Ashton for diazepam
Posted , 7 users are following.
any advice for this method to help please
0 likes, 14 replies
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Notes on Ashton for diazepam
coby08389 ann55375
Posted
Librium is a shortened name for Chlordiazepoxide - another slow acting benzodiazepine with a similar action to Valium but a shorter half life. That advice doesn't make any sense on any level! The problem people encounter with tapering a benzo is that their GABA has been down regulated. How can another shorted acting drug in the same class make the taper easier?
Follow this advice and you are playing Russian roulette with your life because a fast taper can cause seizure, kindling and a host of other dreadful symptoms that can cause you a great deal of grief for a very long time.
Heather Ashton has helped thousands of people free from these drugs. Do you want to play Russian Roulette or would you like to be safe? It is up to you entirely. Please stay away from people who are clueless about this kind of thing.
coby08389 ann55375
Posted
I am so concerned about the post that you asked questions about that I reported it - as far as I am concerned it is down right irresponsible!
ann55375 coby08389
Posted
oh dear i think you reported my responsible post in error, it was brad who wrote the odd post. all i was asking was if lowering by ASHTON was ok.
richard70589 ann55375
Posted
Hi
Advice is yes it works. Everyone is different.
It gets worse before it gets better. To start I didnt notice it much.
I got transferred on to diazepam. Not as nice as ativan but thats not really the point. Not sure the 1:10 comparison is correct. Maybe less. more than 1:5. Not sure if this transfer was worth the effort.
Under 10mg diazepam got very hard. You also feel like you will never get there - the mathematical theory about crossing a room half then half more etc and never getting to the other side is apt.
I found that the lower it got the worse, so that small reductions were hell. I couldnt sleep well. You are in withdrawaL. Do you split the dose across the day or save it so you can sleep? I couldnt concentrate.
I was anxious and scared. Looking back its hard to believe that was me.I would drop, be OK for best part of a week then spend the next week and a half in withdrawal, then do it again.
Totally understand that you need to taper. It took me about a year. I wonder if I could have done it quicker. In the end even minute reductions freaked me out, so should I have done it quicker? Who knows.
Last (cant remember exactly, say 2mg )I just went cold turkey. It took 3-4 weeks then it was gone. Should I have done it a bit earlier? I think so yes. During this cold turkey part (of 3-4 weeks) I took 10 days off in the middle. I needed that I think. I wondered if I ought to have done it sooner.
Throughout be nice to yourself. Exercise like mad. You can and will get through and you will be pleased you did. You will sometimes wish you were back on them but you cant go back. This is just because they are so effing addictive
I have said this before, but for me I thought quetiapine was a godsend. I got in front of a psych in the end as I was tearing my hair out It took away anxiety and let me sleep. I took a minute dose (half the smallest dose) . It makes you feel a bit groggy in the morning. Its much better than no sleep. I honestly dont think I could have done it without. Its easy to stop quetiapine. I use it sometimes now. I can come on and off it. Its nothing like a benzo or sleeping pill. It works differently. I am not trying to push this on you. Obviously if you can do without it, you should
GP's know nothing about withdrawal - really. Dont rely on them. If you cant get proper help from GP go see a psychiatrist.
ann55375 richard70589
Posted
thank you for your reply, somehow someone has reported me for being irresponsible!
Yes you sound as though Ashton Manual has helped. i am at early stages and only just dropped 5% so have been feeling pretty rotten so far. i assume this gets better as the weeks go on. i have no energy to exercise at moment but hope it will come. i am under 10mg this week and its really hard. i use 6.5 night and 2 or 3 in day. i did not sleep well then last night slept better but totally wiped out today, depression no energy etc. concentration getting harder. not keen too see anyone or chat on phone. it is very hard. i am seeing psychiatrist in a couple of weeks but not sure he will give seroquel during wiithdrawal. do you think when on benzos you were depressed by them, i wonder if i have depression too.
Lolasmom ann55375
Posted
I think you are confused. I don;t think he reported you. He would have probably reported Brad
ann55375 Lolasmom
Posted
yes thats what i thought its just it said my name at top - have a look up above!
richard70589 ann55375
Posted
Hi
First I haven't reported anyone. Just to be clear on that.
It wont get any better short term. For me it was cycles of 2 weeks, just as it got better you are tapering again until you feel crap pretty much continually.
Sleep is a massive factor for my mental health. I need to sleep. I cannot say whether you are depressed, but it seems to me that if you are going to get depressed in your life its going to be now. I think the withdrawal symptoms make things worse. You need to remember is the withdrawal, its not you. You aren't yourself. How can drugs which are so good at the start do this to you? It sucks. It will get better though if you get off them.
I think that seroquel was prescribed primarily to help me sleep. I think it also helps me with anxiety and depression though if you read about it you will see that its not supposed to do anything at that very small does except be a very strong antihistamine (or something like that). Different doctors have different ideas though, so tell him/her about what others have said and see what they say. Mine said if someone gets admitted in to a ward with severe withdrawal issues this would be what he gives them.
2 weeks seems a long time but you can do it. If it got really bad in the meantime, maybe go to the hospital as an emergency?
Do you work? Can you take time off if you need to? Be nice to yourself.
ann55375 richard70589
Posted
thank you for reassurance. i might get a swop from diazepam to seroquel, see what he says. your experience is useful.
richard70589 ann55375
Posted
No, sorry, and to be clear, I took seroquel while tapering Diazepam to help with the insomnia and anxiety a bit better. Dont swap them out necessarily. You may or may not want to completely stop right now or carry on a bit longer. At which dose you choose to do that is up to you. Its not a replacement so much as a helper - ie even if you keep tapering it might help you, and I do not necessarily advocate your stopping now as I do not know what you are on, what your history is and I am not a doctor.
I still say that were I to do it again, I would go cold turkey a bit earlier, simply because at the end I spent months with pretty minimal reductions (volume not % wise) and I wonder if it was worth it. Was it better to spent the last (say) 4 months feeling crap or calling it a day at about 5mg and having 4 weeks of feeling even worse but then it being over and knowing that it was the last time I would feel like that? Thats hard because I dont know what it would have been like if I had done. What I do know is that at the end it didnt really matter how small an amount I came down by - it was rough. I therefore wish I had gone cold turkey earlier.
I am not sure I could have handled worked during that last (cold turkey) period and I took about 2 weeks off out of the 4 week withdrawal.
Cheers
ann55375 richard70589
Posted
i am busyreading ashton again.
i am in tolerance at 5 at night, and 3x2 in day. i have tried cutting 5 to 4.5 to start but sleep has gone awry. do you think seroquel would help this? Funnily enough my psych mentioned it last week before i asked for a try at anti dep. big mistake. gave me bad dreams, awful nightmares and felt worse. so back to diazepam alone.
is it worth asking for seroquel to be used at night to see if i can normalise sleep?
CoolBreeze ann55375
Posted
Ann, how much diazapam are you tapering?
ann55375 CoolBreeze
Posted
still about 8mg finding it hard
michelle27664 ann55375
Posted
I did diazepam and other benzo I tapered over 8 weeks I was fine but I'm on quetiapine and I stopped that at the same time both 8 weeks free from withdrawals but by 3months off both I was on the verge of emergency took into a mental facility so I started quetiapine again and I feel brilliant no benzos so it turned out ok but only because of quetiapine I personally believe .
btw no idea who reported who and found it all slightly amusing I dont know why its English sense of humour I think .