And so the taper begins: Depakote and Diazepam

My doc has me on 1000mg's of depakote and I just switched from "etizolam" to diazepam today. I just said screw it - I'm done with the back and forth negotiations, and I'm so tired of benzos, so I compromised.

I took 10 mg's of diazepam around 2:30pm, and now I suddenly feel like shit. Kinda surprised, because I was having a great day before a couple hours ago, and I expected the diazepam to provide a decent amount of relief.

We're doing a pretty rapid taper. I agreed to it, and even turned in my stash of RC's and cut ties with my connections. This feeling is very strange though. Very uncomfortable. Stinging, headache, eye pain, shooting pain down my left arm, disassociation, dizziness...ugh.

I guess this is the consequence of pushing it too fast. I can only take 10mg's 2x day, and will stay at 1000mg's of depakote while we assess the efficacy of the taper protocol.

I'm having flashbacks to when I CT'd years ago, when I didn't know how dangerous it was to do so, especially in combo with alcohol and cocaine withdrawal. Somehow got lucky and was fine after 10 days.

At least there's the prophylactic for seizures provided by depakote, and I can trust in the valium to a degree. I don't think it's enough, but so be it. I can still take another 10mg today, but I'm trying to hold out until the evening.