This video is designed to introduce you to some of the basic concepts and resources you will need to begin tapering your benzo or other prescribed medication. Go to benzobrains.com for more info For benzo equivalencies go to: benzo.org.uk/manual and benzoreform.org/comparison-of... Here is my tapering playlist of additional educational videos on tapering and withdrawal ruclips.net/video/whpciMUXHfY/видео.html
Sry, my phone wouldn't let me post, on my long message,!?! A thought) trying the, .05 mg, first. Then if that doesn't work, then a longer acting one!? Thank you again!! 💞
Hi, I would ask you one question. Do you still experience the sedation/drowsiness effect from the benzo throughout your tapering journey?I understand you were floxed by the fluroquinolone antibiotics before you got onto the benzo. I too was floxed by the fluroquinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin and I took it together with kolonpin and all of the sudden it loses its sedation and drowsiness effect . I did cold turkey off the medications during the early stage and went through hell with horrible neurological symptoms. So I reinstate back to valium and because of my suicidal tendencies ,I was also put on lyrica, Zoloft,trizadone and mirtazpine. I still don't experience any drowsiness nor sedation effect from any of these medications though it did kept me from being suicidal.
Which do you prefer ma'am I'm on tapering water titration I follow your video instructions...I will go 5% per week? Or 10% in every 2 weeks? I'm on my klonopin 0.25mg 1/8 cut...
Your method helped me. I made it through. It was tough but with prayer and my husband and kids support I continued to push forward. It took a about a year and a half to feel healed. B vitamins and L-theanine and magnesium glycinate helped tremendously. Benzos damage your central nervous system so vitamins that will help strengthen your nervous system is extremely helpful. After 2 years I am now starting to sleep well again. I praise God for you and your videos you are helping so many people to be well!! Thank you, Jesus!!
Keep pushing forward. Your hard work is not going unnoticed. Your a wonderful person for caring so much. Youve helped me so much. Its hard and scary but you help. Thank you.💗.
Your video on water micro taper is what I followed and educated my p doc so he cold help me. I only have 55 days left and I will be off the benzo I have taken for over 40+ years. So thrilled. He has learned we do not be LIFERS! Thank you. I do own the Ashton Manual but the way you explained it was so helpful. In time I am going to start tapering Effexor... Patience is soooo important. To win this battle.
@@BenzoBrains I must say 'thank you' too. I followed your water taper instructions to get off Valium after 15 years. I have 2 weeks left and then I am off of them forever!
For the last week I have devoted 8 hours a day to educate myself on Benzos. I watched your video about water titration. I have used this method in the past to get off of Ativan. I was sleeping 6 hours a night using .75 mg of Ativan. I only took out 1 mil of water and slept less than 4 hours. I am not giving up. I will just continue with taking out 1 mil until my body sleeps for 6 hours. Your channel is my favorite. You are positive and to the point. I keep coming back here. I might use razor blade to cut my next dose as I know my dosage of 3/4 mg is too low for scale to measure.
You don't have to cut your pills, you can just calculate what you need to remove from the water suspension- if that's what you meant. Also you can alway hold until your body adjusts. At least give it a week or two and see if you balance out a bit and then move forward. You can also always go slower by removing every other day or so
@@BenzoBrains Thank you for your response. I have watched all of your videos. I do appreciate all you do for those of us who are trying to get off these horrible drugs.
@@deedeew4040 how long were you taking Ativan for, only one dose a day for sleep or more ? Would you share your taper plan, and most importantly, did you hit tolerance and WDs already . It’s my problem , and barely function
@@ellaMel4632 I have been on Ativan for 13 years. It has been two years of tapering. I was down to 1/4 mg and I fell and broke three bones and I had to increase my dosage to 3/4 mg. I am down to 1/2 mg. I have another month before I start tapering. I have hit tolerance and I had WD's This might sound strange but I cleaned up my diet. I drink water only. I eat lots of protein. No sugar, no carbs, just eat eggs, fish, meat and hard cheese. No alcohol. I exercise lightly. I try to keep my body in Ketosis. No more tolerance and WD's. It is important to keep your body in tune.
Excellent video. You touched on something not many people talk about - at 25.16 you note that benzo access can be taken away abruptly at any point by a provider, leaving people to go cold turkey or abruptly taper with horrible effects. Exactly what happened during the opioid crisis, leading thousands to move from oxy (after provider cutoff) onto heroin
Finally found a doctor willing to help me wean off after years of different doctors just raising my dose and dismissing my worries about clonazepam. Weaned off from 4mg daily to 1mg daily and slowly working my way down... Your videos are really helpful. It's good to know I'm not alone. Thank you!
I'm halfway now dear! Taken 10 months to knock 5mg down, so I am now on 5mg a day! It's not been too horrendous, once I made them see I had to be in control of the drops and not them! So now they are just happy to prescribe 5mg a day and wait for me to call them and say oh I am down to 4mg a day now! I have no date for that next drop, I find it is happening naturally, I tend to forget to take them, and then I know I am ready to drop another 1mg. I must add that I am feeling so much better on half the dose! I don't think I would have ever realised if I'd never stumbled upon your videos last year in Lockdown One! Thank you x
@@BenzoBrains I’m doing fairly well. Still struggling a bit with tinnitus, but I’m learning how to habituate. So grateful for your help in getting my life back! Thank you so very much 😌
ThankThank you very much for this video. I've been wanting to taper off for a long time but felt overwhelmed by the whole thing. This very informative video gave me some more motivation.
Still fighting the good fight after many yrs on and off Xanax and trying time and time again to get off. It's been 5 yrs since starting my taper after I finally found the info I needed on this channel. Easy to feel discouraged after 5 yrs and still not benzo free, but I have faith and hope that some day I'll be well enough to follow in Jocelyn's footsteps and help people in this way. Much love to BB family
Thank you so, so much for all of your hard work! Your videos have helped me make a lot of headway with my benzo reduction dream over the last year -- especially understanding interdose withdrawal!! I am just setting myself up for a water taper to finish the last bit over the next 2 - 6 months (depending on how it goes)!!
Thank you so much this video has been very informative. I’ve been doing the dry cut method. That seems to be working good for me. I really appreciate your passion on the subject matter and I appreciate this video very much very encouraging. Thank you.❤🙏🏼
I wish i could stabilize but that's just not an option for me unfortunately.. Withdrawal is beyond tough, extremely close to impossible.. Great video love seeing you help people keep it up 💙
Prof. Heather Ashton specifically recommended NOT updosing. One should maintain the progress one has made to the extent possible. We want to minimize the pain, of course, but we cannot realistically expect withdrawal to be painless.
I think it's OK to updose but not to the original dose. I was being dropped to much to quickly. I remember dropping from 8mg diazepam to 6mg. Then I updosed to 7mg. Then 7.5mg. Where I stabilised for 2 weeks. Then I was dropping 1mg every 2weeks till i got to 1.5mg then dropped half mg every two weeks and jumped off at the .5mg . Every one is different I suppose. But it worked for me. Thank heavens. 8 weeks post taper sleep isn't to bad. Tension is letting up and the fatigue.
@@waynegrow - So good to hear what you did worked. That's what counts! I finally managed to get off several psychiatric drugs and am now on Day 69 post taper. There is a long road ahead for me because I was on drugs for decades. Best wishes to you for a speedy recovery, Daniel!
@@nokomismn9685 aww. Many thanks. My problem was self inflicted through black market diazepam through the lockdown period. What you've been through and still going through I could never comprehend I have heard antipsychotics are tremendously hard to get off as they hit so many of the receptors. You have achieved so much as you were on for a long time Much love and gratitude. Wishing you all the best in your recovery ❤️
Love this video.Thanks I had horrible Benzo belly could turkey that I thought I had Ascites cut it off. Now I’m back on at a lower dose I still have about 50 percent stomach problems and worried the lower I go I won’t be able to handle the extreme discomfort along with chronic insomnia.I literally went 3 weeks without sleep trying to find another doctor.Not exaggerating.Thanks again for the video.I’ve been watch awhile now and I think ur like Benjamin Button and age backwards.Lol
Personally, I can't say enough how important being stable before begging a taper &/or in between tapering. We're not a statistic, we're individual & a good Dr. will consider your individual needs. Because of the disease I have ME/myalgic encephalylomitis, I have to be my own advocate. I've found when giving a Dr. information it helps to start off by making it clear that you're not trying to be condescending nor belittle their MD & experience. We shouldn't have to 'feed anyone's ego' by doing this but it is, what it is. Sometimes this helps them be receptive also some Dr's are appreciative for the help, being that medical coperation wants them to consider profit over quality of care. The FDA guidelines have also been updated to include the danger of stopping cold turkey & withdrawal. Don't be afraid to take those FDA guidelines to show them. Don't let any Dr. bully or hold your medication over your head. If they want to 'fire' you, don't be afraid to let them know that would be patient abandonment. So they'll be obligated to treat you, until you find another Dr. Check your state statutes to get the details as well as federal. Dr's often try to allude to laws or recommendations, expecting the patient isn't educated about it. Always stand up for yourself. This isn't an attempt to blame or bad mouth Dr's. At times they do need to be reminded you are part of your medical team.
I went to my benzo prescribing dr. He has been my dr for 21 years.And, had asked for a smallest dose of ativan. My taper is already 4.5 mg done. I.5 left to go. I am a super stable, reliable mom of 2. He refused valium switch and then when I got home tried to refill my current ativan which still had 2 refills left. He called and canceled by 2 remaining refills. Good thing I have been tapering for 4 months so have 80+ pills saved up. I will never see him again and with Jocelyn and the community, I will go it alone. Beware, drs care about themselves NOT YOU.
Do a cold turkey really is very hard. It's my 5th week now that I'm off (Ativan & Zolpidem). But I'm still not fine, not stable enough. You're so right, should never do a cold turkey from Benzos again. I'm so hopeful that the withdrawal symptoms will disappear soon. The first 2 or 3 weeks were the hardest.... no sleep all the nights... always had to stay awake and very very horrible thoughts. Now the physical symptoms have disappeared very slowly. I think it will be a very long and hard way, to stay clean. In Germany we still have a very hard Lockdown and it's not possible to find another doc at the moment. Sadly the most doctors here, they don't know anything about tapering the Benzos and how hard the withdrawal could be. Lots of people here have to do a cold turkey from benzodiazepines at the moment, because they also didn't get a prescription anymore for these meds. It's because of the pandemic here extreamly, prescriptions for benzodiazepines increased more than 500% alone in the last 12 months here, compared to the years before. Thanks for your videos! Great job!
I’ve received so much awesome life affirming information from your videos, but I still haven’t found how to taper from Xanax XR. I’m on 3.5mg daily, and have been on XR for 5 years, before that regular Xanax for over 30 years. I had very bad post partum after my 30 yr old son was born and have been taking it as prescribed only. I have had GAD all my life. From what my psychiatrist (whom I like and is managing me) says, you can’t cut or do a liquid titration of Xanax XR. We found a pharmacy and tried having them compound-I ended up in hospital having a slew of cardiac tests. I have memory loss, depression, and hopelessness. I know most people switch to another benzo to taper. That sounds like no fun! It took me 2 yrs to get from 4mg Xr to 3.5mg micro cutting (which doesn’t work well because medicine not evenly distributed in tablet & it’s not to be cut). That was a nuts time and I’m going to hold here for awhile. I’m 64, looking for hope that I won’t always be such a damaged person chained to my pill box. Thank you for giving a voice to those of us who were compliant patients and end up with a dependence and symptoms that are extremely detrimental. I’m very proud of you.
Wow that sounds like a traumatic experience with tapering I'm sorry. Do you understand now after watching this video how you can approach a micro taper if you're on Xanax xr or do you need more info?
I am so glad to find your video today. I have been so confused about where to start. I like your plan on stabilize before you start. I have been on Clonazapam once a day for 12 years. For the past couple of months I have been feeling anxious during the day so I think I need to switch to splitting the dose to at least 2X per day. I hope that helps me stabilze. I plan to taper of pariet first. I have been taking that for a few years but it is making me feel worse now. The good thing is my Dr is on board for what ever I decide. Thanks again for the great information.
@@BenzoBrains What is the best way to split the dose. Would I take a full does at night (my usual time) then take half in the morning then another half at night? I tried just doing half at night and half in the morning but that did not work. Thanks..
After you finished your long taper and once you where at zero did you feel normal at that point? Or did it take another year after taper or more? Thank you.
