Librium Withdraw

[SunDiego609]

I am an alcoholic and my doctor prescribed Librium last May to help with the withdraws so I could quit. Now that I have been sober for awhile I have decided to quit the librium. My docotor weaned me done to 10mg a day, and then 10mg every other day. I did the every other day thing for about four days and then decided I would stop alltogether. By the fourth day the withdraw symtoms were so unbearable and seemed to get worse everyday in stead of getting better, I decided i could go on and went back on the 10 mg again to bring myself back to a confortable level. NOw I'm really depressed and am felling like I will never be able to quit this medication and I feel like it is blocking me from my sobriety and the things that I love to do. My question is what is the best way to tapper off of librium and are there other medications that aren't benzo's that could be substituted? Any help would be appriciated.

Thanks!

[Amphitrite]

Hi, I'm sorry your stuck in such a frustrating situation. Finally being free from the alcohol and now stuck on the lirium.
The thing about Librium is that your body can become dependant within two weeks.

I think on this one you may have to go back to the doc ans ask him to help get you off. The reason I say that is because I'm not sure what's in your best interest when it comes to using another bezo to withdraw from a bezo.
The only way I could see that working(and by no means am I a doc so this is only a thought) is to taper as low as you possibly can and take as little of the other benzo as possible to maintain a semi-functual state so you aren't completely stuck in bed miserable.
Other benzos don't have the same physical dependancy strength and Lirium and it usually takes a bit longer for the body to become dependant on say a valum or xanax. So if you were to only use them in as small a dose as possible for a few days then I would imagine there wouldn't be a need to withdraw off the replacement bezo after the Librium withdrawls have past.

I forget what they use in detox centers for benzo withdrawls. They may do a taper with clonodine(a blood pressure med)

Your doc will know better what options you have at this point. I wish I could give you more suggestions that you could bring back to your doc but I don't know very much about anything else they use for bezo withdrawls other than a slow taper.

I think your doc had you on a pretty good taper but I think you stopped too early and that's why your body had such a bad reaction to lossing the drug.
I know their are 5mg capsuls of Librium so you may want to talk to your doc about restarting the taper and getting down to 5mg every other day or every few days for a while before stopping all together.

I hope you can figure this out with your doc. I'm sure you'll get some other thoughts and suggestions.
I wish you the best and I know you'll get through these and back to doing the things you love.

Amph

[worried878]

yes...talk to ur doctor...there is a website called benzo dot org dot uk and it is very informative...10 mg every other day is a low dose but perhaps too fast...and also i guess u will feel a bit of discomfort when quitting all together no matter what.....librium is one of the weaker benzos...do what u can do and congrats on quitting drinking!  that is a tough one for many

[mtgoat911]

""""". My docotor weaned me done to 10mg a day, and then 10mg every other day. I did the every other day thing for about four days and then decided I would stop alltogether. """"

this is a great taper for librium, and i am so happy to hear you say that you want more from recovery
thats 2 steps in the right direction

what seemed to happen was you got scared and went back up, most people do when they get through with their taper, there is no easy way to jump, follow your doctors plan and when you get back down to every other day, keep 2 pills cutt them in half take 5mgs every day using these 2 pills
then make the jump
do not keep an extra pills, this will make it too easy to spike

i know that most benzo forums say to reduce no more than a few percent eachday
but treatment centers all over the country will addmitt patients with alcholol and xanax addiction, now that the health care system is what it is, they are detoxing most patients in 3 to 7 days, so if a patient can come off of a 20 yr alcohol and xanax binge in 3 to 7 days
you can do this taper, nothing stands in your way
make a plan
flush the rest

good luck