Posted by Quintal on March 2, 2007, at 22:31:26
In reply to Re: Noticing a Trend Anyone Else? » Quintal, posted by Phillipa on March 2, 2007, at 18:29:55
>for what it's worth I forgot 5mg of valium today and don't notice a differenace. So thats a cut of half my valium in two weeks.
That's probably because one day is not enough time for a such a long acting benzo like Valium to produce severe withdrawal symptoms, but I'm guessing you didn't notice too much of a difference because you're probably in a state of benzo withdrawal during much of the daytime anyway, and have been for some time by the sound of things.
>Strange that I don't get the withdrawal others speak of.
Phillipa, you describe yourself as suffering from severe anxiety, agoraphobia and monophobia (fear of being alone), depression and periods of dissociation - classic benzo withdrawal symptoms, but these seem to have become almost a routine part of your everyday life now so that you don't consider them as such. You didn't start out with all of those problems going by what I've read elsewhere, rather they've emerged after decades of use and probably as you lowered your dose? Doing a simple balance of benefits vs. drawbacks it would now seem benzos are causing more problems than they're helping, even though they did help for many years and they're among the safest, least toxic drugs in the pharmacopoeia and you never abused them. In fact it doesn't sound as if they're working at all beyond giving you a brief respite for a few hours at night, before the withdrawal symptoms begin afresh the next morning.
You keep asking me for help Phillipa, but I'm at loss of what to do since the best advice I can give you clearly isn't welcome. As far as I can see by continuing to defend your benzo use you're only trapping yourself into further suffering. I'm not suggesting you withdraw from them out of malice, scare-mongering or benzophobia, but because benzos seem to be causing you so much suffering now and I think you'd be calmer without them. I also suspect your mood would improve and that you may start to respond properly to antidepressants when you're no longer battling withdrawal symptoms.
For what it's worth I suggest as I have done before, that you cross-taper with Lyrica which should help relieve both your anxiety and your depression. I mean this post to be supportive, but that language doesn't trip off my tongue easily unfortunately, and I guess if I did that it might also give you room to dodge the problem again. I'm suggesting all of these things because I'd like to see you well and functioning again, and I think quitting benzos + Lyrica and antidepressant is most likely to do that.
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:737524
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070302/msgs/737846.html