Hello Jocelyn. I’m Beth. You’re channel is how I discovered what was wrong with me. Complex story, as most are. Have switched over to V from Klonopin. 20 mg. equivalency. Thought I could use tablets until tiny cuts became necessary and then switch to liquid. Is that unwise?? Found a compounding pharmacy in my rural Midwest area. Input? Again, you’re my light at the end of this long road. Bless you and THANK YOU.
Hi how you continue to taper depends on how accurate your cuts were and how sensitive you may be to any change in the liquid compound from your pill. You're your own guinea pig in this situation. Try what you feel is best and if that doesn't work wait to stabilize and try something else.
So do you generally believe water titration is the most accurate and safest?(less debilitating symptoms) Have studied Ashton seriously and thought compounding after coarse cutting was optimal. Already not steady and am unsure of my capabilities in fine tapering. Introduced a discovered psych nurse to my situation after being suggested 3 different meds that are absolutely unnecessary and harmful especially in this fragile situation. NOW she gets it, but is following my lead... I’ve become my own advocate in an unknown arena. So many of us. My respect for your love of humanity and not cashing out of this scene.♥️🙏🏻
@@BenzoBrains its been rough. I have alot of anxiety and insomnia but im not going back to meds. The dr offered me vistaril to sleep but it made feel depressed. I take tyrosine 500 mgs in the morning and sam e 100 mg at lunch and another one at dinner . HOw can i get in contact with you?
My doctor wouldn’t give me Valium via Ashton Manual. He prescribed Inderal which had a whole new set of side effects. I had never taken it before and I’m 73 years old. After a few doses I quit taking it.
Thank you for your videos! I’m a 58 year female. I’ve been on .5 mg Klonopin for 20 years. I take 1/2 morning and 1/2 evening. Would you recommend I split it into 3 doses or should I stay on my two doses? Wondering if I would have trouble at night because my dose would be smaller if I spread it into 3. Also, would you recommend the water taper rather than the whole milk taper? I’m sensing you think the water taper is more accurate than a whole fat milk taper??
Hi it's generally not recommended by pharmacists to combine your medication with milk like that. Splitting your doses can initially affect your sleep but if you give it a few weeks and let your body adjust before reducing, you should stabilize and get used to it
@@BenzoBrains Ok! Thank you for the good information. I’ll plan on the water taper and trying to divide into 3 doses. Thank you so much for your response back!
As an opioid addict, and have went through withdrawal from that and xanax, which i didn't abuse just used high doses during recovery for sleep, i wait until the pain is unbearable, then take just enough to feel normal, and beta blocker in between. Rapid taper. Only because i have taken a lot of pain. I don't recommend that to people who haven't had addiction issues though lol
May I ask you a question, please. I started my taper 9 months ago using the Ashton manual. I went too fast. I got down to .5mg from 1.5mg of Clonazepam in 5 months. I had to be reinstated to 1mg. I am now starting the water taper, but my plan was to only decrease by 3% a month as my NS is in a highly, highly sensitized state. I take one pill in the morning and one pill at night. I did not want to touch my nighttime dose due to already having sleep issues. What about only tapering the morning dose to start with rather than doing both at once? Would that be problematic? Thank you for your time, I truly appreciate it.
Hi sorry I didn't respond sooner. You can leave the night dose if interdose withdrawal symptoms aren't a problem for you. However it seems to work best to taper even your night dose because it keeps your doses more even and your symptoms more stable as your not spiking your serum levels every night. It's up to you but I believe you're likely to avoid more problems reducing both at the same time. That's the beauty of a micro taper..it's not like a cut. You don't suddenly feel awful or develop insomnia from a teeny tiny cut. If it catches up to you and you suddenly have sleep problems, just hold off on tapering until it subsidies!
Thank you very much for this informative video. I was ripped off different drugs,then poly drugged with more,benzodiazepine being one of them. I am nearly down to 1mg,fully functional with a controlled slow micro taper. But I have a iud coil in (the marina one)My body isn’t liking it been in,I am wanting to take it out but it’s obviously progesterone. Any ideas on what I should do regarding this? Keep up the great work.
That's hard. If you're taper is going well you might want to wait to change anything else. You could look into equivalent amounts of bioidentical progesterone cream or something and talk to your doctor about using it to wean you off the progesterone when you do take it out.
Being on multiple benzos for 20 years Its a struggle! I had to tell my psychiatrist I wanted off high doses till he died a few months ago and saw 3 different psychiatrists that said basically since I withdraw a month even suffering and stressing wanting to taper off they made me feel less then human dismissing my pain like i'm an addict!! there is nothing worse then that having generalized anxiety and ptsd I was told it is in my head!! Im suffering and feel alone I dont wish this on anyone.. Absolutely no support because no one understands.. Nightmares panic severe teeth grinding migraines..Go to er they send me home after they had a social worker ask how many drinks do i have and what drugs I take!! It was hard to not get upset!! There's a legitimate crisis i see now all my ailments like a fibromyalgia diagnosis, Nerve issues and 2 horrific miscarriages..Wow my eyes are opened thanks for the content what courage!!
Hi J, The reform site has good information, but honestly is overwhelming to those needing help. It's information overload when your brain is compromised. In your opinion, the water taper/titration seems to be easiest to follow and do each day. So, with mixing for each day's dosing, all the other doses, (pre-mixed jars) can sit on the counter or have to be refrigerated? You only mix once a day and divide those doses into jars, correct?
very interesting. But I still have a problem with tapering. I stopped taking Ativan and Zoloidem about 4 weeks ago. I did a cold turkey. I was on 5 mg of Ativan during the day and 10 mg of Ambien (Zolpidem) for sleep at night. So about 4 weeks ago, I was at my doc and she told me that I don't get a prescription for my meds anymore. She advised me to do a cold turkey. Now, about 4 weeks later the physical withdrawal symptoms have disappeared very slowly. But, I get back my fear and panic-attacs very heavy since I stopped taking my meds. I'm not able to go out of my home any more. Always panic-attacs, when I try to go into the supermarket or anywhere else. How long does it take these symptoms will disappear? I know, I had to do a slower taper. But it's to late now for me. What can I do in this case? I tried to take some other medications, like Doxepin and Quetiapine for sleep. But these meds have to many bad side-effects and everything was much worser.... so I also stopped taking these meds now. No sleep possible anymore at the moment. Need help, ... any idea what to do now? Thanks a lot!
Shame your doctor is ignorant... Cases if cold turkey is hard to deal with... and hard to treat otherwise... Surprised 4 weeks it took to feel a WD... As each body is different... each person's healing ability as well. Measure your ability to push through this... where by month 6-7 some get sleeping some. 1. If not stable, get a copy from pharmacy of those meds, highlight the dangers... explain with the Dr for a proper taper of something like Valium... that Cold turkey is not working... If they don't - explain your feelings, and what you can't do. Or cant handle. What you're losing... If denied... then show the documents and say "the pharmacy said I should be tapering" and just blatantly ask for it... If not then they are ignoring medical warnings. Else. - guided body relaxation 20 min - audio books - LOW inflammation diet - anything distracting... games, puzzles - FasterEFT
I would take you prescription info from pharmacy and go to the ER. Tell them what your dr did and your withdrawal symptoms and I have read and heard most often they will fill for you. Good Luck
Sorry I thought I'd answered this. Many people are prescribed blood pressure meds to heal them withdraw. It seems to help some of them. Whether everyone has a positive experience is unknown
I was prescribed Alprazolam for GAD Anxiety and panic attacks, if I stop the medication (10 years on it) the proper way, the GAD and panic will still be there?
That totally depends on what skills you've developed in the interim. I learned superhuman mindfulness and CBT while I was on meds and in withdrawal. Once I was off and started to heal, these techniques along with balancing my blood sugar, were incredibly effective.
Thank you so much for your video! Myself, like you take about 1mg of Ativan nightly to try and calm down and sleep. I'm leaning towards the Water Titration method as I have 2 failed tapers already. Would you recommend just keeping with the 1mg Ativan and splitting the doses into 3 during the day? Or as I am feeling some interdose withdrawal increase the amount maybe to 1.5 and take 3 times a day. Thank you so much for your help
I've been on diazepam for 7 years all of a sudden my doctor says we are going to have to start tapering you literally about fainted in the doctor's office I have an appointment on December 2nd and I am literally scared to death of what he is gonna say or do my counselor disagrees with my doctor so should I ask him to maybe be my advocate he said that he would I have followed all the rules never failed a drug test so my question is what should I do..
I'm so sorry. I know how scary that feels. If you're not ready to taper then your chances of success are greatly diminished. I would suggest asking your doctor to look at the information presented by the medical experts at benzoreform.org. These are doctors who do continuing education for other doctors and who literally wrote the book on Benzodiazepines. Meanwhile I highly recommend watching my tapering playlist of videos to educate and prepare yourself. It can't hurt. Best of luck
Been on .25 of ativan for 4 mths once a day or every other day I stopped and had terrible withdrawels been advised water taper 50ml water disvove 1 .25 and remove 1ml of solution day one day 2 2ml day3 3ml and so on for 40 days and finish I am very elderly so maybe that why I got addicte as I am very drug sensitive. Doing it once a day is this the correct way can any one help please
Hi how are you feeling now? Do you feel pretty normal back on or are you still experiencing effects from the cold turkey? You're not addicted by the way. You're dependent. There's a big difference
I was on lorazapam for 5 months 1.25mg to 1mg ...cold turkey on 7th day diagnoses with paws.....severe bind Given valium 10mg 2 months 2.5 months 5mg Now dropped to 3.75mg severe withdraw . I went threw benzo hell 12 weeks....severe akathesia 12 weeks...insomnia, shaking, tremors, severe depression iv never ever felt before.... I'm now in withdrawal from valium which was used for withdrawal..... Absolutely destroyed my brain one tiny tablet. So yes 4 months use you can aquire bind and hell on earth withdrawal
You need to tell people how to Taper... must you go half or quarter dose.. and for how long.. not everyone can go to a Clinic for withdrawal thank you so much ❤
I'm currently on 0.375 mg of clonazepam daily. I was once at 0.75 mg daily over 2 years ago when I had painful muscle conditions but somehow managed to reduce my dose. However, due to inconsistent dosing, I've suffered from bouts of what I think is 'benzo flu'. I've had photosensitivity, electric feeling in my body, malaise, positional vertigo, and unsteady feeling often but not all the time. Some days I'm totally normal. How long on average does a person's nervous system need to stabilize at a certain dose? For example, if I cut and hold, how long would the average person be symptomatic from the dosage reduction?
Thank you for putting out your video's 🙏 I'm just starting to get off of lyrica whith terrible withdrawals so that's how I found your chanal. Lyrica also hits the gava receptors hard. Now I have a question: do I start first to taper off the lyrica which my body has most troubles with going without? And keep my 0,5 ml lormetazepam (benzo for sleeping) or do it other way around? Lormetazepam can maybe help stabalise while getting off the horrible lyrica. But otherwise it might be more difficult to get off the lyrica whilst taking a benzo at the same time. Only for 3,5months on lyrica and I feel way more addicted to it than the benzo which i'm allready on for 2 years or so. Would you have some insights for me on this one?
I would stick with the Lyrica taper. The benzo is likely a buffer although the fact that your withdrawal is awful already would indicate something is off. Are you tapering too fast?
@@BenzoBrains thank you for your answer 🙏 I feel it resonates for me to first do the lyrica. Yes. Thank you. Two things happened: been on and off from lorazepam for anxiety during the 3 months that i was using lyrica (and before) besides the lormetazepam for sleeping. So that was not something good propably. Went off the lorazepam first because that didn't feel so hard. But that was in the same period as i started to get off of the lyrica. And the second thing: went too fast on the lyrica in the beginning. Didn't know anything about tapering. So had to get to a previous (higher ) level of lyrica twice before i found your tapering video. Now doing it the slow way with the lyrica. Hopefully doctor will understand and write prescription as long as the taper takes.
Hi I’ve watched your water titration video as well as some others I find they are helpful and give me hope! I do have a question regarding the water titration. I take 0.5 clonazapam at night for sleep so would I do the water titration throughout the day as you did? And were you able to do the 300ml straight through the process or did you have to stall a bit! Just wanted to get a better understanding..again thank you so much for all you do!
