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[Cassie]

My mom is almost 90 and has been on valium 5mg daily since she was in her 40s. She is still fit and well and has all her faculties so to speak, she has always been an anxious person and that is what was prescribed back then and I dont see them changing it now.

[Dana]

If you have been varying your dose a lot, as I had, you may need to stabilise on a daily dose before trying to withdraw. My GP looked at how much I had been prescribed over the previous 6 months and worked out a suitable stabilisation dose. Cutting out the variation in dose was essential as at least then your brain is getting the same each day rather than fluctuating.
x x

I totally agree with this. If you are at point where you need to do a slow taper off a benzo you should never take them "as required". The main thing with doing a taper is consistency, so your blood levels are consistent and not all over the place. If they are that will only lead to withdrawal symptoms, and they can be very unpleasant.

The main issue is that your dose is very low and in some ways that is harder to withdraw from than a high dose because the cuts you make have to be so small, and often a lot smaller than just doing a tablet cut. This is why a lot of people under 10mg find doing a liquid taper is the most beneficial way to taper.

[Vanessa1]

The patient leaflet instructs me to take my Diazepam 'as required' ... this is what my GP advises too.  I can go for months without a Diazepam and everyone is different.  You should really take the advice on the patient information leaflet, together with your GP and please remember this is a forum to share experiences and not give out medical advice!

[kpatton56]

Well said V 😀

[Dana]

The patient leaflet instructs me to take my Diazepam 'as required' ... this is what my GP advises too.  I can go for months without a Diazepam and everyone is different.  You should really take the advice on the patient information leaflet, together with your GP and please remember this is a forum to share experiences and not give out medical advice!

If you are taking it "as required", and can go without it for months, then you don't have a dependency, so you don't really know what a benzo dependency or a taper is like. I do.

As I said in my post above "If you are at point where you need to do a slow taper off a benzo you should never take them "as required". I stand by that comment because this is about how you should dose once you realise you are dependent, and you need to do a taper. You simply can't properly do a taper by taking inconsistent or "as required" doses. You would experience constant withdrawal symptoms because your blood levels will be too erratic.

So this has nothing to do with those who only take a tablet here and there. This is about someone who is already dependent. I am not giving medical advice, I am giving tapering advice because I've done a taper and I know how to do it safely and painlessly - many doctors don't. I hope that clears up any confusion.

[Vanessa1]

Thanks Katie;  just worried there's so many vulnerable and confused ladies on here that they really should be talking to their GPs for advice.  I'm not saying there isn't valuable information on the forum with a lot of experienced ladies who have a vast amount of knowledge; I just think it's safer to take GP/specialist advice before taking any action 

[Sadie49]

You ladies would be amazed at the fluctuating advice/comments I have had just from my GP practise of six Drs!! Each has a personal opinion - the last being for me to practise "mind changing" exercises when I felt I needed one!!!

The advice/comments I have read here have been 100% helpful in directing ME to the right source and in the right way. For others it maybe a little different but I am so thankful I had the courage to start the thread and listen....

Just putting myself on 2 tablets a day morning and evening, knowing that I am aiming for stabilisation before I begin to withdraw, has me relaxed and happy. Beforehand I felt SO guilty each time I took one, which is why I tried to make one last 2-3 days!

I know I have been thru the worst, as for years I have been committing unstable withdrawal without realising it! Members here have helped me see that, and I am really grateful. 

No-one knows a situation until they have been thru it themselves.

I feel equipped and ready to make the small but necessary changes that will see me off the meds. safely and happily. 

XXXX

[lisa789]

Valium certainly did not remain in my body for that long.  Otherwise people wouldn't become dependant !  I was taking 5mg x 3 Valiumfor a week in the 1990s then 5mg at night then as necessary.  Until it made me feel weird, twice - it got me through lots of 'difficult for me' events.

You are wrong CLKD.

Diazepam has a half life of 2-5 days. This means the maximum amount of drug left in you will be half the taken dose after 5 days - that's if your kidneys and liver are functioning normally. For example if you took 2mg on Monday by Saturday you could have 1mg.

