Valium/Diazepam Support Group

[[ka...]]

Morning POOKY - go read NOVA's reply on the updose board. I think you will glean some additional insight as well! 

[Guest [Fu...]]

Sorry to be annoying and post yet again but I have no idea what to do. I have another question about crossing over from Klonopin to Valium. I'm having a hard time swapping 10 mg's of V for .5 mg's K for my evening dose and many on here are saying I should slow down and instead try .25 mg's K and 5 mg's V or even cut .125 off of K and add 2.5 mg's V. Last night I tried 2.5 K and 5 V and today I feel absolutely horrendous.

 

The only thing is that since I had a failed substitution at the end of last year I've taken 10 mg's of Valium roughly 30 days and I feel like I'd be cutting both Valium and Klonopin. Anyways I'm just wondering how you made your crossover and if it was more gradual or if you did something like 10 mg's V for .5 K. I wish I knew all of this before starting a cross, I didn't think it would be this difficult as I thought the V would "cover" the lost K.

[[HO...]]

Has anyone ever felt sicker and more anxious after taking their valium?

[[Ki...]]

I am still getting bad periods almost 2 momths after my mistake. Brains simply do not heal in a linear fashion. They heal in weird ways sometime. Any shakeup- a mistake in dose, a too large cut, sometimes even nothing in particular that you can recognize can cause your CNS to get shaken up. Once its shaken up, you can do things to try and help make it less bad, but you might still have a rough time. Its not like getting over a cold, or healing a cut- the brain just does not heal in the sane way. It does too many things to just " get fixed" after a shakeup. The chemicals can be back in the right amount but you can still suffer symptoms. I felt like I was better the past few days from my screw up then last night WHAM all over again- sleep paralysis, headaches, horrid sweats, terrors... and I thought I was back to my plain old taper problems. And maybe I am- maybe this is just where I am right now. But Lord I hope not. And I hope all of you find your place to be- but sometimes things just do not get straight for quite a while no matter what you do. It WILL get better- but benzo WD is not usually an easy thing to go through. If you have updosed and are staying stable for a while and things dont get better then it is definitely possible you might not be at a high enough dose but even then sometimes waiting it out and letting your brain catch up is good for some people- as good as updosing again for many. Healing thoughts going out to all of you🙏

[[ka...]]

Nicely stated Kitty!!

[[ka...]]

Has anyone ever felt sicker and more anxious after taking their valium?

Absolutley, many have the same reaction. 

[[Va...]]

Has anyone ever felt sicker and more anxious after taking their valium?

I only had this when I had cut too fast. I believe it is a withdrawal symptom.  --V

[[Be...]]

Has anyone ever felt sicker and more anxious after taking their valium?

 

Yep, it seemed like everytime I took it, it made me worse.

[[...]]

When I cut, I've always felt sxs 6 days later ( or if I'm lucky, not much sxs at all).  This time I didn't feel it until 10 days later.  I was actually thinking to cut again and then i got sx's so I'm not cutting again yet. It just seems weird bc it is a different pattern. Anyone else experience this?

 

Another question- now that it's summer, where do you keep your pills so they don't get too hot?

 

Thanks!

[[Ki...]]

Cut by symptoms. When symptoms are tolerable or you feel somewhat stable, thats when to cut/taper. When unstable, hold. Thats a symptom based taper.. it really does make sense to listen to your body rather than a timetable.

[[ka...]]

SX is just the term for symptoms... Meaning to cut by how one feels, rather than a time table...

 

Cutting faster may get him off quicker... -but jumping and being healed are two different things. Extra time spent tapering (and in more comfort) can make post jump much more friendly..

 

But in the end we all choose our own path, and that becomes our story...

 

WELL SAID CAN'T !!!

[Guest [Fu...]]

After having a very difficult time with a valium crossover where I tried to swap one dose of .5 K for 10 mg's of V and dealing with a prescriber who did not understand that I needed to taper slowly, today I went back to my regular daily dosage on 2.5 mg's of Klonopin. I just am wondering in addition to the failed crossover late last year I had a failed Valium substitution as well. So overall I've taken 10mg's of Valium for a total of probably 30 days.

