Can a slower taper lead to increased risk of becoming protracted?

The NP who is my prescriber continues to insist that a slower taper increases my risk of developing protracted withdrawal after I am done with the taper. Does anyone know if this is evidence based? I’m currently really needing to slow down to help manage symptoms, but this claim has got me feeling a bit afraid to slow down. I’ve heard nothing like this on this forum or elsewhere, but am I missing something?

 

 

This is NOT evidence based. Follow your body and symptoms. Her claims are against the evidence of this forum and the guidance of both Dr Ashton and BIC based on the scientific mechanisms behind. No one knows how long someone will take to heal, the best thing you can do is go slow and try to live while tapering.

 

I am very short term user but too long to have become dependent and I unfortunately couldn't do a fast taper. I am trying to follow my symptoms now to avoid as much glutamate damage and neurotoxicity as possible.

 

Please be careful! My GP destroyed me by getting me dependent on cortisone, withdrawing me way too fast, never explaining I was hyper from cortisone, and then putting me on rivotril (against my specific ask to try non habit forming natural things first as in her opinion after I got dependent "there is nothing else") and then cut me down by 40%. I was "lucky" rivotril is liquid here and I had enough to not listen to her to go down even more and stay on my dose for months before stabilizing. I found a different doctor to help me. So you're not missing something, your NP is just not aware like so many.

I thought the point of a slow taper is ease out of the drug and not into protracted withdrawal.

Exactly, we heal as we taper.

After talking, studying, researching anything I can on all of this for last 2 1/2yrs, slow taper is the safest. Everyone is literally different on this journey which makes this very difficult to ever get a gauge bc we try hard to find people similar to us. Do some people who slow taper have residual symptoms for awhile after? Yes but it’s not extremely common.

 

Look at it this way, the CT or rapid taper can be much more severe shock to the brain stopping suddenly as the brain has neuroadapted to the med….. giving your brain some time to adapt as you go lower might take awhile in terms of taper time, but it’s less of a shock to the system that has learned to all work with the med. It gives people also an opportunity to live life as much as they can while coming down slowly. Timing of it all might be the same but if you can be functional that is the key thru this since life still goes on.

 

So symptom based really does help give opportunity to try to stay functional and hopefully not lead to protracted but try not to get caught up in the protracted part. We can’t control ultimately the time it takes for our brains to neuroadapt back off the med, but just have to live the best we can along the way, cope the best we can and do the best for our bodies thru this(we sll have an idea of what to stay away from along the way).

 

Some people’s symptoms allow them to go at a faster rate and be off pretty quickly and they might be back to who they were within a few months. Some need to slow down and might be feeling much better even during the taper towards the end.

 

I’ve had a complicated challenging taper that started three yrs ago on June after on for 7wks. I hope I don’t fall into protracted but there is nothing I can do to prevent that…. I had to slow down to save my life and now at the very low dose I am doing much better, and gained some functionality back.

 

Your NP doesn’t know bc there are no studies actually done…. So trust what you see coming from BIC bc they are really the only ones(other than Ashton)  that have put time effort and research into all of this (and still a ton of research still to be done bc every body is different in so many ways) and medical providers unless they’ve been thru this, just don’t have a clue.

 

Hugs to you!! Take it at a speed you can still manage to function and that is a good thing in all of this! Doesn’t mean symptom free but you will get there and don’t speed up for anyone else bc they don’t have to deal with the effects of it! Go at rate that you feel comfortable with and hone in on the coping skills! You will get there!

 

 

 

 

Perhaps of interest to you and your prescriber, two videos by Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring, a psychiatrist with expertise in benzodiazepine injury, cessation, and recovery:

 

Why do only some develop protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal?

 

Don't call it protracted withdrawal (it confuses them)

 

Those are great videos by Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring.  He gets it.

Yes, I like him a lot. He's also nice to email with!