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Can you taper TOO slowly?


[tw...]

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I tapered VERY slowly (4 years) for several reasons: Not knowing better, I tried to cold turkey at first and really screwed myself up - near seizures. And then I was working with children, and I didn't want to be going through any withdrawal in front of them. So slow and steady it was.

 

Recently, a family member in the health field mentioned that I may have harmed myself more because that meant I stayed on it longer. That makes me feel awful.

 

I thought your brained healed incrementally during taper, but now I'm guessing not? I was so proud of myself the first night I didn't take a dose. Now I see it didn't matter.

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I don't think so, twitch. I took a year to taper the last 1 mg of valium. (So did one of my buddies -- he was/is a pharmacologist). That was slooooooow. Alrogether I took 3 years to taper. Yeah, I was on valium a lot longer than most, but I "healed". My brain is okay. I went back to work and am better than I was before  (book publisher & author). So, I wouldn't pay undue attention to someone's opinion even though they are "in the health field". There's so much that we don't know about these drugs. Try not to worry.

 

:smitten:

 

Katz

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Honestly Katz, I see that like me you’ve been on and off benzos for decades. In all my research I can’t see that doing a very slow taper would be the wrong thing to do. In fact, I now wish I had tapered more slowly and stayed functional. In any case, the past has gone and we can’t visit!

Every good wish for your continued healing. Hardy.

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I'm feeling well, twitch. Thank you for asking.

 

Hey, Hardy, yes, I was a turtle taperer. In the Bad Old Days (2008) of trying to get off xanax, I did a CT. Oh my goodness. Talk about sick. Six months of sick. I learned the hard way that these drugs have to be tapered. And for me, that meant as slowly as possible hence my sloth-like taper of valium. (As for why I ever swallowed another benzo years after my xanax misadventure, well that's yet another sad, stupid story).

 

Anyhow, best to you both,

 

Katz

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It takes as long as it takes. It took me 4 years and 3 days before I was ready to jump off Valium at .312mg. The long taper was worth it, I am actually having way more windows than I ever would have expected to have. Ignore what other people say, everyone has their own timeline, and while it's possible you may have healed faster, that's not a guarantee either.
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The only validity I see to this is if you had been on a benzo a very short time - for sake of argument lets say 1 month.

 

Would you really want to taper for years in that situation? If at all possible I would not. I personally would want to do a more rapid taper (as rapid as I could safely manage) to limit the total time my body was exposed to these drugs given the relatively short exposure I'd had before deciding to quit.

 

Now, if you'd been taking benzos for years, then the damage is probably already done. Taper as slowly as you need to to get the job done.

 

I'm not a doctor so I might not know what I'm talking about. Just my opinion.

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