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Resulting symptoms of sudden stoppage of 50 years of diazepam usage?
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: 22 minutes ago | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
Thank you for your comment.
If it were my decision I would still be taking the diazepam. Unfortunately it was not. Every expert I have spoke with says my brain chemistry will never recover. I was taken off the diazepam after a massive back surgery while being given hydrocodone for pain management. The hospital doctors and staff made the decision to stop the diazepam against my neurosurgeons' standing order. It was then restarted just before I was discharged only to be stopped permanently four weeks later by my PC physician. I almost died from seizures during that two month period. I was left wishing I had.
Replies to "Thank you for your comment. If it were my decision I would still be taking the..."
This is unbelievable!!! I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I have been on benzodiazepines for 15 years. I know I would be in the same position if I was abruptly taken off them. It sounds like to me that this is a necessary medication for you. I would talk to my neurologist about this and see if you can at least get 5 mg restarted.
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I am not surprised but very sorry you had seizures. I am a lay person but if I were you I would try to find a doctor who would re-prescribe it and help you get to a lower dose. Fifty years is a long time. Doctors used to prescribe benzos that way back then and tell us to "keep it in our system." Nowadays doctors are paranoid about prescribing it too much.
I would think your brain might need a certain amount long term but I don't know. Perhaps you could talk to a psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, addiction specialist or even a functional/integrative medicine person.
Keep us posted. I almost went on Xanax 50 years ago, three times/day every day, but luckily it did not agree with me. Years later it would have been practically criminal to prescribe that way.