I was on benzo's for a long time when I first had my anxiety attacks in 1994-2000+. I had even intentionally OD'ed on them many times which I thought would have created even worse problems. I had no idea that stopping the high dose of valium i was on could even have any effect. I am not sure why, but after i quit taking without any problems, everyone was telling me what bad reactions I could have had.

When I went through a trauma with my Mother & her death, my pdoc put me on 600mg of seroquel....enough to knock out an elephant considering I only weighed 93 pounds at that time (the stress made me loose a lot of weight) I couldn't sleep without horrible nightmares & was in really bad shape, so it didn't matter that the seroquel kept me knocked out almost permanently.....couldn't wake up the next day & was just really a mess. That was in 2005. I was able to lower the dose to 25mg/night to sleep & it worked the longer the time passed.

Now when I have days without sleeping, I will take 25mg & sleep for 24 hours. When I wake up I am usually very dizzy & disoriented, but it sure gives me the sleep that I need....just wish I didn't have the after effect the next day....living alone now (which I didn't then), I have 6 dogs to take care of & when I am wiped out for 24 hours, my poor dogs are in need of going outside & food.....they survive well without bothering me when I am out of it that bad...they are very quiet & good.....but I don't want to do that very often....especially when I have many things to care for around the farm....when I get my horses here....that 24 hour wipe out won't be possible.

Hope you can find something that works well without any side effects. Valium never really worked for me without taking a large dose.....so it wasn't practical from the beginning.

Eskielover