10-10-2019, 07:54 AM
I speak about this with caution as I myself had 3 monster seizures withdrawing off benzos which I had used both for sleep and for daytime anxiety control. I have a close friend who has been on 30mg of Valium every day for 4 years. It was 100 percent a 30mg daily dose of diazepam. 3 doses of 10mg split up throughout the day. The person knew it wasn’t sustainable anymore because they were initially prescribed it for something terrible that was going on in their life but that stressor is not there anymore and the person was simply taking the Valium to prevent withdrawals, not to actually treat anxiety and panic. It was simply that if the person went a day without them, they would start getting that anxiousness we all fear. Anyhow this person said they did not want to taper and wanted to go cold turkey. I pleaded with the person not to. This individual knew I had 3 seizures coming off benzos but the person said they will never do a taper as it will fail and it’s either they stay on or come off. So the person stops the Valium cold. It takes 3 or 4 days for the real terrible stuff to happen. The person works in a health profession and had to leave work immediately as the withdrawals set in. This person bravely went through 8 days of torture and finally on the 9 th day after the withdrawal started, they could tell the worst was behind them. I witnessed this with my own two eyes. 20mg propranolol every 6 hours for the worst of the withdrawal is all that was used to get through it. Two nights trazadone was used at 100mg for sleep. Another night serequel was used at 50mg to sleep. That’s it. The anxiety and panic was brutal. The person looked very sick and was in horrific condition but they made it. It’s been 4 months and the person is totally benzo free. No lingering anxiety either. Amazing. I think even as bad as the suffering was for this person and it was painful to watch, it wasn’t anything like what I went through because while this person took more than me during the day, I was abusing halcion, midazolam and other things out of desperation to sleep. The reason I’m posting this is it can be done. It will be a tough period of time but sometimes the withdrawals can last less than we think.