Since depakote and benzodiazepines affect gaba, would someone discontinuing depakote experience symptoms similar to benzo withdrawal. if not, why not?

A little different: It depends on the variables you are examining. From the standpoint of seizure prevention, stopping either medicine suddenly can result in in a seizure threshold that is lower than before the medicine was initiated. However, the half life of Depakote is much longer than most benzodiazepines so the effects of stopping it are more subtle than sudden discontinuation of benzodiazepines. Stay safe!