Valium taper

I finally determined I was as "stable" as I was going to get after a 4 month hold awaiting the birth of our 2nd child in late February after a ill-advised, and traumatic, failed rapid taper and re-instatement last Fall.  I have been through a couple other ill-advised CT's in 2022 that just made me feel crappy at the time.  I think the main accomplishment of the long hold was for my mindset and acceptance of my situation.  I don't have sleepless nights anymore, however my sleep is not good.  Usually 2-3 decent hours of sleep after falling asleep within 30 minutes, then varying degrees of light dream, crappy, half awake sleep for another 2-3 hours.  I always slept well prior and this is my most debilitating symptom but am still working, present for family, etc.. even though it is obviously not fun and I feel poorly daily but am doing the best I know how and continue fighting.

 

With that said, I cut from 11mg to 10.5mg, held for 2 weeks, and have since cut again to 10mg.  I have felt no different through these reductions.  I want off valium as quickly, but safely, as I am able.  My gut says to continue to cut .5mg every 2 weeks until a cut causes me problems.  I understand every time I do this I am increasing my percentage of cut.  So my first cut was 4.5% and felt the same.  2nd cut was 4.8% and I'm on my 3rd day.  My next cut to 9.5mg will be a 5% reduction and hold for at least 14 days.  I basically want to see what my max percentage cut may be by continuing to reduce by .5mg every 14+ days.  I am just continuing to slowly increase my cut percentage, but I feel I started at a reasonable cut percentage and felt no different than previous dose thus far.  I unfotunately have had to start this taper symptomatic as I was ill-advised and didn't know better on how to discontinue these medications.

 

I basically am asking if this sounds reasonable to others based on my circumstances and not feeling any different from the 4.5% and 4.8% cuts.  Thank you all so much in advance.

Im kinda in the same boat.  Im at 5 mg Diazep@m and in another week I need to cut.  Im thinking 4.5 mg and continue to cut by .5 until I get to 3 mg but Im really undecided.  My sxs aren't that bad right now, insomnia, anxiety, cognitive fog and tinnitus.  (I am also using some gabapentin, melatonin and gummies.). Im able to be functional so we will see how it goes eh?  Best of luck to everyone.

 

Ciao,  Alycat

Im going for the ashton special....was on 10MG valium cutting 1MG every 10-14 days. Ill be halfway done to 5MG by next week. So far, i get issues anywhere between the 6th and 10th day of the cut....insomnia....depression...anxiety....blah blah blah but nothing too bad. Im going to try to keep going at 1MG each cut, yeah i get the percentage rate and all that. I just figure if ashton did it this way with hundreds of patients then i can do it too. I did it before 10 years ago this way and it worked, although i was coming down off a higher amount is why it took a year.  Its not the easiest route but i just cant string this out....Id rather suffer and rip band aid off this time if i can.

Spitfire, Im going to follow you and see how your plan and Sxs go.  Good luck to you.

 

Hi all

 

I`m at 3mg Val down from 10.  I`ve probably gone too fast and belatedly found that we`re advised to slow our tapers at 5mg or under.

I`ve held the 3mg for 16 days now but not feeling any relief, so do I just go for it and taper again or hold a bit longer?

 

I`m really interested how you guys are cutting? 

 

I`m thinking of going for  a 0.50 mg cut but is that more than the 10% we`re supposed to taper? ( from my 3mg) 

My maths is useless. 

 

Worst sx is muscle pain.  Getting other crap like dizziness, tight band around my head but they come and go- that damn muscle pain does NOT let up UGH

Nevercantell,

 

I just talked to my MD Psych and next Monday Im getting 4 mg V tabs and Im going to drop to 4.5 using one 4 mg and 1/4 of a 4mg. Ill see how that goes and thank goodness my Psych is letting me call the shots according to sxs. Fingers crossed for no worsening.  Tinnitus is screaming today but Im determined atm to blow it off.

 

Ciao

 

Aly

Alycat

 

Thanks for your reply, and good luck with your drop to 4.5mg.   

 

I`ve only got 2mg pills so tried cutting one into eights today to arrive at 2.75 mg, by using a 2mg pill and 0.75.

  Too much stress, too many crumbs and simply not worth it, especially as I`ll need to do this for at least 2 weeks, if not longer.

