Valium Cold Turkey Withdrawal - should I reinstate

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hi,

I (very stupidly) went on 5mg of Valium at the end of Aigust 2019 after my knees were injured. i run my own business, didn't want to let my clients down & was finishing a course - i was working & commuting 3 hours a day & just wanted to be able to keep going. I was on valium for 5 months. I now see it was the most stupid decision I ever made.

Sometimes I took just 5mg at night, sometimes i took 10mg & once I took 15mg when a very stressful event happened. Sometimes I didn't take it for a day & sometimes I took it 2 - 3 times a week, I started to taper off it in November bit didn't research it properly & was cutting down by 25% - 50% & was tapering erratically. I then went babk on the full 5mg dose & the valium wasn't doing anything to help my anxiety & physical symptoms set in - which I mistook for the Flu or a virus. After a Vitamin C transfusion 5 weeks ago I stopped cold turkey. I had checked with two doctors & my psychologist & all 3 said it was ok to stop the Valium & it would be 2 weeks until the valium was out of my system.

I experienced some insomnia but it wasn't until 12 days later thar the full impact of withdrawal set in. I've had some "windows" of feeling kind of normal - the last one lasted for nearly two days - it was heaven. Then the "waves" come with a slew of physical symptoms - the worst for me are the crunching headaches, the dizziness, the fatigue, the tight & sore muscles. The psychological symptoms are the hardest for me to deal with - the crippling anxiety, the de-personilization, the de-realisation.

I have now been off Valium, cold Turkey, for 5 weeks, its been 3 and a half weeks since the bad withdrawal started. Should I re-instate, stabilize & then slowly Taper using the ashton method. I've researched & it's not at all recommended to re-instate if you are 4 weeks or more since your last dose. I'm wanting to get back to "normal" to be functioning & feel like myself ASAP. Help! any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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  • Posted

    Hi Bess,

    i was wondering how your feeling now? Still feeling any side effects?

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