3,2,1: Under 3 mg Valium people

That's great Redbird!

I haven't been posting much, but thought I'd join this thread. I just got down to 2mg. I'm daily microtapering. It's been rough, but I feel no worse at 2mg than I did at 3mg, so onward!

Sending good thoughts to everyone here.

 

Nice red bird! Hope it keeps going well!

Welcome open road!

Hey all,

 

I’m still on the struggle bus. I decided to go ahead and add back in .005 mg to halve my last cut of .01 mg which seemed like too much due to the wave that ensued. I held at .985 mgs for 3 weeks and felt somewhat better but not great at all. I made the next .005 mg reduction last night and I’m feeling horrible today again. I wish I could make progress  :'(

 

Hey Candace - so sorry it’s been such a hard road. This is so rough. I wish there was another way through it. I am struggling hard every day. I’m really tired of the whole process. I’m definitely skidding in on my belly with this last bit. To be functional at all I’d have to slow it waaaaay down. I’m not working and I don’t do much besides lay around and try to get through the day. I’m lucky to be able to take the time to do that, but man I don’t like the way things are.

Keep fighting ❤️

Open road….I was having severe depression when I was at 2 so that’s why I decided to taper to 1 1/2mg I figured I had been feeling bad anyway so why not taper and I also cut back on my caffeine and it got better.

Tree lover.. thanks for the encouragement!

Candace I hope you can get some relief soon!🙏🏻

Greetings all! I last posted here at the end of October ‘19. After my jump and subsequent reinstatement 4 days later, I still wasn’t feeling well so I went back to my psychiatrist in early Nov and went up to 4 mg V. I held there for a little over a month (and transitioned from powdered V in capsules to a homemade liquid). Started tapering again the middle of December. I’m back now to share that I am below 3 mg as of today. 

 

This taper has been very different from the one I did last year. I am still recovering from the jump in October, but overall things seem to be improving. There’s been a bit of trial and error with the DLMT, but this method has been a lot easier for me than when I was powdering my tablets and weighing them out in increments (so time consuming—but it worked and I have a friend who is 1 month V free using that method). I’m tapering at about 8.5% per 14 days at the moment, but modify as needed when symptoms arise.

 

Also I’m working with my therapist using DBT and mindfulness to help develop solid coping skills for when I’m benzo free.

 

I’m glad to be back!

 

Hi all,

 

I tried a jump over a week ago and on the 2nd night, had terrifying wd and had to reinstate.  I up dosed this past Sunday to .1875 mg xanax a day from the .174 mg I attempted to jump from (I know - not smart and I did not realize that was too high a dose to jump from).  I am still feeling horrible!  Had some really bad sxs a couple days ago of distorted vision, left hand was numb, shaky etc.  I had to take an additional dose of xanax and it helped, this has happened 2 times in the last couple weeks, once before the jump and then once since I reinstated.

 

Today is day 5 and I am still not doing well.  For those of you that jumped and reinstated within a few days, how long did it take you to start to feel better?  I just want to feel human again.  I know it takes time to recover from a jump and reinstatement.  I thought I would have started to feel a little better by now!

 

Thanks for any responses.  I need hope and encourgement.....

 

I didn't jump, but when I hit 0.75 mgs went into acute wd, which is something undescribable that only those who've been there know what I'm talking about. It usually happens after a CT but went through five previous times of coming off, some of them CT, and that didn't happen. However in the last taper, previous to this one I'm doing now, I must have been very kindled ant when I hit 0.75 mgs valium went into acute WD. I reinstated to 2.5 mgs and it took me about three months only to feel semi human again. Give it time. If you want to know more just look for my first posts in this forum. I hope you get better soon. Be patient and brace yourself. It almost always gets better.

Hi everyone.

 

I'm at .75 mgs of valium doing a liquid micro taper and still having a rough time.

 

Anyone in the same situation, give or take, who wants to trade notes?

 

wistful

Hey 👋🏼 I’m at 0.95 and it’s rough. I don’t know what I expected,  I guess I thought it might let up at bit at this dose.  It hasn’t.

