In most cases, your doctor will reduce your dosage by 5% to 25% in the first week. Every 1 to 4 weeks after that, they’ll reduce your dose by another 5% to 25% of the original dose. In addition to the immediate health risk, benzodiazepine withdrawal can seriously affect your quality of life. Emerging research also suggests acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) could also have benefits during benzodiazepine withdrawal. This approach helps you learn to tolerate discomfort and distress, instead of avoiding it, and choose to live according to your values. According to the National Center for PTSD, the most beneficial kind of therapy for benzodiazepine withdrawal is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
Short-term symptoms
- If you experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms during your taper, your care team can help you explore options to address those symptoms and get relief.
- Among respondents whose symptoms lasted months or years, over half said caffeine or alcohol worsened their PAWS symptoms.
- If you’re predisposed to seizures, your risk of having a seizure may also increase during the withdrawal period.
- Tapering can help take the edge off withdrawal symptoms like tremors and nausea, though it may not prevent withdrawal symptoms entirely.
- Medical experts continue to debate the best way to taper these medications, so there’s no single agreed-upon approach.
- If you take an intermediate-acting benzodiazepine, like alprazolam, or a long-acting benzodiazepine, like diazepam, it may take longer for withdrawal symptoms to appear.
Among respondents whose symptoms lasted months or years, over half said caffeine or alcohol worsened their PAWS symptoms. Dependence and withdrawal can happen to anyone, even if you take your medication exactly as instructed.
Tapering changes
If you experience severe withdrawal symptoms during tapering, tell your doctor so they can adjust your care plan as needed. People with benzodiazepine tolerance may take supratherapeutic doses because the recommended range no longer provides relief for severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome their symptoms. The higher dose may help ease your symptoms, but it can also increase your risk of overdose and severe withdrawal symptoms. While they can quickly relieve symptoms of anxiety and panic, these drugs pose a high risk of dependence.
Tapering off supratherapeutic doses
Experiencing rebound symptoms means the symptoms you had before taking benzodiazepines come back even stronger than before. If you take an intermediate-acting benzodiazepine, like alprazolam, or a long-acting benzodiazepine, like diazepam, it may take longer for withdrawal symptoms to appear. Read on to learn more about benzodiazepine withdrawal, including the signs, how long it lasts, and how to get support with tapering off safely. In the first week of tapering off, your doctor may reduce your dose as much as 30% to get you to a safe amount. After that first leap, the steps become smaller, usually 5% to 10% of the original dose. Depending on your situation, your doctor may reduce your dose on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.
Difficult tapers
Some supplements, such as valerian and melatonin, might also help you get some relief from your symptoms, but research has found mixed results. You can call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Helpline and get compassionate, confidential support from trained crisis counselors. When benzodiazepines attach to your neurons, they invite a bunch of chloride ions inside. These ions change the neuron’s electrical charge, so it has to work much harder to activate and send signals.
- This type of therapy can help you challenge and reframe unhelpful beliefs and behaviors and replace them with more productive ones.
- Short-acting benzodiazepines are much more likely to cause rebound symptoms.
- But if you remove the drug all at once, your brain doesn’t have enough time to prepare, and you can develop life-threatening symptoms like seizures.
- In fact, if you take your medication every other day, you may notice rebound symptoms on the day between doses.
- Some supplements, such as valerian and melatonin, might also help you get some relief from your symptoms, but research has found mixed results.
This is because inconsistent use doesn’t pose the same risk of dependence or withdrawal. For example, say you’re tapering off a dose of 20 milligrams (mg) of diazepam (Valium). A very quick taper would involve reducing the dose by 5 mg (25%) each week. Short-acting benzodiazepines are much more likely to cause rebound symptoms.
- Read on to learn more about benzodiazepine withdrawal, including the signs, how long it lasts, and how to get support with tapering off safely.
- All those extra chemicals flood your brain, and the excess activity causes symptoms like anxiety and sweating.
- These ions change the neuron’s electrical charge, so it has to work much harder to activate and send signals.
How to get support for thoughts of suicide
- But when you start removing benzodiazepines from your system, suddenly your clogged neurons become an open freeway with no traffic lanes.
- You can call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Helpline and get compassionate, confidential support from trained crisis counselors.
- So, your doctor may recommend a slower taper schedule as a safety precaution.
- The 2022 survey mentioned above also asked respondents to what extent withdrawal symptoms affected their lives.
- If you take away the blockades gradually, your brain can reduce its chemical traffic to match.
- They can range in severity, though for some people, they remain mild and manageable.