Second time's the charm?

[[Ki...]]

Hey There,

 

I first posted on this board back in Jan 2016 when i tried my first taper. Went way too fast and didn't last long before reinstating. I'm now on taper #2, details in sig. I spend way too much time reading these boards without ever posting, so i'm using this post to reintroduce myself to everyone. I'm having a rough time lately and would really like to find others I can talk to who understand what its like to go through this.

 

I'm doing water titration. I know there is much debate on here about whether water is the best medium for a liquid taper, but this is what I have been doing and I'm scared to change things up at this point. I was doing relatively well during most of my taper until the last few weeks. I stupidly thought that I was almost free and decided to try a round of IUI to get pregnant. I think the hormones have completely messed me up, as my anxiety and panic have been through the roof!

 

Anyway,l looking forward to chatting with some of you.

 

 

[[Ph...]]

I don't want to give you specific advice since you are way ahead of me. I'm still in the process of re-stabilizing after a fast taper (and doing so-so). It seems that hormones can cause our systems to go a bit out of wack for a bit. If I was you (and I'm not, and don't specifically know what you're going through), I would try and hold where you're at for a while and see if things begin to settle. It seems like you have been doing relatively well. If things don't settle, and become unmanageable, you could always updose a bit and try to re-stabilize.. which is a lot better than reinstating months after ending a taper. Good luck!

 

PS - Not really sure about the benefits of water vs milk vs some other type of suspension/solution when it comes to titration. In the past, I had used water, feeling that the only downside was that particles settle too easily, and I would always just make sure to shake it up really well before dosing. My only other concern (and I have not found any evidence of this) is the stability of valium/k-pins in water, and whether there is any degradation. I don't believe that to be the case, though.

 

Would be lovely if others would weigh in..

[[To...]]

  Hi, would probably be a good idea to just hold for now until you feel more stable but you can't give in now. You have come to under 1 mg of Valium a day now, 0.84 I believe it was. That's an incredibly low dose. You're so close to victory. It's almost done. You won't feel much of a difference getting totally off, you might even feel better once you jump but we can't take risks at this point. So just hold until you feel better and a bit more stable and then continue the micro-taper. I do hope the Gabapentin isn't going to screw things up though because I see you just started that one up. If you feel it's working against you it would probably be a good idea to drop that one because the severe panic attacks could be related. But it's always tricky to start up a drug so close on to the end of your taper or even during your taper at all.

[[Ki...]]

Thanks to both of you for the words of encouragement!

 

Pharmguy - I also worry about degradation. I only prepare doses four days in advance max to hopefully avoid this issue. So far, it seems ok. I was actually finding the taper quite easy to manage (compared to some other stories I have read) until I pumped my body full of hormones, so I'm hoping that's the issue I'm having. I have been holding here at .84 for about a week and I seem to be getting more stable. Whether its the hormones stabilizing or holding my does, I really don't know. I'm just grateful to not be in hell for a bit. .... Just curious, How do you prepare your dose now?

 

TotalRelapse - I agree that I can't give in when I'm so close! I can't wait for the day to come when I don't have to drink that bitter water. ... I only started taking the gabapentin AFTER I started having the panic attacks on advice of my pdoc. I don't like the way it makes me feel at all, but it did let me sleep which was a godsend. I'm still working through my taper and I had missed two days of work last week due to the panic and no sleep. I have dropped the dose to 1 per day before bed and hope to drop it completely this weekend. Do you have any experience with gaabpentin that you can share?

 

 

 

 

[[Ph...]]

Regarding degradation and preparing doses, fortunately right now I'm at a level where I don't have to do that (7.5mg = 1/2 pills and slowly stablizing.. not quite there yet, but definitely better than 7-10 days ago). When I do start having to taper (not sure if I'll do a microtaper or cut like 0.25mg once a month), I'll probably do similar to what you do. I'll start by taking the whole 5mg pill and then another quarter (1.25mg), and then I'll crush the last 1.25mg, add it to some distilled water and then put that in dropper syringe that is measured in ml's. I also prefer to only prepare 3-4 days worth of liquid ahead of time, and keep that in the fridge, but have no scientific literature to back that up in regards to stability. Just feels right to me.

 

I've still got a lot to figure out here. Microtaper vs larger but more drawn out taper. Will I need to updose (maybe up to 10mg) to fully stabelize? How long before I begin the taper after i feel stabilized? Do I maybe want to add an antidepressant like lexapro or sleep aid/AD like remeron once stable to use as an aid on the way down? Only a couple of things I feel confident about. I'm going to taper based on symptoms, not some pre-determined schedule. I noticed that last time I did a rapid taper, a lot of my symptoms did not really start to show up until 3-4 weeks out, which makes sense b/c I was using k-pins and val.. both long half lives. Second thing is that I don't think there is much point in tapering until I am truly feeling stable, and at least for a week or two. Third, is that if I'm going to start an AD, I better do it during that period where my body is feeling pretty stable since adding something like that during WD would not be any fun. Anyway, just my little 2 cent rant.