Valium/Diazepam Support Group

Winnie, what antibiotic were you taking? And if you don’t mind my asking what was the infection?

Does anyone else get a headache immediately after taking their Valium dose??

 

Ever since I crossed over, I’ve been getting a headache after take the Valium pill

 

I didn’t have this on the liquid Ativan

 

Actually my cross went so bad, that I’m stuck on both

 

I need to decide which direction to go and I’ve started to realize that this headache happens with Valium.

 

Any thoughts? What the heck is this??

 

I have to decide soon, as I need to get off this poison

 

So if anyone else had this, could you reassure me that it will go away or is normal, it kind of hurts - like a lot for hours.

 

Thanks.

Winnie

They gave me amoxicillin for a sinus infection and then azithromycin for suspected pneumonia from suspected covid in spring of 2020.

 

I’ve been stuck since.

 

I’ve come to realize this was a sitting duck for 14 years!!

 

I just have to get better. I need to get back to my high paying job and get my life back.

 

 

Ugh. I have a UTI and it’s a bacteria strain that macrobid doesn’t work on, so I will have to take something else (I’m also pregnant so that limits my options more).

Congrats!!

 

It does seem like you’ll have to take something

 

You should be fine, I’ve taken antibiotics multiple times in the last 15 years, it was just last spring that set me off!!

 

Good luck.

 

You are so close to being done, yeah!!

Hello!  I recently went through an episode where I started tapering down way too quickly from 1mg of Klonopin down to .5 then .375 and just decided to stop because I seemed fine.  I woke up in the middle of the night having very hard and fast heart palpitations, my arms and legs were cramped up and burning, it was hard to breathe, my chest was tight and I was basically convlusing.  I have been on benzos for years.  I was getting off of them because I wanted not to rely on them anymore.  I took .375 after the cold turkey episode and it calmed me down but I was afraid to go to sleep so I never did after.  I started having air hunger on .375 and went back up to .5.  Nothing was any better and I had severe panic attacks for several hours each night keeping my fiancée awake and with my parents on the phone, thinking I needed to go to the hospital.  After going to urgent care a few days later everything checked out fine and I have seen that it is a very common symptom of benzo withdrawal.  After I realized that I wanted to take 1mg to really check if that's what it was and I felt way better.

 

I started taking 1mg for about a week and thought that I just needed to "recover" from the cold turkey episode and theb get off of them much more slowly.  I decided that I would use the Ashton Method so my doctor switched me over to 20mg of Valium.  I have been on Valium before and I thought that the slow cross over would be unnecessary as long as there were benzos in my system, but I was wrong.  I experienced another feeling of cold turkey from Klonopin while on 20mg of Valium, so then I decided to cross over more slowly. Which I still did too fast. In about 9 days rather than the recommended 28 or so.

 

My question is this: I have now been on Valium for 29 days, and off of Klonopin for 19 days.  My understanding was that Valium's active metabolite desmethyldiazepam should have maintained steady blood levels by 4 weeks in order to protect me from the Klonopin withdrawals.  However, I am still having air hunger and chest pain and it is driving me crazy.  Has anybody else had issues with cross over that persisted beyond a month and then calmed down after that?  Does anybody have more information about desmethyldiazepam and how long it may take for some individuals to build up?  Could it take longer than a month?  Have any of you felt withdrawals from Klonopin underneath Valium for longer than a month after switching and did it ease up?  And once the Klonopin withdrawals were over did you feel that the Valium quelled symptoms of remaining anxiety so that a long taper could feel more manageable?

Hi tenpercent,

I'm so sorry for your sufferings!  I did a much slower c/o (5 weeks) and of course, suffered Klon withdrawals.  It took me several months to feel more "normal" even though I felt stabilized and much relief after the 5 weeks.  And yes, then I was able to resume a taper on the Valium way more easily.  My anxiety was better, I was more calm, and so many of my symptoms that I had while trying to taper Klonopin went away or lessened.  I was able to gain 35 pounds back which helped a lot.  I know the c/o period is really rough for many and it seems that now, your brain/body is trying to just settle down.  Hopefully it will!

 

Hang in there!

Thank you so much for your response.  Did you experience any air hunger or chest pains from the Klonopin withdrawals?  It's definitely encouraging to hear that though!  I have been feelinf hopeless since after 4 weeks I haven't had relief.  But to know that it can take longer helps.  I do wish I crossed over much more slowly but... nothing I can do about that now.  😕 But at the same time glad to have the terrible Klonopin out of my system as long as I can get stabilized soon...

Hey ten - I’m tapering K (considering switching to V) and air hunger is absolutely one of my symptoms. It comes and goes. Usually only hangs around ~4 days at most. Truly terrifying one.

Hang in there.

I didn't have that symptom but had others.  We are all so different.