I had been on a tiny dose of clonazepam for 2 months, after stopping I started getting way more anxious and psychotic. I thought it didn't even do much (clonazepam) but maybe I'm wrong. Ive had to start taking the lorazepam when needed again. Thoughts? I'm on an ssri and an anti-psychotic and might as well be on nothing the way I feel. What should I do?
Hello, I have just started tapering off lorazepam (Ativan/temesta). I am now at 2 mg instead of 2.5. I take my medication once a day before going to bed. I intend to diminish 10% each time until I am at like 0.10 or 0.05. I don't intend to switch to Valium as it did not do anything for me with l'imovan when the Doctor made me get cold turkey on them. It was hell and awful insomnia. I thought I would die, even when I took them back, I slept only for 2/3 jours and couldn't rest even during the day. I bought a pill cuter and ordered a scale to taper the best way possible. I would love to do the water method, I saw your video and didn't understand well. Should you use every time 300 ml of water. For example let's say that I am on 1mg of lorazepam and want to taper off 10%. How can I do that with the water method? For now I will use the pill cuter but once at smaller doses I think this method will help me greatly. First I need to understand what I am doing.
Please don't cut your pills without measuring first as shown in my pill cutting video. It's not accurate and it can really mess things up. Start with a whole pill as shown in my liquid titration video and reduce from there
This is true.....sounds like me I was on lorazapam 1.25mg for 2 months then 1mg for 3 months. I stopped cold turkey. On 7th day in ER diagnosed with paws. Cns in shock. Placed on valium 10mg per day 2 months Then on 5mg valium last 2.5mg..... Now trying to stop valium Hell. Still in severe cns damage Injury that happened after cold turkey lorazapam known as ativan I am having severe withdrawal by dropping 5mg to 3.75mg .....staying on 3.75mg until stable again. Symtpoms of withdrawal 12 weeks 100km surges up spine severe akathesia hell on fire Would of rather died. End of 12th week like a base ball bat hit back of the brain. Dead calm. For 11 days then back to symtpoms at 50%.....severe neuropathy....never had neuropathy in my life...darkest depression iv ever felt....now still suffering windows and waves 4 months 2 weeks in withdrawal So so so so long. It causes severe trauma coming off it.
I absolutely love your videos, you are wonderful! Im 51 was put on 1mg of Klonopin once a day for the past 15 month's for panic attacks and anxiety. I was never informed by my doctor about withdraw, and was never on medication before. I told my doctor I wanted off so she decreased it to 0.75mg for a month, then went to 0.5mg for the past month. That was 50% in a month does that seem to fast? Now she wants me to go to 0.25mg and add gabapentin 300mg, she says it helps with withdraw symptoms, but im afraid to do so because of withdraw from that. My symptoms are right now, head pressure, headache, under my cheek bones feel clogged, and some sleep disturbance. Do these sound like normal symptoms? Also I think I might hold at .5mg for a while, I think another .25mg might be to quick. Again your videos are so informative and your a wonderful speaker! Any tips would be so helpful God Bless you and your family Michael
Hi thanks for reaching out. Yes that all sounds very normal for withdrawal and yes that's a very rapid taper. Holding sounds like a good idea. Adding in more meds could further complicate things because then you'd have to taper from that as well. Follow your instincts. Direct your Dr to benzoreform.org so she can learn better physician best practices for benzodiazepines from other physicians. Tapers should be patient directed based on symptoms, not on some arbitrary withdrawal schedule set up by the Dr. Good luck
You're videos are Great but terrifying me. Doctors really don't care. Even after prescribing this medication for almost a decade. My Dc retired now it's almost impossible to find a new one. Any Help in NYC you know of?
@@BenzoBrains I did it helped...God Bless you for all your info. I'm amazed there's not much out there. I hope you can lead the charge for millions who need it!🙏
Ive learned in the past decade that Drs don't care about whats best for patients, I highly doubt the dea or medical board is going to arrest or take their license for slow tapering patients if documented properly, so it looks to me they only care about themselves. Hmm,.. Is it any wonder why there's a snake wrapped around a pole as a sign for the medical symbol? Reminds me of the snake in the garden of Eden. And have ever read the Hypocratic Oath Drs take prior to getting their licensed? If not you should. Its very creepy and sounds demonic.
Hi thank you for the video. How about if you never stabilize even if you hold. The only choice would be to keep on tapering correct. Any response will be highly appreciated thank you so much.
Hi yes, unfortunately some people never really stabilize and so they just have to press forward. But it's worth a try to work with a good FND and see if it's possible.
@@BenzoBrains thank you so much for the response. I’ve already went from 120 mg of Valium. Now I’m down to 4.5 mg of Valium. In 21 months so I’ve came along way already. But I never have been able to stabilize. But thank you for your reply I really appreciate it. So glad you are doing well.
Thanks for great content. I have been taking microdose for 2 weeks. Now down to 0.125mg Xanax per day (across 3 doses). It sounds a but silly to ask but what are the final steps to stop completely?
Thats a good question- Getting down to the equivalent of 0.5 mg Valium or less and then deciding from there if you want to taper lower or totally down to zero is the final step. I stopped at about 0.2mg Valium myself. At that point I could tell that the doses weren't really making a difference for me and were actually kind of throwing me off a bit.
I'm so sorry you're in cold turkey hell. It's does get better. In my experience I haven't personally ever seen it benefit anyone long term to reinstate at this point. I have made videos about the things I have seen benefit people. You could start with my "why am I getting worse" video. Also my interviews with Sarah price Hancock and the researcher Bonnie J Kaplan are both very helpful
@@BenzoBrains my family n friends say all these symptoms am faking. After facing all this I am facing a lot more mentally. I lost most of my hair last 6 months. Lost myslef totally. Just cabt function n do anything. Life is a pain
@@aashish551 relationships can heal just like our bodies do. It just takes time. First I had to heal so that my family could heal. My hair fell out too. It grew back .
@@BenzoBrains I had thick hair. Am getting bald totally. Stress and anger doesn't go. Because of this my back disk is herrinated that makes me impossible to work. Doctors say I must exercise but with these anger issues mood issues I am unable to eat exercise. I hate the doc who put me on this powerful thing just for a depression after my break up. She should have not been giving this poison for so long . Not more than 6 weeks . She just expiremented on me. I feel she must be ripped off her life too just like am suffering.. If I happen to c her again I dono wat i ll end up doing with her such is my frustration on her
@@BenzoBrains how long were u in withdrawals , but then u didn't cold turkey lik me? Cold turkey is really uncertain now even if I ll be fine mentally.
I am nearly half way through getting off DIAZ 15 mg day. I also want to get off my low dose Anti Depressant that I have been on for years....I am thinking well I feel sh*t getting off the Diaz so why not chuck in getting off the AD at the same time, as I did with the Zopiclone, but would you caution against trying to come off two psych drugs at the same time ? Getting of the Diaz for me is extremely long and drawn out, I can only reduce by small amts ev 2 weeks, I am extremely sensitive to any cuts I make with wdl symptoms.
I am on 0.25mg of klonopan - I'm cutting by 5-10% only each cut (no more than that is recommended ) I use a scale & weigh my cut med & put in an empty gelcap so I get same dose daily. it's not a sprint but a journey .. the tortoise wins over the hare :) She says in the video also - just do ONE med. taper at a time.. patience & a PLAN is key. i have found out what the most common symptoms are & I give myself permission to feel them .. ask my husband to give me space & I work through it .. letting myself plateau & ready for the next cut ♥ ALL the best - you got this -
Normally it's best to just continue HRT as prescribed in an effort to try and keep everything as stable as possible while tapering. If cycling the progesterone creates or aggravatea withdrawal symptoms you may either need to take it more regularly or taper off it before tapering your medication. It all depends on how you respond.
@benzo brains hi thank you so much, your videos have been so so helpful. I need advice how to split my D dose. I take it once a day and have cut from 15mg to 5.1. Once I got to 5.3 or so it’s been almost impossible to taper. I use water dilution micro cuts but even that has become unbearable and now I’m in interdose WD and each day feels worse than the last. What’s your best advice on how I can get stabilized and split my dose. I’m so sensitive to dose changes and am so scared of what will happen when I try to split. I am an RN and have twin 4 year olds. I need to be functional but feel myself deteriorating quickly. Xoxo thank you! You give me so much hope and inspiration that I can do this💪🏻
5mg was hard for me too. In fact that's when I split my once a day dose into twice a day. If you think that might help you hold where you're at and then split your D as shown in my use water to taper video into 2 or 3 doses. I did 2. Also honestly just holding at your current dose after you split for several weeks to a month may be helpful
How did you split your dose? Did u do it slowly, pulling little by little to earlier in the evening or did I do it all at once? What time did you move the dose to? Did you find it helped a lot to get off the last 5? Scared. Thank you so so much!
Makes any sense to water tapper the last 3 5 mg of valium ... .. the schedule in theory we are looking to go 3.25 -3.0mg- 2.50- 2.25..2.00 and reevaluate. 2 weeks each cut ...thaugnts ??
You can switch methods part way through your taper although it might aggravate your condition if you are sensitive until you get used to it. Then again it might not. It just depends
@@BenzoBrains great point .. my sy.ptoms areconsistent.. been very very lucky.. bad sleep is tbe worst and of course the depression that comes with the tapper.. Anxity is much much better.... oooo question Dr asked me to try rwmmeron . .thaugjts thanks
@@garysimone4977 - I have a lot of personal experience with remeron/mirtazapine and can't resist advising against it. This drug often causes weight gain and was, for me, extremely addictive. My prescriber put me on remeron to help with effexor/venlafaxine withdrawal, but what happened was that the addiction merely transferred from effexor to remeron, and it was an extremely long, difficult process to get off this drug. I specifically asked the prescriber if it would be hard to get off remeron and she said, "It shouldn't be." She couldn't have been more mistaken.
@@garysimone4977 - I was apprehensive from the get-go and never reached a high dose of remeron/mirtazapine. I took it a total of three years and over that period spiked up to 15 mg briefly a couple of times and also attempted to discontinue it a couple of times. The final taper went from Sept. 5, 2020, when I cut the dose in half from 7.5 mg down to 3.75 mg, until Dec. 6, 2021, when I took my final dose of very roughly 0.0625 mg using water tapering. I call Dec. 7, 2021, my "clean date" from all psychiatric drugs. Any discussion of tapering quickly gets very technical and is hard to do in the context of a brief comment. I hope what I've written above is clear and I wish you the very best.
Hello mam i was on clonazepam 0,5 mg for 9 years and i thought of leaving this and having bad withdrawl symptoms tightness in right part of brain eye and face even neck area now taking 0,25 mg clonazepam Can you please suggest further how to quit it
I was on 0.5g of clonazepam for 33 yrs., tapered to 0.25 over 2 yrs. NOW I am working on the LAST 0.25g pill taper.. I am using a precision scale, cutting, weighing - no more than 5-10% cuts/taper at a time .. hold til feel comfortable, I'm doing for a couple of mos. - SLOW taper .. this little 0.25g dose will take me 18mos. to 2 yrs. to get off and I'm good with that. It's not a sprint but a life journey .. we want to continue to live life with quality. Check out all the info available & here. Knowledge is power -- but feel confident, make a PLAN & be patient. Ride through discomfort .. and slow taper even more if needed .. ALL the best to us ♥
I've been on X for 10 years, I take it as needed, not at the same time everyday, I do 2mg a day. Does it matter at what time you take it, does it have to be at the same time? I take it when I'm stressed out, or I feel a panic attack coming, sometimes I take 2mg -3mg depending how stressful was the day
For tapering purposes if you feel you need to mictotaper then you would start dosing regularly and train yourself to get out of the mindset that you're taking them to treat situational anxiety. There will be no more rescue doses. Xanax is no longer an anxiety treatment. It's now something toxic you are slowly removing from your life. You're breaking up with Xanax. No midday or late night booty calls 😉
I’m pretty late to all of this, but I have severe insomnia and anxiety. I’ve been taking Klonopin 2.5mg at night only for sleep and cold turkey stopped eight days ago, been using Xanax as a substitute for sleep instead. Feel absolutely miserable during the day. I have no clue what to do, my doctor doesn’t either. Extremely difficult situation.
It sounds like you're experiencing interdose withdrawals because of the short half life of the Xanax. The best protocol would be to switch back to the klonopin and then do a much slower, possibly micro taper as demonstrated in my tapering videos. Also, please don't ever cold turkey again!
