Tolerance withdrawal or effects from switching to Valium?

[[VE...]]

Sorry for what your going through 

I will be beginning the crossover myself soon from 2 mgs ativan which I take at night for insomnia. I'm curious as to the valiums effects for inducing sleep vs ativans? I would like to think it's still going to help at least for a little while . I realize you were on clonazepam which I think is stronger than ativan but similar as far as sleep promotion. Thanks for any thoughts and best of wishes to you.

[[Ko...]]

@[VE...]

sorry for late response. I think in general I sleep more on valium but its not restorative sleep- I still feel groggy most of the day and don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning.  I was put on the clonazepam 0.5 for sleep in April of this year but developed tolerance to it pretty quickly. I took a month to crossover and at my next appointment in a week or so will start to taper it.

[[Md...]]

On 29/08/2023 at 12:37, [[K...] said:

Thanks for your detailed response.  I am still on half klonopin and half valium. (I took 0.5 mg klonopin since 4/23 and found out I was dependent on it in 7/23.  I will make the final part of the switch this week. I have definitely been feeling weird with some withdrawal symptoms with the crossover but wasn't feeling well on the 0.5 mg of klonopin either. 

I will be curious to see how your doc does your taper as he is an expert in this. I looked into going with their group (super expensive though!!) but don't live in one of the states that they serve. I anticipate getting to 10 mg of the valium but not sure how I will proceed down from there yet. I know my NP seems to think the microtapering is unnecessary but I do not know how I will fare with the 0.5 mg cuts once I get down to the lower dosages.

Yeah, my docs are really expensive and they don’t accept insurance either. I’m honestly not sure why they charge as much as they do, they even raised their prices right after I signed up with them. Kinda crazy that trying to be healthy costs so much money. Then again, they were able to eliminate my interdose withdrawals, and it’s hard to put a price tag on that.

I believe they will be doing a liquid taper for the Valium, but I am hesitant to taper, because I take this medication to treat my debilitating pain, so I worry that my pain my come back full throttle after I’m off the medication or as I taper, then it’ll be back to taking benzos, so I also worry about kindling. 

It’s possible that I could just stay on Valium for the rest of my life and not have any issues (my uncle was on Xanax everyday for 30 years and had zero issues), so the risk of just staying on benzos might outweigh the risk of the debilitating pain if it does decide to come back.

The latest studies show that the prognosis for my condition is poor, and that only 10 to 20 percent of people achieve significant improvement in pain. 

One girl I know who suffers from the same condition is taking Cymbalta, Lyrica, Noritriptyline, and LDN to treat her pain, and her pain baseline is at a constant 3, and she still gets flare ups.

Pick yer poison, eh? 
 

Btw, how’s your tapering going?

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by [Md...]

[[Ko...]]

I am sorry for your pain and lack of options. I can understand the desire to not taper as it appears to be such a difficult and painful process. If I hadn't started feeling like crap all the time (fatigue, amotivation) and discovered it was due to the klonopin, I would not want to taper until I was able to retire so I would not have to stress about maintaining work, raising children, and paying the mortgage.  But, I know that I will continue to feel steadily worse on benzos if I do nothing so I have to try and get off this.

I am 2 weeks into my first cut from 10 to 9.5 of valium. It is hard for me to say if my symptoms are any different as I have been feeling badly from the start.  Trying to decide if I should proceed with another cut to 9.0 tonight or wait another week. I can't stand this process and not knowing how I will respond....its very lonely.

[[Md...]]

6 hours ago, [[K...] said:

I am sorry for your pain and lack of options. I can understand the desire to not taper as it appears to be such a difficult and painful process. If I hadn't started feeling like crap all the time (fatigue, amotivation) and discovered it was due to the klonopin, I would not want to taper until I was able to retire so I would not have to stress about maintaining work, raising children, and paying the mortgage.  But, I know that I will continue to feel steadily worse on benzos if I do nothing so I have to try and get off this.

I am 2 weeks into my first cut from 10 to 9.5 of valium. It is hard for me to say if my symptoms are any different as I have been feeling badly from the start.  Trying to decide if I should proceed with another cut to 9.0 tonight or wait another week. I can't stand this process and not knowing how I will respond....it’s very lonely.

 I think that’s the basis for a lot of our fear when it comes to tapering: not knowing how we’ll respond. It’s very lonely, indeed. 

I think that fear makes the tapering process worse though, as it raises anxiety, which raises all sorts of unwanted crap. 

My benzo psychiatrist basis tapering success of how functional you are. As long as you can do your daily activities, work, take care of the family, etc. without too many issues, then you’re probably doing pretty good.

What have been your main symptoms been so far?

 

[[Ko...]]

I  do the bare minimum at work and at home.  This is so different from the way that I used to be. I just generally don't feel good. My main symptoms are tinnitus, constant fatigue and exercise intolerance, depression with lack of motivation and enjoyment and poor appetite.