How to taper when you get to a lower dose?

[[Je...]]

Hey everyone.  I’ve been getting a little lower on my Valium dosage.  Tapered from 12.5 to 6.5 from May to now.  And it’s been rough.  The NAD has helped but even my last .5 4 days ago has left me with lots for anxiety.  
 

My benzo doctor who seems pretty benzo wise is telling me to aim at 1mg every 2 weeks.  But as we get lower obviously this becomes higher than 10%.  I asked him about that and he said that if we did 10% on each cut, I would be on it for another 2 years.  
 

He will go as slow as I want but I am just confused on how most people taper towards the end.  Is a bigger cut like 1mg from 3mg to 2mg going to be just more noticeable than 9mg to 8mg?

😊

[[je...]]

Hi @[Je...]

Your doctor is right in principle. At lower doses your taper will become exceptionally and probably unnecessary long if we stick to the 10% guide. At some stage your percentage has to increase. If you think about it your last cut you'll make is a 100% reduction. This means you have to increase your percentages. The problem though is at what stage do you do this and by how much. I don't have the answer to that and hopefully someone that's tapered Valium will chime in with their experience. I tapered Clonazepam and at a certain point when I got low I decided to make linear reductions and not taper according to percentages anymore. When making linear reductions it means as you go lower, your percentages keep increasing. It was scary initially but I still listened to my symptoms and I found a way that worked for me. I also didn’t calculate the linear percentages because I knew it would make me anxious if I know how much my percentages are increasing. 

I am so glad your doctor is allowing you to taper at your own pace, but yeah, ideally you don't want to stretch the last couple of mgs out unnecessarily long.

[[Je...]]

20 hours ago, [[j...] said:

Hi @[Je...]

Your doctor is right in principle. At lower doses your taper will become exceptionally and probably unnecessary long if we stick to the 10% guide. At some stage your percentage has to increase. If you think about it your last cut you'll make is a 100% reduction. This means you have to increase your percentages. The problem though is at what stage do you do this and by how much. I don't have the answer to that and hopefully someone that's tapered Valium will chime in with their experience. I tapered Clonazepam and at a certain point when I got low I decided to make linear reductions and not taper according to percentages anymore. When making linear reductions it means as you go lower, your percentages keep increasing. It was scary initially but I still listened to my symptoms and I found a way that worked for me. I also didn’t calculate the linear percentages because I knew it would make me anxious if I know how much my percentages are increasing. 

I am so glad your doctor is allowing you to taper at your own pace, but yeah, ideally you don't want to stretch the last couple of mgs out unnecessarily long.

Thank you Jelly baby.  The linear reductions make more sense.  So like 10%, 15%, 20%.  His reasoning was that there is less drug in your system therefore the percentage drop won’t be same.  And of course like you said I would be on it forever doing 10%.

 

And you are right, eventually it will be a 100% drop.  Like getting to 1mg and dropping it 50% to .5 mg can’t be the biggest impact on the body with such a little amount in the system.  At least that’s what I hope.  
 

Thank you for chiming in, I thought for a second I was going to be on this stuff another 1-2 years ☺️ but obviously we need to listen to our bodies as we never know how we will react to every cut.  

[[je...]]

1 hour ago, [[J...] said:

The linear reductions make more sense.  So like 10%, 15%, 20%.  

Just to clarify, linear reductions are not fixed percentage increases (as 5% increases indicated above). Linear reductions mean you keep cutting by the same amount for example each reduction of Valium will be 0.5mg or 0.25mg. Your percentages will grow exponentially higher as you cut.

And yes it's still really important to track your symptoms. Initially when I started linear reductions it was too fast for me. My symptoms increased and I had to slow it down by building in some short holds. But once I found my sweet spot, it worked all the way down and I had no problems. 

[[Je...]]

44 minutes ago, [[j...] said:

Just to clarify, linear reductions are not fixed percentage increases (as 5% increases indicated above). Linear reductions mean you keep cutting by the same amount for example each reduction of Valium will be 0.5mg or 0.25mg. Your percentages will grow exponentially higher as you cut.

And yes it's still really important to track your symptoms. Initially when I started linear reductions it was too fast for me. My symptoms increased and I had to slow it down by building in some short holds. But once I found my sweet spot, it worked all the way down and I had no problems. 

Ohh I got it now.  Thanks for clarifying!  

[[je...]]

You're welcome. 

[[...]]

 

Hi Jeffgarvin12

I stopped valium 16 days ago. Started Nov. 2022. Went from 30mg to 0 in 3 weeks. By doctor's order. Big mistake - very very sick. After a week off back to 10mg.

December 2022 down to 5 mg. Then 10% from the current dose. Hold for 10-14 days to 1 mg. Below 1 mg went to 0.9 0.8 0.5 and 0.25.

So it practically went really fast in the beginning. Read a bit and found BB. My last 5 mg took 8 months. It's been really hard with a lot of horrible symptoms and it's not over yet  .

Excuse my bad English. I am from Sweden. You have done a great job so far. Wish you good luck.

 

 

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