1mg xanax = ?mg valium?

[Guest [...]]

Xana, you amaze me. I don't know your history very well, you many have had some really tough times with w/d, but from what you've written to me about your experiences with both codeine and xanax w/d's you seem to be getting through it all remarkably well. That makes me so darn happy for you and so darn hopeful for me. Thank you for being so open about your life and for sharing it with me. If I'm lucky, maybe...just maybe, I'll get through this with my head as intact as yours.

 

T

 

Thrive,

 

Thank you so much. This makes me feel better.

 

I have had some bad times down in the lower range of Valium - dreadful coughing in the evening, fighting the desire to take one pill from a bottle that was always there, which I knew would fix it. Nausea and desperation on waking. Crying for hours and hours, feeling I would never be happy again. Poor sleep causing 'electric arms'. Being fearful everytime a family occasion came up - wanting desperately to go but knowing the anticipatory anxiety would come before it. Refusing to 'not go' except just once. Hated that but it wasn't an important event. Sometimes taking a bit of Xanax - 3mg on Christmas day because I was absolutely NOT going to miss a Christmas with my family.

 

I have become addicted to sitting at the computer because that is the only thing that distracted me when i was feeling bad. My husband cancelled a trip to  Britain where he was going to speak at a global conference. This was partly because I was worse after death threats from our neighbour but I hate that I caused this. My children rallied and offered for me to move in with them when he was gone.

 

I feel like I am a lazy person because I sit here amongst the mess. I really could do more than I do, even with the fibro pain.

 

Despite this, my suffering has not been of the magnitude of others on here. I think I was lucky that my psychiatrist always viewed my 'lapses' with amusement. He would joke about it being my 'confessional'. He always stressed there were no hard and fast rules, and no predetermined path - it was up and down but as long as the general trend was down, it was OK.

 

I was having trouble going to big shopping centres for a short while. The tight chest and desire to run out. My psych gave me good advice on this sort of thing - NEVER GIVE IN TO IT. He said it would just give it power. I took his advice on board and fought it. I won the battle with that and he was so pleased with me. I know you shouldn't do things to please anyone but it sort of empowered me.

 

My marriage has taken a bit of a battering but we still love each other and hopefully things will improve. My husband is ever patient, accepting and loving. His life has been affected by this so much too.

 

I'm glad you think my head is intact. I still have my quirks but they were there before benzos! 

 

I am definitely doing the kitchen right now. 

 

I'm sure you will be able to get through this. Make sure you let us know how you are going. Feel free to visit my blog any time.  Or ask me any questions.

 

Xana

 

[[jo...]]

For the past year I was taking 60mg codeine per day (used to take 120mg for a while before that). If I had a bad headache I would take an extra 60mg.

 

How much are you taking?

Hi

 

I'm embarasses to say how much codeine I take, it's more than you.

I take it to numb the overwhelming mental torture, so I can get on with my day.

[Guest [...]]

Sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I know mine was a low dose. You an take up to 8 tabs per day, safely which would be 240mg codeine. My psych said he has had patients who take 10 tabs per day (300mg codeine). He is not judgemental - just concerned. I have looked at forums where people have taken even more than that. Much more!

 

I understand the need to get relief. I was more worried about the paracetamol part which is liver damaging. I once asked for pure codeine to avoid this but the psych didn't want to prescribe this.

 

Can you talk to someone about how to tackle this?

 

Xana x

 

[[jo...]]

Sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I know mine was a low dose. You an take up to 8 tabs per day, safely which would be 240mg codeine. My psych said he has had patients who take 10 tabs per day (300mg codeine). He is not judgemental - just concerned. I have looked at forums where people have taken even more than that. Much more!

 

I understand the need to get relief. I was more worried about the paracetamol part which is liver damaging. I once asked for pure codeine to avoid this but the psych didn't want to prescribe this.

 

Can you talk to someone about how to tackle this?

 

Xana x

I have support in the form of a drug and alcohol agency.

They can only do so much, though, it's got to be me who has to become confident enough to feel ok without taking codeine. That's the catch. The taper is aggrevating my bad mental state, and that component of it will only heal when my nerves have repaired themselves which could take ages.

I am getting a lot of pain about my past family relationships, but also, I am seeing things more for what they are now.

I am lucky I have the drug agency though, they also provide syringes for my liquid dosing.

