Posted by klein on April 29, 2014, at 20:50:54
In reply to Re: Who Has Successfully Withdrawn Fron Long Term Benz » klein, posted by Phillipa on April 29, 2014, at 20:22:43
> No cognitive problems. The longer into the day I get the better I feel. I take the benzos at night only. I am not 68 years old this doc not a pdoc seems to feel that it is dangerous though for someone who has taken them for so long 44 years to withdraw and said stay on them. But if I could just stop them in the past before I knew they had withdrawal why can't I now do the same. When young and new on them I was told could have seizures if stopped total of 15mg a day. I did stop them. Was very tired. But didn't have a seizure? Phillipa
Phillipa,
I'm a bit confused. Do you want to stop taking them?
I really see no reason why you couldn't do it if you tapered carefully. You've done it before withouit a problem. It's my understanding that seizures usually tend to happen to people who take excessive doses or abuse them for prolonged periods of time, or those who suffer from epilepsy.
DON NOT let the horror stories you see online affect you. I won't post my opinion about that here because I don't want to be rude. If you really want to stop the Valium, talk to your doc and ask for guidance, certain meds such as Tegretol and Lyrica can aid benzo withdrawal.
It has been proven that us patients who suffer from anxiety issues don't generally tend to abuse our medication (I'll have to dig around pubmed to find the studies).
As a side note, I resent people who take benzos recreationally, thanks to them we have a bunch of benzophobic doctors who won't prescribe these meds to those of us who legitimately need them =/
Anyway, why stop them? Personally, I no longer allow potential risks to stop me from taking my meds. For instance, I'm on Pristiq now which supposedly causes very bad withdrawal - I'll deal with that when the time comes, and if the Pristiq works I'll take it for as long as I need it.
If you don't like Valium, ask for a shorter acting benzo. Ativan is a good choice, it lasts longer than Valium but with less sedation and less general impairment. It does take longer to kick in though.
Keep us posted.
Warm regards
poster:klein
thread:1064917
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140419/msgs/1064955.html