😬

Hi Treelover 

 

Me too. I also thought it might get easier the lower I got. Especially since I've heard of people jumping off at .25 or even .5 mg. I don't think I'll be in that category. Reality is that if I want to keep symptoms at a tolerable level where I feel almost normal I have to cut so slowly I'm a turtle's turtle

 

I'm also anxious to get off and find myself increasing the rate and then slowing down or even holding when it catches up to me. Valium's longevity is great for smoothing out benzo withdrawal, but it sure makes it hard to gauge the potential effect of increasing the cut rate.

 

How are you tapering? Do you cut every day?

Hey, yeah I’m doing daily liquid “micro” taper. I have been going down by 0.01mg a day since April. It’s just barely tolerable on the mid level days. Have held a couple of times when it got to be too much. I feel dizzy every single day. Good days I can kind of ignore it and get some things done. For some reason 11-3 ish is rough every day. I feel like I’m lost in space and time traveling. On rougher days DP/DR kicks my behind.

On the roughest days I have all the bad symptoms. Mental and physical. This has brought me to my knees over and over. My husband reels me back in when I get too far gone. He tells me it’ll get better and I just can’t believe him the majority of the time.

Some days I catch glimpses that it may be ok one day. Sigh.

 

I want to hold, AND I want to be done and go faster. Any time I’ve sped up I’ve ended up holding.

I just am shocked over and over at how consistently hard this has been. For years.

 

How do you do reductions? How long have you been at it?

 

 

...

I want to hold, AND I want to be done and go faster. Any time I’ve sped up I’ve ended up holding.

I just am shocked over and over at how consistently hard this has been. For years.

Do I know how you feel! Benzos are the trap of hell. It's hell on them, and hell getting off!

How do you do reductions? How long have you been at it?

I started cutting from 10mg valium in mid 2015 using the Ashton method and it brought me to my knees. The cutting schedule was too ambitious for me. I found out about the liquid microtaper and after holding until I felt stable, I switched.

 

I use alcohol as a solvent. One 2mg tab in 2ml of water, once dissolved, add 2ml of Everclear. Add 196ml of water to that so I have 1ml equals .01mg of valium.

 

As I got lower, I had to increasingly reduce cuts and hold at times to stay functional. Recently, I had been cutting .1ml/.001mg every other day, and I started increasing it until I was cutting .1ml/.001mg and .2ml/.002mg on alternate days (approx .045mg per month). Then I got slammed. Symptoms got worse, and when the wake-up after 3-4 sleep hours with panic returned, at .746mg I started holding. It's been a week, I'm still holding and things aren't much better yet.

 

It is very discouraging. I had hoped that I could speed up as I got lower instead of having to slow down. This is going to take longer than I ever thought.

 

Thank you both for sharing your thoughts here.

 

Tree I know what you mean about wanting to hold but speed up and get it over with at the same time. When I went up to 5% I have never leveled out so I don’t think I can handle faster as I am barely hanging on. But at this rate it’s a long way to go and I live in my bed so not sure what to do. Holds don’t really help me so I just keep cutting and try to breathe and stay in the moment.

Where are you now dose wise jelly? Looking at your sig, you’ve been through a lot of meds, ups and downs. That must’ve been really hard to manage. Sorry it’s so hard.

 

It’s crazy, I never thought about my health before all of this mess. I ran on lunch breaks, and just kind of thought that’s the way I’d always be. You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose grip on it, sometimes. If I get back to a functional state, it will feel like a miracle every day. I have so much gratitude for the parts of my body that do work. Days that feel kind of ok, it amazes me that it can do (relatively) so much.  It’s hard to believe we’ll ever get back to that, but I think we have to hold on to that vision.

I never imagined spending the majority of my time in bed for months on end. It’s certainly not where I want to stay.

