Why do people jump?

[[DD...]]

Just wondering......If a slow taper is going ok  with someone.....why would anyone take a chance on bad to severe s/x and jump?? It sounds risky to me. I figured if it took me 2 years to get addicted....it could take 2 years to get healed.....just curious.

[[os...]]

I can´t answer this, not accurately but i assume many that are tapering just get to a point where they feel "OK" and decide to jump, Ashton says it is OK to jump at .5mg Valium, there is no way i would do that, in my opinion it is illogical to jump at that point, i am going to titrate down to zero, some say the last cut is a 100% cut no matter what but i would think that from a dose size point of view, the closer to zero the smoother the landing, that makes sense to me anyhow... yet maybe some have a hard taper and want it to be over although there seems to still be the misconception that we do not start healing until off, i would argue that point (Ashton) and say that we heal as we slowly taper, if we go slow enough that is... of course to heal 100% we need to be off but i think most healing can take place on the way down... i would imagine that if a taper is long enough then post taper symptoms may be limited to fatigue and maybe some tinnitus and maybe a couple of others mild symptoms but then i have seen a couple of people here that have tapered over a long period and still have a hard time months out so nothing seems guaranteed but all the more reason to increase your chances by going slow but that´s just my opinion.

 

Oscar

[[sh...]]

You can only go so low in your dosage before it becomes unnecessary to keep going lower. Yes, it's great if others want to go lower than the recommend jumping point but, sometimes, that doesn't work for others. When I got down to the last 0.0625mg of Xanax, I was feeling terrible. I know that if I would have kept going lower, I would have only been prolonging my agony. Knowing when to jump is usually a personal decision.

[[On...]]

Just wondering......If a slow taper is going ok  with someone.....why would anyone take a chance on bad to severe s/x and jump?? It sounds risky to me. I figured if it took me 2 years to get addicted....it could take 2 years to get healed.....just curious.

 

DDMM56,

 

I think it's a couple of things, one is that many are already getting ill already with w/d symptoms and have figure out that it's from the benzo's and are so disgusted with it they "jump" from it. I stopped "jumped" because I thought I was on such a low and periodic, although lengthy (16 yrs.) that I wouldn't be addicted. Little did I know that 5 mg. Valium wasn't really all that low. I used between taking 20 and 30 tablets monthly for vertigo, but have had some wicked withdrawals from it after stopping c/t at the end of January this year. Vertigo is really bad but it's much shorter than these withdrawals, so I won't be using benzo's for this, I'll stick to dramamine.

 

Secondly, many doctors refuse to either up benzo users or stop them altogether and label them a "druggie" with an addictive personality. A lot of stigma is behind the addiction that really is not the fault of the patient but the ignorant doctor(s).

[[th...]]

Easy......If you're suffering while on the benzo there is no reason to continue.  It's that simple.

[[Mi...]]

The way I understand it the term "jump" is used when after a sufficient taper you stop the dose altogether or "jump" off.  It isn't the same as going cold turkey or precipitously stopping the drug in the middle of a taper.  "Jumping off" at a low dose and at the correct time is the whole point of a taper.  When and at what dose and under what circumstances you choose to "jump" can vary and is up to the individual.

 

MiniMinnie

[[sh...]]

Easy......If you're suffering while on the benzo there is no reason to continue.  It's that simple.

 

This isn't necessarily  correct. While some can stop benzos without a taper, others suffer greatly. Like Miniminnie sad, jumping is meant to be the point you stop taking a benzo once you've done a steady, slow taper and have reached the amount you find low enough for your comfort level. To not do a taper or stop midway can bring on severe withdrawal symptoms, including risk of a seizure.

[[Ra...]]

i jumped because my doctor told me it would be no problem...

[[th...]]

Easy......If you're suffering while on the benzo there is no reason to continue.  It's that simple.

 

This isn't necessarily  correct. While some can stop benzos without a taper, others suffer greatly. Like Miniminnie sad, jumping is meant to be the point you stop taking a benzo once you've done a steady, slow taper and have reached the amount you find low enough for your comfort level. To not do a taper or stop midway can bring on severe withdrawal symptoms, including risk of a seizure.

 

I'm not saying you should just quit your taper.  I was looking at this question from a different perspective.  If you look at the original question you'll see "jump" was used to get off mid taper.  That's the way I see it also.  My answer was giving a reason why somebody might just do that.

[[pa...]]

This is an interesting thread and I'll answer it using different perspectives...

Assuming the question means jumping from the middle of a slow taper without finishing, it could be do to a strong desire to want to get past the use of the benzo. That, and the feeling that one is suddenly doing well enough would motivate the person to 'just quit'.

There were several times in my taper from valium that I felt strong enough to do so, only to have the w/d effects suddenly get the best of me and then I knew that I couldn't.

It just takes seeing it through.

Also, I had to do a 'dosage correction' once, followed by a long slowing down of my taper about midway through time wise.

Also, a horrible flu struck me the first time I actually did jump. I reinstated 5 days later. The pain of the flu plus the w/d pains were too much for my system to handle.

I worked out an 'alternating taper' towards the very end, which to the best of my knowledge, no one else on the forum has reported trying.

Finally, the end of my taper coincided with the start of Lent, in 2010. Being Catholic, I decided that that would be my Lenten sacrifice that year!

Hope this helps.