@southpaw___ I understand. But if you don't want to end up in a worse state or going through something similar or worse down the road then now is the time to learn patience and wisdom. Quick fixes lead to more problems.
@@BenzoBrains but do I have to follow a micro taper even though I’ve strictly been using benzodiazepines for just sleep and nothing else? I get zero benefit from them other than sleep. Taking them a total of about 8 months. I’m just tired of the next day side-effects and I’m unsure about how to do this regarding my specific situation. It’s weird.
hey thanks again for all your information I watched every single Video of you 🙏🏻. I just have a huge problem and I hope you can give me some good advice. I take Tavor and have to split it 4 times a day because of the half life. I already dissolved it in water and drank it 4 times a day…only after 2 days I got withdrawal symptoms :( was it because I dissolved the whole dose straight away? Now I thought about doing it with a precision scale but I would have to do all 4 bits every few days... I'm overwhelmed 😞 Changing diazepam doesn't work either, I don't tolerate it well
Did you switch to 4x a day at the same time you started putting it in water? Or were you dosing 4x a day before? Lots of people have used this method with Tavor. Make sure you're drinking the rinse water each time too. That could affect things
@@BenzoBrains Yes, that was pretty much at the same time, could it also be because I shouldn't dissolve 100% right away, but let's say, first 25% of the complete dose and then wait 2-3 days and then 25% again, etc.?or is that nonsensical? Many thanks for answering
I’ve been on 2mg of K at BT for severe insomnia/anxiety for years. I started out on .5mg in the mid 2000’s but my doctors slowly upped it over the years. I’d like to do a slow taper. I talked to my doctor and he said I could taper if I wanted to. Where should I start? I’d like to get off this 2mg to a lower dose and eventually get off. Thanks
I wanted to ask your opinion. If someone tapered down from a benzo for years and years and years..........and got to the point where they are only taking .5mgs (1/2 mg) once a month for about 2 years..........would you expect that person to be affected by the protracted withdrawal (the actual recovery) that go with quitting benzos? Do we have to be off 100% before our brain really starts to recover or is able to recover completely? The .5 mg is Estazolam (prosom) which I took/take for insomnia. My thought is that my brain would have recovered quite a bit over the years and years of tapering down, and then recovered more over the last 2 years of such a small amount. When I stop the .5 mg that I'm taking once a month, should I expect more miserable recovery symptoms? Do you have thoughts or an opinion on this? Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.
Hi. If you were dosing such a small amount daily I would actually expect more healing than dosing once a month as you do. Dosing so sporadically could definitely be prolonging your injury, possibly even aggravating it. So I would expect much more healing once off completely. Right now unfortunately you're kindling yourself again and again and again each time you dose.
@@BenzoBrains That's not good news. But I'm glad I asked. Would you suggest I just stop dosing at this point? Or? I'm for the most part doing fairly well. Still suffer from some sleep issues, but that is getting better and that's my only real issue. Thank you.
Tapering by 1/2 ml per day would give you a 20 month taper or a rate of 5% per month. If you remove 1 ml per day that's a 10 month taper or 10% per month rate for either drug. Doesn't matter what your starting dose is.
@@BenzoBrains thank you so much I will try the 1ml and Increase every week would that work? like 1ml first week 2ml second week and so on of couscous depending how how I feel ir if I need to hold the dose.
@@anayuli_quin4297 yes if you think you can go more rapidly you can do it that way. Like you said, if you hit a bump in the road, hold at the dose you're at for a bit and possibly consider going back to a slightly slower rate. Good luck!
Anyone here have severe head symptoms that affects your swallowing? I can't barely swallow for a year ago, the discomfort in my head is getting worst and not able yo eat nothing. Im in agony. Im taking klono
That is a common symptom, possibly related to nerve damage. You might want to join an online benzo support group to get some insights into that. Sorry, like everything else it should get better with time
Are you experiencing any issues or do you just want to try and get off? Sometimes if people are healthy and haven't been off and on meds before they can reduce quickly. Either way I would recommend some version of a dry cut or water taper as demonstrated in either of those 2 videos on my tapering playlist
@@BenzoBrainsi had panic attack june 19 and it tore me to pieces. Agoraphobia. I feel like i still need xanax but im so scared of reading horrible withdrawals. So i feel like just quitting the meds and let anxiety torture me instead.
Thanks for the video. Very useful. I am a 69 year old on multiple psyc drugs - clonazepam .88mg/ flueoxetine5mg/ olanzapine1.25mg/ and lamotrigine50mg. I have tapered all these meds from higher doses and had relatively mild problems. I am currently tapering only clonazepam @10% of last dose every 15 days by water dissolving the .125 mg tablet in 20 ml water and discarding 10% of solution progressively every 15 days to give me a 10% hyperbolic reduction. Is this the right way to go , my psychiatrist doctor who is MD specialist doesnt have a clue about tapering benzos.
@pradeepdatta2168 hi it sounds like you've done a wonderful job of establishing a taper plan that works for you, since you are having relatively few symptoms. My philosophy is if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Best wishes
Kindling ---I am a bit confused abt what it means. I recently tried reducing my DIAZ my 1mg and had horrendous pain for a good 10 days, could not cope, so went back up to the previous dosed I was on. I have done this before with no problems ( nearly half way through the taper) I also had my SSRI changed from the Branded one to the generic one, and although they say they are the "same", I have noticed some dizziness since swapping. When I went bak up to my b4 doze of DIAZ which is has not been a problem in the past, I felt awful, and very depressed with ideation of you know what. Is that kindling ?? I feel I am on my own with this and am now scrambling around trying to find some drug and alcohol counsellor who may know abt Benzo wdl. So scarey and awful.
Hi, it's possible that's kindling but I wouldn't worry too much about what it's called. Now you know that making such large cuts isn't a good option, and so microtapering from now on without going back and forth is probably the best plan for you. If you haven't learned how to micro taper yet please watch my other videos on my tapering playlist
I am from india i take benzo fot my insomnia here in india the population is very high everyone fights to survive. My psychiatrist always want me at the higher dose he never talk about tapering he dont want to end the follow up as he looses the patient costumers. Hope u understand what i mean
Benzodiazepines are safe and effective if taken as prescribed. If the medication works for you and you do hot have side effects or not developed a tolerance, then by all means stay on the medication!
I would recommend learning more about the effectiveness of Benzodiazepines for various diagnoses at benzoreform.org as well as the long term effects of regular use. Benzoinfo.org is also another good resource. Educating the public generally about facts vs sharing one's personal experience with them are two different things and should be denoted as such. It sounds like your experience with them has been positive in your estimation. I'm glad you're doing ok. May you find more peace and love in your journey forward. Happy holidays!
I taper 50 % from 0.5 mg of Klonopin to 0.25 in 1 month and I can feel the withrawal but not just worst it's just a mild mood disturbance I eat well but the insomia is there hehe so many sleepless nights...
Thanks for reaching out. You may want to give your body plenty of time to stabilize now before tapering further and possibly consider going slower, making smaller cuts from here on out. People often do ok with big cuts at the beginning of their tapers and then become more sensitive as they get lower. Just a suggestion though! Good luck
Wow! Thank you ma'am benzo brains yes I will follow your advice because your I experienced one....thank you so much for your concern...very much appreciated 👍
@@BenzoBrains I took Klonopin 0.5 mg for 4 months now I taper 50% of last month I'm on 0.25mg now I can feel the withrawal but not as bad...I have sleepless nights...pls! Pray for me bro and sis🙏💖
HELLO IM ON .5 MG MY SELF IVE WANT TO TAPPER OFF DONE IT BEFORE BUT WORK STRESS MADE ME RELAPSE. I REALYY HATE TAKING THIS STYFF IF IT AWFUL TO LEAVE. IVE HAD INSOMNIA FOR 45 DAYS NOW 4 TO 5 HOURS WITH COUPLE 0 HOURS SLEEP NIGHTS ITS AWFUL. HOW ARE YOU DOING IS THERE A SPECIAL WAY YOU ARE TAPPERING OFF? I JUST BOUGHT A JEWLERY SCALE WANT TO START BUT SCARED. I DONT FEEL IM STABALIZED. I JUST HAD MY FIRST BURST OF SHOCKS IN BOTH MY ARMS JUST A LITTLE WHY AGO GOT FREEKED OUT..i JUST WANT TO SLEEP AND WAKE UP AND THIS ALL BE GONE..
This video is designed to introduce you to some of the basic concepts and resources you will need to begin tapering your benzo or other prescribed medication. Go to benzobrains.com for more info
For benzo equivalencies go to:
benzo.org.uk/manual
and
benzoreform.org/comparison-of...
Here is my tapering playlist of additional educational videos on tapering and withdrawal ruclips.net/video/whpciMUXHfY/видео.html
Sry, my phone wouldn't let me post, on my long message,!?! A thought) trying the, .05 mg, first. Then if that doesn't work, then a longer acting one!? Thank you again!! 💞
Hi, I would ask you one question. Do you still experience the sedation/drowsiness effect from the benzo throughout your tapering journey?I understand you were floxed by the fluroquinolone antibiotics before you got onto the benzo. I too was floxed by the fluroquinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin and I took it together with kolonpin and all of the sudden it loses its sedation and drowsiness effect . I did cold turkey off the medications during the early stage and went through hell with horrible neurological symptoms. So I reinstate back to valium and because of my suicidal tendencies ,I was also put on lyrica, Zoloft,trizadone and mirtazpine. I still don't experience any drowsiness nor sedation effect from any of these medications though it did kept me from being suicidal.
Can you do microtapering with Mirtazapine by reducing 0.1 mg every day as is done for Benzo ?
Which do you prefer ma'am I'm on tapering water titration I follow your video instructions...I will go 5% per week? Or 10% in every 2 weeks? I'm on my klonopin 0.25mg 1/8 cut...
I TAKE VRAYLAR AND CLOZAPINE ...ONE OF IT IS CAPSULE WHAT DO I DO NO DPCS IN MY COUNTRY WANNA HELP ME
Your method helped me. I made it through. It was tough but with prayer and my husband and kids support I continued to push forward. It took a about a year and a half to feel healed. B vitamins and L-theanine and magnesium glycinate helped tremendously. Benzos damage your central nervous system so vitamins that will help strengthen your nervous system is extremely helpful. After 2 years I am now starting to sleep well again. I praise God for you and your videos you are helping so many people to be well!! Thank you, Jesus!!
Hello Cinnamon. May I know how did you manage B vitamins? Was it a majorly carnivore diet or B vitamins shots? Any help is much appreciated. 🙏😇
Keep the uploads coming, you are helping people in pain. We need direction 🙏🏻
Keep pushing forward. Your hard work is not going unnoticed. Your a wonderful person for caring so much. Youve helped me so much. Its hard and scary but you help. Thank you.💗.
Thank you for being constant... The steady flow of information is so appreciated, life saving for many :) thanks again for the effort you put in
You're welcome
Thanks again for the information from a voice of real experience. You are doing a great service by putting this out there.
Your video on water micro taper is what I followed and educated my p doc so he cold help me. I only have 55 days left and I will be off the benzo I have taken for over 40+ years. So thrilled. He has learned we do not be LIFERS! Thank you. I do own the Ashton Manual but the way you explained it was so helpful. In time I am going to start tapering Effexor... Patience is soooo important. To win this battle.
That's wonderful! Thanks for sharing 👍
@@BenzoBrains I must say 'thank you' too. I followed your water taper instructions to get off Valium after 15 years. I have 2 weeks left and then I am off of them forever!
For the last week I have devoted 8 hours a day to educate myself on Benzos. I watched your video about water titration. I have used this method in the past to get off of Ativan. I was sleeping 6 hours a night using .75 mg of Ativan. I only took out 1 mil of water and slept less than 4 hours. I am not giving up. I will just continue with taking out 1 mil until my body sleeps for 6 hours. Your channel is my favorite. You are positive and to the point. I keep coming back here. I might use razor blade to cut my next dose as I know my dosage of 3/4 mg is too low for scale to measure.
You don't have to cut your pills, you can just calculate what you need to remove from the water suspension- if that's what you meant. Also you can alway hold until your body adjusts. At least give it a week or two and see if you balance out a bit and then move forward. You can also always go slower by removing every other day or so
@@BenzoBrains Thank you for your response. I have watched all of your videos. I do appreciate all you do for those of us who are trying to get off these horrible drugs.
