Posted by Quintal on February 13, 2007, at 20:58:44
In reply to Re: Back from Exile » Quintal, posted by Phillipa on February 13, 2007, at 20:39:03
>Q but during the years I have stopped them cold turkey on my own not knowing adverse affects could happen
Maybe a longer taper would have been easier and more tolerable for you?
>When life was stable or I was involved with kid, school, divorce and didn't have any problem. Stresses are great right now hence the need. They will once again go down hence to benzo need. I have already cut Valium by 5mg and luvox by 25mg. I for one don't think ad's work at least for me. So why risk withdrawal from something I don't want or seem to respond to? Love Phillipa
I can't really get a grasp of what you're saying there Phillipa. I'm not trying to get you off them per se, but when you keep posting about your continued problems with severe anxiety and insomnia despite taking two benzos and a third benzo-like hypnotic I honestly wonder how much they are really helping you. If you were taking benzos and were happy and symptom free then I would have no problem with the idea of you continuing with them, but that isn't the case. As has been suggested before, it seems very likely that you've developed tolerance to them and though you cling to the idea they are helping you in fact they may only be keeping you in a state of semi-withdrawal; i.e. you get withdrawal symptoms during the day and only a few hours of relief at night, since that's when you taken them all.
Lowering your dose in this case makes little sense - better to go off them altogether and give yourself a chance to adjust. Either that or raise the dose a bit if your pdoc will allow it and maybe take the Xanax through the day as I emailed you? I'll paste the table I sent you here just in case you lost it.
__________________________________________________Breakfast:
0.25mg Xanax (~equivalent to 5mg Valium)
Lunch:
0.25mg Xanax (~equivalent to 5mg Valium)
Dinner:
0.25mg Xanax (~equivalent to 5mg Valium)
Supper/Bedtime:
Either: 0.5mg Xanax and 3mg Lunesta OR: (and I would recommend this if your pdoc would allow it) increase your Lunesta to 6mg (equivalent to 20mg Valium) and take that as a single dose at night.
Here is a benzodiazepine equivalence so you can check the doses yourself:
http://www.bcnc.org.uk/equivalence.html
__________________________________________________You could also try cross-tapering your benzos with Lyrica or simply adding it to the benzos as an augmenter. Of course there's the added complication of the Synthroid and hyperactive thyroid gland. Maybe the benzos have been masking the effect of the Synthroid - you could in fact need a lower dose?
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:732459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070213/msgs/732567.html