Long story short my psychiatrist has had me on benzodiazepines for almost 2 years daily, but am ready to stop for good however when asking my psychiatrist and the pharmacist how to stop they just say “you can stop suddenly no problems no withdrawals” which is obviously BS. I am terrified of stopping on my own bc of risks of seizures etc. i had my husband search in Japanese and he says there’s no information on Japanese internet about the dangers or death so I should be fine to stop. Is there a doctor or professional that could help me with a taper plan or any advice from someone please?
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I weaned myself off of a high dose antidepressant and mood stabilizer by doing 1 week quarter dose reductions. 1st week take 3/4, next week 1/2, next 1/4, lastly 1/4 every other day. Worked well for me, no adverse effects. in fact was less painful getting off than starting them. Good luck!
I’ve heard so many weird stories about Japan and benzos. Anyway, here’s a taper guide I found after some quick googling: https://cbhphilly.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Helping-Patients-Taper-from-Benzodiazepines-FINAL-3.pdf
I don’t know a lick of medical Japanese, but Jisho.org suggests that ベンゾジアゼピン離脱症候群 -> benzodazepine withdrawal syndrome, so hopefully Googling that will get some good results.
It depends on what your current dosage is really. It should be signed off by a doctor in my opinion anyway. Im kinda shocked that both those healthcare professionals told you to stop suddenly and you wouldnt experience any withdrawals. I’d never tell a patient that.
Seems to be a thing here. I quit Lexapro a while back and my doctor didn’t say anything about tapering; I asked him if I should and he was just like “up to you”. I tapered pretty quickly from 10 mg per day — first I went to 7.5 mg for a week, then to 5 mg for a week, then to 2.5 mg for a week, and then nothing. Even with the taper I had bad brain zaps for about a month. In retrospect I should have gone much more gradually. Maybe give yourself a couple of months — benzo withdrawal can be excruciating, so don’t try to hurry it along. Good luck my dude