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how to use valium and passion flower (help!)

Hi! I need some help here! I am taking Valium (2mg 1 small white pill) per night for the past 2 years. If i don't take it I can't sleep, I have headaches, etc.. etc.. I really want to get rid off valium, but sure, step by step. I got passion flower tablets (recommended by a herbalist) . I am so scare about the withdrawal of benzos...Does anyone know how to combine or use passion flower together with valium or when to use it? I don't want to be in a "dark" mental state or paranoid or whatever. I also want to reduce the symptoms , thanks!! P.S; I live in China now and it's confusing. My doctor doesn't believe in natural medicine.
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Allopathic physicians don't study plant medicine, so they're in uncomfortable territory with it.  The two forms of medicine have also been in intense economic competition since the late eighteen hundreds, when big money in the US decided to back allopathic medicine, which at that time wasn't widely respected, reliable, or as widely used.  Obviously, it has gotten a lot better since then, but big money has been fighting a propaganda war against all other forms of medicine ever since because it's just a lot more profitable.  Doctors are taught, therefore, in med school that natural medicine is quackery, and while many change and learn it as they become disenchanted with the options for healing they have just practicing one form of medicine, most don't really work that hard.  It takes an enormous amount of time to learn any form of medicine.  Personally, I wouldn't take passionflower if you're taking valium and aren't very experienced in using plant medicine.  I also don't know what company made the tablets you're talking about -- most companies are not reliable, which includes all of those that sell direct marketed supplements, who sell only on the internet, are found in drugstores and often GNC, or are sold by discount companies.  When you use plants, they have to be potent, and that means experienced herbalists following the growing of the plant and testing the finished product.  The best companies will be found on the shelves of the best health food stores, because when you're on the shelf there are organizations that go around randomly testing natural medicine for potency.  They also have to get past the buyer for the store, which is at least some protection.  Once you find a company you like and trust, you can buy it cheaper from internet stores, which isn't the same as direct marketing on the internet -- unfortunately, Whole Foods has driven most of the best stores out of business and so you might not find the best products anywhere but on the internet stores nowadays.  Okay, that's a story about natural medicine.  If you don't know how to use it, either find a doctor who practices integrated medicine or a naturopath or herbalist who can guide you.  Read up on it.  The reason I wouldn't use passionflower is it very likely has an affect on the same neurotransmitter your valium is targeting, which is GABA.  Passionflower also affects serotonin.  It can be very useful as a systemic relaxant and many do find it useful for sleep, but usually in formulas with other relaxant herbs such as valerian and hops.  I also wouldn't start it until you finish tapering off the valium successfully -- it's a slow process to stop taking benzos if you've been taking them regularly and for awhile.  Remember, the valium isn't a sleep remedy, it's a relatively short-acting relaxant that has a side effect of sedation that helps some people sleep but can interfere with REM sleep.  It is very likely to be much stronger than any plant -- the closest plant to a benzo is kava, but no plant is as strong acting on your brain as a drug.  I don't recommend it now because you have no idea if it will work or not, you've never tried it.  You have no idea how it will interact with the valium.  If you're using it for sleep, you'd be taking it at the same time as you're taking the valium, not a good idea.  You don't know if you'll get side effects from it -- just because something is natural doesn't mean you won't get some side effects, which might be start-up effects until you get used to it or it just might not agree with you, just like taking medication.  Also, passionflower comes in different ways -- you can drink it as a tea, which is weaker.  A tablet can be just the powder or it can be a standardized extract, which is getting closer to pharmaceutical medicine, though that would usually be in capsule form.  I've never seen passionflower in tablet form, it's usually in a capsule, so you don't have the fillers and binders and so it gets into your your system more quickly.  Lot of considerations, eh?  You can also take it in a tincture form, an alcohol extract, which is stronger than the capsule form but not stronger than an extract in a capsule.  So, in sum, when you use natural medicine, you don't usually use just one herb, you usually use combinations of herbs and amino acids and other nutrients to make a formula that is balanced.  Sometimes a single herb does work.  The first natural remedy for sleep I'd try is melatonin, and it isn't really natural, it occurs naturally in the brain -- it's made by serotonin -- and it's the hormone that regulates our sleep cycle -- but to make it you have to synthesize it.  If it works, you won't have any side effects most likely, low dosages work best, etc.  But once you're off valium, if you want to try passionflower and you're an anxiety sufferer, you'd take it two or three times a day to keep it your system.  If your problem is just sleep, you would take it at bedtime and see what happens.  But if you're quitting valium, do that first, do it as slowly as you need to, and when that's all over, you can start trying passionflower.  
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Sorry, meant to say, you can use melatonin while you're stopping the valium because they don't work on the same neurotransmitter and don't work at all the same way.  That's why I mentioned it.  But here's another consideration -- if you're still taking the valium, it's still working, and you won't know if anything else you take is working or if the valium is doing the work.  Once you've successfully stopped it, you will know.  Valium, by the way, leaves the body in a few hours, but it takes the brain awhile to get used to operating normally again without it.  During withdrawal from any drug that affects the brain you want a period of calm for your brain to recover natural operation, which is why I wouldn't start the passionflower until this process is over, it might make any withdrawal worse.  If you stop the valium easily, you're good to go.  Never stop a benzo abruptly -- you must taper off of it as slowly as you need to.  Peace.
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