05-18-2016, 12:24 AM
I have a tendency to ramble so apologies in advance but maybe i can be of help.
After 2 years, diaz again is your best bet. Are you familiar with the Ashton method?
I know that most people familiar with benzos are familiar with the method but just in case, please don't consider the following to be patronizing. Also, this IS IN NO WAY PERSONAL MEDICAL ADVICE. I will provide a source at the end from which you can draw your own conclusions.
The Ashton method (named for the UK professor Heather Ashton whom was the driving force in the development of this practice, not that that's important currently) involves a slow taper from long acting benzos. Since long term use of benzodiazepines interferes with the body's GABA production, most rebound symptoms are actually caused by under production of GABA by the user's body.
Benzodiazepine equivalency isn't a precise thing but it's generally accepted that ROUGHLY 1mg alprazolam= 1mg clonazepam= .75mg lorazepam= 10mg diazepam (just for examples of the 4 "big guys" and this comparison also varies from source to source and also depends on a person's physiology as well). Because of this it's generally a switch from clonazepam or, as is your case, alprazolam to diazepam because of the dosages.
Let's say you take a dose of alprazolam 3 times a day. Since diazepam is longer acting, you'd be a drooling mass of sleeping for days if you replaced all 3 doses with diazepam at once so you'd switch one dose a day out over a few weeks.
Once all daily doses are switched to the longer acting med, you very slowly taper your dose down, 1-2mg every one to three weeks. Once you've gotten yourself down to where you'd like to be, you can stay with diazepam or switch back to alprazolam, whatever you feel comfortable with.
This is meant to be a permanent solution but in my experiences there is no finality to dependence on alprazolam. To be totally honest, this can take up to 60 weeks to comfortably get to a small, manageable dosage. I personally have gone through this process myself 3 times though I must admit they were all significantly shorter periods of time because of relatively small doses. I do adore this method and the professor responsible for its creation, benzo dependency can cause a lot of problems and is only comparable to what I imagine he'll to be.
Oh, it also may be worth looking into chlordiazepoxide (Librium). I know that can be helpful with some people.
I'm not sure if it's alright to post links so I'm sorry if I'm breaking a rule I overlooked but this is a short guide to this method. http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/
After 2 years, diaz again is your best bet. Are you familiar with the Ashton method?
I know that most people familiar with benzos are familiar with the method but just in case, please don't consider the following to be patronizing. Also, this IS IN NO WAY PERSONAL MEDICAL ADVICE. I will provide a source at the end from which you can draw your own conclusions.
The Ashton method (named for the UK professor Heather Ashton whom was the driving force in the development of this practice, not that that's important currently) involves a slow taper from long acting benzos. Since long term use of benzodiazepines interferes with the body's GABA production, most rebound symptoms are actually caused by under production of GABA by the user's body.
Benzodiazepine equivalency isn't a precise thing but it's generally accepted that ROUGHLY 1mg alprazolam= 1mg clonazepam= .75mg lorazepam= 10mg diazepam (just for examples of the 4 "big guys" and this comparison also varies from source to source and also depends on a person's physiology as well). Because of this it's generally a switch from clonazepam or, as is your case, alprazolam to diazepam because of the dosages.
Let's say you take a dose of alprazolam 3 times a day. Since diazepam is longer acting, you'd be a drooling mass of sleeping for days if you replaced all 3 doses with diazepam at once so you'd switch one dose a day out over a few weeks.
Once all daily doses are switched to the longer acting med, you very slowly taper your dose down, 1-2mg every one to three weeks. Once you've gotten yourself down to where you'd like to be, you can stay with diazepam or switch back to alprazolam, whatever you feel comfortable with.
This is meant to be a permanent solution but in my experiences there is no finality to dependence on alprazolam. To be totally honest, this can take up to 60 weeks to comfortably get to a small, manageable dosage. I personally have gone through this process myself 3 times though I must admit they were all significantly shorter periods of time because of relatively small doses. I do adore this method and the professor responsible for its creation, benzo dependency can cause a lot of problems and is only comparable to what I imagine he'll to be.
Oh, it also may be worth looking into chlordiazepoxide (Librium). I know that can be helpful with some people.
I'm not sure if it's alright to post links so I'm sorry if I'm breaking a rule I overlooked but this is a short guide to this method. http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/