Valium Withdrawal

[MrKlown]

Hello, I would like to first say that this may be the wrong forum since I never did abuse this medication. I was given this medicine about 1 year ago and was prescribed as needed. As needed turned out to 1 5mg valium per day and has been that way for an extremely long time.  Anyone have any suggestions on quitting this? I tried to drop down to 2.5mg per day and I got so extremely shaky that I thought I was going to have a seizure. My panic disorder was hitting me super hard on the 2.5mg dose too. I am so confused and want help and have even considered a detox center but afraid of them because my friend went to one that was addicted to a benzo and he was completely yanked off of them and even had seizures. I don't want this to happen to me. Any advice?

[dominosarah]

Is there some other medication they could give you for panic attacks??

[dominosarah]

I have a friend who is currently tapering and he is going down .5mg every couple weeks.  You may want to try that.  That wouldnt be such a big jump for you.  There will be more people on in the morning as most are in bed and they will be able to give you a taper plan.  I do know you dont want to taper these to fast.  Have you always had panic attacks??

[MrKlown]

Yes but what about my panic disorder? I will be completely unmedicated and my panic disorders change me dramatically. I do want off the valiums, I really really do, it's just, at the same time I don't want my panic disorder to get worse and I know it will because it has been clinically shown to make panic disorder worse after quitting it. I'll check that out though for sure.

[SophieShine]

Hi Mr Klown,

You are at the right place
I have been using 200mg of oxa + 40 mg of tranxene/day for 9 years. I'm tapering down very slowly for 10 months now and I'm 85% down from the initial doses.
If you want real info  about tapering, go to benzo.org.uk, You'll find the Ashton manual. there you can find all the tapering programs you can dream of. the usual tapering shedule is 20% a week but you really gotta listen to your body and be honest with yourself and, after a while, you'll "feel" when it's time to go down. I wish you all the luck and if you need more advice, fell free to msg me. You can do this. xxx. sophie

[MrKlown]

That is a smart idea about the 4, 3, 2, 1. The only problem imadoit28 is that my panic disorder is going to come back with a vengeance regardless and that is the tough part. The seizures and possible death suck but the panic disorder is ugh. Even on valium I have panic attacks just not as often so it helps me able to deal with it. I shouldn't even need a benzo at 25 and I dunno what I did to deserve panic disorder but I do know that I got it. Mom tells me to go to church which yeah ok I would only the preacher told me he didn't want a gay person in there so that is out of the question. I had actually considering that cutting the 5mg down to 2.5 was a bit much and often wondered if taking 2 2.5mg pills, once in a morning, once in the evening would help change it any. I would think it would but I don't know. Rather not even talk to the doctor about it to be honest because I know my doctor and he's a very old angry man and will cut me off cold turkey.

[imadoit28]

from what ive heard drugs like valium and xanax can cause seizures when you quit cold turkey but if you taper slower i think cutting in half was maybe a little to much you should be fine i would talk to your primary doctor rather than go to a detox center and see what his advice is ...i had a friend taking about 3 times that a day adn he quit and was just very sick shakey for about a week ...i think that if you cut back slower have ur doc prescribe the 2 mg pills i beleive they make and then take 4 mg for a week then 3 and so on is what id suggest...good luck though and u be aight