Please Help Me With Tegretol

[LifeInChaos]

I do not have a seizure disorder but I am trying to get off of valium and temazepam. I was prescribed Tegretol for benzo withdrawal but it is causing the rare audio side effect where things are a semi-tone lower and I want to get off. Music is totally ruined for me. I am on 600mg of Tegretol and I want off of this stuff by going only 5 or 10mg down per day.

If I go any quicker I get terrible withdrawal symptoms. They are in in pill form looking like an aspirin but I do not know how to be acurate with reducing the dose. I have a pill cutter but it can only cut a 200mg pill into 4ths, so I have to go down to 550mg which is still too fast for me. Please help me so I do not lose my hearing forever. This was a bad move by doctors and they want to take me off cold turkey which I tried but causes horrible withdrawal and might actually give me a seizure. They do not understand Dr. Breggin's methods. Can someone recommend a doctor that can prescribe custom doses like 595mg, 590mg etc. that I can take to a compound pharmacy? I live in New Jersey. Please help, I am desperate.

[LuvMyTwins]

I don't know of any place that will do such thing without a doctor's approval. I'm on Tegretol and have been so for many years. Yet, any time that a medicine was "added" for a period of time, my symptoms were horrible. Go to your doctor....it's the fastest (and safest) way.---LMT

[RobinN]

I have withdrawn medication slower that doctors have suggested with Rebecca. I think for some they just need to increase and decrease at what their body will personally adjust too. It took me a while to realize this, but as everyone will agree, the disorder is so individual that the needs of medication would be as well. It takes someone living with the symptoms, or watching someone with the symptoms to see what the individual needs are.

I would think (IMO) that going slower shouldn't be a problem with your doctor. Why not smash it up, if it is a tablet and cut it with a knife or razor. You could then put the powder into individual gel caps.

Tegretol affected my daughters eyes not her hearing. But again however it is affecting you, it is not working. My daughter had more seizures on meds, and also at the same time we were weaning her of them. Now that they are out of her body, she has reduced seizures, and we are able to heal her from within. It seems to be working.

[LifeInChaos]

Thanks guys. The doctor told me to do a super fast taper. I'm only taking 400mg tonight and 400mg tomorrow instead of 600mg. Then I'm going to 200mg the next day, 200mg the next day and then stopping the drug. Tonight I've felt some buzzing in my temples. But again, I don't have a seizure disorder, I have severe iatrogenic brain damage from psychiatrists giving me so many medications (20 - 30 psych meds) since I was a teenager instead of giving me psychotherapy. What helps people with those with seizures, depression, psychosis, whatever actually gives me chemical damage.

[RobinN]

Well my daughter does have seizures, and the meds actually did NOTHING positive for her either.

While I weaned her from the drugs, I had to work on supporting health in other ways, at the same time.