Dry cut vs Liquid Taper of vailum

[Guest [He...]]

Hello BB's

I finally made the decision to do a complete crossover from X to V. I started with a partial c/o to be sure that my level of depression would not increase with V and it seems that I am tolerating it well. Still struggle with lack of motivation but I had that with Xanax anyway. I plan to be completely Xanax free by 1/20 if all goes well with the remaining c/o of the .3125 mg of X that I'm currently taking along with 12.5 mg of V.

My plan was to reduce my Valium dose by 1 mg every 10 days once I'm done with X. I'm currently using 5 mg tabs of V which are easy to split in half but reducing by 1 mg seems like it will get tricky. I have a milligram scale so I could dry cut but I was wondering if a liquid taper would be easier?  Especially once I get to lower doses. Any feedback or pros/con would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure my pdoc would RX me 2 mg tabs to help as well. My goal is to make 2017 the year I rid myself of these horrible drugs. 

 

[[bu...]]

1) Diazepam is available in 2mg tablets.  You could split them and make 1mg dose reductions.

 

2)  Rx liquid diazepam is 1mg=1ml, so even full-strength, .1mg changes are very easy, and smaller changes are possible.  And if you dilute it 9:1 (1mg=10ml)  then .01mg, or even .001mg decrements are possible.

[Guest [He...]]

Thanks Builder. Do you think cutting 1 mg every 10 days (just cutting all 1 mg at once not daily) is aggressive?  I'm trying to avoid experiencing really bad sxs that would set me back mentally and emotionally as it has taken me awhile just to get off the Xanax and crossed over to Valium. I hope my question makes sense. Thanks!!!

[[Ju...]]

Many people tapering do best without a set in stone plan. As long as you are moving towards lower doses, you are doing it right. Getting the 2 mg tablets would really help with your taper as I havent seen many people do 1 mg cuts the whole way down. Some have had success using 5 mg and 2 mg pills to make 0.25 mg reductions, but the 5 mg pills I used to have always crumbled too easily. I found it was easier to start slow and continue moving ahead than to recover if I made too big of a cut.

Good luck!

JKS

[[bu...]]

Thanks Builder. Do you think cutting 1 mg every 10 days (just cutting all 1 mg at once not daily) is aggressive?  I'm trying to avoid experiencing really bad sxs that would set me back mentally and emotionally as it has taken me awhile just to get off the Xanax and crossed over to Valium. I hope my question makes sense. Thanks!!!

 

Based on my personal experience, anything more than a 5% cut was too much, no matter how long I held.  YMMV.

[[Ju...]]

You are a relatively short term user so that is to your advantage.

Based on what I have seen here, it might be a good idea to stay for another week at your current dose of valium before beginning the taper. Valium takes a while to come to its full potency, so it might be better to stabilize and take a little break before cutting.

Then I would recommend a 0.5 mg cut (1/4 of a 2 mg pill) rather than 1 mg as your first reduction. If it goes well you can always do another one, easier to do that than recover from too big of a cut.

JKS

[[bu...]]

Many people tapering do best without a set in stone plan. As long as you are moving towards lower doses, you are doing it right. Getting the 2 mg tablets would really help with your taper as I havent seen many people do 1 mg cuts the whole way down. Some have had success using 5 mg and 2 mg pills to make 0.25 mg reductions, but the 5 mg pills I used to have always crumbled too easily. I found it was easier to start slow and continue moving ahead than to recover if I made too big of a cut.

Good luck!

JKS

 

Everyone should have a plan, but your plan should NOT be a rigid schedule.

[Guest [He...]]

Thank you Justkeep swimming and Bulider!  I appreciate the advice to stabilize at the 15 mg dose before tapering. One thing I think I need to do is to reduce the number of doses I take in a day. With Xanax I found I had to dose 4 times a day to keep the interdose WD at bay. I think I need to try to at least get to dosing only 3 x  day with Valium if not eventually to twice a day. The problem I'm encountering is that the Valium is much more sedating and makes it difficult to take 7.5 mg in the morning and then be able to function all day not to mention drive in the morning. But I seem to be able to tolerate 5 mg doses without too much sedation. But as you can imagine this makes tapering even more complicated. For example I will need to decide which of the 3 doses I will begin to reduce first. Or split my .5 mg reductions between 2 doses (.25 in Am and .25 in afternoon). Whew!  This can get complicated real fast. 

[[Co...]]

Hi Healingsoul....many congrats on getting free from X  .....that is huge.

 

I crossed over to Valium from the short acting Zopiclone because I was getting interdose WDs  .

I am down to 2mg now and take it as a single dose. The half life of Valium is very long and just dosing

once a day seems to be fine. I imagine that you would be pretty ok taking 5mg in the morning and 10mg

at night....probably induce some sleep as well. Of course you have to find what is comfortable for you and keeps

an even level in the blood. 

 

I am also an older guy doing this thing and finding the winter tough re the blues.

Cheering you on and hoping 2017 is an excellent year for you.