honeypie

Quick pre-work-post: you are all helping me and I thank you!!

Have a safe and healthy day. Notice I did not say wonderful. It is enough lately to have a safe and healthy day - one day at a time!

Geralt

Thank you so much for your post Phil. It's time to act, no more excuses.

Current dosage: 15 mg of Valium (and I was all the way down from 10 mg to 2,5mg last Spring )

Starting tomorrow: 13,75 mg for the next 3 weeks, that's a 8% decrease. I will keep the decreases below 10%, so the next step will be 12,5 mg for another 3 weeks.

I promise that I will contact a doctor if I experience any severe withdrawal symptoms.

And now time to make dinner, my first workday after 2 weeks of having the flu was tough, but I really feel good mentally after all that cycling and walking while delivering mail.

Thanks for your support everyone, the PM is coming soon Phil, once my legs stop hurting lol

philb

Sounds like you've got a good plan Geralt. I'm really glad you are deciding to move forward with this. Like I said, for me the psychological fear of reducing the medication has been a lot worse than any real symptoms. Anxiety is a tough thing to deal with. But our minds can achieve so much when we apply them to diligent action and taking positive steps I find. I just never really believed in myself in the past or that I had much self worth or any kind of self power or will. Its all a very personal issue, but prayer helps me a lot and keeps me going particularly when I am afraid.

I'm glad you are posting about this publically and as said I welcome your pm's too.

Trust me I know about sore muscles and the flu :-). I can recommend Epsom salts, candles, a hot bath, closing your eyes and breathing deeply. Its way better than a Xanax :-)

Way to go Geralt! I'm here with you. I think everyone is.

Have a good day all

philb

Hi Dee---I know as you said you are really busy these days, but I just want to see where you stand with discussing tapering and how all that is going with Geralt. If you have parameters or guidelines that should be kept to or anything that shouldn't be discussed in a public forum...things like that. It seems all ok and really supportive to me and might help others, but could you let us know your feelings and or guidelines when you have a free moment? Thanks...Phil

Dee74

edit:

regarding your original question - I have no position - I have no experience with Benzoes whatsoever, I'm afraid.

I've already discussed this a little with Geralt in either this thread or another one - I think tapering with a Dr is always best as a general rule of thumb but as Geralt doesn't want to do that, I have no other suggestions.

as a moderator - as long as you guys keep the medical rule in mind all should be well.

If you have doubts about whats allowed or not I suggest you stick to PM.

D

Geralt

Thanks Dee for your answer,

We will keep the medical rule in my mind.

As to contacting a doctor, now that I reread my posts it sounds a bit unclear, but I contacted my family doctor and social service psychiatrist with the tapering proposal in early 2012 and both said no, and told me to go to rehab. After that I didn't mention the whole thing to my family doctor anymore and he didn't ask about it, so I think he assumes I quit. In Netherlands I can't choose a different family doctor without a good reason, but in general they prefer either rehab or very the fast taper schedule, which I failed miserably twice. I will keep your advice in my mind though, I will be visiting my family in Poland in the Spring and there I can go to private doctor or psychiatrist for advice.

Quick update, the first drop in dosage went well, no symptoms, actually feeling good.

Thanks for your support all.

philb

Everything you posted is really great news Geralt! As we have communicated, you can always contact me by email anytime about your taper and life in general.

I want to thank sober recovery for being here as a support system. Particularly during my early recovery. I now find that for my own reasons it is time to say goodbye to sober recovery and I wish everyone here continued health, happiness and of course sobriety.

Phil

Enemdio

Hi Guys,

It's been awhile - anyone still here? Day 558 for me - difficult to comprehend...

Michael66

.

Dee74

congratulations General

D

Enemdio

Dee,
Where did you get that quote from? I'm going to send it to a friend of mine who's had a bit of a life setback.

Dee74

Just trawling around on the net General - this version was attributed to John Lennon...as much as I'd like to believe that, I doubt it.

D

Enemdio

Tanja,

See you're here - how's things?

tanja

Hi General,

Today is 258 days sober for me I am still struggling with the chronic fatigue thing, but I am hanging in there. I am still going to AA and of course using SR. The husband is still drinking like a fish.

Wow - 558 days! That is a huge accomplishment. I hope your friend is okay.

Enemdio

Tanja, That's amazing - I remember you passing 90 days - it doesn't seem all that long ago to me - maybe it does to you. My wife is still drinking but has mainly confined it to weekends and holidays. I don't like the smell of it though in bed.

Any news on any of the other old Sobertobers? I only ever go on this thread so I don't know if they're here but elsewhere.

Geralt

Hi General and Tanja!

Good to see you both doing well!

Yeah I am here too, hanging around in the Kicking Asphalt thread My slow benzo taper is going well. I am somewhere around day 575 without alcohol.

Amazing how much has changed, finance and work are much better, I cycle a lot, relationship with my family has improved too. I just wish I had quit drinking much earlier.

PhilB and Gerbosko are doing all-right too, although they don't visit SR anymore.

Enemdio

Hi Geralt,
Good to hear your taper is going so well and that life has improved in so many ways for you. I'm a cyclist, too - just bought an all city nature boy singlespeed cyclocross bike but beginning to think I should've got a geared bike. My wife's just got a Pashley Princess - retro and beautiful.
Give my regards to Gerb and Philb.

Geralt

I will pass the regards, General!

Yeah single speed can be tough, especially if you have some climbs or just want to change cadence/speed. I googled the Pashley Princess, looks cool, many Dutch bikes have this kind of look.

Do you cycle a lot, or just recreational? Any plans for bigger rides this summer? I just bought a "new" used road bike, a Giant Peloton 8400 with Shimano 105. Now I have a collection of 1 old city bike, my delivery bike for work, my mountain bike and the Giant I also joined a cycling club 3 weeks ago, riding in a group is awesome, you can go much faster in a group, make new friends and it motivates to get better. But I will still be enjoying my long solo rides to clear my head.

Everything else going ok?

Enemdio

I do cycle a bit - I did an Ironman tri a few years back which had a 112 mile bike leg and I reckon I'm always in reasonable shape to get through a 100 miler.

Funnily enough, I've had a couple of episodes since I stopped drinking which may possibly suggest I'm hypomanic - seriously! - and these seem to be related to intense exercise brought on by competitive group training, either running or cycling, which leads to very high heart rates. In the most recent one, I decided I wanted to split from my wife and even went as far as explaining it to the kids. I now think it was a bit rash to say the least, and I'm thinking of going to see our family doctor.

It's difficult to diagnose because I am fairly rational and even when very angry I can find real-life explanations and I never become obviously manic or depressed.

Is this common in 18 month sober people, Dee?

Dee74

I can't say that was common for me at 18 months General - maybe seeing the Dr is a good idea?

D