Taper plan from diazepam 5mg (3 month use)

Hey all

 

Just wanting to write out my taper plan so I know what I'm doing, what date I'm making cuts and how much to cut by.

 

I have been taking Diazepam 5mg for 3 months for chronic pain and anxiety. I made a cut to 4mg around 5 days ago, so far I'm not feeling too bad apart from a little extra anxiety.

 

I will stay at 4mg for two weeks then cut down by 0.5mg every two weeks. Does this sound reasonable?

 

Any advice for my plan would be appreciated!!! Thanks in advance

 

Sounds reasonable to me as a starting plan since you havent been on long and you handled a 20% reduction well. Do you have non-medication tools to handle the pain and anxiety should they arise? Exercise helps, yoga, breathing exercises. I like yoga nidra. I recommend taking your taper one step at a time. If you start feeling more symptoms it is ok to hold longer, or make a smaller reduction next time. Generally it is easier to avoid symptoms with smaller cuts than to recover from too big of a cut after it has happened. I think it is better to avoid updosing in most circumstances.

Take care,

JKS

Thanks for your reply! 

 

So will it be harder when I get down to 1mg then do the 50% reduction to 0.5 or will it be okay because it's a small dose? I'm not sure how it works!

 

Ashton Method says most people tolerate a 1mg reduction over 2 weeks well, but that sounds a scary cut to me!

 

Thank you!

It’s different for everyone. I recommend taking it one step at a time. Pay attention to how you feel and make small adjustments accordingly. Remember you only have to do *your* taper!