The Easier Taper Support Group

[[be...]]

I love this thread,

way to go getting rid of the 2pm dose Gard. 

And sticking to your ideas Gwinna.  Yes we do need to know a baseline to be able to see what might be helpful I figure.  it Sounds like you have a thoughtful sensible plan!,

Hi Harmonee -- so glad to see that you taper is going well.

 

I'm recovering from a bit of a cut that it seems was premature.  So back to holding for now.  Although I'm down another .002mg  ( ).

The numbers they get small!

SS

Hi SS, yes I agree this is one of my favorite threads, so many new posters here and so happy that some are not having it too bad. I was so happy to find this thread, considering my previous two tapers this third is Easy...still some blips...but nothing in the scheme of things, all doable. Congrats on getting down to .002mg and Stay Strong.💖 Peace and Healing Hugs.

 

Hi Gard, you have come a long way . Stay Strong.💖 Peace and Healing Hugs.

[[ga...]]

Checking in to say I am doing well. Of course, I'm in withdrawal, but not unbearable withdrawal. I love only dosing twice/day. It helps me not think about my drug so often. I think it helps a lot to have other things to think about besides keeping track of my dosing.

 

I am back to doing a mindful activity every day, whether that be mindfully brushing my teeth or doing a guided body scan meditation (which often results in a nap, but I say naps count). Daily mindful practices really seem to help my brain remember to stay in the moment, even in unpleasant moments, accept them, and not go off wildly imagining all kinds of bad things that might happen.

 

Mark Twain has an interesting take on living in the moment! Took me a minute to get it. 

 

 

Gard

[[Su...]]

Love the Mark Twain quote Gard!

Ain't it the truth!  Especially those middle of the night calamities that are about to happen -- at least according to my brain sometimes....

SS

[[ga...]]

Love the Mark Twain quote Gard!

Ain't it the truth!  Especially those middle of the night calamities that are about to happen -- at least according to my brain sometimes....

SS

 

You got that right! I have an app called iSleepEasy. It has short "talk downs" to help a person relax. One of them is called "Wee Hours Rescue." I keep it close to my bed!

[[Ol...]]

Checking in to say I am doing well. Of course, I'm in withdrawal, but not unbearable withdrawal. I love only dosing twice/day. It helps me not think about my drug so often. I think it helps a lot to have other things to think about besides keeping track of my dosing.

 

I am back to doing a mindful activity every day, whether that be mindfully brushing my teeth or doing a guided body scan meditation (which often results in a nap, but I say naps count). Daily mindful practices really seem to help my brain remember to stay in the moment, even in unpleasant moments, accept them, and not go off wildly imagining all kinds of bad things that might happen.

 

Mark Twain has an interesting take on living in the moment! Took me a minute to get it. 

 

 

Gard

 

Great news! Naps totally count!

[[be...]]

Just dropping in to say, as of tomorrow I will be at 0.35mg of Valium. It has been a long time coming, still have a ways to go, but have to say my taper has been easy compared to my first two tapers...that was out of a horror film. jp walked off, Lynn walked off, and I hope to walk off too. 💖 Peace To All and Healing.

[[ga...]]

Just dropping in to say, as of tomorrow I will be at 0.35mg of Valium. It has been a long time coming, still have a ways to go, but have to say my taper has been easy compared to my first two tapers...that was out of a horror film. jp walked off, Lynn walked off, and I hope to walk off too. 💖 Peace To All and Healing.

 

That's wonderful news, BG! I'm so happy for you. :smitten:

 

 

[[be...]]

Just dropping in to say, as of tomorrow I will be at 0.35mg of Valium. It has been a long time coming, still have a ways to go, but have to say my taper has been easy compared to my first two tapers...that was out of a horror film. jp walked off, Lynn walked off, and I hope to walk off too. 💖 Peace To All and Healing.

 

That's wonderful news, BG! I'm so happy for you. :smitten:

Thanks Gard.

[[Su...]]

That's just the best news BG!  And you are a shining example of slow, steady, methodical wins the race.

:smitten:

 

[[Li...]]

Checking in to say I am doing well. Of course, I'm in withdrawal, but not unbearable withdrawal. I love only dosing twice/day. It helps me not think about my drug so often. I think it helps a lot to have other things to think about besides keeping track of my dosing.

 

I am back to doing a mindful activity every day, whether that be mindfully brushing my teeth or doing a guided body scan meditation (which often results in a nap, but I say naps count). Daily mindful practices really seem to help my brain remember to stay in the moment, even in unpleasant moments, accept them, and not go off wildly imagining all kinds of bad things that might happen.

