Question coming off valium, please share You're experience

[bBarry]

Have leveled out on 5 mg. The first few days at this dose was rough. Been feeling better for a couple days. I've been at 5mg for 5 or 6 days. Holding for at least another 4 days before I start shaving a little off. My worst problems are foot and leg cramps at night and night sweats, then feeling chilly with sometimes burning cold feet during the day (could be from frostbite as a kid in Michigan). Are those normal w/d symptoms? They are driving me crazy cause it's every night. Need a break from these symptoms. Do I wait until those go away to make another cut? The sweating has been ongoing but the foot and calf cramps are a new symptom for the past week or so. Been trying to drink water but it seems to go through me fast

Please don't say get a Doctors help. I have tried and they won't. They told me to stop at 5mg. Would you stop at 5mg? They (2 different Doctors offices) told me to go down 5 mg a week until I got to 5 for a week, then stop. They have given me no help and I asked for help tapering point blank, except they both gave me 5mg tabs once they could see I wanted to taper and they both knew the other had given me some. I am not scamming anyone, I am up front about everything, don't want anyone saying I am working Doctors. The Doctors in my area know how to get you on the meds but don't care how you stop, or seem to know anything about a slow taper. They are used to getting people on suboxone. This is the only place I have received any help and I am so thankful for you guys. Just in need of a little more help today. feel like something the cat dragged in.

Been up a couple hours and my feet still ache from sleeping and cramping so hard. I put a new unwrapped bar of Ivory Soap down by my feet under the blankets for a couple nights and it helped. The first night it helped the foot cramps until I kicked it on the floor, forgot to use it last night. The second night I put it at knee level and didn't kick it out, had no cramps when the soap was between the sheets. Maybe this would help someone else, if it is in fact from w/d's. Didn't use the soap last night and it was pretty bad. Taking some herbs, gotta get some GABA and PABA, I hear those help. They are pretty cheap from swanson.

Any advice will be really appreciated. Feel free to pm me. I'd really like to know if I am the only one with these symptoms coming off Valium, or if it's something else.

[bBarry]

meegWpaw, Congrats for getting out of Cold Country! I would imagine that living in this horrible cold has a lot to do with my feet. lol  Thanks for your comments. I would like to get off at 5, I hate the thought of dragging it out but I had a heart attack in 2011 and am supposed to take metoprolol for irregular HB.. I don't, can't breathe on it. It's a little scary getting off valium after 12 or more years. About kicking benzos, my brother kicks xanax every month.
Thanks for responding

Sonrissa The soap was handed down from my Grandmother. I tried it another time when my potassium was low and it worked like a charm, I was amazed. Try it, You'll like it! I don't think it has to be Ivory we just had some in the cupboard. It's a little harder keeping it where I put it tapering. I must thrash around a lot and had it between my feet, not smart, kicked it out and the cramps set in. Just moving it up to knee level made all the difference and it still worked, no foot cramps while the bar of soap is in there for me.

Lilly, Thanks again. I like the idea of stopping at 2.5. Sounds good to me. I plan to order some GABA and a couple other herbs with my next Swanson order. I had never heard of it so I checked it out when you mentioned it before. It sounds like just what the Dr ordered. Thanks!

NeverAgain Thanks for responding. I have gotten down to two 7.5 Norco's a day over the past few years. Last week I went back to 3 a day but didn't feel any better so back to 2 a day I went. I go so long between doses that I am near withdrawal when I take it. I take one about 11 am and the other around 5 pm. It's rough. I'll probably be looking you up when I want that hydro monkey since 1992 off my back. It doesn't take my pain away anymore, I just take it so I dont go into w/d on top of the Valium. I don't take it at night because I'm asleep, I feel fine asleep. When I wake up I'm cold, nose starts to run within 15 minutes. I thought I would start with the longest, hardest w/d,, benzo's, so the other ones might not seem so bad, especially at the levels I'm at now. I reduced hydro and codeine over years, not months.

There is no way to pick a best answer, you guys are all so kind. Thanks from the bottom of my messed up heart.

Barry

[NeverAgain127]

Hi honey.  I'm sorry you aren't getting support from any physicians.  That really sux.

I've been told that the guidelines on this forum prohibit us from giving tapering advice.   We aren't doctors' we can't possibly know your situation.

That being said...I did look up Diazepam and read that it has a fairly long half-life.  That is good news for you in terms of withdrawal.   I also read that the longer one has been on them, the greater the chance of unpleasant symptoms upon cessation.

If your doctors as positive you as safe jumping off at 5 mgs, you may just have to suck it up and do it.   I'm on day 65 of opiate withdrawal, and my acute physical symptoms were pretty awful for the first 15-16 days, but then they got much, much better.

There are others on here who I'm sure have more experience with this than I do.   I take a benzo too...Clonazepam.  I take between .5 mg and 1 mg and not every day.  


What was the Valium initially prescribed for?   My benzo is for panic attacks which are absolute horrible...literally the worst thing I've ever experienced in my entire life, including 25 hours of labor w/no drugs.  I'd rather go thru 100 opiate withdrawals than a panic attack...but I digress...

I've heard about the Ivory Soap thing...it seems very "old wives tale" but, as someone who has a degree in pharmacology (but I'm NOT currently a pharmacist) I'll bet it has some sort of basis in chemistry...fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say.

Good luck and I hope you keep posting.

Hugs,
-R.

[Lilly1955]

Some people stop at 2.5. I have used valerian root as well as the GABA. At night trazodone (non addicting prescription) valerian root and melatonin. Warm Epsom salt baths and massage for  legs.

[Sonrissa]

Hi Barry,  I'm sorry I've never taken Valium, so I can't give you any advice on that. I think Meegy gave you some good advice.

Can you explain the thing with the Ivory Soap?  Is it a plain bar of Ivory Soap? It helps with Restless legs and leg/feet cramps? I must say, I've never heard of this before.  I think it's interresting.

Hang in there. Hopefully others with experience in Valium will weigh in with additional advice. All the best to you.

[meegWpaw]

hey Barry hows it going.  youve been this for a while, eh?  I am pretty sure atb gave you an exhaustive list of withdrawal symptoms, but have you read about the Ashton Manual?  you might want to check it out online if you haven't.  there is a lot of research and help out there re:  benzos.  I have taken a lot of benzos in the past, was on many different ones for many years.  when i ct'd, since i didnt know you had to taper, it was hell.  i had just about every w/d symptom in the book.  however im not sure about the foot thing.  I guess i have had some of what you describe but for me it was mostly RLS in my feet, probably from opiate w/ds.  regarding that issue, if the soap thing is working, dont mess with it.  make sure you do it every night and do it in the way that works, ie so you won't kick it out of bed ...

regarding the stopping at 5 mg ... to tell you the truth my inclination would be to stop, as that is a pretty low dose.  however, you need to consider all the factors:  age, duration of use, etc.  i had a friend who tapered off benzos to the very last little slice, like a quarter of a pill or something.  why not take it all the way down, youve come this far.  Idk if im allowed to say that so maybe this will be taken off.  just my opinion ...

benzo withdrawal is a bich.  you have to be patient, and give it time.  i know the w/ds sukk, but what's the alternative??  you are doing great, keep going.

i grew up in MI, in the suburbs outside Detroit.  cold!!!!  take it ez.  good luck.