is 3% reduction every 14 days too slow?

[[Ma...]]

Well, I am just going to answer from my perspective.  I have had a pretty rough taper until the last 6 months or so , my answer will be influenced by that, I would give anything to have started at 6% a month, the Valium I crossed over to made me sick and when I did taper, had done my numbers wrong and went too fast.  I would have done so much better if I had done 6%.  A lot of people can go faster, but you are right, if you start slow and do well, you can always speed up.  Just mo.  Good luck, Mary 💜

 

thank you Mary. 

it's good to hear from someone who's recently been in the trenches and hasn't forgotten just how nightmarish the experience is...hearing that coming from you, telling me i can start slow and maybe speed up later if everything goes right, gives me much needed encouragement. i do feel safer starting slow. i been in the trenches lately too...SI and 2 SA's so not in any hurry to go there again anytime soon! 

thx for your comments.

 

You are welcome, you have been in the trenches, good job getting off all those drugs.  There are many of us out here that wish we had understood slow really was the way for us, we'd probably be a lot farther along than now .  I really envy the people that can go faster, but for whatever reason, some of us just can't.  Wish you lots of luck !! 💜

 

this made me think of you: https://imgur.com/H8UUGe4

lol

(i'm not allowed to post actual memes but i think they still allow links to them)

 

That was one big spoiled raccoon, I leave a big bowl of water on my back porch for all the animals around.  Had several raccoons but never scratched one under the arms  . My husband and I thought about putting up a camera back there to see what came up to drink, then we decided we might not want to know 

 

gurl... i am so confused! what on earth you talking about? you got some varmints in your back porch? and they are tame? you are like lil Cinderella with her birds or Snow White with her deer n rabbits n stuff... but aintcha scared of getting rabies from petting your critters? you are so crazy!

 

. No, I don't get near them, I look at them from my kitchen wind ow, then we beat on the door and they go away.  I do like knowing they have water though , it hasn't rained here in weeks now.  I'm an animal lover, what can I say

 

me too! we have 3 spoiled dogs and a spoiled cat...and birdfeeders but...

 

your post was just so random lol!! i was like...what the hell is Mary on about these raccoons on her porch? it's all good, i just thhought maybe you accidentally posted that on this thread instead of another and wondered where you got to talking about rubbing under a raccooon's arm from. made for a good laugh tho!

 

It's in that link above me , lol.  Really I'm not crazy  :laugh:

[[ih...]]

 

i like the time frame, definitely doable,  and it is about a .25mg reduction every 4months.

is 4 months to reduce a .25mg too slow? (i realize this is subjective but i'm curious to anyone who has tapered off of clonazepam while tapering from an antipsychotic at the same time, do you think this would be pushing too hard at first? or just right? or???

 

however i'm not in a hurry to get this taper done,

so i typed in 2% every 14 days into the same calculator and it said 7 years to finish the taper (attenuated ending)!!!

but how can 1% make that much difference between 3%=2 years taper and 2%=7 years taper??

it seems like the results are not proportionate.

 

can someone explain this to me?

 

i don't mind taking a few years if neccessary to taper the benzo, but not SEVEN YEARS! of course it will all depend on my sxs. i'm letting my body guide me to the sweet spot for each drug's taper rate that works for me.

 

but seriously...7 years for 1mg seems a bit extreme, maybe my math is wrong or the calculator is wrong? or i just don't grasp this concept lol all of the above? 

 

I, like a number of people here, took the same dose for many years with no issues. Thus, I don't view any taper as being too "slow".

 

If you were in tolerance or were being cut off by a doctor then maybe a rapid taper would be necessary but I don't understand the need to go fast in your situation.

 

Seven years is not the result I am coming up with when I put in 2% every 14 days. I see that it would be completed in June of 2021 with no holds.

 

At 3% every 14 days, with no holds, I see you could be done in November of 2020.

 

Neither of these time frames are unreasonable.

 

How your body reacts to the taper is the only thing that really matters. If you are experiencing withdrawals then you are probably going too fast. Every one is different so you are just going to have to see how your body reacts to the taper. You may or may not have any issues.

 

If you have access to Microsoft Excel then you can create your own spreadsheet.

 

I downloaded WPS software, which is free, and created a spreadsheet that way. This allowed me to calculate the doses every day and adjust accordingly. It's also another way of keeping track of the doses I am scheduled to take each night. 

 

I have been tapering on and off for about 400 days according to my spreadsheet and have had no issues. I've even increased the percentage as time has gone on since the taper has been going so well.

 

[[no...]]

 

i like the time frame, definitely doable,  and it is about a .25mg reduction every 4months.

is 4 months to reduce a .25mg too slow? (i realize this is subjective but i'm curious to anyone who has tapered off of clonazepam while tapering from an antipsychotic at the same time, do you think this would be pushing too hard at first? or just right? or???

 

however i'm not in a hurry to get this taper done,

so i typed in 2% every 14 days into the same calculator and it said 7 years to finish the taper (attenuated ending)!!!

but how can 1% make that much difference between 3%=2 years taper and 2%=7 years taper??

it seems like the results are not proportionate.