@@deedeew4040 how long were you taking Ativan for, only one dose a day for sleep or more ? Would you share your taper plan, and most importantly, did you hit tolerance and WDs already . It’s my problem , and barely function
@@ellaMel4632 I have been on Ativan for 13 years. It has been two years of tapering. I was down to 1/4 mg and I fell and broke three bones and I had to increase my dosage to 3/4 mg. I am down to 1/2 mg. I have another month before I start tapering. I have hit tolerance and I had WD's This might sound strange but I cleaned up my diet. I drink water only. I eat lots of protein. No sugar, no carbs, just eat eggs, fish, meat and hard cheese. No alcohol. I exercise lightly. I try to keep my body in Ketosis. No more tolerance and WD's. It is important to keep your body in tune.
Excellent video. You touched on something not many people talk about - at 25.16 you note that benzo access can be taken away abruptly at any point by a provider, leaving people to go cold turkey or abruptly taper with horrible effects. Exactly what happened during the opioid crisis, leading thousands to move from oxy (after provider cutoff) onto heroin
Finally found a doctor willing to help me wean off after years of different doctors just raising my dose and dismissing my worries about clonazepam. Weaned off from 4mg daily to 1mg daily and slowly working my way down... Your videos are really helpful. It's good to know I'm not alone. Thank you!
@@aleksandram7611 you're welcome! I'm so glad you've finally found a practitioner willing to work with you
I'm halfway now dear! Taken 10 months to knock 5mg down, so I am now on 5mg a day! It's not been too horrendous, once I made them see I had to be in control of the drops and not them! So now they are just happy to prescribe 5mg a day and wait for me to call them and say oh I am down to 4mg a day now! I have no date for that next drop, I find it is happening naturally, I tend to forget to take them, and then I know I am ready to drop another 1mg. I must add that I am feeling so much better on half the dose! I don't think I would have ever realised if I'd never stumbled upon your videos last year in Lockdown One! Thank you x
Jocelyn! After 3 years of tapering, using your water taper method, I AM OFF VALIUM!!!!
Congratulations! I'm so happy to hear this. How are you doing?
@@BenzoBrains I’m doing fairly well. Still struggling a bit with tinnitus, but I’m learning how to habituate. So grateful for your help in getting my life back! Thank you so very much 😌
✔💖💖
@@dariahna999 How are you doing now! That is so encouraging to hear!
ThankThank you very much for this video. I've been wanting to taper off for a long time but felt overwhelmed by the whole thing. This very informative video gave me some more motivation.
I'm so glad to hear this! You're very welcome
Very important video I am watching this video again and again and sharing your video so that more and more people can get educated from your videos
I'm so glad to hear that. There are many people out there who need this info!
@@BenzoBrains Thank you so much I'll try my best to share this video to as many people as I can
Still fighting the good fight after many yrs on and off Xanax and trying time and time again to get off. It's been 5 yrs since starting my taper after I finally found the info I needed on this channel. Easy to feel discouraged after 5 yrs and still not benzo free, but I have faith and hope that some day I'll be well enough to follow in Jocelyn's footsteps and help people in this way. Much love to BB family
It can be done... I am proof...4 year taper... 6 months off this week... 4 months pure hell but getting better everyday... slow and steady....
Thank you so, so much for all of your hard work! Your videos have helped me make a lot of headway with my benzo reduction dream over the last year -- especially understanding interdose withdrawal!! I am just setting myself up for a water taper to finish the last bit over the next 2 - 6 months (depending on how it goes)!!
That's fantastic. Best of luck!
22 years of klonipin and working on it now..its ruff but doable. I'm down to .75 from 4mg
I've been off anti- depressants for over 2 years. It's time for the benzo to go.
Thank you so much this video has been very informative. I’ve been doing the dry cut method. That seems to be working good for me. I really appreciate your passion on the subject matter and I appreciate this video very much very encouraging. Thank you.❤🙏🏼
I wish i could stabilize but that's just not an option for me unfortunately.. Withdrawal is beyond tough, extremely close to impossible.. Great video love seeing you help people keep it up 💙
Prof. Heather Ashton specifically recommended NOT updosing. One should maintain the progress one has made to the extent possible. We want to minimize the pain, of course, but we cannot realistically expect withdrawal to be painless.
I think it's OK to updose but not to the original dose. I was being dropped to much to quickly. I remember dropping from 8mg diazepam to 6mg. Then I updosed to 7mg. Then 7.5mg. Where I stabilised for 2 weeks. Then I was dropping 1mg every 2weeks till i got to 1.5mg then dropped half mg every two weeks and jumped off at the .5mg . Every one is different I suppose. But it worked for me. Thank heavens. 8 weeks post taper sleep isn't to bad. Tension is letting up and the fatigue.
@@waynegrow - So good to hear what you did worked. That's what counts!
I finally managed to get off several psychiatric drugs and am now on Day 69 post taper. There is a long road ahead for me because I was on drugs for decades.
Best wishes to you for a speedy recovery, Daniel!
@@nokomismn9685 aww. Many thanks. My problem was self inflicted through black market diazepam through the lockdown period. What you've been through and still going through I could never comprehend
I have heard antipsychotics are tremendously hard to get off as they hit so many of the receptors. You have achieved so much as you were on for a long time
Much love and gratitude. Wishing you all the best in your recovery ❤️
Love this video.Thanks I had horrible Benzo belly could turkey that I thought I had Ascites cut it off. Now I’m back on at a lower dose I still have about 50 percent stomach problems and worried the lower I go I won’t be able to handle the extreme discomfort along with chronic insomnia.I literally went 3 weeks without sleep trying to find another doctor.Not exaggerating.Thanks again for the video.I’ve been watch awhile now and I think ur like Benjamin Button and age backwards.Lol
😄 the benefits of healing from withdrawal and having a face that gets fatter as I get older 😉
Thank you for caring so much!
Personally, I can't say enough how important being stable before begging a taper &/or in between tapering. We're not a statistic, we're individual & a good Dr. will consider your individual needs. Because of the disease I have ME/myalgic encephalylomitis, I have to be my own advocate. I've found when giving a Dr. information it helps to start off by making it clear that you're not trying to be condescending nor belittle their MD & experience. We shouldn't have to 'feed anyone's ego' by doing this but it is, what it is. Sometimes this helps them be receptive also some Dr's are appreciative for the help, being that medical coperation wants them to consider profit over quality of care. The FDA guidelines have also been updated to include the danger of stopping cold turkey & withdrawal. Don't be afraid to take those FDA guidelines to show them. Don't let any Dr. bully or hold your medication over your head. If they want to 'fire' you, don't be afraid to let them know that would be patient abandonment. So they'll be obligated to treat you, until you find another Dr. Check your state statutes to get the details as well as federal. Dr's often try to allude to laws or recommendations, expecting the patient isn't educated about it. Always stand up for yourself.
This isn't an attempt to blame or bad mouth Dr's. At times they do need to be reminded you are part of your medical team.
I went to my benzo prescribing dr. He has been my dr for 21 years.And, had asked for a smallest dose of ativan. My taper is already 4.5 mg done. I.5 left to go. I am a super stable, reliable mom of 2. He refused valium switch and then when I got home tried to refill my current ativan which still had 2 refills left. He called and canceled by 2 remaining refills. Good thing I have been tapering for 4 months so have 80+ pills saved up.
I will never see him again and with Jocelyn and the community, I will go it alone. Beware, drs care about themselves NOT YOU.
Do a cold turkey really is very hard. It's my 5th week now that I'm off (Ativan & Zolpidem). But I'm still not fine, not stable enough. You're so right, should never do a cold turkey from Benzos again. I'm so hopeful that the withdrawal symptoms will disappear soon. The first 2 or 3 weeks were the hardest.... no sleep all the nights... always had to stay awake and very very horrible thoughts. Now the physical symptoms have disappeared very slowly. I think it will be a very long and hard way, to stay clean. In Germany we still have a very hard Lockdown and it's not possible to find another doc at the moment. Sadly the most doctors here, they don't know anything about tapering the Benzos and how hard the withdrawal could be. Lots of people here have to do a cold turkey from benzodiazepines at the moment, because they also didn't get a prescription anymore for these meds. It's because of the pandemic here extreamly, prescriptions for benzodiazepines increased more than 500% alone in the last 12 months here, compared to the years before. Thanks for your videos! Great job!
How are you doing now? Im also doing cold turkey, on my 5th day now
I’ve received so much awesome life affirming information from your videos, but I still haven’t found how to taper from Xanax XR. I’m on 3.5mg daily, and have been on XR for 5 years, before that regular Xanax for over 30 years. I had very bad post partum after my 30 yr old son was born and have been taking it as prescribed only. I have had GAD all my life. From what my psychiatrist (whom I like and is managing me) says, you can’t cut or do a liquid titration of Xanax XR. We found a pharmacy and tried having them compound-I ended up in hospital having a slew of cardiac tests. I have memory loss, depression, and hopelessness. I know most people switch to another benzo to taper. That sounds like no fun! It took me 2 yrs to get from 4mg Xr to 3.5mg micro cutting (which doesn’t work well because medicine not evenly distributed in tablet & it’s not to be cut). That was a nuts time and I’m going to hold here for awhile. I’m 64, looking for hope that I won’t always be such a damaged person chained to my pill box. Thank you for giving a voice to those of us who were compliant patients and end up with a dependence and symptoms that are extremely detrimental. I’m very proud of you.
Wow that sounds like a traumatic experience with tapering I'm sorry. Do you understand now after watching this video how you can approach a micro taper if you're on Xanax xr or do you need more info?
@@BenzoBrains I’m sorry but I would like a bit more information on that. Brain not at 100% capacity. 🙏
Nail files and a jeweler scale have been key to my taper.
Yep! That's really the best method for dry cutting in a microtaper🙂
I am so glad to find your video today. I have been so confused about where to start. I like your plan on stabilize before you start. I have been on Clonazapam once a day for 12 years. For the past couple of months I have been feeling anxious during the day so I think I need to switch to splitting the dose to at least 2X per day. I hope that helps me stabilze. I plan to taper of pariet first. I have been taking that for a few years but it is making me feel worse now. The good thing is my Dr is on board for what ever I decide. Thanks again for the great information.
You're welcome and just FYI people will often dose clonazepam 3-4x a day to curb interdose withdrawals
@@BenzoBrains What is the best way to split the dose. Would I take a full does at night (my usual time) then take half in the morning then another half at night? I tried just doing half at night and half in the morning but that did not work. Thanks..
ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED. THANK YOU❣️
After you finished your long taper and once you where at zero did you feel normal at that point? Or did it take another year after taper or more?
Thank you.
Watch my "Why am I getting worse?" video update. I got a lot better a few months afterwards. But there were ups and downs for a long time
Your videos are very helpful tysm💗
Hello Jocelyn. I’m Beth. You’re channel is how I discovered what was wrong with me. Complex story, as most are. Have switched over to V from Klonopin. 20 mg. equivalency.
Thought I could use tablets until tiny cuts became necessary and then switch to liquid. Is that unwise?? Found a compounding pharmacy in my rural Midwest area. Input? Again, you’re my light at the end of this long road. Bless you and THANK YOU.
Hi how you continue to taper depends on how accurate your cuts were and how sensitive you may be to any change in the liquid compound from your pill. You're your own guinea pig in this situation. Try what you feel is best and if that doesn't work wait to stabilize and try something else.
So do you generally believe water titration is the most accurate and safest?(less debilitating symptoms) Have studied Ashton seriously and thought compounding after coarse cutting was optimal.
Already not steady and am unsure of my capabilities in fine tapering. Introduced a discovered psych nurse to my situation after being suggested 3 different meds that are absolutely unnecessary and harmful especially in this fragile situation. NOW she gets it, but is following my lead... I’ve become my own advocate in an unknown arena. So many of us.
My respect for your love of humanity and not cashing out of this scene.♥️🙏🏻
@@mikestephens7270 I think water titration is the easiest but it's hard to say if it's the most accurate. No method is exact
I took antidepressants for 20 years. Ive been off of them for 9 months.
Congratulations! How are you feeling so far?
@@BenzoBrains its been rough. I have alot of anxiety and insomnia but im not going back to meds. The dr offered me vistaril to sleep but it made feel depressed. I take tyrosine 500 mgs in the morning and sam e 100 mg at lunch and another one at dinner . HOw can i get in contact with you?
