BenzoWarior from Japan

I live in Japan and I have learnt on my own that benzodiazepine medication is prescribed as candies without giving any explanation on what are the risks of the medicine.

In 2018 I had a nervous breakdown and I was prescribed 3 x different benzodiazepines for anxiety and depression plus one for sleep by local psychiatrist.

My anxiety didn’t get any better for several months despite trying few different types of Benzos. Sleeping tablets did work and I was glad I could at least get some sleep. It took over a year to start feeling better and I have asked my doctor if I could stop the medicine. He said you can stop anytime and he stopped my prescription for daily medication cold turkey. After only few weeks I had very bad withdrawal symptoms and had no choice but go back to the same doctor who put me on  more medication. After almost two years he told me that he has to change all my medication to a different as according to the law I am not allowed to be on the same type for over a year.

Ooo boy, I decided to speak to people and do my own research just to learn about how powerful and dangerous the medicine he has prescribed were and how many almost life threatening decisions he made. I start searching for another specialist who could speak English to talk about my situation. I found one  who was younger and educated in USA and was aware of the difficulties with approaching this task. Although he is very accommodating I have a feeling he doesn’t have enough experience with the tapper.

- At the beginning of 2021 I was taking

For Anxiety  2 x day

Noritren 10mg

PZC 2mg  - I was able to tapper of  within few months

Lorazepam 0.5mg - I was able to tapper of within few months after

For sleep  before sleep

Brotizolam 0.25mg

Nitrazepam 5 mg

- Currently (15.9.2021) I am trying to tapper of from

Noritren down from 10mg  2 x day  to  7.5 mg in the morning and 10mg in the evening

I am holding steady with sleeping medicine being the same

Brotizolam 0.25mg

Nitrazepam 5 mg

I have noticed that the drop from 10mg to 7.5mg had a more noticeable withdrawal symptoms. For now I can ask my doctor to cut my medicine to 1/4 as the smallest but I find it to be a strong drop. I would like to find a way how to do it in the best way with minimum withdrawal symptoms as possible.

I am aware of all the suggested way to tapper. However not many do mention the medicine I am on.

My questions are

1. Should I continue to tapper from the medicine I m on just cut slower by using one of the techniques ( dry cutting or dissolving medicine in milk or water) ?

2. How about my sleeping medicine? Should I hold and wait until I tapper of my anxiety medicine first (Noritren)? Or can I start cutting all at the same time?

3. It seems there are other drugs as Valium available but I am not sure if I need to consider to swap the medicine or stay on what I am on and keep lowering slowly?

Thank you for reading my long introduction and if by any chance you get to answer any of my questions I would be very grateful.

Hi  BenzoWarior    Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

We are glad you're here.  You will get through this, with time and patience.  I was not given any information by my doctor about benzodiazepines, many of us weren’t.  Anxiety is a dreadful symptom, I found Benzos make us worse, it creates more anxiety.  If it was me I would taper one drug at a time.  You are right not many mention the drugs you are taking, we have had a few, I would follow the suggested taper.    Withdrawal from benzos can be relentless, we can help you with support, and encouragement.

In general it’s advised to cut your daily dose by somewhere between 5% and 10% every 10 - 14 days.    You can taper slower, whatever feels comfortable to you,  the goal is to try to keep any symptoms manageable.   

Planning Your Withdrawal(TaperPlans)

When you have a chance, I recommend that you take a look at The Ashton Manual, which is an authoritative source on what to expect during withdrawal and recovery.  It provides a great deal of information that can be reassuring during this process,  it also includes a list of common symptoms 

The Ashton Manual. 

If you would like to add a signature (history of meds/doses etc) to help members give you relevant advice.  Go to the top of the page and select PROFILE then choose forum profile then insert drug history into the text box and remember to click change profile

Welcome aboard

Magrita

Thank you so much for the reply!

I have done enough research to know enough about Ashton Manual and different ways to tapper. The information about going one tablet at a time is useful. I will follow all steps as suggested and see how it will go.

Thank you again