 

I had always thought that it was dose dependent meaning that as long as everything added up to the equivalent of 2.5 mg's of Klonopin that I could just switch back over. But now knowing how different benzos impact different places on the receptors I'm wirried that I'm essentially cutting ten mg's of Valium at one time. Maybe I'm over thinking this and that's not a concern but if that's the case then I don't know what to do. Do I need to taper off the benzo even though it was used in substitution of a dose of Klonopin and not an updose? Sorry if I'm posting too much I just feel so sick and really am unsure of what to do.

[[Ki...]]

The thing that makes crossing over hard is there is no real equivalency. There are different charts because different people say x mg of drug a equals x of drug b and its different with everybody. All you can do is try to be reasonable with your dosage- to me Ashtons is pretty fair in equivalency but not in schedule ( waaay too fast for most people). Hopefully swapping over to a faster acting drug will be to your benefit. Going the other way seems like its usually harder because of valiums lag time. K doesnt have that so fingers crossed this time it will work out for you. Good luck!

[[Ki...]]

If I remember right, usually when people hit tolerance they updose about 10% of their usual dose and hold for a while till they feel stable thrn start a slow taper. If they do well they go faster. But with all the bumps you have had, it sounds like you need to get stable before starting any kind of taper- at least thats what I would do. And what I DID do!

[Guest [Fu...]]

Cutting .5 for 10 mg's of Valium ended up being way too much for me. I had no idea the cross had to be done so slowly for many people. I don't get how people can essentially cut .5 mg's of Klonopin and then wait up to two weeks for the Valium to kick in. That's such an enormous cut. I haven't been stable in a very long time but at this point I don't know what else to do besides a very slow taper off of Klonopin since my doctor won't work with me on a slow crossover to the Ashton equivalency. He wanted me to just do a straight up .5 for 5 substitution and start dry cutting one of my other doses of Klonopin after just two weeks before I had even adjusted at all to the cross. I just hope going back to Klonopin isn't terrible because I feel MISERABLE today. My CNS is just crying out for me to stop all of these changes, I'm sure.

[[Ki...]]

No doubt. Our brains crave stability and when they dont have it they let us know it. Hopefully the K will help soon. Yes usually valium crosses are done very slowly not only because of the lag time but to allow someone to adjust to the sedation. Hopefully the switching up wont take too long to stabilize- it really is hard when you make a lot of changes.

[Guest [Fu...]]

I could handle the sedation, I wasn't really prepared for the insane brain fog, constant headaches, crazy dizziness, the full body muscle aches and intrusive/looping thoughts. I don't know if that was the K leaving before the V built up but it was not pleasant.

[[...]]

If I remember right, usually when people hit tolerance they updose about 10% of their usual dose and hold for a while till they feel stable thrn start a slow taper. If they do well they go faster. But with all the bumps you have had, it sounds like you need to get stable before starting any kind of taper- at least thats what I would do. And what I DID do!

 

Once one stabilizes, how long to hold before starting to taper again?

[[Ki...]]

Usually not until you feel somewhat stable. Most people find a point where they can tell they feel like its time but clearly not everyone. A lot of people start tapering right away and for some its fine. Sadly there is no way to know without trying. Most say if you had a rough crossover you would wait longer. I think most people wait around a month. But again its such an individual thing- there is no way for someone else to know...

[[Pa...]]

I crossed over from lorazapam to diazepam back in February. I then tapered down quickly to 1.5mg. I wasn't doing too well and decided to up the dose to 6mg so I could stabilize, however I have never gotten any anxiety relief from the diazepam. I tried 10mg one time and it did nothing for my anxiety. Last week I decided to restart my taper. I went down to 5mg and will do this for 2 weeks. I will go down by 1mg every two weeks. until I get to 2mg and then go to 1.5 and 1 and .5.

 

My doctor doesn't think the Valium is doing anything for me so I should be able to get off of it. Since I never felt any anxiety relief I agree with him. Since crossing over from lorazapam my morning anxiety is much better. I don't go into full panic attacks like I used to. I would hope the lorazapam is completely out of my system and just dealing with anxiety. I'm currently on 175mg Zoloft and 100mg Trazadone. The trazadone has helped me to sleep. I'm not too sure about the Zoloft since it's been 2 weeks now and people say it could take 4 to 6 weeks.

 

I still have anxiety but not as bad and I'm a little worried about tapering the Valium. It could be helping me and I don't know it.

 

One thing that I always question, if someone hits tolerance and then starts to taper, they will get a lot of symptoms. As you taper lower and hold there will be more discomfort. Isn't better to just jump and take your lumps all at once?

 

What do you think?