So helpful!! Thank you!!
My doctor wouldn’t give me Valium via Ashton Manual. He prescribed Inderal which had a whole new set of side effects. I had never taken it before and I’m 73 years old. After a few doses I quit taking it.
Unfortunately that's a common prescription for doctors to give people who are having difficulty withdrawing from Benzodiazepines.
yikes !! Did you give them the Ashton Manual info ?? That's bizarre .. Sorry to hear - don't stop trying
Thank you for your videos! I’m a 58 year female. I’ve been on .5 mg Klonopin for 20 years. I take 1/2 morning and 1/2 evening.
Would you recommend I split it into 3 doses or should I stay on my two doses? Wondering if I would have trouble at night because my dose would be smaller if I spread it into 3.
Also, would you recommend the water taper rather than the whole milk taper? I’m sensing you think the water taper is more accurate than a whole fat milk taper??
Hi it's generally not recommended by pharmacists to combine your medication with milk like that. Splitting your doses can initially affect your sleep but if you give it a few weeks and let your body adjust before reducing, you should stabilize and get used to it
@@BenzoBrains Ok! Thank you for the good information. I’ll plan on the water taper and trying to divide into 3 doses. Thank you so much for your response back!
As an opioid addict, and have went through withdrawal from that and xanax, which i didn't abuse just used high doses during recovery for sleep, i wait until the pain is unbearable, then take just enough to feel normal, and beta blocker in between. Rapid taper. Only because i have taken a lot of pain. I don't recommend that to people who haven't had addiction issues though lol
Lool
May I ask you a question, please. I started my taper 9 months ago using the Ashton manual. I went too fast. I got down to .5mg from 1.5mg of Clonazepam in 5 months. I had to be reinstated to 1mg. I am now starting the water taper, but my plan was to only decrease by 3% a month as my NS is in a highly, highly sensitized state. I take one pill in the morning and one pill at night. I did not want to touch my nighttime dose due to already having sleep issues. What about only tapering the morning dose to start with rather than doing both at once? Would that be problematic? Thank you for your time, I truly appreciate it.
Hi sorry I didn't respond sooner. You can leave the night dose if interdose withdrawal symptoms aren't a problem for you. However it seems to work best to taper even your night dose because it keeps your doses more even and your symptoms more stable as your not spiking your serum levels every night. It's up to you but I believe you're likely to avoid more problems reducing both at the same time. That's the beauty of a micro taper..it's not like a cut. You don't suddenly feel awful or develop insomnia from a teeny tiny cut. If it catches up to you and you suddenly have sleep problems, just hold off on tapering until it subsidies!
Thank you very much for this informative video. I was ripped off different drugs,then poly drugged with more,benzodiazepine being one of them. I am nearly down to 1mg,fully functional with a controlled slow micro taper.
But I have a iud coil in (the marina one)My body isn’t liking it been in,I am wanting to take it out but it’s obviously progesterone. Any ideas on what I should do regarding this?
Keep up the great work.
That's hard. If you're taper is going well you might want to wait to change anything else. You could look into equivalent amounts of bioidentical progesterone cream or something and talk to your doctor about using it to wean you off the progesterone when you do take it out.
Great knowledge
Using the word stable with Benzo withdrawal is kinda confusing. Nothing about my withdrawal has been stable. Even when I don't cutback for a longtime
Yeah for some people stable during withdrawal means symptoms aren't fluctuating as much or getting worse.
Being on multiple benzos for 20 years Its a struggle! I had to tell my psychiatrist I wanted off high doses till he died a few months ago and saw 3 different psychiatrists that said basically since I withdraw a month even suffering and stressing wanting to taper off they made me feel less then human dismissing my pain like i'm an addict!! there is nothing worse then that having generalized anxiety and ptsd I was told it is in my head!! Im suffering and feel alone I dont wish this on anyone.. Absolutely no support because no one understands.. Nightmares panic severe teeth grinding migraines..Go to er they send me home after they had a social worker ask how many drinks do i have and what drugs I take!! It was hard to not get upset!! There's a legitimate crisis i see now all my ailments like a fibromyalgia diagnosis, Nerve issues and 2 horrific miscarriages..Wow my eyes are opened thanks for the content what courage!!
I'm so sorry. Keep going. This too shall pass
Hi J, The reform site has good information, but honestly is overwhelming to those needing help. It's information overload when your brain is compromised. In your opinion, the water taper/titration seems to be easiest to follow and do each day. So, with mixing for each day's dosing, all the other doses, (pre-mixed jars) can sit on the counter or have to be refrigerated? You only mix once a day and divide those doses into jars, correct?
That's right. It should be fine for 1 day on the counter or in the fridge
I have been on Xanax 0,5 mg in the morning and 0,5 in the evening for 10 years how how do I start o reach the tolerance and I have insomnia
I'm sorry you have insomnia. I'm not sure I understand your question. If you're asking one could you please restate it? Thanks
Thank you so much‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
You're welcome
Hi Doris, hope you're doing well! 🙏🙏💞🤗🙌🌺🌼🌺
very interesting. But I still have a problem with tapering. I stopped taking Ativan and Zoloidem about 4 weeks ago. I did a cold turkey. I was on 5 mg of Ativan during the day and 10 mg of Ambien (Zolpidem) for sleep at night. So about 4 weeks ago, I was at my doc and she told me that I don't get a prescription for my meds anymore. She advised me to do a cold turkey. Now, about 4 weeks later the physical withdrawal symptoms have disappeared very slowly. But, I get back my fear and panic-attacs very heavy since I stopped taking my meds. I'm not able to go out of my home any more. Always panic-attacs, when I try to go into the supermarket or anywhere else. How long does it take these symptoms will disappear? I know, I had to do a slower taper. But it's to late now for me. What can I do in this case? I tried to take some other medications, like Doxepin and Quetiapine for sleep. But these meds have to many bad side-effects and everything was much worser.... so I also stopped taking these meds now. No sleep possible anymore at the moment. Need help, ... any idea what to do now? Thanks a lot!
Shame your doctor is ignorant...
Cases if cold turkey is hard to deal with... and hard to treat otherwise...
Surprised 4 weeks it took to feel a WD...
As each body is different... each person's healing ability as well.
Measure your ability to push through this... where by month 6-7 some get sleeping some.
1. If not stable, get a copy from pharmacy of those meds, highlight the dangers...
explain with the Dr for a proper taper of something like Valium... that Cold turkey is not working...
If they don't - explain your feelings, and what you can't do. Or cant handle. What you're losing...
If denied... then show the documents and say "the pharmacy said I should be tapering" and just blatantly ask for it...
If not then they are ignoring medical warnings.
Else.
- guided body relaxation 20 min
- audio books
- LOW inflammation diet
- anything distracting... games, puzzles
- FasterEFT
I would take you prescription info from pharmacy and go to the ER. Tell them what your dr did and your withdrawal symptoms and I have read and heard most often they will fill for you. Good Luck
What about blood pressure meds? Also I switched throid meds from Natural to synthetic.
Sorry I thought I'd answered this. Many people are prescribed blood pressure meds to heal them withdraw. It seems to help some of them. Whether everyone has a positive experience is unknown
I was prescribed Alprazolam for GAD Anxiety and panic attacks, if I stop the medication (10 years on it) the proper way, the GAD and panic will still be there?
That totally depends on what skills you've developed in the interim. I learned superhuman mindfulness and CBT while I was on meds and in withdrawal. Once I was off and started to heal, these techniques along with balancing my blood sugar, were incredibly effective.
@@BenzoBrains Thanks!
@@MrPablot95 you're welcome!
Thank you so much for your video! Myself, like you take about 1mg of Ativan nightly to try and calm down and sleep. I'm leaning towards the Water Titration method as I have 2 failed tapers already. Would you recommend just keeping with the 1mg Ativan and splitting the doses into 3 during the day? Or as I am feeling some interdose withdrawal increase the amount maybe to 1.5 and take 3 times a day. Thank you so much for your help
I've been on diazepam for 7 years all of a sudden my doctor says we are going to have to start tapering you literally about fainted in the doctor's office I have an appointment on December 2nd and I am literally scared to death of what he is gonna say or do my counselor disagrees with my doctor so should I ask him to maybe be my advocate he said that he would I have followed all the rules never failed a drug test so my question is what should I do..
I'm so sorry. I know how scary that feels. If you're not ready to taper then your chances of success are greatly diminished. I would suggest asking your doctor to look at the information presented by the medical experts at benzoreform.org. These are doctors who do continuing education for other doctors and who literally wrote the book on Benzodiazepines. Meanwhile I highly recommend watching my tapering playlist of videos to educate and prepare yourself. It can't hurt. Best of luck
That’s what happen too me I wasn’t stable I had to go back up on Ativan I from Springfield and found a doctor in Wisconsin to help me with my taper.
What Dr did you use in Wisconsin? Thanks
@@pamdietrich6068 For me I’m doing a slow compound liquid taper.
Been on .25 of ativan for 4 mths once a day or every other day I stopped and had terrible withdrawels been advised water taper 50ml water disvove 1 .25 and remove 1ml of solution day one day 2 2ml day3 3ml and so on for 40 days and finish I am very elderly so maybe that why I got addicte as I am very drug sensitive. Doing it once a day is this the correct way can any one help please
Hi how are you feeling now? Do you feel pretty normal back on or are you still experiencing effects from the cold turkey? You're not addicted by the way. You're dependent. There's a big difference
How do you feel now
I was on lorazapam for 5 months 1.25mg to 1mg
...cold turkey on 7th day diagnoses with paws.....severe bind
Given valium 10mg 2 months
2.5 months 5mg
Now dropped to 3.75mg severe withdraw
.
I went threw benzo hell 12 weeks....severe akathesia 12 weeks...insomnia, shaking, tremors, severe depression iv never ever felt before....
I'm now in withdrawal from valium which was used for withdrawal.....
Absolutely destroyed my brain one tiny tablet.
So yes 4 months use you can aquire bind and hell on earth withdrawal
You need to tell people how to Taper... must you go half or quarter dose.. and for how long.. not everyone can go to a Clinic for withdrawal thank you so much ❤
@DawnStelfox hi I have 2 tapering instructional videos, one for water tapering and one for dry cutting. They're on my tapering playlist
I'm currently on 0.375 mg of clonazepam daily. I was once at 0.75 mg daily over 2 years ago when I had painful muscle conditions but somehow managed to reduce my dose. However, due to inconsistent dosing, I've suffered from bouts of what I think is 'benzo flu'. I've had photosensitivity, electric feeling in my body, malaise, positional vertigo, and unsteady feeling often but not all the time. Some days I'm totally normal. How long on average does a person's nervous system need to stabilize at a certain dose? For example, if I cut and hold, how long would the average person be symptomatic from the dosage reduction?
Thank you for putting out your video's 🙏 I'm just starting to get off of lyrica whith terrible withdrawals so that's how I found your chanal. Lyrica also hits the gava receptors hard. Now I have a question: do I start first to taper off the lyrica which my body has most troubles with going without? And keep my 0,5 ml lormetazepam (benzo for sleeping) or do it other way around? Lormetazepam can maybe help stabalise while getting off the horrible lyrica. But otherwise it might be more difficult to get off the lyrica whilst taking a benzo at the same time. Only for 3,5months on lyrica and I feel way more addicted to it than the benzo which i'm allready on for 2 years or so. Would you have some insights for me on this one?
I would stick with the Lyrica taper. The benzo is likely a buffer although the fact that your withdrawal is awful already would indicate something is off. Are you tapering too fast?
@@BenzoBrains thank you for your answer 🙏 I feel it resonates for me to first do the lyrica. Yes. Thank you.
Two things happened: been on and off from lorazepam for anxiety during the 3 months that i was using lyrica (and before) besides the lormetazepam for sleeping. So that was not something good propably. Went off the lorazepam first because that didn't feel so hard. But that was in the same period as i started to get off of the lyrica. And the second thing: went too fast on the lyrica in the beginning. Didn't know anything about tapering. So had to get to a previous (higher ) level of lyrica twice before i found your tapering video. Now doing it the slow way with the lyrica. Hopefully doctor will understand and write prescription as long as the taper takes.
Its getting there can u take methadoneS well S taken them both but only for a couple of weeks while I morning my younger brother death
I’m on venlafaxine with tiny beads so can I put one tiny bead in water ? And seperate them
Where do you get the jars for tapering?
