Tapering before pregnancy

[[Buddie]]

Hello! I am here to seek help in the community of Benzo's. I have been on ativan/valium for 11 years. I have done a slow taper and gone from 60mgs to 6mgs in a very slow 7 year long taper. I am slowly trying to taper off the last 6mg because I am wanting to have a baby!
If anyone has any advice for deciding to taper before pregnancy or being on a very small dose of valium while pregnant please let me know!
I appreciate all advice!

[[Buddie]]

Hello [...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

Congratulations on successfully tapering your dose by so much but I'm a bit confused about your medication, are you only on Valium, did you mean to say you're on 6 mgs of Diazepam/Valium or are you indeed on Ativan as well?

How has your taper gone so far, are you finding it more difficult the lower in dose you get, this is what many of our members have discovered.  I'll give you some links to help you navigate the forum but feel it would be best to get input from the wider community on the Withdrawal Support (during your taper) about continuing to take Valium while pregnant, what does your doctor advise?

We're glad you found us and hope we can help.

[...]

 Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidelines

Planning Your Withdrawal (Taper)

The Ashton Manual    

[[Buddie]]

Sorry for the confusion. I started on Ativan then when My doctor and i decided to taper i switched to ativan and started tapering very slowly. I found that because i am tapering sooooo slow that i really haven't had any bad side effects. Yes, it is definitely getting harder as i get lower and lower but mainly due to my anxiety being sooo bad. Sometimes it feels like valium is the only thing to help my anxiety.

[[Buddie]]

Most of us have discovered that once our bodies become dependent on and tolerant to benzo's it begins to cause the issues we went on them to fix only much worse like insomnia, panic and anxiety so its likely the Valium is causing your anxiety rather than relieving it.  Most have found that once off the drug and recovered from its use, they can manage much better because compared to benzo induced anxiety normal anxiety is quite manageable.

It would probably be a good idea for you to fill our your signature with your medication history so you don't have to keep explaining it to our other members, these are the instruction.  If you need help you can put the information here and a team member can input it for you.  Add your history/signature