 

can someone explain this to me?

 

i don't mind taking a few years if neccessary to taper the benzo, but not SEVEN YEARS! of course it will all depend on my sxs. i'm letting my body guide me to the sweet spot for each drug's taper rate that works for me.

 

but seriously...7 years for 1mg seems a bit extreme, maybe my math is wrong or the calculator is wrong? or i just don't grasp this concept lol all of the above? 

 

I, like a number of people here, took the same dose for many years with no issues. Thus, I don't view any taper as being too "slow".

 

If you were in tolerance or were being cut off by a doctor then maybe a rapid taper would be necessary but I don't understand the need to go fast in your situation.

 

Seven years is not the result I am coming up with when I put in 2% every 14 days. I see that it would be completed in June of 2021 with no holds.

 

At 3% every 14 days, with no holds, I see you could be done in November of 2020.

 

Neither of these time frames are unreasonable.

 

How your body reacts to the taper is the only thing that really matters. If you are experiencing withdrawals then you are probably going too fast. Every one is different so you are just going to have to see how your body reacts to the taper. You may or may not have any issues.

 

If you have access to Microsoft Excel then you can create your own spreadsheet.

 

I downloaded WPS software, which is free, and created a spreadsheet that way. This allowed me to calculate the doses every day and adjust accordingly. It's also another way of keeping track of the doses I am scheduled to take each night. 

 

I have been tapering on and off for about 400 days according to my spreadsheet and have had no issues. I've even increased the percentage as time has gone on since the taper has been going so well.

 

hello ihpsdm 

 

do you mean you took the same dose as in the same dose as i am on or the same dose consecutively?

 

i'm glad that you agree with CAgirl, Terry and Mary n me on the topic of going as slow as i need to and that there is not "too slow", it depends on each person individually. 

 

my drug history includes over 45 prescription psych medications in 24 years. i've been on almost everything they have for antipsychotic,antidepressant, antiepileptic, neuroleptic, pain meds, amphetamines, sedatives , etc you name it they guinea-pigged my butt with it. they would no longer have me on one med that didn't work but would just cut me off and start another one! i was in acute wd for many years without ever knowing it. i found my way here after many attempts to cut and shave the pills into crumbs with varying degrees of success and failure lol, but now that i'm stabilized on the antipsychotic taper, i'm preparing for the benzo taper. i am still tapering the last 1/4 of my seroquel, and 900 mg of gabapentin. since i've been on so many drugs and drug classes and "kindled" very likley from the repeated acute wd's (without knowing there was a name for what i was experiencing), my now hypersensitized CNS is tellingme to go sloowwww...slower than most people, because i've been on high doses of more meds,for longer periods of time (decades) than most people. those who do understand are supportive. people like you. these people give me the support i need for when things get rough or if i have a setback. it means so much to have this support system. thank you for being a part of my "team"!

 

ps yes the Jim Hawk calculator online has glitches which make incorrect results come up sometimes. it happenes mostly when entering different data from the time right before. i refresh the page and it sometimes still does it, but i can figure out after a few times which one is right by comparing the length of completion of taper when i scroll to the very bottom. it also glitches when i switch from attenuate dto non-attenuated endings orvice versa. other people have noticed the glitch too. it's just a program to help people figure out a general idea of where to go with their DLMT and how long it would hypothetically take to finish at a given rate. but it is confusing to use if you aren't awayre of the glitch. i still am grateful to Jim for putting it ther ebut i wish he could fix it.

 

are you very good with making spreadsheets? my friend is a chemist and made me several but he was using a totally different amount of liquid ratio to medicine and i would have to make up the doses of benzo every day, not be able to make a 2 week supply in advance using his ratio. (his wasn't a 10mg/1ml ratio) so i was looking at Jim's online calculator to find a schedule that uses my 10mg/1ml ratio. i do have mocrosoft Excel but i don't know how to work the thing. Hubby does but has little freetime after we go grocery shopping fro supplies and dogpark etc on the weekends.

 

i recently had SI and 2 SA's due to some outside/environnmental and family issues. i had to stabilize before attempting to resume my weekly reducions on the antipsychotic. now that i'm stable, i have been prepping to begin the clonazepam taper, by just doing a switchover to liquid clonazepam and letting my body acclimatize to the change. i'm adjusting well now, after a day or 2 of really bad hangover sxs. lol, i never believed people who said they felt the switch to liquid clonazepam using alcohol as the solvent, but BOY, was i wrong!! i wasn't expecting anything but the next morning after the first liquid dose i felt as if i did when i was a drinker/party girl in my teens and early 20s when i'd wake up the next day after a huge party! light and noise sensitivity, thirsty, headache, the whole shebang! guess i had to learn the hard way. shrug. at least i'm back to normal now. and i respect when people say they feel things due to hypersensitivity because i experienced it firsthand.

 

what's WPS?

 

that is so great you were able to speed up some due to your taper going so great! i'm so happy for you!