Held at 8mg for 2 month

[[Ja...]]

I’ve not been on here for a good while,.I’ve held dose at 8 mg Valium for nearly 2 month

the reason holding the dose as my mental health was so bad

the biggest being anything I do I get stressed and overwhelmed,even my night walk with the dogs stopped recently  

I’ve been offered olazipine and duloxetine or citalipram from the phyc team

ive also just started my taper again today as  there’s no affect from the dose other than depression 

I don’t want to be going round in circles to other phyc meds but the stress has been unreal 

Any1 experience these meds/is it right/wrong while still tapering 

[[jo...]]

Don't know anything about these meds but good to have you back. Just wish it was under better circumstances. Keep going mate!

[[Ja...]]

Yea I took a break for the old noggin bud,.back at it today on the taper 

[[TH...]]

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

I’ve not been on here for a good while,.I’ve held dose at 8 mg Valium for nearly 2 month

the reason holding the dose as my mental health was so bad

the biggest being anything I do I get stressed and overwhelmed,even my night walk with the dogs stopped recently  

I’ve been offered olazipine and duloxetine or citalipram from the phyc team

ive also just started my taper again today as  there’s no affect from the dose other than depression 

I don’t want to be going round in circles to other phyc meds but the stress has been unreal 

Any1 experience these meds/is it right/wrong while still tapering 

Hi mate, good to see you back here. I can't say I've been on them either but I've been offered sertraline and it made me feel awful. So I stopped that. But I get what you're going through...it's tough trying to keep positive sometimes. Stay strong. 

[[Cr...]]

If you’re that stressed and aren’t experiencing any adverse side effects from taking the Valium, then why not just hold longer to help your body to recover? Two months might seem like a long time to us but when you are tapering sometimes your body just needs a break for a while. If you can’t even walk your dogs without stress and are thinking of getting on all these extra meds, wouldn’t it just be better to hold for longer until you feel this stress lift for a while? Maybe try a three or four months hold? Or just hold until it’s been one month where you haven’t had such a high level of stress. If you don’t have a doctor rushing you and can expect a monthly supply of meds, then I wouldn’t rush the taper. It’s very tempting to rush it but sometimes we need to let our bodies hit the stage of homeostasis before we get going again unless we have no choice whatsoever. 
 

Sertraline (Zoloft) has helped me a lot. If you try it, then I suggest starting at 25mg and staying there for at least two months before moving up if need be. If you feel good with 25mg, then stay there. 

You have to be careful with antidepressants though because some of them have low mg but it’s very high potency just like dealing with benzodiazepines. In my opinion, Sertraline has been the best but everyone is different. I would stay far away from Escitalopram and Effexor. Citalopram is also a good one for me but it made me not care about anything at all. Always check the antidepressant dosage equivalent chart (can find on Google) to make sure that they aren’t trying to prescribe you a high dose. Also, if you plan on getting on an antidepressant, be extremely careful. Don’t stop abruptly unless you are having bad side effects like suicidal thoughts etc. You always need to taper it as well just like you taper the benzodiazepines. The antidepressant discontinuation syndrome is horrible. I think it’s worse than benzos. The doctors also don’t seem to understand how to get us off antidepressants and will have you stop and start and do all kinds of things and mess you up so badly that it looks like you have schizophrenia but no … it’s just antidepressant discontinuation syndrome. But if you take the lowest dosage, slowly work your way up, slow taper your meds when needed, then antidepressants can really help your benzo taper. I don’t want to be on the sertraline but I might just end up being a lifer on it but it’s helped my mental health so much and it has helped me in my taper as well. If you want, you can ask the doctor to prescribe you the 25mg but just break it in half because it’s an easily breakable tab that has a cut down the middle and just start off with the lowest dose possible which would be 12.5mg. They can cause anxiety the first few weeks but sertraline never did that to me and I have an extreme anxiety disorder. 

Edited August 1 by [Cr...]

[[Ja...]]

Crielle,.thanks for that detailed reply it’s appreciated,.I have been on various antidepressants and a couple mood stabilisers in the past 

I tried 50 mg of sertraline earlier in my taper,.and it felt extremely unpleasant,tried pregabalin to,,both made me depressed as well

yea the stress thing kinda came on in the 2nd month of holding,.anything I do put my mind into a nervous crippling stress

I’ve started my taper again this week as it’s bad going ether way now,but yea if it’s a very small dose of an anti d thats needed to start while in withdrawal I might just enquire about that

The olazipine feels totally overkill to start being sutch a powerful med,.I’ve ptsd and ocd that overwhelming to hence the mood stabiliser