Ending anxiety drugs post-cancer?

Yes it will be problematic. Especially Valium. Next is Ambien. First
You will have to do an extremely slow taper off of Valium Which obviously your doctor doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem, like most of them,they don’t mind giving them out but when you need to get off of them, they seem to think you can do a cold turkey. Get on YouTube to find more information about this. You have no idea how many people are dependent on Ambien and Valium. Next go on Facebook on beating benzos and you will find many people on there that have the same problem you have and there is help but I have a feeling It is not going to be with your doctor. If you can find someone locally, good luck. I can’t reiterate this enough, especially Valium. It has to be done slow ,,a slow taper. I was only on Lorazepam For one month and not one doctor would help me get off of it so I kept just getting refills so I wouldn’t have any withdrawals for four months and the only person I could find that would help me was on Facebook on the Beating Benzo website. Because I built up such a tolerance to this benzo, it’s taking me about eight months to get off of it doing a very slow taper. I wish you all the luck and please check out both of these sites

Thanks, I have refills to get me through mid-October so should probably start the taper soon as in TODAY. I do feel my anxiety has calmed down after being diagnosed with cancer--I'm used to it now and am in the home stretch of treatment. I will check out the group you suggested.

@scottbeammeup, I wanted to check in to this helpful topic. Have you decided to stay the course with the low-dose anti-anxiety medication for the moment through treatment? How are you doing?

Thank you for asking! I gave up the hydroxyzine easily, and Ambien as well. Had maybe two nights of sleeplessness post-Ambien but since stopping ADT I've been sleeping through the night again without meds and waking up, at most, once if the dog climbs on me :).

I'm currently weaning off of Diazepam (Valium). I was on 10 mg per day, dropped to five after stopping ADT at end of October, and dropping 1 mg per month after that. Am now at 1 mg per day and will stop that at the end of this month. Doctor said the last milligram is the toughest so if I need to stay on 1 mg every other day for an extra month it's not a big deal.

During my 2nd bout of prostate cancer treatment with radiation I received a shot of Lupron. Later I discovered that Lupron is chemical castration used to suppressing my testosterone. I now understand why menopausal women are so easy to get along with...

Isn't it shocking that doctors don't tell us this in advance? I was told the same thing. "You're getting a shot of Lupron." I asked the side effects and they said "hot flashes and some tiredness." That was it. I found out there were A LOT more side effects, did my research and switched to Ogovyx, which was still bad but not as bad as Lupron.

@scottbeammeup I’m not on any of those anxiety medications but I am on anxiety medication (citalopram) - which I have been on for years, and which has been so helpful during cancer especially coping with panic attacks when treatment stopped and I was no longer going into the infusion centre fortnightly.

I have full trust in my GP and we have at times worked together to wean me off gradually, to put me back on gradually and at one stage post becoming NED to increase my dose before working on lowering it.

I hope like myself you have a good GP who will assist you - rather than you dealing with such a major health issue by yourself.

Yes, my GP is amazing. He's the one who discovered my prostate cancer in the first place and sometimes calls and nags me for things such as followups when I tend to try to let them slip.