Ryan--Xanax to Valium

[Jade59]

Hey Ryan!   I have chronic sleep problems since childhood and I have been taking short acting benzos for 28yrs at bedtime only.  I have been taking Xanax for almost 13yrs.  I am down from 2.5mgs to 1mg.  I would like to switch to Valium at bedtime.  

We have talked about this once before, but you said between the duration of time and amt of Xanax I was taking, it would be very dangerous to just transfer over to Valium, so I have been working on lowering my mgs for about 5mos.  From the notes I've saved from you, you say 0.25mg of Xanax is equal to 5mg Valium so obviously I would need 20mg Valium.  I currently have 5mg Valium that's been sitting in my drawer just waiting for this day.  I haven't touched it yet.    

The schedules I have seen from you all deal with people taking the benzo throughout the day.  Since I only take it once a day and have taken it for so long, what would be the safest way to transfer to Valium and is it even possible at my current 1mg dose?

Thanks very much in advance and I hope I haven't missed you by waiting too long to post my question.  

[Jade59]

Thank you so much!!  I appreciate the time it took you to type out these two versions.  I trust your opinion and will probably go with the Tranxene suggestion.  I will also go with the longer, less painful schedule since another few months hardly matters at this stage.  I will, or course, print this out and take it to my doctor and hope she is open to the Tranxene.

I quit smoking cigs and weed 8mos ago and now seem to be sleeping better than I have for 30yrs.  I suspect the nicotine and marijuana were interfering with the Xanax.  I had smoked cigs since age 15 and have had insomnia since about then too, so maybe a lot of my sleep issues had to do with nicotine.  Even after taking Xanax for so long, for some reason 1mg seems to be working well enough for me to sleep almost all night lately.  I slept the whole night last night, so maybe this problem is not so ingrained after all.  Sometimes, I feel like I've been granted a miracle!

For you to use the small amount of spare time you have to come on here and help and type out all these schedules just shows what a compassionate person you are and you are going to make a very cool doctor.  I can see why you must move on though because this site doesn't pay very much does it?

Thanks again and you take good care.  

[Jade59]

Hi and thank you for your reply!  I hear you about the benzos, but I've been taking them for so long that at my age, I don't really care about the addiction issue because I will be taking something for sleep for the rest of my life I suspect.  

I googled the Zispen real quick and I see it's Remeron which I have taken and let me say that no AD has ever helped me sleep and I've taken most of the Tricyclics, Remeron, which is a Tetracyclic and most of the SSRI's.  I have been AD free going on 5yrs and I am unwilling to start the whole cycle of dealing with side effects of meds that might not help me sleep in the first place.  No matter how tired I get, I NEVER fall asleep without help.  I can almost be hallucinating and still won't sleep.  I was abused at night as a child and suspect this has a lot to do with my inability to sleep and is probably an ingrained issue.  I have Ambian, which I've taken maybe 3 times.  It does nothing at all.  

Valium is one of the longer acting benzos, so I thought it would be better than the short term Xanax which makes me start feeling the rebound problem along come evening, but not real severe.  Since I would take the Valium once a day and the half life is longer, I thought the rebound issue might be mote.  I am excited to see what Ryan has to say.    

I appreciate your interest in my post.  I would talk to my doctor, but she's no help.  You see how long I've been on Xanax and when I asked for Valium several months ago, she just wrote it out, no questions asked.  She asks ME what I want.  

I'm happy for you, however, that you have successfully gotten off the Xanax.  

Thanks again....

[MrGreen]

Well I was taken straight off of xanax ( in a hospital ) and put on a form of roche. But Valium was there too at first. The whole idea was to have something stronger that could deal with the withdrawl symptoms, and also help me with the problems I was having there and then. Never one for remembering ther medical names of these tablets. But then along came zispin at night time. 15mg to begin with. Is an anti-depressant. But works well with anxiety too. Then they began to lower the roche and up the zispin. As roche and valium are only short term fixes. Zispin sure puts you to sleep. Gives you some freaky nightmares as well. Cool if you are into dreams. But the valium was there only when needed after the first week. I was allowed 3 a day if bad. But I would only ever take 1 because I knew I would have to come off them within a few weeks of starting them. Guess the whole moral of this post is ' why look for a benzo '? Something you will become addicted too. Why not seek out non addictive tablets for longer term use? If you only take it at night after all. Ask you own GP about getting you off xanax and onto something more stable.