Hello and thanks

Hi, Firstly let me say thank you to the creators and contributors of this site, I only stumbled across it last year and it has provided me with knowledge, assurance and hope.

 

I have been on SSRI’s for over 20 year, Initially fluoxetine and then switch to Effexor, during this time a combination of the medication and CBT techniques have largely kept my depression and anxiety at bay, I do have regular (lets say once or twice a month on average) days where my anxiety gets so bad I just need to be left alone in a dark room to sleep and let it pass.

 

Much like everyone else I have gotten to know the triggers over the years and also what I can do when it hits hard, For me lack of sleep or physical illness are triggers, at those points I would just head into the spare room and sleep for a day or 2, during these acute periods my mind/body seems to have no issue with putting me to sleep to deal with it.

 

Manageable to a degree but thankfully I have a very supportive wife who has grown to know just to leave me to deal with it.

 

Around August 2021 my insomnia was really bad and it was causing so many issues I decided to take 1mg of Xanax at night to get to sleep, for the next 10 months I had great sleep, zero episodes of acute anxiety and felt ‘normal again’ 

Around may 2022 I started getting bouts of anxiety during the day, this led me to do some searching and I came across the term ‘Inter Dose withdrawal’ something I had never heard of before, this led me to here and then onto the Ashton Manual.

 

I quickly realised that I didn’t want to be on Xanax anymore, If i was able  to build a tolerance to it in 10 months then I certainly didn’t want to increase my dosage to deal with this as the chances are that i would be in the same place in a years time but this time on 2mg of Xanax.

 

I decided to cut over to Valium and wean myself off given the longer half life etc.  Not really understanding the conversions (and in part wanting a safety net) I began to take .25Xanax 4 times daily and 20mg (the equivalent) of Valium at night.

 

This dealt with the IDW and things went back to where they were, I was still on that protocol during a holiday in July 2022.  A few days on holiday I missed my daily dose of Xanax with no side affects, at that point I reduced my Xanax over the course of a few weeks down to nothing so I was only taking 20mg of Valium at night.

At that point the Xanax was put in the safe and I began to reduce the Valium, I got down to 10mg per night without any real issues however about 1 month ago I had an acute depressive episode (first one in 7 years) which lasted about a week (no idea really what caused it) but I needed to break the Xanax back out to sedate me as the Valium was just not cutting it.

 

Since then I have been weaning myself back off the Xanax at

Morning Midday TeaTime Bed

0.25         0.25         0         0.25 + 5mg Diaz

 

I am going to hold at this as I am waking up feeling very anxious, I know from reading others stories that morning are generally the worse during this time.

 

So that’s my story, thanks again for being here and for listening and helping each other, I have read with interest some posts about glutamate, bridging meds and of course the success stories many of you have had.

 

At the moment I would be happy to get crossed over to Valium and achieve stability, I can then plan the taper off it.

 

It sounds like you’ve got some experience crossing over, I think its a good idea to get the rest crossed to Valium then you can begin your taper in earnest. The depressive episode concerns me though, did you feel it when you first started the Valium, depression and sedation are two common complaints until members acclimate to it.

It sounds like you’ve got some experience crossing over, I think its a good idea to get the rest crossed to Valium then you can begin your taper in earnest. The depressive episode concerns me though, did you feel it when you first started the Valium, depression and sedation are two common complaints until members acclimate to it.

 

Hey, Yeah i think the crossover is going well, i have dropped the midday alprazolam now and increased the night time valium to 10mg.

 

I think the depressive episode was a fluke, I a a weightlifter and i began supplementing L-Glutamine, when i hit the depressive episode i cut out everything 'new' to begin ruling things out, its has only been recently that  have learned that L-Glutamine increases Glutamate in the brain which is not good for people withdrawing from benzos.

 

Since stopping the L-Glutamine i haven't felt any of the depressive sides that I experienced so I a pretty convinced that it was due to that.

 

Thank you

I’m glad to hear it’s going well, and its good to hear you took a look at what effects other substances can have on us, our central nervous system is super sensitive while we’re going through this.