Getting impatient with slow valium w/d

[[sp...]]

everybody's body is different.  I reduced my 10 mg daily valium to 8.75 four days ago.  No new w/d symptoms.  yesterday morning i reduced by another 1.25 so i'm down to 7.50 mg.  I'm seeing no worsening so i'm tempted to decrease tomorrow morning by another 1/4.  I want to feel stuff. I'm afraid this valium is blunting my emotions.  Why wait?  I'm not bothered by the bad dreams. The body vibration w/d symptom I don't even feel anymore.  Please don't give me your personal horror stories.  Everybody is different and i guess you just have to listen to your own body, but I don't want a seizure or something big out of nowhere.  Is that a possibility?  I don't see many w/d symptoms so that probably wont' happen, right?  I've also been making lifestyle changes that really reduce my stress, i eat well, etc.

[Guest [wi...]]

I feel ya man.  I cut from 15 to 12.5 to 10 and i go thru some stuff but i kinda wanna get it over with.  However calium has a sorry valium.  Has that long half life and we both should hold off for a week pr so for now just to let it catch up. 

[Guest [de...]]

Your plasma levels of V drop over 2 weeks following a dose cut. So if you drop from 10 to 7.5 over 5 days, your body still may reflect a plasma concentration of over 9. This is why it is good to wait at least 7 days between dose cuts, perferably closer to 10. I understand your impatience. I too have pushed the dose cuts. Getting slammed a few times has taught me the value of slow and steady.

[Guest [wi...]]

ack i had a nightmare last night! or it seemed like one. more emotionally intense, and woke up with racing heart. had to call the friend it was about. it was mostly just a trio of people being completely mean to me while i was going through intense withdrawal and none of them caring. When I called my friend and explained it he gave the same laugh he did in the dream. I was like DON'T DO THAT! lol... oy.

[Guest [wi...]]

Your plasma levels of V drop over 2 weeks following a dose cut. So if you drop from 10 to 7.5 over 5 days, your body still may reflect a plasma concentration of over 9. This is why it is good to wait at least 7 days between dose cuts, perferably closer to 10. I understand your impatience. I too have pushed the dose cuts. Getting slammed a few times has taught me the value of slow and steady.

 

If it drops in two weeks, why is it suggested to taper every two weeks.

[Guest [de...]]

It makes total sense. In about two weeks, your symptom profile/plasma levels are reflecting the dose that you have been on (for the last 2 weeks). Therefore if you feel OK two weeks after a dose cut, than you are likely stabilized, your brain is accepting/acclimated to the new lower dose, and ready for the next cut. Some people are faster healers and find 10 days is good enough to know that they can cut further. There is an element of trial and error. But error totally sucks.

 

By the way...two week interval between cuts is a suggestion, not a rule. One may hold longer if there are symptoms.  But cutting more that 10% every 2 weeks is almost universally discouraged by the experts (Ashton, Peart etc) and those who have broken that rule and suffered (me and almost everybody else in this community)

 

Good luck

[[sp...]]

deerslayer,

 

ashton says no more than 10%, but in her slow taper chart, she shows a taper of 1mg every 1-2 weeks off valium.  Dropping from 2 mg to 1 mg after a week or two is not 10%!!!  That's 50%!

 

Thanks for your assistance. 

[Guest [de...]]

deerslayer,

 

ashton says no more than 10%, but in her slow taper chart, she shows a taper of 1mg every 1-2 weeks off valium.  Dropping from 2 mg to 1 mg after a week or two is not 10%!!!  That's 50%!

 

Thanks for your assistance.

[Guest [de...]]

deerslayer,

 

At some point your dose cut will be 100% (last dose). If you only ever cut 10%, you would cut infitely. Ashton reports that most people can tolerate higher percentages when they get in the low single digits. Not true for everyone obviously or so many people wouldn't need liquid V to maintain the percentage rate.

 

At some point total dose change becomes a more important player than percentages, but that is in the very low doses, not in the spirit of what we are talking about on this string.

 

 

[Guest [de...]]

I answered your question above but I screwed up the format. Sorry.

[Guest [wi...]]

well i have a hard time understanding the math and science of it all. today im doing real bad. i just dont know what to do cuz my doctor says 5 mgtwice a day and i KNOW that's not where i should be at. 12.5 all together is woozy but i dont feel like THIS. yikes

[[sp...]]

wickedangel,

 

sorry you're going through this.  I'm just responding to this last post bc i dont' remember what you said before, lol.  So forgive me if i'm a little off the mark.

 

When i'm having cog fog I can't wrap my head around the intricacies of science and math either. 

 

Your doctor maybe doesn't know how slow benzo addicts should go. They are not in your skin.  Have you read the ashton manual?  She's really sensible and backs up her recs with tons of experience.  Maybe if you tell your doctor what symptoms you're having they'll understand and ....I don't know. 

 

Above all, listen to your body.  They don't know what it's like in your skin.  I've had many doctors and pharmacists give me wildly different estimates on long it'll take to get off this drug.

 

I'm just trying to focus on other things and make myself feel better and not obsess about how slow i'm going with the valium.  Slow IS better but listen to your body, and take it easy.

 

 

[[th...]]

Im also impatient and don't mind some withdrawal effects.  I haven't felt anything until 5 mgs.  Increased anxiety and some nervousness.  I can handle that.  Sensory problems haven't been too bad but are still there.  Once I hit 5 mg I'm cutting 1mg a week just to be on the safe side.  This will total 2 months which I think is reasonable, especially for someone who is determined to get off. 

