Valium/Diazepam Support Group

[[ho...]]

Two of valiums metabolites half lives are very short.  Diazepam is metabolized to nordiazepam, oxazepam, and temazepam.

 

oxazepam

half-life 5-15h (short-acting)

temazepam

half-life 10-20h (medium-acting

Nordazepam

half-life‎: ‎36-200 hours

[[Aj...]]

Valium has a long half-life, about 8 days.  But you still can feel it in 6 or 7 hours after taking a dose.  When I take only .5 mg., I can feel it in 2 and one-half hours.

 

Hi,

 

Do you mean you can feel it wearing off in 2 and a half hours?

 

It reaches peak concentrations in  the blood just 1-1.5 hours after taking it - so if that is the peak the concentration starts to fall after that.

 

Within 3-4 hours I feel just as I did when I hadn't taken any for 2 months - the dystonia gets worse etc.

 

Maybe I need to up the dose to a level where I can get stable.

 

I was on it for 20 years. I wish I hadn't tried to stop now. I thought getting off all the meds would be a good thing.

 

 

[[de...]]

Valium has a long half-life, about 8 days.  But you still can feel it in 6 or 7 hours after taking a dose.  When I take only .5 mg., I can feel it in 2 and one-half hours.

 

Hi,

 

Do you mean you can feel it wearing off in 2 and a half hours?

 

It reaches peak concentrations in  the blood just 1-1.5 hours after taking it - so if that is the peak the concentration starts to fall after that.

 

Within 3-4 hours I feel just as I did when I hadn't taken any for 2 months - the dystonia gets worse etc.

 

Maybe I need to up the dose to a level where I can get stable.

 

I was on it for 20 years. I wish I hadn't tried to stop now. I thought getting off all the meds would be a good thing.

 

 

Ajusta, you're right, getting off the meds will be a good thing, don't give up, you'll figure out how to do this so that you're not suffering so much, you'll get there. 

 

About the Valium wearing off, supposedly such a long half-life and all that, but I think it can work differently for everyone, so some people can dose twice, or even once, daily but others will need to dose more frequently to stave off interdose withdrawal, even with the supposedly long-acting Valium.  Your Sig doesn't say what dose you're on right now, but if you've been suffering so much, I'd agree that you might want to updose to where your CNS can stabilize, to get some relief. 

[[Aj...]]

Thank you!

 

I will update signature.

[[Ju...]]

Yes, I do mean that in taking my .5 mg. dose of Valium, I start feeling that particular sense of misery in 2 and one-half hours.  Today I am taking the .5 mg. later in the day, seeing if that would make a difference.  The 1 mg. does last 6 or 7 hours, in that I don't feel miserable early in the day.

 

There is a very good thread called "long holds" that I am benefiting from reading.  "Valley Um" posted a lengthy recapitulation of what has been said just recently; you can find it on the last page of the thread.

 

Holding may be a way to reduce the possibility of protracted withdrawal at the end.  That is motivation enough for me. 

 

Best wishes to all of you.

[[Aj...]]

Thanks!

 

I'll check thev thread

 

I just want to be able to feel my body and the world properly again and for the horrendous spasming bouncy muscles to calm down so the dystonia suff stops a bit.

 

I hope staying in 1mg 3x/day for a few weeks might make that happen. If it doesn't I have no idea what I'll do.

 

[[Su...]]

Hi guys,

There is a lot of talk of hal-life on these forums, which is a necessary thing to consider when tapering, but there is also the duration of action to a med which is the time that we can feel it's full effects and they begin to wear off.  That needs to be considered in the dosing timing -- or at least it sure does for me!

I started to adjust dosing things differently with this information....

Found it helpful.....

SS

[[fr...]]

  Suffering, Do  you know the duration of action of valium.  Would love to know this.  Thanks and glad you are doing better. 

[[Su...]]

  Suffering, Do  you know the duration of action of valium.  Would love to know this.  Thanks and glad you are doing better. 

Hi Free, the stated duration of action is usually betweey4-6 hours. I find it to be more like 3 hours and I am being tested to see if I’m a fast metabolizer. Hope this helps! There was a post above the spoke about the different metabolites of Valium and what their half lives are....

😊❤️

SS

[[Aj...]]

Before I tried to withdraw I used to take it twice a day and it was fine. But I may have had symptoms without realizing because I attributed them to other illnesses.

 

[[fr...]]

  Thanks SS for the explanation.  I dose twice a day and wonder if I should make it three times and see if I do better. 

[[Ol...]]

My Dr recommended 3 times a day and I did that until the doses got very small. I think it's a good idea!

[[fr...]]

  Thanks.  Just so scared to change anything, it always seems to backfire on me. 

[[Ol...]]

How do you currently take it? (time, amount)

[[fr...]]

  I take 6mg. at around 6:30 am and 6 mg. around 7:15 pm.  I tapered down from 20 mg. Switched over from Ativan and I"m sorry I did that, I didn't have so much trouble on the ativan.  Maybe I would have anyway, will never know now.  By the way, congrats on the jump.  Hope you are feeling ok. 

[[Ma...]]

My Dr recommended 3 times a day and I did that until the doses got very small. I think it's a good idea!

 

That's what I'm doing to

[[Ol...]]

Hi freeme,

If I were you I would take 4 at 6:30am, 4 around 12 or 1pm, and 4 at 7pm. Or something like that! Once I started dosing 3 times a day it greatly diminished my interdose withdrawals, and I was getting them pretty bad, especially btwn 8 and 3mgs.

Thank you for your well wishes! I am super excited that I was able to jump. I'm feeling ok, not 100% but much better than during my taper. I started to feel much better once I hit about 3mgs and below.

[[Su...]]

  Thanks SS for the explanation.  I dose twice a day and wonder if I should make it three times and see if I do better.

Yes I find I need to dose 4x a day to stay out of w/d sis.

I found that worked for me after lots of trial and error. AND wondering why it wore off so quickly for me...

Still need more info on that front.

Switching the timing of doses can be tricky — but I’ve never had. Negative reaction to less time between doses....

Wishing you the best!

SS

[[fr...]]

Thanks all.  I am going to try the 3 times a day.  Will let you know how it goes.  Thanks for all your help.

[[Aj...]]

It's interesting that people have such a long gap over night.

 

I take some when I get up some at 4pm and some at bed time.

[[Ma...]]

It's interesting that people have such a long gap over night.

 

I take some when I get up some at 4pm and some at bed time.

 

I take mine at 7-2-10(within 30 minutes give or take)

[[Aj...]]

About the same then I just get up and go to bed a couple of hours later.

[[Su...]]

It's interesting that people have such a long gap over night.

 

I take some when I get up some at 4pm and some at bed time.

Yes I've always found that to be pretty fascinating.  I take the Xanax 1X a day at 10:00pm and it holds me until 10:00 am the next morning...

I haven't really tried messing with the timing of the daytime doses for awhile as small changes brought big unwanted effects. 

I found something that works so I'm sticking with it!

Do you mean you take some at 4:00am? or after an afternoon nap at 4:00pm?

SS

 

[[Aj...]]

At about 10am, 4pm and 10pm

[[Su...]]

That s great that you can go 6 and 12 hours between doses....

It's funny.

I still need to dose every three hours during the day but think that a long hold of the Xanax taper will help with that -- A lot!

Now to taper 1mg of Valium so I'm not so dizzy and nauseous..... never did learn to leave well enough alone!

SS