Longterm benzo woes (need some advice)

[jcowen]

I'm at a crossroads. I'm 35 years old and I've been taking valium 15 mgs daily for 6 years. I tried everything before it. The SSRis did not help me one bit. Ativan made me severely depressed. Klonopin had the same effect. I felt I was backed into a corner. I had to do something in order to function daily.

I don't misuse my medication. I take the same dose at the same time every day. It controls my over anxious brain from burning anxiety and the random moments of terror that used to plague me. I feel good. I feel normal. I feel like I have a life free of abnormal anxiety, and yet I'm scared. I'm scared of the day that will come when a doctor will no longer prescribe it for me. I'm fearful of the day when it will no longer work... That I will become tolerant to its anti-anxiety properties. I'm scared of the withdrawals... I think of these things every day. What will I replace it with? I've tried most everything else. I have had panic attacks and anxiety since I was 9 years old. I feel like an addict talking about it like this. I'm just ashamed that I ever even started it.

I don't know where to go from here. I have not found anyone with anything positive to say about longterm benzodiazepine use. The literature and common medical belief doesn't support me. It seems that I am damned no matter what decision I make. Do I taper now or wait for tolerance and really experience hell? I need some help...

JC

[melissaw72]

Unless your pdoc wants you to taper, I wouldn't worry about it much. Is there any reason that would make you think he might want you to taper off? I've been on the benzos xanax and klonopin since 1995 and am ok, never had a problem. I currently weaned down on both. The one thing though IMO you should do is taper SLOWLY. It takes about a month for a .25-.5 mg decrease/day until I wean down another .25 or .5 mg.

[crtclms]

Lots of people use benzos long term, there are many people on the board who use them. I have been on Xanax 1mg AM/PM, with an extra 1mg for PRN, but I practically never use it. This has been my dose for 7 years, and there is absolutely no evidence that I am needing any more of it to get it to work the same way.

I'm not saying that it works for everyone. But it obviously works for you. Why change something when everything is going well? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If you ever do need to come off of the valium, you'll taper off. It really isn't that hard to do, as long as you take your time, and really go down in small increments. I have had to come of Xanax in the past, and I didn't even notice withdrawal at all.

My pdoc supports long term benzo use. So does my father, another pdoc.

My husband is on clonezapam daily to help control his seizures ( he has *awful* seizures).

There is research which both supports and doesn't support long term ues of benzos. My life is a zillion percent better since I was put on a daily course. My pdoc is not only happy with my current dosage, he would be willing to raise it if I ever began to habituate too much to it.

[albertolobat]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You are taking a relatively low dose of benzos and you have been using with no change for a long time. If ever happens that the dose is insufficient, you have plenty of space to increase it, but I don't think that will happen if everything worked ok for this 6 years. And if for some reason in the future you need to taper down, since your dose is low I am pretty sure you will be able to manage it.

Consider yourself fortunate that you are able to function with your meds, if things get awry in the future, we will see. But don't worry NOW about the future.

[San]

It's not a big deal, you're on a relatively low dose, you aren't abusing it, it's helping you, so why stop?

Benzos have a stigma, and it sucks. You aren't an addict.

[midnightman]

I wouldn't worry about it; If it's seriously troubling you, it's possible that this is just because you've built up somewhat of a tolerance and it freaks you out that it isn't as effective as it may have been when you started taking it. If you're not increasing your dose, though, it certainly doesn't sound problematic in any way. One positive factor that may also help calm your worries is the fact that Valium / Diazepam is viewed as one of the easier benzo's to taper off of due to the half life. You're not on a very high dose and you're taking it as prescribed, so I'd say maybe you're just over thinking the situation?

[netsavy006]

If you've been on the same dose of Valium for 6 years, I wouldn't heavily worry about it ceasing to work. I've been on Xanax at the 2mg dosage for almost 2 years now and have not had a problem.

I agree with sandorfalot in that we worry about it because of the stigma that's attached with the benzodiazapines, but if you've been doing well and are not playing with the dose yourself, I wouldn't worry about it.