 

Mark Twain has an interesting take on living in the moment! Took me a minute to get it. 

 

 

Gard

 

Hello, Gard-Somehow I wound up here reading this post! I have been interested in learning more about Mindfulness. Is there a forum here or a book that you recommend? Thanks!

[[be...]]

That's just the best news BG!  And you are a shining example of slow, steady, methodical wins the race.

:smitten:

Thanks SS, so happy to have you walking beside me, we will make it one day and never look back. 💖 Peace and Healing Hugs My Friend.

[[ga...]]

Checking in to say I am doing well. Of course, I'm in withdrawal, but not unbearable withdrawal. I love only dosing twice/day. It helps me not think about my drug so often. I think it helps a lot to have other things to think about besides keeping track of my dosing.

 

I am back to doing a mindful activity every day, whether that be mindfully brushing my teeth or doing a guided body scan meditation (which often results in a nap, but I say naps count). Daily mindful practices really seem to help my brain remember to stay in the moment, even in unpleasant moments, accept them, and not go off wildly imagining all kinds of bad things that might happen.

 

Mark Twain has an interesting take on living in the moment! Took me a minute to get it. 

 

 

Gard

 

Hello, Gard-Somehow I wound up here reading this post! I have been interested in learning more about Mindfulness. Is there a forum here or a book that you recommend? Thanks!

Hi, Lily.

 

When I was a total beginner, the first book I read was The Happiness Trap. It's very well written. The author is a good teacher. It is a how-to guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which is based on mindful acceptance and values-based living. Next, because I was a chronic pain sufferer and was really losing it, I read You Are Not Your Pain. I believe it's called Mindfulness for Health in the UK. It comes as an audiobook or as a paperback with a CD. You need the audio for the meditations. I think You Are Not Your Pain is good for anyone in any kind of pain, physical or emotional. What I liked was that the authors knew I would be low energy so taught very short formal (10 minute guided meditations teaching observation and acceptance) and informal (incorporating mindfulness into daily activities) mindfulness practices. It is supposed to be an 8 week program. I took 8 months because of benzo brain. But it still worked!

 

Gard

[[Gw...]]

Hanging in there at 2 mgs Valium, 3 months in so far! Wellbutrin taper only took two weeks and didn't really make things much worse; the anxiety is actually much more manageable now. GI issues are more severe though and I'm exhausted pretty easily - but I'm hanging in there! Still going for long walks almost every evening. Thinking of you all as we recover.

 

Gwinna

[[ga...]]

Hanging in there at 2 mgs Valium, 3 months in so far! Wellbutrin taper only took two weeks and didn't really make things much worse; the anxiety is actually much more manageable now. GI issues are more severe though and I'm exhausted pretty easily - but I'm hanging in there! Still going for long walks almost every evening. Thinking of you all as we recover.

 

Gwinna

 

Good to hear from you, Gwinna. I'm really glad your anxiety is more manageable. I get the exhaustion, too, but find it tolerable.

 

Gard

[[Ho...]]

I read all 77 pages today, and I'm glad I found this! I read so many horror stories from very scared people - including my own (25% cut is not a good idea) - that I was so scared to start!

 

I have been planning my liquid micro taper instead. I will be buying glassware and supplies this weekend on Amazon. I have calculated up to day 48 using a 5-6% reduction every 2 weeks, or about 0.4% per day, but it includes a 2 week stabilization on solution at my current dose, as I've read people have symptoms when they switch to solution. Somewhere in pages 20-30 someone (JP maybe?) posted a link to an Excel spreadsheet someone created that looks like it could be awesome. I will post the link when I test it out to see if it's as awesome as everyone says. I have to find it first. I copied the link somewhere....

 

I found it kind of amusing (my odd sense of humor) that this forum started out so rosy, and then midway through members got a little dark as they admitted there were actually a few pits in their peaches and cream. 

 

For what it's worth, I am an analytical chemist and most of my career has been spent in the pharma industry. I know how tablets are manufactured, and I would never do the tablet shaving method. Tablet manufacturing is a totally dry process. Think mixing 8 cups of flour and sugar (most of the tablet) and a teaspoon of baking soda (the drug) and mixing it dry. The drug is not uniformly distributed in the tablet. And if the tablet has a color overcoat (color on the outside, white on the inside), there is NO drug in that color overcoat. Shaving off that color will not remove drug from the tablet.

 

I guess this is called a "bump" when someone posts a reply to bump the topic to the top? Having been a speed addict at one time in my life, the use of the word shocked me when I first saw it in these forums.

 

Ah well, more later. I'll let everyone know if my slow taper keeps me (sort of) symptom-free.

[[be...]]

