Valium taper/withdrawal help! Gabapentin taper help!

Wow that's allot of medicine yu got to keep up with I have been on Klonopin for about 15 years and I need it as needed..I do not take it everyday and I am fine never any withdrawals at all. I'm just curious what all do you have wrong with you? that may be a better form to your question as to how much of your medicine you need to come off,It could do your body more harm by stopping them all than to keep taking them.

The max you should take of Gabapentin is 300mg three times,a day. My consultant made the Dr see he was over dosing me. Xx

Check it out with your,Dr or even better another GP in your practice xx

Hi Ivan

I completely understand what your saying mate and it sounds like there is a very strong psychological addiction (for lack of a better word.

​I have had similar expierences myself with various benzos (diaz, alprazolam, lorazapam ect ect) Also same with the anti D's. Have a chat with your DR about switching from Valium( diazapam) to chlordizipoxide( Librium) and from Gabapentin to pregabalin. I found the Librium 5-10mg 3 x daily just as effective as around 2mg of diazapam. Same with the Gaba. They are like starter/tapering benzo's/opioid lol. It's difficult to say as you don't mention why your on these meds? However I can make a fairly educated guess   one final thing, reduce at a rate YOUR comfortable with. Keep on putting one foot in front of the other it does get easier, that I can guarantee. Hope this helps and you start to feel better soon

Hi all, thanks for the comments. I am on these meds for many anxiety related issues. A psychological dependence is definetley there, and I know it. I was able to get rid of the opiates I was taking for a year (not Rxed), but thats a different story that I've had to overcome first. My benzos and gaba are rxed, I have been on them for more than 6 years. As of today I tapered to 6mg daily of Diazepam and 8 months ago taking 40mg felt like candy! Wow, that's a lot of progress. Its not at all easy. I saw my doctor the other day, I told him its been very very hard for me. He recommended I taper like I am right now, 0.5mg of Diazepam cut every 10-14 days, at my comfortable level. However, when I go below 4mg of Diazepam, the 0.5mg cuts will be greatly than a 10% reduction. I asked him for a liquid, he said he's never heard of such a thing! Apparently he's not the type of Dr. to taper off of drugs. At least he was able to give me 2mg tablets, so I am okay only as of now. I don't know what will happen later on in my taper, doesn't look good without liquid. Also craig, I have taken Lyrica before, it felt like Gaba and it is similar, I've heard its more addictive though... does it really help with the taper? Librium is good but the down side is that its a capsule and I don't think I'll be able to get an equivilent of less than 0.5mg of Valium from it.

Hi Ivan

​well done dropping from 40mg to 6mg in a reatively short amount of time thats a HUGH difference Have you tried just concentrating on tapering one at a time. I would suggest reducing the Gaba 1st as 3200mg is incredibly high daily dose, whilst keeping or maybe (if needed) incresing the valium to "balance it out". Either way there is going to be some unplesant withdrawal symptoms. Have you tried any cbt or nlp therapy these worked wonders for me, and it helps alot having a strong support network of people who know exactly what your going through. As far as gaba/pregaba go. Given the dose your on it's a moot point as to weather one is more addictive than the other as the dependancy is already there, and what worked for me won't necessarily work for you I myself am on about 15-20mg of librium having come down off 80mg valium, admittedly I wasn't on it as long as you and I found the worst thing (by far) was the night sweats and nightmares. There were a few sleepless nights but persevere you CAN do it.  Again hope this gives you some light at the end of a long tunnel your not alone mate

 

Wow, that is a lot of Valium..not saying I haven't reached or surpassed that amount...40mg was my "prescribed amount" however, I rarley took that in a day, I had my fair shair of Tranquilizer and Opiate abuse these last few years however, I managed to get past it and go down to 40mg daily base and since April, taper that. What is the librium equivilent to valium. They can be really confusing and its always bugged me because I used to be on Klonopin and I know for a fact its equal potent to Xanax. So is 10mg of Valium = 0.5 xanax/klonopin or 1mg? I find that sauna helps a little for detox, I went today for 35 minutes. Also eating healthy and taking magnesium and Valerian, melatonin (for sleep). I never had trouble sleeping since tapering that much even though I used to be presecribed major sedatives for sleep...Chloral Hydrate, Temazepam, ambien. I have gone cold turkey from gaba before, when i ran out and it was very intense...I know realize that was dangerous. I am concentration on the Valium however, I hope, really hope that the gaba is nothing like benzos...I just want somebody kinda to let me it wil be easier. These pills are awful. 