[Guest [wi...]]

well i went through some shit today. not trying to scare anyone here. but i obviously cut too fast, but since my doc wants me on the dose i was cutting to and not what ashton recommends theres no way i can carry on like that. i have to go back to k... i'll titrate.

[Guest [...]]

hey there

 

just throwing my money's worth in here.  I went from 45mg of valium to 0 in 18 days yeah thats right.  Obviously went into severe withdrawal and reinstated on 2.5mg where i stayed crazy for about a month screaming crying soo sick and then one day woke up feeling like i was going to live all those side effects sweating etc gone.  Then if you would have thought i had learnt a lesson i dropped from 2.5 down to 2 because i was feeling such a heroe.  omg it was horrific so after 3 more weeks of craziness guess what i had to go back up aaaarrrrh.  anyway today i woke up feeling well weird but ok.  so now im staying on this for a few weeks and will use the valium liquid to go very very slowly.  However the liquid is so expensive.  Have found a compounding chemist in australia who will crush the pills and make up capsules to any amount so may do that if im to screwed in the head to work it out haha.  Good luck everyone im definately for going slow now by the way it was the beginning of january this year that i did the big cut and i was in a hospital doing it.

 

Lizzy

[Guest [de...]]

Thump

 

You crossed over to V pretty quick. Did you have any problems with it?

 

DS

[Guest [de...]]

Im also impatient and don't mind some withdrawal effects.  I haven't felt anything until 5 mgs.  Increased anxiety and some nervousness.  I can handle that.  Sensory problems haven't been too bad but are still there.  Once I hit 5 mg I'm cutting 1mg a week just to be on the safe side.  This will total 2 months which I think is reasonable, especially for someone who is determined to get off.

 

Thump

 

One other thing. I don't know how long you have been taking the K, but if it was longer than 2 or 3 months, then your taper seems way too fast. remember that the half life of valium is about two weeks. So on the day that you took 5, your plasma levels of v were probalby reflective of closer to 10. Therefore, your symptoms will likely worsen over the next few days. If this happens, don't be stubborn with your determination or you will be slammed. I've been slammed twice, and it is very different than minor withdrawal. So listen to your body and don't be afraid to updose if things get ugly.

[[th...]]

Thump

 

You crossed over to V pretty quick. Did you have any problems with it?

 

DS

 

Not really.  I think I got the dosage right, but we will see in the coming weeks. 

[[th...]]

I'm also impatient and don't mind some withdrawal effects.  I haven't felt anything until 5 mgs.  Increased anxiety and some nervousness.  I can handle that.  Sensory problems haven't been too bad but are still there.  Once I hit 5 mg I'm cutting 1mg a week just to be on the safe side.  This will total 2 months which I think is reasonable, especially for someone who is determined to get off.

 

Thump

 

One other thing. I don't know how long you have been taking the K, but if it was longer than 2 or 3 months, then your taper seems way too fast. remember that the half life of valium is about two weeks. So on the day that you took 5, your plasma levels of v were probalby reflective of closer to 10. Therefore, your symptoms will likely worsen over the next few days. If this happens, don't be stubborn with your determination or you will be slammed. I've been slammed twice, and it is very different than minor withdrawal. So listen to your body and don't be afraid to updose if things get ugly.

 

I hear ya, and I appreciate your concern.  I was on K for a year.  In the last 2 months of the year though, I had cut down to .25 mg of k daily before jumping off completely.  It was too much to come off at once (reason for valium substitution).  Right now I'm at the diazepam equivalent of 5 mg.  I'm having minor issues at the moment, but nothing to make me stay at 5 mg.  Tonight I start 4 mg, and still have a month left of tapering.  I can't up dose at this point because I already reinstated once, and I've come too far to give in. 

[Guest [de...]]

well i went through some shit today. not trying to scare anyone here. but i obviously cut too fast, but since my doc wants me on the dose i was cutting to and not what ashton recommends theres no way i can carry on like that. i have to go back to k... i'll titrate.

 

Wicked

 

I would try to get your doctor to support the Ashton method rather than return to K. Bring your doc the Ashton taper plans. He may change his mind and support a proper taper plan,

 

[Guest [de...]]

Wicked

 

One more thing.If your doctor really refuses to increase you to 12 or 13 v, which is probably where you should be, You might start feeling better in a few weeks at 10. Your valium levels are increasing every day, so your symptoms will likely improve over a week or 2. If you add the K you will really be confusing things. I think toughing it out on 10 of V is preferable. Still a 33% cut, which is too much, but in the long run it is probably better than your limited alternatives.

 

DS

[Guest [wi...]]

I have too much to do with school and my son. I can't just wait out that cut and to be perfectly honest valium was just not working for me.

[Guest [de...]]

A person can tolerate more w/d if they don't have alot of pending responsibilities.

 

Sorry the V is not working for you. Are you sure you have given it enough time. The equivalency that Ashton worked out seems dead on for me. It just takes a few days for the V to catch up.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide

[Guest [wi...]]

I really really wanted it to, and despite the side effects I was dealing with it. But it was affecting things more than I can really handle right now, and whether it was the cipro or the big cut, I can't be "that way" with a son to care for after winning custody last year. Just not a good idea. I will try to titrate when school is out and take online classes

[Guest [de...]]

Are you currently taking Cipro? That is the worst benzo w/d agitant imaginable.