What helps with withdrawal?

[[ni...]]

I've been on 20mg of Valium for 4 years. My doctor has instruction to taper 2.5mg for 2 weeks then taper another 2.5mg for 2 weeks. That's where we are starting. Does the skin burning keep getting worse? What can I take to help with withdrawal?

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[ni...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

A 2.5 reduction may be okay for your first cut but you may need to slow down after that, most members mention it gets more difficult as they get lower in dose. 

We suggest using your symptoms to determine when to reduce again, if you pay attention to them, you can use them to know when and how much to reduce the next time.

Burning skin is pretty common but if you can make smaller reductions, you can maybe help it to ease up a bit.  I'm not sure what treatments members use to help, I didn't have this symptom. 

We're glad you're here and hope we can help you.

@[Pa...]

[[jo...]]

There isn't much tbh. It's the worst kind of withdrawl for many reasons and thats just one of them. There's things you can take that may help a little like certain vits etc but nothing really significant. Some take AD's with some success and some regret doing it. Like me. 

[[Co...]]

8 hours ago, [[n...] said:

I've been on 20mg of Valium for 4 years. My doctor has instruction to taper 2.5mg for 2 weeks then taper another 2.5mg for 2 weeks. That's where we are starting. Does the skin burning keep getting worse? What can I take to help with withdrawal?

As @[Pa...] mentioned, you might manage those initial reductions of 2.5mg from a starting point of 20mg. Given the size of your dose reduction, I assume that you use 5mg (or possibly) 10mg tablets. Going forward, it would be helpful to have 2mg tablets, which will allow you to make 1mg or even 0.5mg reductions.

Unless at very low doses, most patients find they react better if the size of each new reduction grows smaller as their dose diminishes, typically, by about 5-10% of their previous dose.

So, from 15mg, you might reduce by 1mg every couple of weeks. And below 10mg, you might reduce your dose by 0.5mg every couple of weeks.

Some people can make new dose reductions (of the size I suggested) more frequently than than every two weeks. (But need more time between each reduction). The key is flexibility. 

[[ni...]]

Thank you all for your feedback. This is helpful information. Just wondering, I read somewhere that taking Gaba and Kava would help with anxiety. Have you heard of this?

[[Bo...]]

This manual recently released is worth getting bc it guides you and has all of what people have learned here and thru research (Mark is a scientist and Dr himself that’s gone thru coming off psychotropic meds)….. it brings comfort to us trying to navigate this journey having to become our own expert as the medical community is so uninformed and was never taught how to taper patients off meds. 
 

be very careful trying anything during this. Natural supplements can even put people into setbacks with this so please learn and try to find coping skills- heat and cold for pain, ginger and sea bands for nausea, sometimes low low dose of melatonin can help for sleep but some it can make symptoms worse, weighted blanket, eye masks, blackout curtains for eye issues, sunglasses inside for light sensitivity, ear pods for sound sensitivity or cotton balls, lots of fruits and veggies cut out processed foods helps GI issues, lower histamine foods can help some who have histamine flairs, lots of water, taking it easy not highly strenuous exercise, slow and steady hyperbolic taper seems to keep people functional (the Madusley book details this out basically smaller reductions as you go lower), warm or cool baths and showers held for a lot(some people need a chair on the shower bc of strength), not trying to push symptoms and have the willpower which doesn’t work in this- listen to your body and heed the warnings or sognals it’s giving.

also here is a list of what to stay away from 

https://www.benzoinfo.com/medications-and-supplements/

[[Bo...]]

https://www.amazon.com/Maudsley-Guidelines-prescribing-Prescribing/dp/111982298X