dropping from 5mg to 2.5mg of diazepam

[[ba...]]

Hi everyone- I'm a newby - 58 yr old woman -from the UK and tapering quickly because I bought clonazepam from the Internet to treat restless legs as drugs from doctor did not work. After a year and a half I ended up in a major suicidal depression and owned up to my family about what I had been taking. I am now tapering from 1mg clonazepam to zero in 6 weeks and realise this goes against all the advice. No one medical will prescribe a taper for me. Having gone down from 5mg to 2.5mg diazepam last week, I've had a major crash in mood after I'd been improving with antidepressants. My appetite has gone, the restless legs are back and my anxiety is through the roof.  I had been feeling so much better until I dropped down to 2.5mg. It's 3 days to zero and I'm terrified of going back into depression. Can anyone offer any hope?

[[Re...]]

Hello @[ba...], Welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I am really sorry to hear you are suffering. 

The symptoms you have been experiencing might be indeed due to the fast reduction of your clonazepam dose. 

We generally recommend a 5-10% reduction of your previous dose every two - three weeks if possible. I will add a link about tapering methods, so that you have a proper source of information. It is worth getting informed through benzoinfo.com, valuable information there. 

You will definitely recover from this even after a rapid taper and cold turkey,we have many members who did it the hard way and are out there living life. The recovery is certain, however, I can not tell you precisely when that is going to happen. We have many Success Stories from our recovered members. You symptoms may intensify for some time, that is worth mentioning. 

It would be a wise choice to find a psychiatrist/GP that prescribes you diazepam /clonazepam and follow a slow, symptom led taper. Maybe if you try to be clear about the situation and if you would ask your prescriber to help you taper they would be open to it? 

Please let us know how we can support you, 

RR

 

[[kn...]]

I'm still working on my taper from 4mgs of clonazepam and 1mg of lorazepam that was started almost three years ago. My psych crossed me over to 60mgs of diazepam (equivalent dose) and we started down from there.  I did fairly well until I got down to the 5mg diazepam mark.  When you get to 5, you're in a real dilemma.  If you continue to chop up pills, you're really only able to do 2.5 reasonably accurately.  Attempting to cut the pills into quarters, I found, just caused them to crumble.  They don't make 1mg pills.  2's are available, but jumping down to 4 is too much at this level.  The only out for me was to buy a scale, weigh and shave the pills at the rate described by @[Re...], 5-10% every two to three weeks.  You can get loads of advice on strategies to do this on the withdrawal and tapering forums.  Best wishes.  

[[ba...]]

Thanks.

[[ba...]]

12 hours ago, [[R...] said:

Hello @[ba...], Welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I am really sorry to hear you are suffering. 

The symptoms you have been experiencing might be indeed due to the fast reduction of your clonazepam dose. 

We generally recommend a 5-10% reduction of your previous dose every two - three weeks if possible. I will add a link about tapering methods, so that you have a proper source of information. It is worth getting informed through benzoinfo.com, valuable information there. 

You will definitely recover from this even after a rapid taper and cold turkey,we have many members who did it the hard way and are out there living life. The recovery is certain, however, I can not tell you precisely when that is going to happen. We have many Success Stories from our recovered members. You symptoms may intensify for some time, that is worth mentioning. 

It would be a wise choice to find a psychiatrist/GP that prescribes you diazepam /clonazepam and follow a slow, symptom led taper. Maybe if you try to be clear about the situation and if you would ask your prescriber to help you taper they would be open to it? 

Please let us know how we can support you, 

RR

 

[[ba...]]

Just now, [[b...] said:

12 hours ago, [[R...] said:

Hello @[ba...], Welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I am really sorry to hear you are suffering. 

The symptoms you have been experiencing might be indeed due to the fast reduction of your clonazepam dose. 

We generally recommend a 5-10% reduction of your previous dose every two - three weeks if possible. I will add a link about tapering methods, so that you have a proper source of information. It is worth getting informed through benzoinfo.com, valuable information there. 

You will definitely recover from this even after a rapid taper and cold turkey,we have many members who did it the hard way and are out there living life. The recovery is certain, however, I can not tell you precisely when that is going to happen. We have many Success Stories from our recovered members. You symptoms may intensify for some time, that is worth mentioning. 

It would be a wise choice to find a psychiatrist/GP that prescribes you diazepam /clonazepam and follow a slow, symptom led taper. Maybe if you try to be clear about the situation and if you would ask your prescriber to help you taper they would be open to it? 

Please let us know how we can support you, 

RR

Thanks Reuben..  Hopefully speaking to my GP today to see if they will prescribe. I am doubtful. I appreciate the support.

[[TH...]]

Hey, I'm in the UK and I went through Turning Point. Not sure if they're near you but they're an addiction centre that help people in many ways. 

Not saying you're an addict but it's worth maybe getting on to them or more of a local addiction centre near you.