 

I think I made it a bit harder by tapering Zoloft concurrently. That plus a super stressful job (and decade just life-wise). I also was on other ssris and quickly tapered them for pregnancies twice. Always restarted, prob restarted clonazapam too. Honestly don’t know what I did with dosing them. I guess looking back, benzo maybe bought me some years when things were tough. But I’m paying for it now 😬

I would definitely do it differently if I had it to do over. I guess I just need to keep moving, knowing this may be the hardest part of my life. Phew.

Was the jelly post for me? I am at 1.45 mg. I am feeling so bad for time lost with family. My son is applying for colleges this year and he came in to ask me his social and just that brief interaction make my brain and body vibrate and burn and feel like electricity in every nerve. I have such heavjness and pain that I can hardly hold of my head a lot of day and spend a lot of time just crying and trying to breathe. Since I am going so slow I can’t see the end in sight right now and to have to live a few more years like this in bed is leaving me hopeless. Sorry not very uplifting this morning.

Was the jelly post for me? I am at 1.45 mg. I am feeling so bad for time lost with family. My son is applying for colleges this year and he came in to ask me his social and just that brief interaction make my brain and body vibrate and burn and feel like electricity in every nerve. I have such heavjness and pain that I can hardly hold of my head a lot of day and spend a lot of time just crying and trying to breathe. Since I am going so slow I can’t see the end in sight right now and to have to live a few more years like this in bed is leaving me hopeless. Sorry not very uplifting this morning.

 

I can really relate to your emotional experience right now. I feel the same way- regarding time lost with family and the hopelessness with going so slow and suffering so badly. Sending so many hugs to you.

CandiceJM…Are you dry tapering and also how low are you going before you jump?

Treelover are you eating and sleeping ok?

CandiceJM…Are you dry tapering and also how low are you going before you jump?

 

I’m currently on pharmaceutical liquid diazepam, and doing a liquid taper. I plan on tapering down to 0, once I can finally get this remainder of the taper going. I’m currently updosed to 1 mg from .98 mg, to attempt to stabilize my sleep. I went basically two nights in a row this week with no sleep, and contacted my doctor who told me to move back to 1 mg where I was more stable, to get my sleep back.

CandiceJM.. I hope you can stabilize and get you some sleep!

Best wishes!

Hey Redbird how are things going for you at 1 mg?

 

Hey Joeb! I have been feeling very woozy n head and sinus and allergy issues. I went to ENT yesterday and I have a sinus infection. The doc did say withdrawal can make things magnified.He gave me z pack and I’m hoping it’s just the infection making me feel this way. Thanks for asking! I hope you are doing well!

 

Redbird Flies

Hi everyone.  Some of you I know and it’s been a while, as I disappeared “again”, from bb’s…I am sorry.  But I finally made it under 3mg, and I am so happy about that.

 

Like I said, I disappeared again, and it’s because I am just so disconnected during this process.  I miss everyone while I am away from the community, and I often wonder how everyone is doing, but I just can’t engage at times.  It is hard to explain. 

 

I see that others are struggling too with the process and timeline, and just how slow going and also the sx.  I am sorry that so many are also struggling too.

 

Anyway….hope to stay engaged 

 

Marie

Hey, yeah I’m doing daily liquid “micro” taper. I have been going down by 0.01mg a day since April. It’s just barely tolerable on the mid level days. Have held a couple of times when it got to be too much. I feel dizzy every single day. Good days I can kind of ignore it and get some things done. For some reason 11-3 ish is rough every day. I feel like I’m lost in space and time traveling. On rougher days DP/DR kicks my behind.

On the roughest days I have all the bad symptoms. Mental and physical. This has brought me to my knees over and over. My husband reels me back in when I get too far gone. He tells me it’ll get better and I just can’t believe him the majority of the time.

Some days I catch glimpses that it may be ok one day. Sigh.

 

I want to hold, AND I want to be done and go faster. Any time I’ve sped up I’ve ended up holding.

I just am shocked over and over at how consistently hard this has been. For years.

 

How do you do reductions? How long have you been at it?

