Valium Taper - When Should I Jump?

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I have been on Valium for a relatively short period of time. I began taking it for muscles spasms after a surgery. My withdrawal symptoms have included blood pressure spikes, flushing, gi issues, insomnia, headaches, very tight painful muscles, irritability, tinnitus, nausea, anxiety, numb/tingling hands and feet, fatigue. I have less withdrawal symptoms since getting through my 1.25 mg portion of the taper. I had cut too much at once. Thankfully I found this forum and learned how to taper correctly.

I have a few questions as I continue my taper so I can decide how to proceed. I have a few important events starting mid-December thru January and want to make sure I'm not incapacitated with withdrawal symptoms. 

1. Could I jump from .75 mg or should I continue to taper to .5 mg or .25 mg? 

2. If I jump from .75 mg, what should I expect compared to if I would taper down further before jumping?

3. What generally happens after jumping? How long until the withdrawal symptoms hit hard?

4. What does "walking off mean"? How would that look if I wanted to do that? What would the benefits of that be?

Here is my tapering schedule:

June 25 - Mid July        5 mg - 3 times a day

Mid July - Mid Aug        2.5 mg - 3 times a day (no withdrawal issues)

Mid Aug - Sept 2          2.5 mg - twice a day (no withdrawal issues)

Sept 1 - Sept 11            2.5 mg - once daily (no withdrawal issues)

Sept 12 -13                  1.25 mg once daily (began having withdrawal symptoms but thought it was from steroids I was taking)

Sept 14 - 21                  2.5 mg - twice a day (no issues)

Sept 22- Sept 30          2.5 mg - once a day (no withdrawal symptoms)

Oct 1 - 2                         1.25 mg - once a day  (having withdrawal symptoms)

Oct 3                               2.5 mg - once a day (made symptoms worse)

Oct 4 - Oct 29                 1.25 mg - once a day (having lots of withdrawal symptoms with lots of ups and downs in severity but eventually leveled out)

Oct 30 - Nov4                Switched to oral solution and stayed at 1.25 mg dose 

Oct 5 - Nov 18                1 mg daily (withdrawal symptoms started first day and peaked on 5-8 and then began improving)

Nov 19 - present             .75 mg daily (withdrawal symptoms started first day and peaked around day 4-7 and are now improving)

 

 

 

 

[[je...]]

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8 minutes ago, [[j...] said:

I'm going to start with question 4 because that will inform all your other questions. Walking off means you jump without feeling any different to your tapering. Your symptoms don't get worse. Many people go into acute withdrawal when they stop the drug. But if you taper slow enough your brain has had enough time to adjust to the reduction of benzo's and you can literally just "walk off" instead of jumping off and feeling the acute effects.

1. Yes, you can jump from 0.75mg but the question is whether you think you should. Prof Ashton said recommended jump doses for Valium is between 0.5 - 1mg. Each person has to determine the best jump dose for themselves. 

2. No one can really answer that question. It will all be speculative. Generally if you are unsure and concerned about jumping, then people will take one or two more cuts to make sure they feel more confident when jumping. However, you don't want to drag these last couple of mg's out for months on end either. I'm just saying it shouldn't take you several months to get off 0.75mgs. 

3. This is unique to each person. Symptoms don't have to hit you hard. In my case for example I felt no different when I jumped than when I tapered. My symptoms post jump were exactly the same.

I tapered from Klonopin and I jumped at the Valium equivalent of 0.5mg. But I was a long term user. I do think it's important to be emotionally confident when you jump. It is quite stressful and anxiety and stress can have a huge impact on your symptoms. If you are confident you're ready at your jumping dose, then it will make jumping much easier by alleviating a lot of stress. 

@[je...]Thank you for explaining all of that. It helps to understand what walking off means and how I may be feeling after stopping Valium.                                                                                        How will I know if I am tapering slow enough to walk off? I felt ready after 2 weeks at 1 mg to cut to .75 mg. Is that slow enough? My withdrawal symptoms have never fully resolved as I have been tapering but they do improve significantly before I cut my dose. 

[[je...]]

[[ou...]]

I usually recommend stopping at 0.25mg. To give you an idea, jumping from 0.25mg has the same effect on the brain as going from 10mg to 9.5mg, jumping from 0.5mg has the same effect as going from 10mg to 9mg whereas jumping from 0.75mg has the same effect as going from 10mg to 8.5mg (https://benzobuddies.org/topic/273486-hyperbolic-tapering/). Given your history, you'd probably do just fine jumping from 0.75mg but why rush at the end?

 

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1 hour ago, [[o...] said:

I usually recommend stopping at 0.25mg. To give you an idea, jumping from 0.25mg has the same effect on the brain as going from 10mg to 9.5mg, jumping from 0.5mg has the same effect as going from 10mg to 9mg whereas jumping from 0.75mg has the same effect as going from 10mg to 8.5mg (https://benzobuddies.org/topic/273486-hyperbolic-tapering/). Given your history, you'd probably do just fine jumping from 0.75mg but why rush at the end?

@[ou...]This is very helpful. Thank you!

I'm trying to plan my taper around life events where I need to be at my very best for others. Looking ahead, I need to finish up by mid-December or will need to stretch my taper to the end of January or and possibly into February. While tapering my symptoms never fully resolve and as I understand, there is a risk of the symptoms being worse the lower the dose. However I could be having waves and windows for a short or long while after jumping. There are so many unknowns. I'm trying to make sure I understand as much as I can in order to make the best decision moving forward. 

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@[ou...] and @[je...] I missed my dose yesterday. I had a chaotic day yesterday and for the first time ever I missed taking the Valium dose. I had a horrible headache in the afternoon and a very flushed face but I thought it was because of the stress. I realized around 9:30 pm that I had not taken the med at 1:30 pm. I went ahead and took it and oddly ended up with increased back/muscle pain, worse headache, worse tinnitus and my hands and feet started tingling. I was able to sleep but the symptoms are still present this morning.                            

My question is, should I go back to taking my Valium dose at 1:30 pm or now start taking at 9:30 pm? Or maybe this is a sign I should jump? 

Thanks for any advice you have for me. 

[[ou...]]

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4 hours ago, [[o...] said:

I wouldn't interpret this as a sign to jump. If you think you've held long enough, why not just go to 0.5mg and reevaluate after a week or so? Time of day is not that important, especially given diazepam's long half life. Dosing once daily in the evening sounds better to me than dosing at noon. Consistency however is more important, especially if there's a reason you've been dosing at noon.

@[ou...]The reason I've been taking it at 1:30 is because that was when I was taking the dose when I was getting therapeutic effects from it. I'm thinking it must matter for me when I take the dose because I definitely felt worse in the afternoon when I didn't take it. Then when I took it 8 hours late I had symptoms of withdrawal after taking it. I agree, it would be so much easier to take it at bedtime. 

Maybe I'll just take it at night but stay at .75 mg until my symptoms settle down some. Then got to .5 mg. 

Thanks for helping me work through this.

[[je...]]

If it were me I wouldn't change the schedule up this close to the end. Your body is used to your current dosing schedule and it's working for you. When something like this happens we usually advise to resume as normal.