Cross-Over to Valium Support Thread

[[la...]]

Hi Kgirl, time to update your signature 

 

I too took a little less of the V at 2:00, hoping I won't be hit by zombie land in a little while. I will just add it to my evening dose when I don't care because I am sleeping.

 

I too woke with a lot of anxiety this morning, But my gut was on the verge to let loose and that may have been part of it.

 

Its rainy here and about 40 degrees. I hate the weather where I live. But no use in complaining since I have grandbabies here I am going no where.

 

today is my last day of C/O   tomorrow it will be all Valium and the rest of the kpin I would like to burn, but since that can't happen, I might crush the rest and drive with the window open and spread the "ashes of death" onto the highway.

 

Kgirl I am keeping track with you because we sound so similar with this process.

I am hoping we will someday write in the Success Story forum

[Guest [in...]]

Lainey, congrats on getting this far . I want a full report on how ur feeling after a couple of days on ur full c/o to valium Or maybe let me know the next day after u take one full day valium. Im curious to see if u feel a lot better on just valium

[Guest [in...]]

This is an amazing Success Story and pertinent to this thread.  Just posted by Flip:

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=104132.0

 

Thanks so much for posting this link! I am so inspired by this story

[Guest [in...]]

IF you cross over to an equivalent dosage, which would be 11.25 mg Valium - It's is possible to do a very rapid crossover (3 days or so) , or even a direct crossover.

 

It probably won't be the most comfortable thing in the world, but an equivalent dose of valium would fill the void the ativan was lacking - so it's unlikely that you'd be in severe withdrawal. . .  probably mildly uncomfortable for a few days til your body rid itself of the ativan and the valium built up a little more.

 

It isn't ideal to go from 1.125mg Ativan to 10mg Valium no matter how long you plan your crossover to take.

I agree with Fro. 11.25 it is to avoid a disaster.

 

I think Reggie is a smart guy but if he were the King of the castle nobody would need to come on BB's

 

Take the darn equivalent doses as per Ashton people!

etown

 

Agree!!

 

Momofone, Love ur avatar and Towncar out of benzo country

[[ro...]]

Lainyek, if I take 5 mgs  in am and 5mgs in pm also, what would be a nice easy cut every 8 to 10 days. Doctor wants a fast taper at 1mg a week...I notice you have the same dose.  Greatly appreciate feedback. 8 or 10 % of 10mgs? Rose

[[ro...]]

The problem for me today, as I am very nervous about the switch to valium, is the 2mg. valium pills.  I know ativan is 10 x stronger. However, I'm so use to the white, 1mg pill, which is the same identical look of my new 2mg. valium pills. Now I have to take 5 of the valium pills per day. They look the same, so my MIND is saying, you have so many more pills to take. I have been taking only 1 ativan and a .125 sliver. All this seems like I'm  taking more. Does anyone see what I mean? It really makes me anxious, even though the valium is weaker, it seems I'm increasing. What am I going to do? Does this feeling pass? He won't give me 5mg pills now. This is what he settled on. Anyone else have this in their mind at first? Please let me know.....   Rose

[[et...]]

Rose if you cut 1mg every 10 days the last thing you will be worried about is the colour, size, or mg of your pills. This is a very fast taper. I am sensing that you want to listen to your Doctor about this speed of taper. I read some of the posts and many different people are telling you not to do this. Now I'm gently asking you not to do this. I drop 1mg every 2 months and I am living my life and relatively active. I doubt your brain will like the speed your Doctor is suggesting. You are at a wonderful spot for us to help you right now. If your taper too fast it becomes more and more difficult for us to help as you will be in a place where understanding will be hard. I doubt very much your Doctor will be around to hold your hand if this happens. You have some people here who are crossing over successfully right now so open up and listen to them. A mistake now may unleash disaster for you. It is much harder to fix than it is to prevent problems.

etown

[[ro...]]

etown, I know. I do not intend to do as he advised. Way too fast, I posted for help, asking for taper advice with 10 mgs. V per day. I have 2mg. V pills.......So Im waiting to know how much to cut each 2-3 weeks. And how to with 2mg. pills. I totally need BB help. I am so grateful for all of you now, my doctor is very little help after 15 years . Will be here with both eyes open. Thankyou for relpy   rose

[[la...]]

