03-24-2017, 03:39 PM
I have 'quit' cold-turkey about 4 times over 10 years. with alprazolam, I experience no w/d whatsoever except a little anxiety and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night sweating-this would usually last only a week or so. After that, nothing. Only a psychological craving to have some if I'm going to be in a social situation with strangers since I only have social anxiety and not much else.
With diazepam it's roughly the same, except I would taper down to about 20 mg per day and then just stop. Of course I exercise about 5 times a week so I think, at least for me, the magic comes from constantly making my body produce endorphins to help compensate for the loss of them after I would stop taking the benzos, and of course, valium has the longest half life so by the time it was finally out of my system I would already feel back to my old self.
The only benzo that gave me terrible w/d was clonazepam, and despite exercise, drinking lots of water, getting my electrolytes-after stopping cold turkey I spent a good 6-7 days puking my brains out. Stomach would not hold down any food and eventually I started throwing up so much I couldn't even sip water without throwing up 3 times the amount of liquid. Lost about 15 lbs. in one week but the 'flu' finally subsided and once everything was out of my system I stayed away from benzos for about 4 months before starting Xanax again.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones because at the time I was unaware that the w/d could actually lead to death. Best advice is do a slow taper on valium and make sure you are exercising and drinking lots of fluids, water, Gatorade, etc.
And I don't think most people understand when others say exercise. It needs to be INTENSE exercise where you SWEAT and are exhausted by the end of a workout, because that is the feeling that gets your own endorphins getting back into your system. Jogging around the block a couple times a week won't cut it. I know it's hard when you already feel like crap, but that's what it takes in my opinion.
With diazepam it's roughly the same, except I would taper down to about 20 mg per day and then just stop. Of course I exercise about 5 times a week so I think, at least for me, the magic comes from constantly making my body produce endorphins to help compensate for the loss of them after I would stop taking the benzos, and of course, valium has the longest half life so by the time it was finally out of my system I would already feel back to my old self.
The only benzo that gave me terrible w/d was clonazepam, and despite exercise, drinking lots of water, getting my electrolytes-after stopping cold turkey I spent a good 6-7 days puking my brains out. Stomach would not hold down any food and eventually I started throwing up so much I couldn't even sip water without throwing up 3 times the amount of liquid. Lost about 15 lbs. in one week but the 'flu' finally subsided and once everything was out of my system I stayed away from benzos for about 4 months before starting Xanax again.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones because at the time I was unaware that the w/d could actually lead to death. Best advice is do a slow taper on valium and make sure you are exercising and drinking lots of fluids, water, Gatorade, etc.
And I don't think most people understand when others say exercise. It needs to be INTENSE exercise where you SWEAT and are exhausted by the end of a workout, because that is the feeling that gets your own endorphins getting back into your system. Jogging around the block a couple times a week won't cut it. I know it's hard when you already feel like crap, but that's what it takes in my opinion.