Anywhere, I like small mayo jars with good lids but I just got some great ones off Amazon last time
@@BenzoBrains relatedly - what size oral syringes should be used?
Hi I’ve watched your water titration video as well as some others I find they are helpful and give me hope! I do have a question regarding the water titration. I take 0.5 clonazapam at night for sleep so would I do the water titration throughout the day as you did? And were you able to do the 300ml straight through the process or did you have to stall a bit! Just wanted to get a better understanding..again thank you so much for all you do!
How long did you take Klonopin bro?
I had been on a tiny dose of clonazepam for 2 months, after stopping I started getting way more anxious and psychotic. I thought it didn't even do much (clonazepam) but maybe I'm wrong. Ive had to start taking the lorazepam when needed again. Thoughts? I'm on an ssri and an anti-psychotic and might as well be on nothing the way I feel. What should I do?
Hello, I have just started tapering off lorazepam (Ativan/temesta). I am now at 2 mg instead of 2.5. I take my medication once a day before going to bed. I intend to diminish 10% each time until I am at like 0.10 or 0.05. I don't intend to switch to Valium as it did not do anything for me with l'imovan when the Doctor made me get cold turkey on them. It was hell and awful insomnia. I thought I would die, even when I took them back, I slept only for 2/3 jours and couldn't rest even during the day. I bought a pill cuter and ordered a scale to taper the best way possible.
I would love to do the water method, I saw your video and didn't understand well. Should you use every time 300 ml of water. For example let's say that I am on 1mg of lorazepam and want to taper off 10%. How can I do that with the water method? For now I will use the pill cuter but once at smaller doses I think this method will help me greatly. First I need to understand what I am doing.
Please don't cut your pills without measuring first as shown in my pill cutting video. It's not accurate and it can really mess things up. Start with a whole pill as shown in my liquid titration video and reduce from there
This is true.....sounds like me
I was on lorazapam 1.25mg for 2 months then 1mg for 3 months.
I stopped cold turkey.
On 7th day in ER diagnosed with paws. Cns in shock. Placed on valium 10mg per day 2 months
Then on 5mg valium last 2.5mg.....
Now trying to stop valium
Hell.
Still in severe cns damage Injury that happened after cold turkey lorazapam known as ativan
I am having severe withdrawal by dropping 5mg to 3.75mg
.....staying on 3.75mg until stable again.
Symtpoms of withdrawal
12 weeks 100km surges up spine severe akathesia hell on fire
Would of rather died.
End of 12th week like a base ball bat hit back of the brain. Dead calm. For 11 days then back to symtpoms at 50%.....severe neuropathy....never had neuropathy in my life...darkest depression iv ever felt....now still suffering windows and waves 4 months 2 weeks in withdrawal
So so so so long.
It causes severe trauma coming off it.
I absolutely love your videos, you are wonderful!
Im 51 was put on 1mg of Klonopin once a day for the past 15 month's for panic attacks and anxiety.
I was never informed by my doctor about withdraw, and was never on medication before.
I told my doctor I wanted off so she decreased it to 0.75mg for a month, then went to 0.5mg for the past month. That was 50% in a month does that seem to fast? Now she wants me to go to 0.25mg and add gabapentin 300mg, she says it helps with withdraw symptoms, but im afraid to do so because of withdraw from that.
My symptoms are right now, head pressure, headache, under my cheek bones feel clogged, and some sleep disturbance. Do these sound like normal symptoms? Also I think I might hold at .5mg for a while, I think another .25mg might be to quick.
Again your videos are so informative and your a wonderful speaker!
Any tips would be so helpful
God Bless you and your family
Michael
Hi thanks for reaching out. Yes that all sounds very normal for withdrawal and yes that's a very rapid taper. Holding sounds like a good idea. Adding in more meds could further complicate things because then you'd have to taper from that as well. Follow your instincts. Direct your Dr to benzoreform.org so she can learn better physician best practices for benzodiazepines from other physicians. Tapers should be patient directed based on symptoms, not on some arbitrary withdrawal schedule set up by the Dr. Good luck
You're videos are Great but terrifying me. Doctors really don't care. Even after prescribing this medication for almost a decade. My Dc retired now it's almost impossible to find a new one. Any Help in NYC you know of?
You can to to benzoinfo.com and there should be a list there of benzo informed providers in your area
@@BenzoBrains
I did it helped...God Bless you for all your info. I'm amazed there's not much out there. I hope you can lead the charge for millions who need it!🙏
Ive learned in the past decade that Drs don't care about whats best for patients, I highly doubt the dea or medical board is going to arrest or take their license for slow tapering patients if documented properly, so it looks to me they only care about themselves. Hmm,.. Is it any wonder why there's a snake wrapped around a pole as a sign for the medical symbol? Reminds me of the snake in the garden of Eden. And have ever read the Hypocratic Oath Drs take prior to getting their licensed? If not you should. Its very creepy and sounds demonic.
I tried so many of them. No one is taking new patients. We are on our own@@BenzoBrains
Hi thank you for the video. How about if you never stabilize even if you hold. The only choice would be to keep on tapering correct. Any response will be highly appreciated thank you so much.
Hi yes, unfortunately some people never really stabilize and so they just have to press forward. But it's worth a try to work with a good FND and see if it's possible.
@@BenzoBrains thank you so much for the response. I’ve already went from 120 mg of Valium. Now I’m down to 4.5 mg of Valium. In 21 months so I’ve came along way already. But I never have been able to stabilize. But thank you for your reply I really appreciate it. So glad you are doing well.
Thanks for great content. I have been taking microdose for 2 weeks. Now down to 0.125mg Xanax per day (across 3 doses). It sounds a but silly to ask but what are the final steps to stop completely?
Thats a good question- Getting down to the equivalent of 0.5 mg Valium or less and then deciding from there if you want to taper lower or totally down to zero is the final step. I stopped at about 0.2mg Valium myself. At that point I could tell that the doses weren't really making a difference for me and were actually kind of throwing me off a bit.
I did cold turkey last year after taking for 13 years. Am in hell. Is reinstating helpful ?
I'm so sorry you're in cold turkey hell. It's does get better. In my experience I haven't personally ever seen it benefit anyone long term to reinstate at this point. I have made videos about the things I have seen benefit people. You could start with my "why am I getting worse" video. Also my interviews with Sarah price Hancock and the researcher Bonnie J Kaplan are both very helpful
@@BenzoBrains my family n friends say all these symptoms am faking. After facing all this I am facing a lot more mentally. I lost most of my hair last 6 months. Lost myslef totally. Just cabt function n do anything. Life is a pain
@@aashish551 relationships can heal just like our bodies do. It just takes time. First I had to heal so that my family could heal. My hair fell out too. It grew back .
@@BenzoBrains I had thick hair. Am getting bald totally. Stress and anger doesn't go. Because of this my back disk is herrinated that makes me impossible to work. Doctors say I must exercise but with these anger issues mood issues I am unable to eat exercise. I hate the doc who put me on this powerful thing just for a depression after my break up. She should have not been giving this poison for so long . Not more than 6 weeks . She just expiremented on me. I feel she must be ripped off her life too just like am suffering.. If I happen to c her again I dono wat i ll end up doing with her such is my frustration on her
@@BenzoBrains how long were u in withdrawals , but then u didn't cold turkey lik me? Cold turkey is really uncertain now even if I ll be fine mentally.
What is agood definition of 'being" stable..".
During a taper? Symptoms are consistent, not severely worse at any given time
@@BenzoBrains thank great point
Should I quit Gabapentin first before trying to taper off of Valium?
It depends on which medication you feel is adversely affecting you the most right now , which you've been on longest and what your body is telling you
Thanks
I am nearly half way through getting off DIAZ 15 mg day. I also want to get off my low dose Anti Depressant that I have been on for years....I am thinking well I feel sh*t getting off the Diaz so why not chuck in getting off the AD at the same time, as I did with the Zopiclone, but would you caution against trying to come off two psych drugs at the same time ? Getting of the Diaz for me is extremely long and drawn out, I can only reduce by small amts ev 2 weeks, I am extremely sensitive to any cuts I make with wdl symptoms.
I am on 0.25mg of klonopan - I'm cutting by 5-10% only each cut (no more than that is recommended ) I use a scale & weigh my cut med & put in an empty gelcap so I get same dose daily. it's not a sprint but a journey .. the tortoise wins over the hare :) She says in the video also - just do ONE med. taper at a time.. patience & a PLAN is key. i have found out what the most common symptoms are & I give myself permission to feel them .. ask my husband to give me space & I work through it .. letting myself plateau & ready for the next cut ♥ ALL the best - you got this -
How can contact you privately with questions?
Any suggestions for someone who must take progesterone cyclically . This is unfortunately a necessary evil for me on HRT.
Normally it's best to just continue HRT as prescribed in an effort to try and keep everything as stable as possible while tapering. If cycling the progesterone creates or aggravatea withdrawal symptoms you may either need to take it more regularly or taper off it before tapering your medication. It all depends on how you respond.
@benzo brains hi thank you so much, your videos have been so so helpful. I need advice how to split my D dose. I take it once a day and have cut from 15mg to 5.1. Once I got to 5.3 or so it’s been almost impossible to taper. I use water dilution micro cuts but even that has become unbearable and now I’m in interdose WD and each day feels worse than the last. What’s your best advice on how I can get stabilized and split my dose. I’m so sensitive to dose changes and am so scared of what will happen when I try to split. I am an RN and have twin 4 year olds. I need to be functional but feel myself deteriorating quickly. Xoxo thank you! You give me so much hope and inspiration that I can do this💪🏻
5mg was hard for me too. In fact that's when I split my once a day dose into twice a day. If you think that might help you hold where you're at and then split your D as shown in my use water to taper video into 2 or 3 doses. I did 2. Also honestly just holding at your current dose after you split for several weeks to a month may be helpful
How did you split your dose? Did u do it slowly, pulling little by little to earlier in the evening or did I do it all at once? What time did you move the dose to? Did you find it helped a lot to get off the last 5? Scared. Thank you so so much!
@@cbrboy17 how are you doing now? I hope you are well!
Makes any sense to water tapper the last 3 5 mg of valium ... .. the schedule in theory we are looking to go 3.25 -3.0mg- 2.50- 2.25..2.00 and reevaluate. 2 weeks each cut ...thaugnts ??
You can switch methods part way through your taper although it might aggravate your condition if you are sensitive until you get used to it. Then again it might not. It just depends
@@BenzoBrains great point .. my sy.ptoms areconsistent.. been very very lucky.. bad sleep is tbe worst and of course the depression that comes with the tapper.. Anxity is much much better.... oooo question Dr asked me to try rwmmeron . .thaugjts thanks
@@garysimone4977 - I have a lot of personal experience with remeron/mirtazapine and can't resist advising against it. This drug often causes weight gain and was, for me, extremely addictive. My prescriber put me on remeron to help with effexor/venlafaxine withdrawal, but what happened was that the addiction merely transferred from effexor to remeron, and it was an extremely long, difficult process to get off this drug.
I specifically asked the prescriber if it would be hard to get off remeron and she said, "It shouldn't be." She couldn't have been more mistaken.
@@nokomismn9685 I agree I am weening off 7.5mg how slow was your tapper ? I got the liquid any suggestions
@@garysimone4977 - I was apprehensive from the get-go and never reached a high dose of remeron/mirtazapine. I took it a total of three years and over that period spiked up to 15 mg briefly a couple of times and also attempted to discontinue it a couple of times. The final taper went from Sept. 5, 2020, when I cut the dose in half from 7.5 mg down to 3.75 mg, until Dec. 6, 2021, when I took my final dose of very roughly 0.0625 mg using water tapering. I call Dec. 7, 2021, my "clean date" from all psychiatric drugs.
Any discussion of tapering quickly gets very technical and is hard to do in the context of a brief comment. I hope what I've written above is clear and I wish you the very best.
Can you do kl twice a day? Unless you get a liquid ? Thx
Yes you can do it 2x a day
Hello mam i was on clonazepam 0,5 mg for 9 years and i thought of leaving this and having bad withdrawl symptoms tightness in right part of brain eye and face even neck area
now taking 0,25 mg clonazepam
Can you please suggest further how to quit it
Try looking into a liquid taper.