The half life is worth knowing when looking at when you will reach a therapeutic, steady state in drug terms or when the drug will be completely removed from your system. To work both of these out you multiply the half life of the drug by 5. So using Diazepam as an example, if you took 2mg once it could take 25 days to be completely removed from your system (5 x 5 days half life) but remember this is in miniscule, ineffective amounts, the minimum therapeutic amount is 2mg. Prozac has a half life of up to 16 days - taking up to 80 days to be completely removed when stopping or the same amount of time to reach a steady therapeutic state hence the 2-3 months it takes to work in some people. Always remember that everyone is different - no one knows an individuals metabolism and some people 'use' drugs really quickly whilst others take the maximum amount of time - medicine is not an exact science.

I copied and pasted this info from another site. If you check Dr Ashton's manual on withdrawal it's explains the half life in there

[lisa789]

You ladies would be amazed at the fluctuating advice/comments I have had just from my GP practise of six Drs!! Each has a personal opinion - the last being for me to practise "mind changing" exercises when I felt I needed one!!!

The advice/comments I have read here have been 100% helpful in directing ME to the right source and in the right way. For others it maybe a little different but I am so thankful I had the courage to start the thread and listen....

Just putting myself on 2 tablets a day morning and evening, knowing that I am aiming for stabilisation before I begin to withdraw, has me relaxed and happy. Beforehand I felt SO guilty each time I took one, which is why I tried to make one last 2-3 days!

I know I have been thru the worst, as for years I have been committing unstable withdrawal without realising it! Members here have helped me see that, and I am really grateful. 

No-one knows a situation until they have been thru it themselves.

I feel equipped and ready to make the small but necessary changes that will see me off the meds. safely and happily. 

XXXX

Good luck Sadie xx

[Hurdity]

Hi lisa789

This is just for information - not a criticism . When we take info from another site we are supposed to put it in quotes (so we know which bits are written by someone else or might be copyrighted or to enable others to find it too) and/or post the link - so I've done it for you!
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php't=118929

Hurdity x

[lisa789]

Thanks Hurdity I didn't know we had to do that. I copied & pasted the text rather than post a link to NMP as there's some scary stories on there and I didn't want anyone to see them and become more anxious. I did add at the bottom of the paragraph that is was copied from another site.

[Dana]

Thanks Katie;  just worried there's so many vulnerable and confused ladies on here that they really should be talking to their GPs for advice.  I'm not saying there isn't valuable information on the forum with a lot of experienced ladies who have a vast amount of knowledge; I just think it's safer to take GP/specialist advice before taking any action 

What we do need to consider though is that doctors don't always have the right knowledge or experience. On MM, we often bemoan the fact that many doctors are clueless about menopause and especially HRT. If that's the case, why would we think that doctors are then going to be completely au fait with benzos? They're both medications that have been around for a long long time, and attitudes have changed a lot to both, yet there are just as many doctors, possibly more, who are just as clueless about benzos as they are about HRT/menopause. I've heard literally hundreds of first-hand stories to substantiate that.

For what it's worth, my doctor actually admitted that I taught her a lot about diazepam and its withdrawal, simply because I did the research and I had to live through it. She had only ever read about it.

[Dana]

Actually valium can have up to 200 hours half life (or 8 days). This will vary from person to person of course. It has been calculated that it takes about 8 half lives for valium to totally leave the body. So 200 hours x 8 = 1,600 hours or just over 66 days.

Whichever calculation is correct is actually irrelevant. The reality is that valium is a drug that stays in the body a long time and should never be messed around with without using a lot of caution.

[Dana]

You ladies would be amazed at the fluctuating advice/comments I have had just from my GP practise of six Drs!! Each has a personal opinion - the last being for me to practise "mind changing" exercises when I felt I needed one!!!

The advice/comments I have read here have been 100% helpful in directing ME to the right source and in the right way. For others it maybe a little different but I am so thankful I had the courage to start the thread and listen....

Just putting myself on 2 tablets a day morning and evening, knowing that I am aiming for stabilisation before I begin to withdraw, has me relaxed and happy. Beforehand I felt SO guilty each time I took one, which is why I tried to make one last 2-3 days!

I know I have been thru the worst, as for years I have been committing unstable withdrawal without realising it! Members here have helped me see that, and I am really grateful. 

No-one knows a situation until they have been thru it themselves.

I feel equipped and ready to make the small but necessary changes that will see me off the meds. safely and happily. 

XXXX

You're going to be fine Sadie. Just one step at a time, and lots of patience, is all that is needed to do a benzo taper. Also, you need to make your own choices. You can listen to other people's opinions, but the bottom line is YOU are in control, not your doctor or anyone else.

[Vanessa1]

Good luck Sadie, hope it all works out for you