anyone on low doses of diazepam

hi any one on low doses of diazepam share symptons with?

 

Terry

 

 

Hi Terry 

 

I am almost 16 months off of benzos, but I did a Diazepam taper (after crossing over from Clonazepam) and remember quite well how I did with the lower doses.  I remember at the 4mg mark I hit a BIG wall and had to hold my taper an additional 5 days or so.  Things just got worse out of the blue and I had to wait for it to subside before I continued with my taper.  I then decided to change my taper...I had been cutting 1mg every 7 days, so then I switched to .5mg cuts every 5 days.  Worked much better for me.  More smooth.

 

My side effects as I got lower actually got a bit better once I went below 4mgs.  It was still hard (I had a very symptomatic and difficult taper) but something changed and although I was scared of finishing my taper and the "fear of the unknown" post benzos, many of my physical and mental s/x began to lighten up.  I feel like I got a bit of a break.  Some people find their symptoms worsen as they get into lower doses, but all and all I found the opposite and was pleasantly surprised.  I remember the last week of my taper I was even able to go to a kids birthday party (for my daughter's friend) and there were 50 odd people there, screaming kids, drums being played, etc, and I got through the entire party - we were even the last to leave.   

 

I hope that helps...the symptoms I had towards the end were some nausea, mod. anxiety, bladder spasms (frequent urination with the spasms) and adrenaline rushes.  I had other s/x as well but these were the most prominent.  And keep in mind my taper was VERY symptomatic - 20-30+ symptoms.  So this is coming from someone who had a pretty difficult time. 

 

All my best...the good news is that as I approach the 16 month mark I am currently seeing a lot of healing and although I still hit waves that are hard at times, I am getting MUCH better in so many ways.

 

Take care,

Schatje

I'm now in the low 3's from 40mg (4mg Ativan c/o).  A lot of the worst symptoms have passed.  I have another medical condition that's complicating the taper and are very similar to w/d symptoms so sometimes it's hard to know if it's w/d or my thyroid levels are off.  But for the most part, while I can't go much faster than I have during most of the taper, when the other condition is under control, I deal with less w/d symptomology.  Early on and for a good part of the taper, I had significantly difficult mornings.  That has become much more managable.

 

Also, my body is very aware after about 4 days that I did a drop, but it's not the same experience as most of  the way down.  I still get tired and look like crap 4 -8 days in but the cog fog doesn't seem as extreme, I actually sleep better now than before, not great, but I'm not waking up every morning between 2:30 and 4:30 am, and if I do I can go back to sleep.

 

The hard part for me is being so close but not there yet, so I have to continuously remind myself to take it slow.  When I push it, which I seem to have even more of a desire to do now, I have to hold in the reigns.

 

All in all it's still noticable, but many things have improved at this low dose.  I had a struggle @ 9 mg and then again @ 5 but now I just cut week by week and look forward to this being done.

 

I am not a doctor but a lot of symptoms are DIAZAPAM  withdrawal symptoms and the same as Graves

 

What do you think ??

I am not a doctor but a lot of symptoms are DIAZAPAM  withdrawal symptoms and the same as Graves

 

What do you think ??

Without question!

 

Grave's causes:

Fatigue

Severe anxiety (frequently misdiagnosed as GAD etc)

Muscle wasting/joint pain

panic attacks

Cortisol and Adreniline rushes

weight loss/ weight gain

Tachychardia

 

I could go on... but sound familar? lol

 

 

I'm on 6mg from 60mg of valium.  I'm having a terrible time with dp/dr, depression, anxiety, agitation, and intrusive thoughts.  But I was in terrible tolerence withdrawal when I started my taper.  So there hasn't been a time during my taper where I felt any better.  I just need to get off all together I think.

 

Much healing to you all. 

Again I hear in your comments you want to do this FAST

 

That is not the way a slow tapper allowing your body to adjust to the decreased amount in your body is best

 

Otherwise you are just putting yourself through stuff you do not need to go through

 

You have been on a very high does so give yourself a break

 

Go slow Like I said 10% is good and you can hang on the cuts a longer time till your body adjusts

 

 

Think about it This is good advice You are not in a race and if you drop too fast you may have some real serious problems including a seizure

I've been holding for 2 months with no reduction in sx's.  I'm still gonna go slow though.  I'll just listen to my body.

Yes it is going to go slow but remember at the end there is a great reward BENZO free

 

No more a slave to Benzo the Dragon

 

 

I know of a couple of people who started out on moderate to high doses of Diazepam and as long as they went slow enough, they actually felt better when they got lower in dose.

 

This was the case with me and Klonopin (Clonazepam).... I titrated very slowly and wasn't all that stable at first but by my 2nd year into the taper I was functioning almost normally on a day to day basis with some hiccups around my period times. When I got in the very low doses I should have slowed down but I got over confident.

 

I wonder if anyone else other than those who spoke up here has felt better as they went down?