I was on 0.5g of clonazepam for 33 yrs., tapered to 0.25 over 2 yrs. NOW I am working on the LAST 0.25g pill taper.. I am using a precision scale, cutting, weighing - no more than 5-10% cuts/taper at a time .. hold til feel comfortable, I'm doing for a couple of mos. - SLOW taper .. this little 0.25g dose will take me 18mos. to 2 yrs. to get off and I'm good with that. It's not a sprint but a life journey .. we want to continue to live life with quality. Check out all the info available & here. Knowledge is power -- but feel confident, make a PLAN & be patient. Ride through discomfort .. and slow taper even more if needed .. ALL the best to us ♥
I've been on X for 10 years, I take it as needed, not at the same time everyday, I do 2mg a day. Does it matter at what time you take it, does it have to be at the same time? I take it when I'm stressed out, or I feel a panic attack coming, sometimes I take 2mg -3mg depending how stressful was the day
For tapering purposes if you feel you need to mictotaper then you would start dosing regularly and train yourself to get out of the mindset that you're taking them to treat situational anxiety. There will be no more rescue doses. Xanax is no longer an anxiety treatment. It's now something toxic you are slowly removing from your life. You're breaking up with Xanax. No midday or late night booty calls 😉
@@BenzoBrains Thank you! I'll start writing the "It's not me it's you "speech
I’m pretty late to all of this, but I have severe insomnia and anxiety. I’ve been taking Klonopin 2.5mg at night only for sleep and cold turkey stopped eight days ago, been using Xanax as a substitute for sleep instead. Feel absolutely miserable during the day. I have no clue what to do, my doctor doesn’t either. Extremely difficult situation.
It sounds like you're experiencing interdose withdrawals because of the short half life of the Xanax. The best protocol would be to switch back to the klonopin and then do a much slower, possibly micro taper as demonstrated in my tapering videos. Also, please don't ever cold turkey again!
@@BenzoBrains thank you for the reply; I’m in my early 20s and this experience is overwhelming for me. I want off Benzos ASAP.
@southpaw___ I understand. But if you don't want to end up in a worse state or going through something similar or worse down the road then now is the time to learn patience and wisdom. Quick fixes lead to more problems.
@@BenzoBrains but do I have to follow a micro taper even though I’ve strictly been using benzodiazepines for just sleep and nothing else? I get zero benefit from them other than sleep.
Taking them a total of about 8 months. I’m just tired of the next day side-effects and I’m unsure about how to do this regarding my specific situation. It’s weird.
hey thanks again for all your information I watched every single Video of you 🙏🏻. I just have a huge problem and I hope you can give me some good advice. I take Tavor and have to split it 4 times a day because of the half life. I already dissolved it in water and drank it 4 times a day…only after 2 days I got withdrawal symptoms :( was it because I dissolved the whole dose straight away? Now I thought about doing it with a precision scale but I would have to do all 4 bits every few days... I'm overwhelmed 😞 Changing diazepam doesn't work either, I don't tolerate it well
Did you switch to 4x a day at the same time you started putting it in water? Or were you dosing 4x a day before? Lots of people have used this method with Tavor. Make sure you're drinking the rinse water each time too. That could affect things
@@BenzoBrains Yes, that was pretty much at the same time, could it also be because I shouldn't dissolve 100% right away, but let's say, first 25% of the complete dose and then wait 2-3 days and then 25% again, etc.?or is that nonsensical? Many thanks for answering
I’ve been on 2mg of K at BT for severe insomnia/anxiety for years. I started out on .5mg in the mid 2000’s but my doctors slowly upped it over the years. I’d like to do a slow taper. I talked to my doctor and he said I could taper if I wanted to. Where should I start? I’d like to get off this 2mg to a lower dose and eventually get off. Thanks
If you've already watched this video then the next step is to decide which kind of taper you want to do, water, or dry cut, or liquid compound
@@BenzoBrainsdoing a 5% dry cut with scale and hold. Thanks
I wanted to ask your opinion. If someone tapered down from a benzo for years and years and years..........and got to the point where they are only taking .5mgs (1/2 mg) once a month for about 2 years..........would you expect that person to be affected by the protracted withdrawal (the actual recovery) that go with quitting benzos? Do we have to be off 100% before our brain really starts to recover or is able to recover completely?
The .5 mg is Estazolam (prosom) which I took/take for insomnia.
My thought is that my brain would have recovered quite a bit over the years and years of tapering down, and then recovered more over the last 2 years of such a small amount. When I stop the .5 mg that I'm taking once a month, should I expect more miserable recovery symptoms?
Do you have thoughts or an opinion on this? Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.
Hi. If you were dosing such a small amount daily I would actually expect more healing than dosing once a month as you do. Dosing so sporadically could definitely be prolonging your injury, possibly even aggravating it. So I would expect much more healing once off completely. Right now unfortunately you're kindling yourself again and again and again each time you dose.
@@BenzoBrains That's not good news. But I'm glad I asked. Would you suggest I just stop dosing at this point? Or?
I'm for the most part doing fairly well. Still suffer from some sleep issues, but that is getting better and that's my only real issue. Thank you.
Hi are u there for a question plz
@@johnygthing If you're talking to me, yes I'm here. I think you might be trying to get ahold of the women who did this video?
@@wendym2544 are u in u.k? Or f.b for call?
Plz tell me tapper 10 mg deltacortril in pediatrcs by 1 month
I don't know how steroids respond with water tapers. Check with a pharmacist. But you would put the 10mg in 30ml of water for a 1 month taper.
If I take Clonasipam 0.25 should I tapper only half of 1ml every day?
And if I’m on zolpidem 10mg I should remove 1ml every day. ?
Tapering by 1/2 ml per day would give you a 20 month taper or a rate of 5% per month. If you remove 1 ml per day that's a 10 month taper or 10% per month rate for either drug. Doesn't matter what your starting dose is.
@@BenzoBrains thank you so much I will try the 1ml and Increase every week would that work? like 1ml first week 2ml second week and so on of couscous depending how how I feel ir if I need to hold the dose.
@@anayuli_quin4297 yes if you think you can go more rapidly you can do it that way. Like you said, if you hit a bump in the road, hold at the dose you're at for a bit and possibly consider going back to a slightly slower rate. Good luck!
Hello all, will you getting better while tapering Klonopin? Thanks
Many do improve as they taper. Even if you don't feel better you are healing though
Ive tried everything im screwed
Same :(
Your finished
Can i do this get off gabapentin?
yes it should work for most medications. many people have microtapered off gabapentin
Anyone here have severe head symptoms that affects your swallowing? I can't barely swallow for a year ago, the discomfort in my head is getting worst and not able yo eat nothing. Im in agony. Im taking klono
That is a common symptom, possibly related to nerve damage. You might want to join an online benzo support group to get some insights into that. Sorry, like everything else it should get better with time
@@BenzoBrains should get better only if im off right? Where I can find the group?
@@elizabethfranco7115 'Benzo Recovery' Facebook group...excellent peer support group! 💖💖
Been using 0.25mg xanax once a day for over a month now. How do i taper?
Are you experiencing any issues or do you just want to try and get off? Sometimes if people are healthy and haven't been off and on meds before they can reduce quickly. Either way I would recommend some version of a dry cut or water taper as demonstrated in either of those 2 videos on my tapering playlist
@@BenzoBrainsi had panic attack june 19 and it tore me to pieces. Agoraphobia. I feel like i still need xanax but im so scared of reading horrible withdrawals. So i feel like just quitting the meds and let anxiety torture me instead.
Doctors don't care and they don't understand what it's all about! I'm breaking 💔 💔 💔 💔
Ann, I feel the same. Can't function, brain shut down.
Still forcing to drop doses.
🧘🏾♂️💯Thank you
You're welcome 😊
Thanks for the video. Very useful. I am a 69 year old on multiple psyc drugs - clonazepam .88mg/ flueoxetine5mg/ olanzapine1.25mg/ and lamotrigine50mg. I have tapered all these meds from higher doses and had relatively mild problems. I am currently tapering only clonazepam @10% of last dose every 15 days by water dissolving the .125 mg tablet in 20 ml water and discarding 10% of solution progressively every 15 days to give me a 10% hyperbolic reduction. Is this the right way to go , my psychiatrist doctor who is MD specialist doesnt have a clue about tapering benzos.
@pradeepdatta2168 hi it sounds like you've done a wonderful job of establishing a taper plan that works for you, since you are having relatively few symptoms. My philosophy is if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Best wishes
Kindling ---I am a bit confused abt what it means. I recently tried reducing my DIAZ my 1mg and had horrendous pain for a good 10 days, could not cope, so went back up to the previous dosed I was on. I have done this before with no problems ( nearly half way through the taper) I also had my SSRI changed from the Branded one to the generic one, and although they say they are the "same", I have noticed some dizziness since swapping. When I went bak up to my b4 doze of DIAZ which is has not been a problem in the past, I felt awful, and very depressed with ideation of you know what. Is that kindling ?? I feel I am on my own with this and am now scrambling around trying to find some drug and alcohol counsellor who may know abt Benzo wdl. So scarey and awful.
Hi, it's possible that's kindling but I wouldn't worry too much about what it's called. Now you know that making such large cuts isn't a good option, and so microtapering from now on without going back and forth is probably the best plan for you. If you haven't learned how to micro taper yet please watch my other videos on my tapering playlist
How to get teeth so white 🤔
flourosis from too much flouride in the water!
I am from india i take benzo fot my insomnia here in india the population is very high everyone fights to survive. My psychiatrist always want me at the higher dose he never talk about tapering he dont want to end the follow up as he looses the patient costumers. Hope u understand what i mean
Yes I do. Is it your desire to taper off?
@@BenzoBrains yes but i m afraid of its consequence on my health bcs of its withdrawal symptoms can u help me to detox i dont want this shit 😭😭😭
Benzodiazepines are safe and effective if taken as prescribed. If the medication works for you and you do hot have side effects or not developed a tolerance, then by all means stay on the medication!
I would recommend learning more about the effectiveness of Benzodiazepines for various diagnoses at benzoreform.org as well as the long term effects of regular use. Benzoinfo.org is also another good resource. Educating the public generally about facts vs sharing one's personal experience with them are two different things and should be denoted as such. It sounds like your experience with them has been positive in your estimation. I'm glad you're doing ok. May you find more peace and love in your journey forward. Happy holidays!
I taper 50 % from 0.5 mg of Klonopin to 0.25 in 1 month and I can feel the withrawal but not just worst it's just a mild mood disturbance I eat well but the insomia is there hehe so many sleepless nights...
Thanks for reaching out. You may want to give your body plenty of time to stabilize now before tapering further and possibly consider going slower, making smaller cuts from here on out. People often do ok with big cuts at the beginning of their tapers and then become more sensitive as they get lower. Just a suggestion though! Good luck
Wow! Thank you ma'am benzo brains yes I will follow your advice because your I experienced one....thank you so much for your concern...very much appreciated 👍
@@BenzoBrains I took Klonopin 0.5 mg for 4 months now I taper 50% of last month I'm on 0.25mg now I can feel the withrawal but not as bad...I have sleepless nights...pls! Pray for me bro and sis🙏💖
HELLO IM ON .5 MG MY SELF IVE WANT TO TAPPER OFF DONE IT BEFORE BUT WORK STRESS MADE ME RELAPSE. I REALYY HATE TAKING THIS STYFF IF IT AWFUL TO LEAVE. IVE HAD INSOMNIA FOR 45 DAYS NOW 4 TO 5 HOURS WITH COUPLE 0 HOURS SLEEP NIGHTS ITS AWFUL. HOW ARE YOU DOING IS THERE A SPECIAL WAY YOU ARE TAPPERING OFF? I JUST BOUGHT A JEWLERY SCALE WANT TO START BUT SCARED. I DONT FEEL IM STABALIZED. I JUST HAD MY FIRST BURST OF SHOCKS IN BOTH MY ARMS JUST A LITTLE WHY AGO GOT FREEKED OUT..i JUST WANT TO SLEEP AND WAKE UP AND THIS ALL BE GONE..
Insomnia is horrific
Need help really going back and the side effects is worse than cocaine
What do you mean by going back?
I tried to tapper none of it worked i still suffer 1 year off
@@Thomas-j2g6x was it a micro taper?
@@BenzoBrains no cause my dr are stupid
NO DOC IN MY COUNTRY BEEN TO 6 WANNA GET ME OFF AND EVEN WORSE THREATEN ME
that's awful, but unfortunately not uncommon. I'm sorry