 0.5mg diazepam per day which you are taking at the end of your schedule is having little effect apart from keeping the dependence going. Do not be tempted to spin out the withdrawal to a ridiculously slow rate towards the end (such as 0.25mg each month). Take the plunge when you reach 0.5mg daily; full recovery cannot begin until you have got off your tablets completely.

 

I would agree with you on Option 1, as I think you've already experienced the worst of it because the drug is barely working anymore. 

 

Edit: spelling

[[jo...]]

Hi all,  the good news:  I am at a very low dose of V (.160 mg) after 16 mos of tapering from 2 mg.  This is my 3rd try to get off V. and I think I must be quite kindled.  Been at the various tapers for almost 4 years!

The bad news:  once again I believe I tapered too quickly and am totally stuck where I am.  I have severe brain fog and eye irritation and vision problems morning,  noon & night.  A ton of cognitive impairment and trouble talking a lot of the time.

 

I need to get off this crap !

 

Option 1:  just jump and accept the consequences.  I am scared that it might be very,  very rough due to kindling and the severity of the symptoms on the .160 mg dose

Option 2:  taper further -- have been stuck for over 6 mos and it just gets worse & worse (tolerance ?).  A 5% taper every 2 weeks from there would take many months and would be painful

Option 3:  Updose to perhaps .5 mg and taper @ 5% every 2 weeks -- again a long long time.

 

I am leaning towards Option 1

 

Please advise your thoughts.  Thanks !

 

My reasoning would be: When you are feeling worse now than at the beginning of your taper you will probably feel even more so when you jump to zero. So I would not do that.

 

When you are feeling worse now than at the beginning of your taper, the reason seems to me that you tapered too fast.

So I would be patient and wait until I felt strong enough to go further.

 

In that case I would not take smaller steps than 0.05 mg. So the next steps could be 0.10 mg , 0.05 mg and 0.00 mg.

 

When even these small steps are too big for you I think you should have waited longer before taking a step.