Lainyek, if I take 5 mgs  in am and 5mgs in pm also, what would be a nice easy cut every 8 to 10 days. Doctor wants a fast taper at 1mg a week...I notice you have the same dose.  Greatly appreciate feedback. 8 or 10 % of 10mgs? Rose

 

well I am on 15mgs valium as of tomorrow. that's the equivalent of .75mg klonopin (which I was on)

 

so I am dosing 3 xs a day 5mg each dose.

I c/o Dr Pearts method with a bit of tweeking. could not imagine the long drawn out c/o with Ashton. So far its been fine

 

now as far as tapering is concerned, whole different ballgame sister. I 1st intend to stabilize on the valium for at LEAST 4 weeks

 

then my intentions are to taper .5mg every 2-4 weeks or longer if need be. Now If I find that I am doing really great on tapering with .5mg I will certainly give 1mg a shot. but the lower you get on your dose the lower the cut needs to be.

 

hope that helps, we will stay close and give each other support

[[et...]]

Lainyek, if I take 5 mgs  in am and 5mgs in pm also, what would be a nice easy cut every 8 to 10 days. Doctor wants a fast taper at 1mg a week...I notice you have the same dose.  Greatly appreciate feedback. 8 or 10 % of 10mgs? Rose

 

well I am on 15mgs valium as of tomorrow. that's the equivalent of .75mg klonopin (which I was on)

 

so I am dosing 3 xs a day 5mg each dose.

I c/o Dr Pearts method with a bit of tweeking. could not imagine the long drawn out c/o with Ashton. So far its been fine

 

now as far as tapering is concerned, whole different ballgame sister. I 1st intend to stabilize on the valium for at LEAST 4 weeks

 

then my intentions are to taper .5mg every 2-4 weeks or longer if need be. Now If I find that I am doing really great on tapering with .5mg I will certainly give 1mg a shot. but the lower you get on your dose the lower the cut needs to be.

 

hope that helps, we will stay close and give each other support

Hey Laine that's the stuff

You've done well

You will feel pretty good after 4 weeks of holding so have fun and remember what it's like to be up to your butt in alligators. Take your time. No awards for speed and snakebites for too much speed.

etown

[[la...]]

thank you SO much Etown  

I have learned from the best and I want to pay it forward as I go along.

 

Rosegal; Honey, I hear ya. I understand your concern with the # of pills etc.

 

If my Dr will not give me a mix of both 5mg and 2mg pills when I am ready to taper....well then guess what? She will be prescribing something like 240 pills a  month of 2mg

 

One reason I c/o is because I want to do the least amount of cutting and weighing as possible

 

listen to all the sage advice on this board. It is because of these people that I am kpin free as of tomorrow

 

And I will say this again. I plan on crushing the rest of all my kpins, getting in my car, opening my sunroof, and letting the "POWDER OF DEATH" fly out onto the highway....farewell kpin forever

[[Kg...]]

I am with you -  I have one more week on my 6 PM klonopin dose then done with it forever - I will wait to adjust and then I doing Lainey's taper plan .5 every couple of weeks and hope to survive this - at this rate it will take me a year but I don't care - if I can go faster great if I can't, I can't.  I intend to split my 2 mg pill into 4 pieces to get to the .5 mg for some reason I don't do well on the liquid tried that with Klonopin and it didn't work for me so I will stick to the pills for now.  I do have a scale but it is hard to weigh them - just remember everyone says slower is better we need to get our GABA back and I have been on this stuff for  years so what is one more year - as long as I can function which I pray I can do with this cross over.

