Six months sounds reasonable. I've been on 2 mg for quite a long time--decades, actually. Now, at 73 with Parkinson's, I'm not sure I even want to stop taking Benzos. My health's not good, although my psychotherapist gave me a homework assignment to work on updating my identity --surfer, tennis player, and martial arts expert and going over my state of health. Now, I'm afraid to leave the house, although being with others/socializing gives me all I need in life. When I don't exercise, my PD grows steadily worse. I feel better taking no anti-anxiety meds, but feel as if I need to have them handy to reduce my tremors which get much worse due to social anxiety while playing havoc with Bipolar mood disorder. My wife is concerned about me--says I appear to be sad most of the time; and my main reason to be is staying healthy enough to take care of her. Find myself wishing she wasn't around so that I could choose to make a hasty, radical move to exit this nightmare, having accomplished just about all I'd wanted from life and feeling as if eighty years old would be an appropriate age to check out. Overcoming depression, a mood disorder, PTSD (VN and USMC vet), drug withdrawal, and wanting to be left alone is an insurmountable, overwhelming group of tasks
to deal with. I'm not even able to walk without assistence--suffer falls several times/week, and can't journal or write out how I feel due to major tremors and arthritis. What's the point? I bounce from one issue to another and it's exhausting. At this point, I'd like to have at least some Benzos on hand to help me cope. My neurologist, pcp, and the VA offer little or no support. I did so much better when living oversease where healthcare is not simply a horrible, for profit business, and I was able to get the care and support I needed. I'm a disabled Vietnam vet who has no allegiance to this fascist theocracy here in the U.S. I just want Veteran's Evaluation Services to address my diagnosis, pay me the money I lost by coming back to th U.S.,--Social Security took out 10% of my Medicare money for each year I live abroad, didn't pay me for a full year after coming back here, and saving enough to move out of here--the U.S., where healthcare for profit means the working people in this county do not receive the care they deserve. I'm often angry and frustrated--not a good way to go through the final years of life.