As far as paraceamol goes, my tablets do not contain it. I take either codeine, or dihydrocodeine, which I think is pretty unheard of in the US. Its twice the strength of codeine.

[Guest [...]]

I'm glad you have some help. I am in Australia and have heard of dihydrocodeine.

 

I guess you will need to do a slow taper from it. Seems that is the way to go with most things. That's how I gave up smoking decades ago, with no side effects whatsoever.

 

Xana x

 

[[jo...]]

I'm glad you have some help. I am in Australia and have heard of dihydrocodeine.

 

I guess you will need to do a slow taper from it. Seems that is the way to go with most things. That's how I gave up smoking decades ago, with no side effects whatsoever.

 

Xana x

 

Hi Xana

 

I am not on dihydrocodeine or codeine today, and am not having any withdrawals from it.

This is because I take days off so I don't form a physical addiction.

 

Thank you for telling me that tapering off smoking helped you. This gives me a good tool to use when I am strong enough to give up smoking.

 

thanks

 

[Guest [...]]

Thank you for telling me that tapering off smoking helped you. This gives me a good tool to use when I am strong enough to give up smoking.

 

It wasn't a very organised taper! When I found I was pregnant with my first child at 23 I cut from about 20 per day down to 5. So I smoked during this first pregnancy but my 32 year old son is 6'5" and now tells me it is lucky I did smoke. Though he has the worst asthma of all the children so I don't know if it affected him that way.

 

After that I only smoked socially as I was at home with a baby and just didn't bother much. During my second pregnancy 3 years later I was still smoking when I went out but  one day I was watching a program about people losing their legs because of smoking. That was it. I stopped completely. My second son is 6'3".

 

So my last two children were carried with no smoking at all. My third son is about 6'2" and my daughter 5'10". They have all suffered from asthma in varying degrees.

 

In the 32 years since I quit altogether I probably would have had about 6 cigarettes total - just for a laugh when fairly drunk at parties (in the good old days which pretty much stopped when I started my taper off benzos).

 

I always think it is crazy to try to cold turkey off cigarettes. I see young people fail over and over again. Too hard.

 

If you decided to give up smoking, you could probably work out a much more sensible plan than mine was. I must add i was a pack a day smoker for about 6 years. That used to increase on party nights to 2 pack a day - chain smoking and drinking! 

 

Best wishes!

 

Xana

 

[[jo...]]

Thank you for telling me that tapering off smoking helped you. This gives me a good tool to use when I am strong enough to give up smoking.

 

It wasn't a very organised taper! When I found I was pregnant with my first child at 23 I cut from about 20 per day down to 5. So I smoked during this first pregnancy but my 32 year old son is 6'5" and now tells me it is lucky I did smoke. Though he has the worst asthma of all the children so I don't know if it affected him that way.

 

After that I only smoked socially as I was at home with a baby and just didn't bother much. During my second pregnancy 3 years later I was still smoking when I went out but  one day I was watching a program about people losing their legs because of smoking. That was it. I stopped completely. My second son is 6'3".

 

So my last two children were carried with no smoking at all. My third son is about 6'2" and my daughter 5'10". They have all suffered from asthma in varying degrees.

 

In the 32 years since I quit altogether I probably would have had about 6 cigarettes total - just for a laugh when fairly drunk at parties (in the good old days which pretty much stopped when I started my taper off benzos).

 

I always think it is crazy to try to cold turkey off cigarettes. I see young people fail over and over again. Too hard.

 

If you decided to give up smoking, you could probably work out a much more sensible plan than mine was. I must add i was a pack a day smoker for about 6 years. That used to increase on party nights to 2 pack a day - chain smoking and drinking! 

 

Best wishes!

 

Xana

Thanks for sharing your smoking experience Xana.

When I stayed away for three weeks last year, I was at a non smoking house so I could not smoke unless it was outside.

As it was winter I didnt want to go out much so I seemed to cut right down to 4 or 5 roll ups a day.

I stopped smoking tailer made cigs when they went up in price and I always put a roll up in my filter.

I tried to stop again, for two weeks using lozenges. They took away the craving but I got irritable as I was not taking enough lozenges and I started smoking again.

Its definitely something I will look at once off the meds, cos I believe you should stop one thing at a time (or taper off one thing at a time)

 

thank you