Thank you Treelover. I hope you can hang in there too!  Definitely terrifying.  It has not gone away for me at all. It is there 24/7 but just worsend in severity at times.. I really hope it goes away. And if you do switch to V then definitely do the cross over slowly!!! I made the mistake of going way too fast

Hi,

 

This would be a question to anyone who's been kindled after several tapers and going off the medication and on again and to those who suffered a cold turkey or rapid taper in the past with the result of glutamate damage due to spending some time in acute withdrawal and then reinstated. This is how I define my brain's state.

 

I'm tapering again ever so slowly and carefully. My life circumstances require that I am as functional as possible and I can not afford to be disabled or go back to the awful state I was in two years ago when my last taper went wrong.

 

I have come off this medication numerous times before but my brain has simply changed and a normal taper is no longer doable.

 

I am really struggling to decipher what part of my symptoms is coming from the glutamate damage and not from the withdrawal from the last cuts. I still experienced these symptoms during seven month holds, so I know a lot of it is not withdrawal. However, as I've made a few cuts int he past months, I suppose some of it or a lot of my symptoms could be withdrawal.

 

With this uncertainty, I am afraid to make a cut as maybe my symptoms are warning me not to cut yet, but I'm also not sure if the symptoms are mostly the old glutamate damage and then I could probably tolerate a 0.10 mgs cut every three weeks. I'm really at a crossroads with this. I wonder if anyone can relate to what I'm going through. Thank you for reading.

Hey all, I'm currently on 5 mg of valium in the morning and 4 mg of valium in the evening. I'm cutting 1 mg every 2 weeks. I discussed with my addiction specialist on what to do with the last few milligrams and mentioned a microtaper. She said her clients tapered 2 mg every 2 weeks of valium and went from 2 mg to 0 mg without problems afterwards. I said I read online that a microtaper is recommended for the last few milligrams and she said we can taper 0.5mg the last 2 or 4 milligrams. So going from 4 to 3.5 to 3.0 and so on till 0. Is this recommended? What do you guys and gals think of this?

 

Thank you.

I've seen people do fine on this - it's all going to depend on how sensitized you are.  She should be open to a patient-led taper as those are the ones with the most success.  Hope you are doing well, Nikitis!

Ok, so after weighing options with how to proceed in my K taper, I have decided to cross over to liquid Valium. My psychiatrist recommended 5mg bid of V starting with pm dose (or part of pm dose).

I don’t want to overshoot and lose the incredible amount of work that has gone into tapering this low.

 

Current k = 0.163 mg split every 12 hours (10a and 10p)

Current symptoms: inter dose WD feeling anxious and dizzy, DP/DR at 0900 in the morning then again from 1-5pm after 10 am dose.

I work and that 1-5 window is rough. I don’t want to get up from my desk to do anything because I’m floaty boaty.

 

So. From 0.163mg (0.082mg per dose) how could I approach this crossover?

I’m incredibly sensitive to every drop in K dose.

I have been doing 2% per month and still struggling.

 

Momof7 any advice? What can I expect with this crossover? What did you do? What do you wish you knew before starting?

Any help or opinions is appreciated.

 

New rx is for Valium 1mg/ml liquid

 

there is a specific support group on one of the pages called valium crossover or something, you may have to look a few pages deep but id read through all those posts, helpful information there.

I found it and bumped it for you, it’s at the top of page 1 now

Thank you! Thought this was that 😬

it’s ok, yeah this site doesn’t seem to be as active as it once was, just thought id help, good thing is all these posts are relevant even if dated so that specific group should help, let me know if you have any other questions

Seems like it was a good support for the members who used it in its prime. A bit hard to dig through for info.

I guess I will start with substituting in half of my evening k dose for a week, then full evening dose to V for a week or so.

Then start with half morning dose. Looks like I may not need to dose twice a day once V is up to steady state?

 

Given the half life, I calculate that it could take up to 20 days to reach steady state.

(3-5 half lives to steady state x ~100 hours half life of the main metabolite).

 

 

 

Tree,

I experienced Valium side effects and Klonopin withdrawal symptoms. I was itchy, and my muscles burned and were painful. Several days into the cross of the first dose, I got severe head pressure that lasted a few weeks, at least. It wouldn't subside like normal headaches do for me with Tylenol. I was tired and sleepy. I was confused and a bit out of it but I was much more calm and the interdose withdrawal was gone really quickly. I was so grateful after the full cross that things were so much better for me.  Best wishes. I hope this works well for you.

Thank you 🙏🏼

Hi!  I have been crossed over from klonopin to Valium for over 30 days now and on Valium for more than 40 days.  I crossed over too quickly, but can withdrawals from Klonopin show up underneath the Valium still?  I did a 1:20 replacement and did it in 9 days.  But now it seems like there should have been ample time for the valium/desmethyldiazepam to reach steady levels in my blood.

Anybody?

tenpercents link.  Can you put your bio info. at in your profile. It may help us with your questions.  For example, how much K were you on.  how much did you cross over to.  Maybe they didn't cross you over to enough.  Also, K is way more potent to D or V.  K already has a long half life and can be tapered.