 

Hi TL-

 

I have a question about your 01mg reduction as I am thinking about switching to this too, instead of my current reduction.  My liquid is 1mL =1mgV(compounded) and I am using a 1ML syringe.  So I pull .02ml every 2-3 days, depending and have to do holds.  Like I just had to do an 18 day hold, because last month I went too fast…ugh.  I thought about doing what you are, but with V having such a long half life, does it just compound and then hit you?  I already know it is in someway doing that to me right now, and that is why it is better when I do the 3 days at a time.  Am I making sense?  Or does it after a while, just get normalized in your system so that it doesn’t necessarily have that big drop down as it metabolizes out?  What has been your experience with this?

 

Marie 

Hey, yeah I’m doing daily liquid “micro” taper. I have been going down by 0.01mg a day since April. It’s just barely tolerable on the mid level days. Have held a couple of times when it got to be too much. I feel dizzy every single day. Good days I can kind of ignore it and get some things done. For some reason 11-3 ish is rough every day. I feel like I’m lost in space and time traveling. On rougher days DP/DR kicks my behind.

On the roughest days I have all the bad symptoms. Mental and physical. This has brought me to my knees over and over. My husband reels me back in when I get too far gone. He tells me it’ll get better and I just can’t believe him the majority of the time.

Some days I catch glimpses that it may be ok one day. Sigh.

 

I want to hold, AND I want to be done and go faster. Any time I’ve sped up I’ve ended up holding.

I just am shocked over and over at how consistently hard this has been. For years.

 

How do you do reductions? How long have you been at it?

 

Hi TL-

 

I have a question about your 01mg reduction as I am thinking about switching to this too, instead of my current reduction.  My liquid is 1mL =1mgV(compounded) and I am using a 1ML syringe.  So I pull .02ml every 2-3 days, depending and have to do holds.  Like I just had to do an 18 day hold, because last month I went too fast…ugh.  I thought about doing what you are, but with V having such a long half life, does it just compound and then hit you?  I already know it is in someway doing that to me right now, and that is why it is better when I do the 3 days at a time.  Am I making sense?  Or does it after a while, just get normalized in your system so that it doesn’t necessarily have that big drop down as it metabolizes out?  What has been your experience with this?

 

Marie 

 

The first few weeks were a bit nerve wracking. When I cut and hold, symptoms pop up at day 3-4 and resolve a bit by 10-14. So I figured I would know how a DLMT would feel (if I could handle it) by about day 14.

It is uncomfortable but just tolerable most days. Waves kick my butt sometimes and windows are pretty ok. I just kept moving.

I have held a few times and it eases up within 4 days or so. I cleared a lot of ground doing the 0.01mg daily reductions. I say give it a try and see how you do!

My baseline is: get up and have some breakfast, stretch a bit, lay down for afternoon weird/dizziness. Force lunch around 1, lay down a bit. Go for a short walk at night if I’m feeling well enough, more yoga, meditation, bed.

I can’t do much more.

————————————-

Just checking in at 0.80 today! Glad to be here but man it’s been rough. I held for 9 days around 1mg. I had a few appointments and my sons bday party to make it to.

My worst symptoms at this dose are this constant floaty boaty/ dizziness feeling, neck pain! (This is new for me), back pain, depth perception and visual perception problems, and heavy fatigue.

Some days I get up, eat, lay down.

I feel so exhausted 😩

 

I’m just going to keep pushing. If I keep this up, my step off date is thanksgiving.

 

Hope you are all doing ok.

Where are you in your dose? How are you all feeling?

 

I just wanted to ask a question… In everyone’s experience, is it possible to be stable on Valium if you stick at the same dose? In other words, is it the tapering that causes all the symptoms you describe? The reason I ask is I’ve suffered a head injury and have extreme migraines and dizzziness and so am not in a position to taper until I recover from that… I’m looking just to get stable for a few months and then taper after that…

 

Thanks in advance

I should add that I’m on Zolpidem which causes horrific interdose withdrawal, so my doctor has suggested crossing over to valium to get some stability…