# valporate



## dixie (Nov 14, 2006)

Hi just completed a quick detox and given upon living valporate which i understand is an anti-convulsant to stop fits, seizures etc for a small amount of time, however they have not confirmed how long I will need to take this drug to get the diazepam/temazepam out of my situation as I have taken them for many years, have been told it could be a while, if i stop although they are not addicitive like the benzos are doing not want to be on a mood stabilizer for too long as the idea was to get into my emotions anyone experienced this or any ideas appreciated dixie


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

I hear the valproates are supposed to be very good for reducing the symptom's of benzo withdrawal. They not only reduce the risk of seizure but reduce the other withdrawal symptom's as well.

As for how long your going to have to stay on valproate (which one are you on anyway) i really have no idea. Diazepam has a half life of 200 hour's so the withdrawls wont fully hit you untill then. It will take 5 times 200 hour's for diazepam to leave your system fully.

You wont be able to just drop the valproate altogether cold turkey either. There is a risk of anyone going off any anti-convulsant once they reach a steady blood concentration of having a seizure if they go off it all at once. It's a small risk but it might be amplified by the fact that your just coming off benzos which are also anti-convulsant's. Are you off benzos altogether?

Im on divalproex, clonazepam and gabapentin so i dont think i have any worries about having any seizures any time soon lol.

Anyway good luck to you and hang in there. Sorry i couldnt be of more help but i havent gone through benzo withdrawal myself. I have gone through alcohol withdrawal which is similar and usually worse but i detoxed on my own. Not the brightest idea i ever had looking back on it.


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## dixie (Nov 14, 2006)

Hi there
Thanks for the reply, very useful information. Yes I detoxed in a unit for two weeks from the benzos completely. Now I guess the work starts as they suppressed a lot of my feelings already I am getting various symptoms, terrible nightmares, sleep has been worse than ever, (expected that). Feel that there are bodily memories surfacing maybe that is too soon or just my imagination but some symptoms I had a long time ago are surfacing again. Which I wanted as far as it goes to get into the rubbish so I can get on at some point.
Must of been hell detoxing on your own, all credit to you, even though you say it may not have been a wise thing.
Do you get enough support?
I have recently just had my mental health unit understand more of where I am coming from and it is helping a lot. I feel in the past and still occassionally do now feel it is a battle with dp to get people to understand. I did have a recent experience where I felt like a spinning top totally lost and out of focus and one of the staff just happened to ring me and said where are you? what are you doing? told me what I was due to do the following day and when she was meeting up with me, it helped me a lot.
cheers dixie


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## Hopefull (Dec 1, 2006)

Hello, C numb

Just curious, are you a chemist?

I am not being sarcastic, it just seems you are the resident chemist on this site.
You seem to have a vast knowledge on various medicines.

Bailee


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

Well i tried to detox off alcohol a few times actually. Usually id get a day or 2 in and the withdrawal's would be too bad so id start drinking again. The worst part about it was the mental effect's of the withdrawal my head was totally facked. I was delirious as hell and hallucinated abit on and off. Id also get a high fever.

I basically learned through trial and error what worked and what didnt. Ironicaly i used temazepam to get off alcohol and it worked like a charm. That was one of the drug's you detoxed off. I think doctor's usually use valium or librium for alcohol withdrawal because there much longer lasting but i didnt have access to them.

As for support to be really honest once i was clear of alcohol for a few month's i didnt crave it at all really. I still dont. Right now my main problem is bipolar disorder. Im pretty much 100% dp/dr free and have been for awile so that's not much of a problem now either.

I dont really get much support for my bipolar to be honest. I dont have any mean's of getting around to any support group's or anything as i dont have a car and my family arent all that supportive. Basically they just give me rides to my doctor or whatever.

Hello bailee. By chemist do you mean pharmacist or a actually chemist? I dont know if you are from north america or the UK where they call pharmacist's chemist's.

In any case i am neither. But in the future i hope to be a pharmacist as it interest's me quite abit and i seem to have a knack for it. Plus there is alot of money in it here now and you can basically have your pick of job's.

I just have to get alot of personal crap straightened up and with any luck in a year or so i can start going to university to take courses for pharmacy.


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