 

So I`m gonna stick with 3mg until I`ve done a month on them and then bite the bullet and cut to 2.5mg.  I`m still useless with the math but hopefully it`ll work out ok?

 

Hope that tinnitus gets less for you soon and it`s great news your Dr is letting you call the shots.     

 

I`m gonna be watching how your drops go, hope that`s ok? 

We can almost see the end in sight.     

 

NCT

 

Im going to cut from 4.5 mg V to 4.0 mg V on Wednesday.  I had a bad day Friday and tinnitus is ever present but otherwise Im able to do some gardening, dog walking and shopping. Feeling fortunate. I have no idea what Im going to do after 2 weeks of 4.0 V.  I did buy the recommended jewelers scale.  I suck at math so ....

 

 

Alycat

Hi there, I’m in the same boat as both of you. Currently very stable at 5mg V after a couple moderately rough days and looking for advice on how to taper. My psych is compassionate, but suggested a fast taper because I was on it for so little time. Hoping the Ashton manual approach works for me.

Fingers crossed.

im holding at 5 V for now, prob for the next 6 weeks as i bought a house and we have to move in a month.. plus alot of family emergencies and just general work madness i just cant take another cut like the last one. For some reason coming down from 6 to 5MG really hit me good with insomnia, anxiety ect. Threw me into a tail spin so im holding i cant afford right now any more madness. When the time comes, im going to go down to 4.5 then go down .5 increments until i am out. Its unfortunate, i had a schedule and was sticking to it until this....oh well not much i can do about it.

Im 5 days into my 4 mg (down from 4.5) and nothing has changed yet.  Sxs are the same, tinnitus, broken sleep and fatigue and a bit of cog fog. In another week I'll cut to 3.5 since I feel stable atm at this dose.  Talked with my Psych and she's good with doing a micro taper.  She's a resident but the attending always comes in and reviews our progress.  Neither had heard of a micro taper lol and this is a teaching hospital!!!  Im educating THEM.  I talked with my pharmacist who seems to be UP on this more than the MDs Ive seen.  Pharmacist says no problem ordering the liquid  and she will help me with the math - this will be through Harris Teeter Pharmacy so Im keeping that in mind (Pdoc is cool with this).  Im keeping up with you guys and how you're doing.  Im fortunate that I am retired so I can manage my stress more easily.  I expected to have a bad day today because of horrid traffic on my long drive to Psych and I was 15 minutes late but I slept ok last nite, only woke once.  And today my tinnitus is somewhat down.  Go figure .  Benzo WD is wicked.

 

Praying for all of us to go gently and peacefully into our WDs.

 

Alycat

Im 5 days into my 4 mg (down from 4.5) and nothing has changed yet.

I have read that the VALIUM stays in the body for up to 8 days. Perhaps that is when you might feel the change. Probably the reason for taking 2 weeks to stabilize at a dose.

 

Im educating THEM.

YES!  You would be surprised at the sheer number of licensed medical doctors who are completely ignorant of this situation.  I had one neuro tell me to get off valium he would change me over to clonazepam, and "I would be off it within 2 weeks".  (I wasn't even aware of the PAWS situation at that time.  He would have messed me up had I listened.)

 

Im fortunate that I am retired so I can manage my stress more easily. .

Same retirement here - or if you want to call a job of going to doctors, labs, and imaging centers a job....(age: near 70)

 

Benzo WD is wicked.

The more I read from the internet from other posting, the more i learn from my 5 minute 'visit' to my primary doc who goes through 50-60 patients a day.  I had to educate the doc about the antibiodic issue.  She prescribed BOTH to me concurrently, as well as the local major hospital E.R. for a sinus infection.

 

 

Praying for all of us to go gently and peacefully into our WDs.:

AMEN to that.

 

Alycat

 

I probably am nearing my 'expiration date'.  Lots of near death experiences over the past 7 decades. Health issues where I employ a primary DOC and about 6 supporting specialists.  Liver, prostate, pancreas, blood pressure, aortic aneurysm, cervical stenosis, colon, etc.  Like one other doc noted to me after I presented all of my noted health issues:

 

"What can we do for you today - other than getting you another body"  (actual doc quote)

 

Just wow Key West.  There are no words.  I mean.... I have plenty of words but not sure they are appropriate just now.  I know you get it though.

 

Prayers up for all of us.

 

Alycat