Google Benzodiazepine Equivalent Chart

​10mg diaz=25mg librium=.5 klonpin/xanax  the main difference between diaz and librium is the elimnation half lives diaz is 20-100hr and librium is 5-30hr. What that means in real terms is that it takes almost 4 times longer for the diaz to leave your system. Why thats a problem is that diaz is an anxiolytic, anticonvulsant and a muscle relaxant (completely tranquilizes cns)where as librium is only an anxiolytic. It's the anticonvulsant and muscle relaxing qualities that your most aware of and when levels are low anxiety increases. Librium has very little if any withdrawal if you miss a dose for example. I'm now at a level that I take it when i can "feel" it coming on and sometimes I go a few days without taking any, all depends whats going on in other aspects of life. Chlordizepoxide is avail in 2/5/10mg capsules so would be ideal as you can make up equivilent diaz dose and reduce in smaller increments. I would of thought a "detox" programme dosage would be your best bet example 20mgx4x3days (longer if needs) then drop 5mg from the afternoon dose x3days and so on. Have a chat with Dr he should be trying his best to get you of the vallies, and tbh librium is the lesser of 2 evils

 

I thought kava and valerian interacted with the benzo drugs and increased their potency? How much and what kind of magnesium do you take? Magnesium helps to come off of gabapentin. Google it. My doc tried me on 100mg of gabapentin and I slept a little more, but it made me nauseated and dizzy. Did you have any problem going on it? Pharmacist said it would get better the longer I take it, but I've also read sometimes it doesn't. I'm on klonipin.5mg a day . Is it easier to titrate off the Valium! My anxiety is very high right now and doc is trying or wants to try seroquel, gabapentin or Latuda. Then when I get stable taper me off of Paxil onto another SSRI. I think I'm in tolerance withdrawal from the benzo because I've gone from .125mg to .5 mg since July. I have been on it since about 10 years.

Kava and Valerian do not interact with Valium. They help with anxiety on dosage reductions. It sounds like your getting used to your Klonopin which unfortunelty might mean dependence in most cases. Do not up your dose if its not working, this will just make the taper harder for you in the future. Klonopin is a potent Benzo, far more potent than Valium. 0.5 mg of Klonopin = 10 mg Valium. I reduced my Valium to 5.5mg which is equalivent to 0.275 mg Klonopin daily. I used to take 2-3mg of Klonopin a day and 10mg of Valium with it, then I switched to just 40mg of Valium for some time and started tapering from 40mg in April (all of these were prescribed to me), as of December I am at 5.5 mg.  I reduce by 0.5 mg diazepam now and it is very hard between days 3 and 7! I think I will titrate somehow I dont't know yet, I'm kinda stuck getting a good new job and all. Do not get hooked on Gabapentin, it is an addictive drug, if I were you, I'd stay away or use it with caution, also 100mg is an insignifcant dose, I am on 3,200mg a day and do not feel any anxiety relief which was its intention. I'm not sure how much mg my magnisum is, but its good to know that it helps with Gaba withdrawal, It will not be as bad coming off of it as Valium my pharmacist said even though I am on high doses for a very long time, it is not an addictive drug like Valium nontheless, it will have some discomfort upon taper. I had stoped Paxil in a weeks time in the past, the withdrawal was awful. Seroquel just makes you really sedated and makes you gain weight, also you cannot concentrate on it, I have taken it, it was very strong and worthless, no anxiety relief, it just made me into a zombie. Valium is supposebly the easiest Benzo to come off, and I'm having a lot of trouble with coming off with the slightest dose decrease, even as low as my dose is now. It has not been good, for now I'm holding and I will figure something out. The best medication is Meditation and Yoga, nothing else will help feel better, especially chemicals even though we do need them sometimes but must be used responsibly.