Sodium valporate

Hi guys I hope you are well.I am a bit lost where to post or how to post.long story short my go is adamamant not gonna help and neither is the new prescriber from Altogether formerly turning point.so I am stuck on 3 mg black market Xanax as it’s getting harder and harder to get reliable longer acting benzodiazepines.specially as I moved town 5 years ago and started new job and life to get clean from heroin.However my neurologist has thrown me a life line of sodium valporate which sounds quite positive in a lot of ways mostly the not having seize ways as that scared the crap out of me!!!!but it does carry a lot of side effects!so do I just taper slowly on my own but risk the odd benzodiazepines drought or dry up altogether and stuck or take this sodium valporate alongside the Xanax taper.Thanks so much for your time and any advice would be greatly appreciated.huge respect to you all.

Hi Tigger123,

 

I've moved your post to the other medications board in hope that someone will stop by who has experience with this drug.  In respect to benzo's, do you have a supply to taper with, do you need help figuring out a taper plan?

 

Pamster

Tigger, I can't offer opinions as to your xanax reduction before knowing if you have or can get a steady supply from which to taper, where you intend to start your taper (how many mgs) etc. I think this is really important. You can't afford a xanax "drought". As Pamster mentioned, do you want a taper plan? Someone will help you out if you do. But we need to know where you're going to start from.

 

However, I can speak to the valproate. I took it for about 4 months a few years ago. It made me terribly ill (nauseous) and I really couldn't see the benefits of it. Supposedly it was to relieve my anxiety. (It didn't). I don't recall that I had any trouble discontinuing it . . . but I do recall the gastric relief when I didn't have to take it any more.

 

Why are you concerned that you might have a seizure? If you taper your benzo, that doesn't usually happen. And to take valproate "just in case" doesn't seem like the best idea. Just my opinion, of course. My nausea was so bad I couldn't eat fyi.

 

Anyhow, maybe others will come along and let you know their experiences with the drug.

 

Best to you,

 

Katz

Hi Katz Thankyou soo much for your response.I am not use to writing on forums etc and literally just wrote a message to you that took me about half hr and accidentally lost it and was gutted!!!so will just keep this one brief!I have been fighting addiction approx 30 years,however broke free from heroin/crack and all the rest of it then left with huge benzo habbit,sometimes 300 2 mg bars a week etc.completely stupid.anyway long story short lost my father,brother killed himself and lost a couple of other best mates to suicide aswell as countless drug freind deaths and to really kick me in the guts I lost both of my beloved dogs all whithin last 1 to 3 years.anyway due to covid which I was also unlucky enough to take a beating from all of are key workers and things changed down here in Devon and had new prescriber at Altogether formerly turning point.He completely anti benzo and cut my 20 ml script that had had for 15 years or as long as can remember,he said it would be a little rough but fine.gp were told not to script because I was under duty of care of Turning point even although they stopped the script.begged drs begged Prescriber at turning point and worse of all lost my temper ,so now nobody will help me at all.However I have been using Xanax that get from black market as it is the only decent site I can find that I am adleast testing positive for benzos,and does taste like alp!!! But can’t be 100 percent.definately strong though as at my worse nothing would touch me and went write up to literally 300 Barr’s a week it was pathetic!100 diazepam would be munched in 24 hrs!anyway the last probably 6 months although memory is so bad it has been roughly 3 mg Xanax per day and occasionally I would have to drop to 1 a day for cple of days and even a day or two with zero and needless to say I was in the walls,48 hr plus of chronic panic disorder and couldn’t move,buckled up in pain with neck,back and pain in head,anyway they would arrive and all would be ok again ,but on 9 th August I ran out and on day 5 was walking the dog whith the mrs and dropped like a stone with blood pooring out mouth where bit through tongue and lip and had full scale grand mal seizure!app unconscious approx 5 mins and mrs thought I was dead as stopped fitting and eyes completely open but still unconscious but gargling,app then put myself in recovery position and was carted off to hospital as head and blood pressure had gone nuts!!!!I thought I would finally catch a breake once I had explained the benzo situation but still gp refuses to take duty of care,prescriber won’t reinstate original script and advises slow taper on my black market xanax!!!Thought neurologist that had to see may help and she has tried to talk to them with no result and now I can’t even get an awnser from them!However neurologist has suggested sodium valporarate which the script finally came through today and I picked it up,but now having read side effects I really dnt think I want to start it.Also the jury seems out if it even helps with Xanax detox.However it definately makes people feel unwell and I could definately do without that!!!!I am just about beat but I think I will just try to taper quickly but as close to Aston mannual as can specially when get to lower dose and if I do need them I can get unlimited gabapentin,although I don’t like them I have read better reports than sodium valproate.of course my big fear is another seizure,but as long as I don’t completely run out then surely that’s unlikely?I don’t feel that it’s time to add a new anticonvulsant into the mix.sorry it’s a bit of all over the place message and Thankyou so so much for your input.I doubt very much I will start it at this point!!and you kind of confirmed what I was thinking.Thanks a million and kindest regards and all the luck in the world.👍

Wow, tigger. So sorry for your situation.

 

Yes, tapering following the Ashton shedules should be safe for you. Then, as you say, at the lower doses adding gabapentin might be helpful. I've taken gabapentin also (I was taking it already for nerve pain) and I'm not sure if it helped with my taper, but at least it didn't make me feel ill. It makes some people feel a little dizzy at the startup, and I felt that too, but that passes. I would say it's  medium hard to get off -- not as hard as benzos, but it does have to be tapered. Some people have a harder time than others dropping it, but everyone's different.

 

My best to you, tigger.

 

Katz

I am taking valproate right now.  It doesn’t come close to fixing things but it is helpful for anxiety and sleep.  Took about two weeks to really start working for me.  On a low dose of 250mg.

 

Don’t have many side effects yet other than being excessively sleepy for 1/3 the day.  I don’t love the fact that I’m on it but at least it’s keeping me out of the hospital (went a couple times in past 4 months due to overwhelming anxiety and terror).