[[Kg...]]

I have a question when you look at Ashton she says you start going down pretty much after you cross over to all Valium - I am afraid that if I wait a month I will then have a harder time withdrawing since I tend to get into tolerance very quickly and probably that is why I still have my anxiety - so do you follow Ashton (with way smaller cuts for me) to avoid this - I have a feeling a 30 day wait to cut will send me over the edge again into tolerance so I will be on the drug with symptoms.  I have done a pretty long cross over so the Valium is in my system - that is why I keep a progress log so I can remember this stuff.  I did not do the fast cross over that many here did - mine was much slower - it has been over a month already for me since I started the c/o - so when do start the taper - when Ashton says?

[[et...]]

You taper when Kgirl says to taper based on how you feel for some sustained time. 2-4 weeks is a good smart hold after the c/o and it is pretty rare to hit tolerance after a month.

etown

[[ro...]]

mom of one, sorry I was so mixed up yesterday, the process and physical symptoms are overwhelming to me right now. Ks and benzogirl heped so much. I have a good plan in place. Appreciate all you do. rose

[[ro...]]

lainyek, hi thanks for visiting. I am confused again. I have 2mg.pills. Valium. I have not c/o yet. I was going to do v in the morning and A in the eve. for week. Then c/o. If my first cut is.5, 1/4th of a 2mg pill, will I be doing this every 2 weeks? Just cutting out 1/4 th of a pill every 2 weeks. Is it that simple? My total starting dose with V is 10mgs. Any thooughts? I really need a plan. Im so confused, on of my major symptoms. Thank you  Rose

[[la...]]

someone else may be able to do the math here because I know nothing about Ativan, but what you do to c/o is 1/2 of the Ativan dose with 1/2 of the valium dose for one of the times. then depending which method you are choosing to go with (Ashton or Peart) then that dose after a time will become solely Valium.

 

then you do the same with your second dose.

 

hope that is clear

 

you can always look back at my earlier posts where I put it all down how I was c/o

[Guest [in...]]

lainyek, hi thanks for visiting. I am confused again. I have 2mg.pills. Valium. I have not c/o yet. I was going to do v in the morning and A in the eve. for week. Then c/o. If my first cut is.5, 1/4th of a 2mg pill, will I be doing this every 2 weeks? Just cutting out 1/4 th of a pill every 2 weeks. Is it that simple? My total starting dose with V is 10mgs. Any thooughts? I really need a plan. Im so confused, on of my major symptoms. Thank you  Rose

 

http://www.drregpeart.org/Dr%20Peart%20Sample%20Schedules%20with%20Notes%2022Sep06.pdf

 

Does this help any Rose?

[Guest [in...]]

I have a question when you look at Ashton she says you start going down pretty much after you cross over to all Valium - I am afraid that if I wait a month I will then have a harder time withdrawing since I tend to get into tolerance very quickly and probably that is why I still have my anxiety - so do you follow Ashton (with way smaller cuts for me) to avoid this - I have a feeling a 30 day wait to cut will send me over the edge again into tolerance so I will be on the drug with symptoms.  I have done a pretty long cross over so the Valium is in my system - that is why I keep a progress log so I can remember this stuff.  I did not do the fast cross over that many here did - mine was much slower - it has been over a month already for me since I started the c/o - so when do start the taper - when Ashton says?

 

I had the very same concerns about stabilizing for 30 days on 20mg valium. Was concerned that my body would get too used to it and make taper harder. But I decided by gut feeling to go with dr peart and stabilize a full 30 days on 10mg b4 taper.

[Guest [in...]]

Sorry, typo on first mg valium post, I stabilized at 10 not 20mg valium

[[Kg...]]

