Valium/Diazepam Support Group

[[Ho...]]

Thanks, Hope, for the update. You seemed to have moved thru this 0.25 faster than the previous two cuts so it was looking good from the outside! I'm rooting for you as always and hope these sx's back off quickly. Definitely keep us posted.

I'm still holding...

 

Yes I wanted to see if I could move a little faster with microtaper. Experiment fail. Lol.

[[Ki...]]

I find nothing helps me go faster. If I go faster than a half mg every 5-6 weeks I pay for it. Today I went back to my dose from Friday because I didnt sleep a wink the night before. I see so many scary stories- most of them seemed to be from people who went what to me seemed pretty fast. I know a lot of people can do it, but how do you know until you are done? So even with my grapefruit juice and all my crutches I cant even go as fast as that average half mg a month. They say you have to go slower as you go lower- that puts me in over 2 years for 10 mg valium- sheesh!

[[...]]

I went a little faster too when I tried MT, and failed big time and was told I simply went too fast. Maybe MT doesn't mean going faster. Who knows.

Well, keep us posted. Mag- you too. Kitty- seems like Several BB do 2 yr tapers.

[[bl...]]

Kitty:

Sounds like I am late to the table on this one but what does grapefruit juice do for you?

Thanks,

Blue

[[Ca...]]

Thanks, Hope, for the update. You seemed to have moved thru this 0.25 faster than the previous two cuts so it was looking good from the outside! I'm rooting for you as always and hope these sx's back off quickly. Definitely keep us posted.

I'm still holding...

 

Yes I wanted to see if I could move a little faster with microtaper. Experiment fail. Lol.

Best wishes Hope, and everyone finding their way with it...

Thanks for the info..

I may start attempt two soon, now im more stable... But first another trial with the new specialist..

Be Well everyone...

[[Ki...]]

Kitty:

Sounds like I am late to the table on this one but what does grapefruit juice do for you?

Thanks,

Blue

 

I did my DNA test and it said I was an extremely rapid metabolizer of valium and a number of other drugs. Since I used benzos primarily for sleep, dosing multiple times in the day really messed me up. So using grapefruit juice- just a few tablespoons- helps keep those overactive enzymes tamped down enough so I can take my dose once at night. I read about some people trying to use it to make their meds " stronger" but thats not really how it works and that could be really dangerous for anyone who isnt a fast metabolizer. But apparently a lot of fast metabolizers fail tapers and a lot of slow metabolizers get too many bad side effects. I hope that made sense lol!

[[...]]

Yes, I'm a slow metabolizer of meds - never had a DNA test but I get side effects to most things and the effects of meds last longer than the labels say they will. This has to do with liver enzymes.

But I'm a fast metabolizer of food- so that is a totally different pathway.

[[bl...]]

Kitty; Interesting. I don't know what I am---but I too started benzos many, many years ago for insomnia. Im now at 5 valium after long c/o from 1 mg k. Question is why do you dose throughout the day? Why not just take at night?  I'd be afraid if I split up dose I'd never get to sleep. s/x are on and off terrible but I do live in fear in returning insomnia. Does grapefruit juice help with sleeping do u think?

Thanks!

Blue

[[ka...]]

Hey Magnolia, how are you doing?  Hope things are better for you this evening.

[[Ma...]]

Kasey,

Thanks for checking. Found a better scale at $125

Will get it today and see how it works. It's all a head game. I made taper errors last month and sx started. As I get lower, really want accuracy for peace of mind.

 

[[Ki...]]

Kitty; Interesting. I don't know what I am---but I too started benzos many, many years ago for insomnia. Im now at 5 valium after long c/o from 1 mg k. Question is why do you dose throughout the day? Why not just take at night?  I'd be afraid if I split up dose I'd never get to sleep. s/x are on and off terrible but I do live in fear in returning insomnia. Does grapefruit juice help with sleeping do u think?

Thanks!

Blue

I DO just dose at night, now. But before I found out why, I was not able to- I was metabolizing it too quickly. After about 6 to 8 hours I started having interdose wds. So I took just enough to hold the symptoms down and left most of it for bedtime. It was just a few months of trial and error. But now, yes, I do just dose once at night thanks to the grapefruit juice ( I put it in my signature). Grapefruit juice only helps rapid metabolizers dose more normally- thats all it does. Its a bad idea for anyone else which is why they put the warning labels on it...

[[bl...]]

Kitty;

Thanks for clarifying. Makes sense! 

[[Ki...]]

It was so frustrating for the nurse to keep telling me it was all in my head and " honey now thats not how valium works, its different than your xanax was" oh how I wanted to punch her in the throat. My grandfather owned a pharmacy. I used to read the PDR ( drug reference manual) for FUN when I was in my 20s. I wanted to be a pharmacist but would have had to move for school. I was SO mad- and I had been reading on here about rapid metabolism so I had the DNA test done. I took it up to the docs office and she wouldnt even look at it! Egad, what we have to go through with THEM can be worse than what they have to go through with us lol

[[Pi...]]

Magnolia,

Could you post how your scales are working? I am using the Gemini scales. I make them work and use a control pill as well but I'm not as much concerned as what it weighs before as much as I am OCD about what it weighs after I use my fingernail file on it as long as it comes out of the same batch of pills and same manufactioner.  I'm cutting just .25 mg at a time so symtoms aren't bad. I have my eye on some jeweler scales but they're 516 dollars on amazon and really don't want to go that route. I wish I knew how to do the liquid thing but I don't. I'm working with 5 mg pills. No access to 2mg pills which sucks.

