Tapering hell please help!!

Hi everyone:

My husband and I went back to the doctor and she reinstated his Valium and he is bugging out. She reinstated the Valium /c he was on klonipin 3mgs for 1 1/2 years and stopped cold turkey July 1st, 2008. The doctor gave him Valium to taper with to prevent seizures. He only stayed on the Valium until the end of October 2008, way to quickly if you ask me but my husband is stubborn. He was on nothing until December 1st 2008,  he bugged sooo hard cored screaming of death he was taken to a rehab and all they did was label him "psychotic" give him abilify, cymbalta, serquil and ativan. They said take as needed and he was taking about 1 mg a day on and off for 10 days. That was  only December 17 was when he was released. He was given ativan to go home with and was taking it with cymabalta and then was cutting every few days here and there and then dropped cymbalta from 40mg, 30, 20, 10, nothing b/c it felt like cocaine.

Needless, to say he has been bugging out hardcore since the day after Christmas. When we saw doctor yesterday she said he can not not not do that to his body and is basically making himself go through 100x more hell than needed for the w/d of the a/d and benzos. She said he needs to taper the correct way and slowly b/c his body is in shock.

We looked up the Ashton manual and he is going to taper by a quarter every three weeks from the 5 mg of Valium he started yesterday. I keep tell him its all the shocked and hardcore incorrectly withdrawing he has been doing to his body. He has been on a/d for 18 yrs of his life and never been off for more than 2 weeks in is life.

I have tried reading the Aston manual and other literature trying to explain to him that too quick, hardcore cutting is going to make his rebound anxiety off benzos and a/d so much more he**ish.

Please, someone explain to my husband that the cutting has to be done slowly from the beginning and his s/x are coming from the start of a bad to fast withdrawal process that was never done right from the beginning.. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Thank you soooo much!

PS He keeps saying but that was in July and I keep telling him he never did the taper process correctly and safely and how can u expect to be healed of being on benzos for 1.5 years and expect to be healed from that not besides all the other things that happened in decemeber in rehab.

Good morning,

I know someone else will be along with way more knowlege than I have, but I can tell you that when I first began my xanax tapering, i took it too fast by dropping 1/2 a tablet at once. The symptoms were way too intense so I had to reinstate and go slowly!

I have felt the difference in going fast, and slow. I'm going slow, and I have hellish days, but it's nothing at all like the ones I had when I first tried to taper too much too quickly.

I have found alot of good solid info in the ashton manual, and I come here, read, and re-read just to find some peace of mind.

There are a few members here who tapered too rapidly and are still suffering the consequences, though not necessarily from the same benzo your husband is on. Also, some no longer come around because they were unable to tolerate the w/d symptoms, reinstated the benzo and were embarrassed to stay, I guess.

Maybe more people would see your request and respond if you start a thread with more of what you want specifically in the title.  "Tapering hell please help"  is a pretty common topic around here, unfortunately.  Also, I noticed that the doctor he saw (Wed?) said he needed to taper slowly.  If he doesn't accept his doctor's instructions or what's in the Ashton Manual as having better knowledge than him about how to get off the benzo than he does, I don't know why he'd give credance to the opinions of a couple of people on the internet.

How much ativan was Mike put on and when did he start taking all those other drugs?  How much (valium?) was he taking prior to starting the ativan and how long had he been at that level?  With so many members, I can't remember a lot of the specifics of the different situations and apologize if you've already posted this info.  While we are hardly experts on other medications, throwing ativan, abilify, seroquel and cymbalta at him all at once seems extreme and are bound to have consequences.  Please do research the side effect and possible interactions of these drugs so you will both have at least some idea what's due to what.  I'm assuming the doctor who put him all those drugs is, in fact, a psychiatrist; if not, he needs one yesterday.

Hang in there.  The real Mike is still there somewhere and you'll see him again.

My husband and I went back to the doctor and she reinstated his Valium and he is bugging out. She reinstated the Valium /c he was on klonipin 3mgs for 1 1/2 years and stopped cold turkey July 1st, 2008. The doctor gave him Valium to taper with to prevent seizures. He only stayed on the Valium until the end of October 2008, way to quickly if you ask me but my husband is stubborn. He was on nothing until December 1st 2008,  he bugged sooo hard cored screaming of death he was taken to a rehab and all they did was label him "psychotic" give him abilify, cymbalta, serquil and ativan. They said take as needed and he was taking about 1 mg a day on and off for 10 days. That was  only December 17 was when he was released. He was given ativan to go home with and was taking it with cymabalta and then was cutting every few days here and there and then dropped cymbalta from 40mg, 30, 20, 10, nothing b/c it felt like cocaine.

 

Teacher, your husband may be stubborn but these drugs are unforgiving and will knock the crap out of him.  It sounds like they've already done so.

Speaking from a cold turkey experience, he never recovered from the ct in July and then having all those other drugs added in makes it even worse.  He had better level out as best he can and take it slow or his recovery time will be not be measured in months....if you know what I mean.  Not trying to scare you here but facts are facts.....