Stopped diazepam 18 days ago. Need some support .............

Hi could really do with some support right now. My GP prescribed me with diazepam in 2009. Oh how I wish I'd done my research before taking it and threw them away the day she gave them to me. I suffer with anxiety and at that point in 2009 was waking up with panic attacks and was in a bad way. However I was never told they were addictive and only supposed to be taken short term only. This poison was put on repeat prescription 2mg three times a day. However I only ever took 2mg a day, 4mg once in a blue moon. The last year I only ever took 2mg a day, first thing on a morning when I first wake with that awful morning anxiety.
I never knew about tolerance and never craved the drug or had any urge to take more. About a year ago I started feeling unwell despite taking the 2mg each morning. I was getting pins and needles in my feet and waking up with dead arms during the night. Felt like I had nerve pain in my arms and feet, joint pain, muscles were always in a tight knot, especially around my neck area. I was having digestive issues, eye sight was blurry, chronic fatigue and developed health anxiety as a result. Saw neurologist, rhumatologist, eye specialist, gastrointestinal consultant, heart specialist and nobody could tell me why I was having so many problems all at the same time. Had scans, x rays, bloodtests, er admissions. Rhumatologist diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.
I never put all these symptoms down to the diazepam because I was only on 2mg. I was in tolerance and this was making me incredibly sick.
So angry that I have been given this drug not knowing how incredibly sick it can make someone when they hit tolerance. My options were to increase, and always have to increase when tolerance strikes again or get off this poison. I read online from the webpage benzo buddies so many people suffering as I was with exactly the same symptoms.
I broke my 2mg tablet in 4 and slowly since December started to taper down. Did this by dropping 2 mg to 1mg waited two weeks, dropped again to 0.5mg waited 2 weeks and dropped again to 0.25mg then 18 days ago stopped completely after 7 years of this drug. It's been hard and had loads of withdrawal symptoms but knew I had to get off this and hopefully begin the healing process. I know it can take months/years in some cases to heal. Would love to hear if somebody reading this has successfully come off diazepam? How are you now? How long did it take to heal? Anyone reading this going through withdrawal right now? Let's encourage and support each other through this nightmare.
My withdrawal symptoms presently are
Blurred vision
Nerve pain
Numb feet/toes
Swollen buring hands
Temperature fluctuations
Extreme fatigue
Increased anxiety
Joint pain
Tight muscles
Digestive issues
Overactive bladder
Bladder irritation
Brain fog
Short term memory loss
DP/DR
Isolating myself
Food intolerances
Vitamin intolerance (especially vit b)
Skin changes
Histamine problems
Insomnia
Rls
And probably loads more but due to brain fog can't think right now 😩
I've read it takes about 30 days to be out of my system but scared how long these horrible withdrawal effects are going to last. There's now way I'll take it again and take no other Meds. It's wonderful to be med free, just want to heal now and guess this is just going to be a time thing now.

Please share your experience with me and anyone thinking of taking Valium in the future please do your research first and don't take for longer than a couple of weeks max!

Michelle

YOU ARE AMAZING!

That is all I have to say.

Many people stay dependant, and choosing not to go down that route shows courage.

The thing to remember is that you build a tolerance to diazepam, and that wothdrawal makes anxiety WORSE.

So stick with it. You are walking through a rough patch, so just keep walking, and soon it will get easier!!

You've got this!

Why on earth did your GP sanction diazepam on a repeat prescription basis?

How is your h.pylori infection? That can't be helping matters..

I'm sorry that things got so bad but well done for carrying on through withdrawal. It will be so worth it.

How many do you have to take before you become addicted? I have them here (2mg) but only ever take one if I wake up in the night and really can't get back to sleep. I've probably taken them 4-5 times in the last 3 months. Is that OK?

I'm certainly no expert but I wouldn't have thought you would have any problems at all from such infrequent use of diazepam, Mojo. It's the regular unbroken use which can cause real problems.

Thanks Pulisa! ��

Thanks SLA that was a lovely message and surely brightened up my day ��. Yesterday was so far my worst day (due to diazepam long half life side effects can happen a lot later than when you cut/taper down.
Side effects seem to constantly change too, what can be bad one day can go the next but be replaced by something else. Now got tinnitus, never had that before! Muscle twitching and spasms seem to be my worst side effect right now with nerve pain and benzo belly!
Hi Pulisa hope you are keeping strong. Helicopter pylori on the last sample was clear so hopefully it is gone. Lots of stomach issues now but not entirely sure if withdrawal has messed up the gaba receptors in the gut too. Still taking a good quality probiotic each day.
Hi Mojo 61 I did a lot of research into the half life of diazepam online. Found this useful:-

Benzodiazepines like diazepam can stay in the system a pretty long time. It depends on how much you take and for how long. Also your health, age, weight and metabolic rate play a part.

How long a drug stays in your system depends mainly on it's elimination half life - the time it takes for plasma drug levels to fall by half.
The elimination half life of the active metabolite of diazepam (N-desmethyldiazepam) is, on average, 100 hours.

It takes 5.5 x elimination half lives (hours) for a medicine to be cleared from your system, therefore diazepam or it's active metabolite will be in your system for 550 hours (5.5 x 100hrs) i.e. approximately 23 days.

---------- Post added at 07:53 ---------- Previous post was at 07:44 ----------

Scary..... 1 tablet can stay in your body that length of time, the positive benefits when I first started taking the drug only lasted 2-3hrs but it can stay in your system weeks! Another article I read was about a young guy only ever took 1 tablet to trial it. Never took another but due to an interview he had to take a drugs test and the diazepam still showed up 21 days later.
Please weigh up the negatives of the drug before starting on the path I ended up on. No DR should prescribe these without fully explaining the potential very distressful withdrawal process.
Pulisa yes I don't know how my gps got away with putting this on repeat for 7 years. I was getting 56 tablets every 28 days but only using half. Wish I had the energy to sue somebody. Anyway onwards and upwards...... day 19 without diazepam let's see what today brings x

My GP told me there hadn't been any studies done on how long you could take diazepam for before there was a dependency issue.....

I am also meds-free, Michelle. I prefer it this way.

Well done Pulisa on being drug free too xx
To be honest my scary experiences on paroxitine/seroxat, venlafaxine/Effexor and now this bloody poison I've been taking daily for 7 years I'm scared off Meds. It really has made me have a phobia about these sorts of medications. I keep saying to my teenage daughter please promise me you will never take antidepressants/benzos. I really hate to see anyone suffer such soul destroying symptoms when it's time to come off!!! Maybe I'm just one of the unlucky ones who has the genetic disposition to find these drugs harder to come off. I don't know. I think I've had a lot of damage done to my CNS from these drugs and now I just want to feel like me without any drugs. I spoke to my gp about my insomnia since tolerance and subsequent withdrawal and she was going to suggest another drug to counteract this. I said noooooooooo

There comes a point where you just want to draw a line and start again after a good meds clearout.

I hope today is a better one for you. Keep going and you are doing the right thing xx