Not a good day today I am having anxiety still and it is almost 3 PM - stomach is ok in the scheme of things.  I don't want to updose the valium.  I did the equivalent cross over so now I am on 7.5 mg of Valium at 7 AM, 2.5 mg at 1 PM still on Klonopin .125 at 6 PM and a whopping 15.5 mg of Valium at night. If I don't take the larger dose at night I end up completely non functional in the AM.  Why am I having symptoms - 1st over sedated now I seem to be having some withdrawal even doing my cross over. I am tempted to just do Dr. Peart's method in a couple of days and just get off of the klonopin totally suffer through hold till stable (if ever) and then taper.  I know I am not alone in having symptoms - they are bearable I just was hoping I wouldn't have anything.  So what do you do - I have been doing meditation I would take a walk outside but raining again and treadmill doesn't help for some reason. 

 

Lainey you and I seem to be having the same pattern here I wonder if our 'young' age has anything to do with it?

[[Br...]]

Not a good day today I am having anxiety still and it is almost 3 PM - stomach is ok in the scheme of things.  I don't want to updose the valium.  I did the equivalent cross over so now I am on 7.5 mg of Valium at 7 AM, 2.5 mg at 1 PM still on Klonopin .125 at 6 PM and a whopping 15.5 mg of Valium at night. If I don't take the larger dose at night I end up completely non functional in the AM.  Why am I having symptoms - 1st over sedated now I seem to be having some withdrawal even doing my cross over. I am tempted to just do Dr. Peart's method in a couple of days and just get off of the klonopin totally suffer through hold till stable (if ever) and then taper.  I know I am not alone in having symptoms - they are bearable I just was hoping I wouldn't have anything. 

 

Hello Kgirl.  Not all benzos are alike.  When you cross over you are essentially tapering off one benzo and starting another.  It is possible this may account for some of the symptoms you are getting. 

 

Another cause of symptoms is that you may be experiencing adverse ("toxic") side effects from a benzo and these may (or may not) keep re-surfacing during your taper until you reduce the dose to something small.

 

Valium takes some time to build up to it's full strength.  It is something like a week or two.  So if you cross over very quickly (for example using the faster Roche schedule quoted by Reg Pearce taking only a few days) then the Valium will continue to build up even after you have fully crossed over.  This means that in order not to experience withdrawal you would have to aim for a higher dose of Valium than if you had crossed over slowly;  that will mean a correspondingly longer taper off the higher dose Valium.

 

An unhurried cross over (and subsequent period of stabilization) will help create a good starting point for a taper.

 

 

 

[[ro...]]

ingrid, got your reply. Thank you. Rose

[[la...]]

 

 

 

 

 

Valium takes some time to build up to it's full strength.  It is something like a week or two.  So if you cross over very quickly (for example using the faster Roche schedule quoted by Reg Pearce taking only a few days) then the Valium will continue to build up even after you have fully crossed over.  This means that in order not to experience withdrawal you would have to aim for a higher dose of Valium than if you had crossed over slowly;  that will mean a correspondingly longer taper off the higher dose Valium.

 

An unhurried cross over (and subsequent period of stabilization) will help create a good starting point for a taper.

 

I and many others would have to disagree with this statement. The longer I stayed on klonopin the sicker I became. I c/o to V in 16 days and have actually been better then I expected. everyone handles this differently and has to listen to their own bodies.

 

[[la...]]

Kgirl. When I was still taking more K I was having more anxiety. the less K I took the less anxiety I have had.

 

That's not to say that I don't have "issues" but the anxiety is not what it was . My gut is always a problem but that was there before benzos.

 

Now today I tried something different. Had to host granddaughters 1st birthday and did not want to be the walking dead. So for my 2:00 dose, instead of taking the 5mg. I took 3.75. will add that 1.25mg to my 5mg dose at bedtime.

 

I will say that I was so  much better. was able to eat and entertain without feeling like I wanted to pass out.

 

I agree that age does have something to do with all of this. Menopause has left me raw in so many ways.

 

I can only speak for myself when I say that I am glad I went with Pearts c/o.

 

Tapering will be a very slow as a snail process though. I need to have function back in my life