Hi, I guess the few pits that some have mentioned, not really a bad thing, considering that we are giving another side of tapering. It would be great if one did not have any problems, but sadly there are some. I consider this taper blippy for me, some sx, but really not bad enough to call horrible, doable is more like it, I can function daily. So for me this is a easy taper, since I had two horrific ones.

 

Welcome to this awesome thread, and kudos for reading all the pages. I order my syringes from Amazon also, I would say that you can buy pickles or jelly and then pour out contents into other containers and use these, great for storing. I think it is great to have a tapering plan, try not to be too aggressive at first, go slow, and do not put a time limit to the day you will be done...just throw the calendar away, you will be happier, benzo tapering is hard, but with time and much patience it can be doable. Best to you. 💖 Peace and Healing.

[[Ho...]]

Oh yeah, I plan on having many holds. 

[[Ho...]]

Ooo I found the link to the Excel Spreadsheet.

 

http://aslc-nm.org/Universal_Tapering_Guide2.xlsm

 

I haven't checked it out yet. But the comments on the thread it was posted on make it sound pretty awesome.

[[Ca...]]

Hello people..

 

I was wondering if I could please join this thread..??

 

I like the idea of "blips" and having some control over symptom intensity...

 

 

Hopetodothis,

I was also wondering are pills made (combined) in a batch or individually..??

Does it differ for pills with a break line..??

Ty

 

[[be...]]

Hello people..

 

I was wondering if I could please join this thread..??

 

I like the idea of "blips" and having some control over symptom intensity...

 

 

Hopetodothis,

I was also wondering are pills made (combined) in a batch or individually..??

Does it differ for pills with a break line..??

Ty

"Welcome Cantfly"... happy you want to join, you have a world of experience. 💖 Peace and Healing Hugs.

[[Ca...]]

Hello people..

 

I was wondering if I could please join this thread..??

 

I like the idea of "blips" and having some control over symptom intensity...

 

 

Hopetodothis,

I was also wondering are pills made (combined) in a batch or individually..??

Does it differ for pills with a break line..??

Ty

"Welcome Cantfly"... happy you want to join, you have a world of experience. 💖 Peace and Healing Hugs.

Thank you Begood..

-I stumble through..

 

[[be...]]

Hello people..

 

I was wondering if I could please join this thread..??

 

I like the idea of "blips" and having some control over symptom intensity...

 

 

Hopetodothis,

I was also wondering are pills made (combined) in a batch or individually..??

Does it differ for pills with a break line..??

Ty

"Welcome Cantfly"... happy you want to join, you have a world of experience. 💖 Peace and Healing Hugs.

Thank you Begood..

-I stumble through..

[[Ho...]]

Pills are made in a batch. A batch is usually 200 to 300 kg. All the powders are mixed together dry. Then a little water is added to make the powder a little "clumpy" to get the right particle size for compression. The particles are much smaller than the pills. Then the whole mix is dried in ovens set to about 35 tp 40 degrees celsius. After drying, the powder is compressed in a compressor. Each tablet is compressed individually, but the machines to do this can finish compressing the whole batch in less than 8 hours. Then there's the option of spray drying a color overcoat on the tablets. If a tablet is colored, then it is probably a color overcoat. There are tablets that have the color mixed all the way through, like my thyroid medication.

 

If tablets are scored and can be easily broken, then the drug in the whole tablet is probably mixed equally between the two halves. Beyond the score breaks though you can't be sure that the drug is evenly distributed in the tablet. And microshaving mg pieces off your tablet definitely will not assure that you are microscraping drug out of the tablet.

[[Ca...]]

Thanks Hopeto,

I have often wondered... -I would have thought they mixed it pretty evenly..!!

 

I pill split 2v into 8 pieces.. Its pretty rough and inaccurate, but I have half life working for me, I guess..

Anyways, so far so good.. should I try for 1/16 splits..?? Lol -as if..

 

Thanks...

 

 

[[Ho...]]

Also....

 

The dose between tablets can vary by up to 10%. The FDA requires that tablets contain "90% - 110% of the label claim." So if you have a 1 mg tablet, the tablet can actually be as little as 0.90 mg and up to 1.10 mg. Europe has the same requirement. I think Canada does too, as Canada usually follows European requirements.

 

The one pill manufacturer (not generics) was pretty good about making sure tablets were very close to 100%. But generic manufacturers might be a little more loose and carefree about it, especially overseas (India or China) manufacturers.

 

I think the best bet when making a batch to liquid microtaper is to make a batch using a week's dose of tablets. Although I have to admit that when I do it my first time, I'm a little nervous about messing up and wasting 14 tablets.