Am I in withdrawal?

[[Cr...]]

I only used diazepam for 6 months ish daily up to 10mg once a day at night time

 

i stopped on 30th and was ok for 2 weeks but today and yday i just have anxiety over nothing at all, tensed up for no reason I cant seem to shake it

 

my arms and hands feel weaker than normal, feel like im on an uppers comedown but im sober

 

Does this sound like withdrawal? I didn’t have any of these symptoms for the first 2 weeks 

[[Co...]]

Hello @[Cr...]. Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

It does appear that you have developed some level of dependency and are experiencing withdrawal effects. Of course, you should still talk to your doctor about this to rule out other possibilities.

Given that diazepam has such a long half-life (36-200 hours), it can take many weeks for it leave your system (perhaps as long as a couple of months before it is at undetectable levels). For example, if its half-life (for you) is about 96 hours, blood levels would halve about every four days. After 8 days, blood levels would about a quarter of what they were before you quit, and about an eighth after 12 days. But it varies a lot depending upon the particular half-life value (in you). I hope this explains how you can experience withdrawal effects two weeks after sudden cessation.

The question now is how you should proceed? If it had been a few days since you quit, it might be sensible to reinstate part of the dose for a few days and then taper off over a few weeks. But after two weeks (and provided that you are not in dire straights from withdrawal effects), it might be better to tough it out as you will have already partially adapted to the absence of diazepam. It is probably somewhat encouraging that you did not suffer withdrawal symptoms sooner - this suggests to me that your dependency might be relatively shallow.

In your shoes, I think I would would tough it out (within reasonable limits) and only reinstate (a partial dose) if it proves necessary.

Mileage varies enormously. I can only express my opinion. There are no hard and fast rules about this. Again, you should talk with your doctor as a matter of course.

[[Cr...]]

2 hours ago, [[C...] said:

Hello @[Cr...]. Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

It does appear that you have developed some level of dependency and are experiencing withdrawal effects. Of course, you should still talk to your doctor about this to rule out other possibilities.

Given that diazepam has such a long half-life (36-200 hours), it can take many weeks for it leave your system (perhaps as long as a couple of months before it is at undetectable levels). For example, if its half-life (for you) is about 96 hours, blood levels would halve about every four days. After 8 days, blood levels would about a quarter of what they were before you quit, and about an eighth after 12 days. But it varies a lot depending upon the particular half-life value (in you). I hope this explains how you can experience withdrawal effects two weeks after sudden cessation.

The question now is how you should proceed? If it had been a few days since you quit, it might be sensible to reinstate part of the dose for a few days and then taper off over a few weeks. But after two weeks (and provided that you are not in dire straights from withdrawal effects), it might be better to tough it out as you will have already partially adapted to the absence of diazepam. It is probably somewhat encouraging that you did not suffer withdrawal symptoms sooner - this suggests to me that your dependency might be relatively shallow.

In your shoes, I think I would would tough it out (within reasonable limits) and only reinstate (a partial dose) if it proves necessary.

Mileage varies enormously. I can only express my opinion. There are no hard and fast rules about this. Again, you should talk with your doctor as a matter of course.

Thanks for your response - really appreciate the info  

I had no idea that the half life varied that much, that is encouraging - I was worried this was unrelated but the timeline would make sense if it had a longer half life for me

Edited January 12 by [Cr...]

[[Co...]]

Try not to worry @[Cr...]. And keep us updated.