I want to come off tranquillisers but it is hard!

[Caththerese1973]

Hi
I have had a traumatic last few months - separation from husband, and so forth, and now live alone with my two year old dd. I was prescribed oxazepam (do you have that in the UK? I am in Australia. The brand name here is Murelax). Anyway, it is a valium-type med. I want to get off it but as I have been on it for a few months, I go into withdrawals and feel physically sick as well as panicky if I don't take at least 15 mgs a day. How I wish I had stayed away from it!
My doctor suggests cutting back very gradually, using a tablet cutter to make the pills into quarters so I can drop down to three quarters of a tablet, then a half, and so on until I stop.
Anyone else ever had to do this? Is this the best way to stop? I just can't go cold turkey - I have tried, but I feel so sick that I doubt I would be able to look after my daughter properly.

[lunachic]

it will be ok if you do it gradually as your doc has suggested -good luck hope its ok xx

[spacecadet]

hi, I know how you feel, I had to withdraw from diazepam recently after being on for about 6 months, i was only on 2-3 2mg tablets a day but god it was hard, yes the side effects from coming off are terrible, your gps advice to cut down by quarter a tablet is excellent but i would say, dont rush this, you need to make the cut down every couple of weeks or so. so say you cut down today to 3 quarters of a tablet, you should stay on that level until the side effects calm down, then once you feel stable on that dose, cut down again, it could be up to a month in between reductions but its the best way to do it, i actually came off quite quickly and as aresult suffered dreadfullly, nightmares, vertigo etc, but stick with it and you will get there.