Dr. Ken Starr gives some general advice on how to approach detoxing off benzos (benzodiazepines) like Xanax ( Alprazolam), Valium ( Diazepam), Klonipin ( Clonazepam), and Triazolam.
Hey this is dr ken starr with the wellness group in a row grande i wanted to take a minute to talk about benzodiazepines and tapering and detox this is by far the vast majority of questions we get benzo patients and benzo questions there’s so many ways to do this let me summarize it for you because i say the same thing almost all the time number one try to do
Outpatient tapers try to come down ten percent a week ten percent every two weeks ten percent a month whatever you can do is fine make sure you’re on a long a long acting benzo preferably does it family value clonazepam will work why because you don’t want to have inner dose withdrawal so if you’re dependent or trying to get off xanax alprazolam that’s not
Real good it comes on fast it goes off fast you don’t want to yo-yo your central nervous system okay so get on a long-acting benzo have your doc convert you over to that do outpatient slow reductions what i don’t like to see happen someone going into rehab for a week or two thinking they’re going to detox off huge amounts of benefits that they’ve been on for
A long time it doesn’t end well um when we detox people off of opiates or alcohol that’s a very predictable withdrawal process we know exactly when they’re going to get better we know exactly what they’re going to go through with benzos is so much it’s just so unpredictable if you have experience with this you know autonomic dysregulation hot cold tonight is
Depersonalization headaches all those weird stuff that can last for months and months and months and months and months that most doctors won’t even believe you if you tell them that if you’re going to use nad here’s what i want you to know you if you’re on a lower dose of benzo that’s variable if you’re on a lower dose i would say you can certainly stop that
And then come into an nad program where you have medical supervision because we can use other medicines along with supplements to to really manage the withdrawal and result in a good restoration if you’re on very high doses of benzos i think you could still come in and do an nad program but you might not stop entirely you might just try dose reductions during
The course of the infusion weeks and see how you tolerate that if you’re tolerating it well we continue to do sort of much bigger drops than you would use an outpatient um but be patient with benzos it takes a long time you know there’s a lot of support groups out there that can help answer questions so you’re not going crazy i would encourage you to use nad for
Benzos i think it works i would encourage you not to go into a residential program for just benzos if you don’t have to just because the receptors are sticky takes much longer to result in those changes it’s like you don’t go into a a one-week treatment for diabetes you education it’s more of a lifelong education with diabetes detoxing on benzos is so slow it
Takes so long you have to be patient you have to know what’s going on and there are medications and supplements that can help that be easier um call us if you have any questions please email us we’re happy to try to talk to you please subscribe please share this thank you and that’s my two minutes on benzodiazepines
Transcribed from video
How to Detox off Benzodiazepines like Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin. By Ken Starr MD Wellness Group