[[Pa...]]

Hi All,

 

I've been pretty sick for the last week or so. My anxiety spiked and my depression became much worse. The doctor wants to move me up to 150mg Zoloft as he thinks the 100mg isn't enough as I haven't seen any benefits at all in two weeks. I will wait about 3 or 4 days then jump to 125 and a week later I will jump to 150.

 

In the meantime to get some relief he suggested I increase the diazepam from 2mg a day to between 4mg and 10mg. He doesn't believe I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms just my anxiety and the Zoloft and Trazadone have not kicked in yet. I didn't want to increase to that much but I'm really struggling. I just took 6mg but I haven't gotten total relief. Maybe only 30%.

 

6mg diazepam is about 0.6mg of lorazapam. I used to take between 0.5mg and 1mg and that used to help me most of the time. Does diazepam take time to work?

 

[[la...]]

Paul, I had been on Zoloft for 15 yrs

 

 

so I speak from 1st hand knowledge. 1st off it takes anywhere from 6-8 weeks for some to feel any effects of the drug if its going to be a positive outcome

 

now heres the clincher, I did not see this because I was ignorant to these drugs back then...why do you need a drug to get on a drug?  I had to take a benzo to help off set the increased anxiety starting Zoloft caused...I was having much worse anxiety initially

 

once it did kick in I was able to stop the benzo and do rather well

 

BUT....after years it suddenly stopped working and I was /am in a bigger mess then ever before starting any of this

 

you have to decide how much are you willing to forfeit...I am now at the point that I am willing to take just about anything to get some quality of life back...my issue is not anxiety as much as other symptoms

 

 

so not sure if this was helpful at all...I tend to ramble (benzo brain)  but feel free to PM me with any questions

 

oh and BTW...I have been off the Zoloft since 2015

[[Pa...]]

Hi laineyk,

 

Thanks for your feedback and it does help. I'm the same as you in that I'm willing try anything to feel better. For me the underlying problem is depression. I got this in 1999. It creeped up on me but I didn't do anything about it. In 2000 it got worse and because of work stress I had my first panic attack and the beginning of my GAD. The first few years were bad but I eventually began to get relief and did well until 2012 when a lot of stress really set me back. At the time I was on a low dose of Cipralex and was doing great. Again the depression creeped in and I had another panic attack and pretty soon my GAD returned. This time it's been far worse than the first time or at least I think so. I switched to Effexor and Remeron which helped my depression but didn't do much for anxiety. Do the last 5 years I've been struggling. Last year I tried 3 different ADs and settled on Cipralex for the last 8 months. This worked for my depression but not the anxiety. I think the clonazapam and Lorazapam is what made my anxiety worse so I decided to cut back on the benzos and also switch to Zoloft. The switch to Zoloft so far is not helping as my depression got worse. So it's good to hear that I need to give it more time. I hope the Zoloft will relieve my depression so I can be a little happier and reduce my anxiety enough to get off the rest of the Diazapam.

 

That's my plan but I know it will be rough.

[[Ki...]]

Any V people ever given blood/plasma/platelets on a taper? I never even thought since valium circulates for so long some of it might get sucked out! I should have asked before donating- is there a chance my " good deed" might kick me squarely in the ass?

[[Al...]]

Any V people ever given blood/plasma/platelets on a taper? I never even thought since valium circulates for so long some of it might get sucked out! I should have asked before donating- is there a chance my " good deed" might kick me squarely in the ass?

 

Kittybeanbag,

 

Geez, I always just figured that since we were on the medication we would not be accepted to donate blood. Good question!

 

 

ATU 🙏

[[Ki...]]

Benzos are not on the list of forbidden drugs for donating... I hope I didnt just give myself a cut. Especially since Im a microtaper,I wont know what to do! I read " valium is highly bound to plasma proteins" and that sounds bad

[[Ca...]]

Sorry, not sure... -but good catch... -atleast you will know why if u take a dip in the following hours...

Though % wise of whole body storage, i would GUESS that its not a huge cut... -and will replenish with future doses, as im sure u r aware...

 

Interested...

 

Am glad im past having transfusions!!

 

Hope all goes well for you...

[[bl...]]

It's fine to donate if you are able. Can be cleaned out.

Blue

[[Ki...]]

Thank you Blue- I saw it was not on the list of forbidden drugs but I was not thinking of how it might affect me until I got home... how much of what they took might have been my meds...

Edit since no one posted since that^^^^ it definitely DOES remove it and it hit me fast. I started hearing things again and having orientation problems, something I have not had in a long time- and thats just 16 hours later....

[[Ho...]]

Thank you Blue- I saw it was not on the list of forbidden drugs but I was not thinking of how it might affect me until I got home... how much of what they took might have been my meds...

Edit since no one posted since that^^^^ it definitely DOES remove it and it hit me fast. I started hearing things again and having orientation problems, something I have not had in a long time- and thats just 16 hours later....

 

Well darn I was hoping it wouldn't effect you too much  hopefully you can just hold and ride it out.

[[Ki...]]

Yeah this sucks. My Mom had leukemia and I went in intending to just donate platelets because of a desire to help in that way...but they took plasma too. I should have paid more attention.  Im gonna take some extra grapefruit stuff maybe that will build my metabolites back up before I get hit hard. Or maybe it will get better. Sure hope they can just take platelets which is what I asked them to do when I walked in😖