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Xanax to Valium


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In December I cut my 2mg nightly habit to 1.5 and had a bad experience. I “stick it out” and got to the point that I was dosing .5 mg of Xanax 3 times a day. I would get some relief but wouldn’t say I ever really stabilized. I primarily have anxiety as a side effect.

 

I have finally found a dr willing to prescribe and work with me on the Valium taper but isn’t necessarily guiding me as far as dosing.

 

Right now I pretty much wake up with anxiety and hold off until about noon to take my first .5 dose. I barely if at all feel the effects of the noon dose anymore. I now take my second dose around 3-330 and again not much relief.  Typically by the evening I feel ok”ish anxiety is a bit more mild I’m guessing lower cortisol.

 

This to me doesn’t seem “stable” 

 

Should I add to my evening dose or substitute it? I feel like I’m in tolerance and not sure the Valium will correct this somewhat?

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What dose of Valium has your doctor prescribed and have you started substituting already, I'm looking at your signature. 

 

Stable is a difficult term to define around here, we say if you can perform your daily tasks you're stable, that of course doesn't mean feeling good but its really up to you to define what stable means to you.  You're the one living through this nightmare. 

 

Here are some definitions of tolerance, do you think it fits your situation?  http://www.benzobuddies.org/benzodiazepine-information/tolerance-and-dependency/

 

When you let us know where you're at in your substitution with Valium, we can talk about that evening dose.

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10 mg Valium for every .5 Xanax.. My anxiety is keeping me from getting up and out the door. I find it difficult to leave the house out of fear. … I did start the crossover a couple weeks ago but went way too fast and ended up depressed and numb feeling. Reset now staring again.

 

Now starting 1 dose at a time at night. Last night was first 10 mg dose that I added on top of my 3rd .5 Xanax dose. Felt very little difference today.

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I’m really not sure. I know I can’t stay in the state I’m in for my entire taper. Right now it seems my non functional tolerance is 1.5 mg Xanax daily. I don’t know if I need to updose with the Valium to stabilize or just replace what I’m currently doing. .5 3 times a day or equivalent.

 

Right now I have too much anxiety to function

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I'm not sure if the Valium will help stabilize you while crossing over so I've asked someone to drop by who has experience.  I do know that Valium takes awhile to build up so I hope you'll not add anymore until you can realize the effects of the 10 mg.
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It can take a week or more for your body to fully realize a dose increase of Valium, I know you're miserable but patience is required when it comes to working with Valium.  I can't tell you what to do, I just want to make you aware of the characteristics of Valium so please use your best judgement.  I've asked someone with experience to weigh in, I hope they will.

 

 

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Hi Mikeaob, it appears to me that when starting your crossover you were already unstable so that was not good. Second you changed your dosing, it is best not to make too many changes at once because you will not know exactly what is causing your issues. I can’t tell the timeframe that you crossed so far. The Ashton manual recommends a stepwise crossover that goes 4-6 weeks gradually transitioning from one benzo to the other.maybe I’m missing something but it looks like you replaced the 2 doses of Xanax all at once which doesn’t allow enough time for the Valium to build up in your system thus giving you added wd effects from dropping the Xanax. Here is a link to the Ashton manual in pdf look for the wd schedules there is one there for Xanax. https://www.benzoinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Ashton-Manual.pdf#page54

Can you provide the details on when you replaced your doses and for how long? This will enable us to better help you and suggest what to do at this point.

Joeb

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Correct I replaced 2 at once and realized with my pcp I went too fast studied up and am

Now replacing one dose at a time. On a week to 10 day basis. I did it all very quickly the first time

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Also we agreed to add the Valium dose to the current dose because I was not stable. So basically an updose. Bad idea ?
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Correct I replaced 2 at once and realized with my pcp I went too fast studied up and am

Now replacing one dose at a time. On a week to 10 day basis. I did it all very quickly the first time

I would suggest reviewing the Ashton manual table with the Xanax crossover and discuss it with your pcp. My concern would be that replacing an entire dose over a short period of time like you mention will still cause a lot of Wd. It’s up to you but worth looking at.

Even if you updose it will still take time for the Valium to build up in your body it takes time, not enough to immediately provide the stability you are looking for. Again suggest reviewing the Ashton table and you may want to consider rebaselining with the Xanax to stabilize or a single dose change. Talk it over with your pcp before rushing into a decision.

Joeb

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