Why can't I just stop my benzodiazepine?

The FDA's 2020 boxed warning for the entire benzodiazepine class explains why: stopping abruptly or reducing the dose too quickly can cause serious withdrawal reactions, including seizures, which can be life-threatening. The agency advises patients who have taken a benzodiazepine for weeks or months to build a gradual taper plan with a health care professional.

What is the risk of mixing benzodiazepines with opioids?

Serious. The FDA requires boxed warnings on both drug classes because combined use can cause profound sedation, respiratory depression, coma, and death. In Monongalia County's 2024 overdose deaths, benzodiazepines were involved in 31% and fentanyl in 51% — an overlap that makes illicit pill use especially risky here.

What does medically supervised stabilization involve?

A clinical assessment of dose, duration, and other substances on board, followed by a gradual, individualized taper with monitoring. The FDA notes prescribers may pause a taper or return to a previous dose if withdrawal symptoms emerge, then continue more slowly once the patient stabilizes.

Where do I get help in Morgantown?

Valley Healthcare System is Monongalia County's local comprehensive behavioral healthcare provider and a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, meaning it serves people regardless of ability to pay. HELP4WV, 1-844-HELP4WV, offers free 24/7 referrals statewide, and our helpline at (800) 653-9376 can walk you through options.

What if I've been buying benzos off the street or online?

Illicit pills can contain fentanyl without any visible sign, and that combination drove much of West Virginia's overdose toll. Tell the truth at your first appointment — clinicians expect polysubstance use, and the detox plan must account for everything you take. Naloxone and the 911 rule still apply in an emergency.

Benzodiazepine Detox and Treatment in Morgantown, WV

Benzodiazepines show up in nearly a third of Monongalia County's overdose deaths — 31% in 2024, per the state's county profile — and usually alongside fentanyl, which was involved in 51% of those deaths. If you have been taking benzos daily, whether from a prescription or otherwise, the safe way off is a gradual, medically supervised taper. Quitting abruptly can cause seizures. Here is what that care involves and where to find it in Morgantown.

The polysubstance problem in Monongalia County

The West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy's Monongalia County At-A-Glance 2025 profile counts 49 overdose deaths among the county's 108,697 residents in 2024, down from 77 in 2023. The substance list tells a layered story: fentanyl 51%, methamphetamine 43%, benzodiazepines 31%, alcohol 27%, cocaine 22%.

For anyone using benzodiazepines, two overlaps matter most. Benzos plus fentanyl is the combination the FDA boxed-warned about in 2016: profound sedation, respiratory depression, coma, and death. And benzos plus alcohol stacks two sedatives on the same brain receptors. This is why intake assessments ask about everything, not just the drug you are most worried about — and why answering honestly protects you. A detox plan built for a benzo alone is unsafe for a benzo plus fentanyl drinker.

What supervised tapering actually looks like

The FDA's 2020 class-wide boxed warning set the standard language: patients who have taken benzodiazepines for weeks or months should not stop suddenly, and prescribers should use a gradual taper to reduce risk. The withdrawal picture the FDA describes includes seizures, panic attacks, tremors, muscle pain and stiffness, insomnia, memory problems, and irritability — and, in some patients, symptoms that last many months.

Two practical points from the same guidance:

If withdrawal symptoms flare during a taper, the plan can pause or step back to the previous dose before continuing more slowly. That is the protocol working, not failing.
Even a gradual taper can produce some symptoms. Severe ones — seizures, hallucinations, confusion — need medical attention right away; call 911.

Where stabilization happens in Morgantown

Valley Healthcare System is Monongalia County's designated local comprehensive behavioral healthcare provider and operates as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, which requires it to serve anyone who asks regardless of ability to pay. WVU Medicine's J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital handles the medical emergencies withdrawal can produce. For patients who need more than outpatient care, West Virginia licenses certified withdrawal management beds — short-term, medically staffed, 24/7 monitored stabilization — and the state's county profile links to a bed availability locator run by the Office of Drug Control Policy.

Ways to start:

Call HELP4WV at 1-844-HELP4WV, the state's free 24/7 line, for a referral conversation tonight
Call our helpline at (800) 653-9376 to talk through detox, taper, and residential options with a person
Ask your prescriber directly for a taper plan — that appointment can be this week

How to start today

Call or text (800) 653-9376 to talk through treatment options with a person — no pressure, no commitment. Or use the form below and we will reach out:

Calling is free; the referral service is paid for by treatment providers.

Emergency and crisis lines

Call 911 for a seizure, unresponsiveness, or trouble breathing. For a mental health or substance use crisis that is not a medical emergency, call or text 988 or HELP4WV at 1-844-HELP4WV, free and confidential, any hour of the day.