Endless withdrawal from benzos and pregabalin

How much do you sleep?

I've been taking benzos for 40 years....tried a three year taper, no luck 🙁

I've been taking benzos for 40 years….tried a three year taper, no luck 🙁

I have been without benzo (slowly tapered for a year) for only 5 days, but I feel better all ready. However, every time I lowered the dose, I would be depressed. I learned to ride it out and I knew the depression would come back every time I lowered the dose. For me, once my body adjusted to the new dose, the depression would go away. I also thought of suicide and would look at pictures of my family to ease the thoughts. I take bupropion for the depression. Nothing helped for the taper depression. I didn't think I could ever be without the benzo, but it is worth the effort so far. I have had energy the last 2 days. Energy I haven't had for decades.

7 days. A little shaky but that is it.

I have be taking Valium for about 20 years. Am tapering .1 every month. Was down to. 2.4 got a yeast infection was given diflucan which acts like grapefruit so my dose was doubled. Am now at 3.7. It has been so difficult. Pain, anxiety and sleep issues. It will also take me years. I am 77 and sometimes wonder if it is worth it but was at tolerance so going through withdrawal anyway. So for now I am continuing to go down. Am using liquid diazepam to accomplish such a slow taper. It has been very difficult for me. I’m so sorry. I understand.

8 days. I have been nauseated to come degree for the entire 8 days, but I was attributing it to insulin. Now I am not so sure. My entire body aches and I have a stiff muscle in my neck that I have tried to get 'massaged out' to no avail. However, I am falling asleep normally. I wake up after about 5 hours mostly due to nightmares. I am 71 years old and retired. So. I get up and watch old movies on TV and it takes about 2 hours to get sleepy enough to go back to bed for about 3 hours of more sleep. My update that it can be done, for 8 days anyway, but it isn't without discomfort.

My goodness I understand. I was advised to water taper for 220 days. There is a video on YouTube if interested. This is hell. I keep asking myself how'd I get here. I'm 62 and my level of consistency is not good. God bless you 🙏

Thank you for your response. Had I only known what I know now I would never have started taking Valium. I still think many doctors are clueless about Benzos even with the black box warnings.

I’m so sorry to hear about your struggle to stop these highly addictive drugs. It’s very difficult to get away from them especially when you’re in your seventies as I am. I too have an addiction to the same drugs and I know the withdrawal is profound. It’s very important that you go slow in reducing your dose, anything else will be too stressful for you. I think you’re right, at our age why not just leave us alone, it’s not as though you’re abusing them. I was wondering why my doctor started putting more pressure on me during a pandemic and also after getting cancer and then it hit me, I think with all the publicity about opioid addiction and knowing that benzodiazepine taken with opioids is a lethal dose. I even feel that I’ve become an inconvenience to him. I now must try and find a doctor who understands these drugs and all my other needs, wow that’s a tall order but who knows, my mother always said where there’s life, there’s hope, don’t worry too much because it’s not your fault.