[[ve...]]

Hello can any one help. What is the best generic Valium. I have just started a lorazapam to valium crossover tonight. The orange Mylan 5mg crumbled when i cut it. I have to cut the 5mg for the next 30 days. Is Ivax diazepam better? Or is another brand generic better? anyth thoughts would be helpful. wish me luck on the crossover. 

[[Ca...]]

Hello can any one help. What is the best generic Valium. I have just started a lorazapam to valium crossover tonight. The orange Mylan 5mg crumbled when i cut it. I have to cut the 5mg for the next 30 days. Is Ivax diazepam better? Or is another brand generic better? anyth thoughts would be helpful. wish me luck on the crossover.

Asides crumbling etc, -I would go for the biggest fablet in physical size...

In Australia some of our 2mg V tablets are tiny...

I use Antenex...

 

Good luck with the C/O

[[Ca...]]

I crossed over from lorazapam to diazepam back in February. I then tapered down quickly to 1.5mg. I wasn't doing too well and decided to up the dose to 6mg so I could stabilize, however I have never gotten any anxiety relief from the diazepam. I tried 10mg one time and it did nothing for my anxiety. Last week I decided to restart my taper. I went down to 5mg and will do this for 2 weeks. I will go down by 1mg every two weeks. until I get to 2mg and then go to 1.5 and 1 and .5.

 

My doctor doesn't think the Valium is doing anything for me so I should be able to get off of it. Since I never felt any anxiety relief I agree with him. Since crossing over from lorazapam my morning anxiety is much better. I don't go into full panic attacks like I used to. I would hope the lorazapam is completely out of my system and just dealing with anxiety. I'm currently on 175mg Zoloft and 100mg Trazadone. The trazadone has helped me to sleep. I'm not too sure about the Zoloft since it's been 2 weeks now and people say it could take 4 to 6 weeks.

 

I still have anxiety but not as bad and I'm a little worried about tapering the Valium. It could be helping me and I don't know it.

 

One thing that I always question, if someone hits tolerance and then starts to taper, they will get a lot of symptoms. As you taper lower and hold there will be more discomfort. Isn't better to just jump and take your lumps all at once?

 

What do you think?

My thoughts are, That if one reduces slowly the body gets better at handeling the lower dose, It wont all be roses, and the slow that seems to work it exactly that... -some decent holds may dven be needed at times...

Sounds very contradictory to the "tolerance" theory, I know...

But we all know where pushing through bad SX can end up...

 

Each go their own though... I have only had this problem with another med...

 

[[Ho...]]

I'm putting this out here for the U.S. peeps who want to help with Benzo Advocacy. Please PM me with any questions!

 

Hello beloved benzo friends! As you know, World Benzo Awareness Day is fast approaching (7/11) and I have taken on a position as a director at the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition. BIC and W-BAD are collaborating on an initiative to get patients to fill out FDA Medwatch reports regarding how they were harmed by benzos or Z drugs. The form is an easy online submission and can be accessed here:

 

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/index.cfm?action=reporting.home

 

For more background on the initiative and detailed instructions on filling out the form:

 

https://www.benzoinfo.com/fda-report

 

Once you have completed the form you will receive an email confirmation from Medwatch. Please forward the email to fda@benzoinfo.com by 7/11 and you will be entered into a prize drawing for an Amazon gift card valued up to 100$. Your email address and info are confidential and will only be used for purpose of counting submissions and the prize drawing. Thanks in advance for your help!

[[Ki...]]

Hello can any one help. What is the best generic Valium. I have just started a lorazapam to valium crossover tonight. The orange Mylan 5mg crumbled when i cut it. I have to cut the 5mg for the next 30 days. Is Ivax diazepam better? Or is another brand generic better? anyth thoughts would be helpful. wish me luck on the crossover.

 

I just went through this myself and it is a serious issue! I now have 2 full bottles of crumbly weak mylan I hope I will never need. What I have read is Watson, Teva/Ivax are really good and a few others I cant remember right off. I have heard a lot of bad stuff about mylan as far as effectiveness. I used teva then did not notice (I am hoarding due to my doc going military) and by the time I noticed I had been switched to mylan it was too late for 2 bottles. So I will have 4 bottles of IVAX to get me thru my taper. Ivax is made by TEVA so hopefully it will work, although the pills are a different weight so thats another blip. But if all I read is right, Mylan is just not as good.