How long to stabalize before tapering??

[[st...]]

I keep trying to get off my medications and it's not happening. I have a long 5-6 year history with high dose antidepressants and antipsychotics(mostly olanzapine).

Now 1 year 2 months off olanzapine, having tried other APs I keep landing on benzos now. Currently taking Ativan. 1mg in morning and 1mg in afternoon is what I seem to be landing on.

Can't remember exact times but will try and remember best I can.

Day 1, 1mg 10:pm, 1mg 4:am
Day 2, 1mg 8:am 1mg 4:pm
Day 3, 1mg 5:am

That's what I got so far. I'm just wondering how long you want to take to stabalize before trying to reduce? Because I want to be on as little of this as I can before I start tapering off of it.

Any advice welcome pleeease. Thank you. I'm clueless right now.

[[st...]]

Also would this scale work?

Amazon.com: TOPWEIGH Milligram Scale with Case, 4 Powder Pans, mg Scale - Black, 50g by 0.001g, Digital Powder Scale for Supplement,6 Weighing Units,Includes Calibration Weight,2 Scoops,Tweezers, Batteries : Home & Kitchen

I would use a pill cutter and most likely a digital scale.

[[pi...]]

Hello @[st...],

That looks like a decent scale, it should work for your purposes.

My only suggestion would be to time your doses so that they happen at the same time each day. As far as how long to stabilize, that would be up to you. Ideally you want to be a place where the withdrawal symptoms are less intense. They may not be gone completely though, that was the case with me.

[[st...]]

Right, I haven't even been on that long and i'm just starting to see what I actually need to be doing to make myself feel better I think. But yeah will definitely be careful here with this.

[[Fa...]]

Hi, @[st...].  Is Ativan the only medication you are currently taking?  If so, how did you land on Ativan and what are you attempting to ‘stabilize’ from?  Have you only been taking it for 3 days?

Sorry for the questions - just trying to help you receive quality feedback. 

[[or...]]

I had to buy 2 different pill-cutters, one recommended by pharmacist and forget it after that one.  I use a single edge razor blade and bought a small box of them so if it starts looking dull, I switch it.  For me, and I have a tremor, the blade is way more accurate. My scale is very similar although the biggest thing for me is to calibrate it often, and have it setting on a super stable surface.  I can't even breath on my scale or it wobbles between numbers

I cut small tapers so I really have to shoot for accuracy, 3% is as low as I usually go, but this time since my sxs were worse it's almost a month holding til feel good about tapering again.  I will only go 2% next time and see how I do on that oregonlady

[[st...]]

I've previously taken clonazepam very very short term as well, no more mare than 1 week total. But now ativan. I think i'd taken it for a few days previously, no more than 4 total plus these 3. Knowing all that, i've deicded to do a rapid taper over 1 week. I feel confident about it because i'm 101% sure I can manage symptoms now.

Having been off the antidepressants/antipsychotics so long i'm able to think a lot clearer and know what I can do to manage these symptoms.

I'm doing everything from worship music to working on cardiovascular and strength training. It's working wonders so far.

[[or...]]

I think it's amazing to find out how to handle sxs, I'm getting better at that myself.  At first I was all over the www,  looking for "fix me's" but now it's about staying away from the things that made things worse, and let'r rip come hell or high-water.  I'm going through it, and that's when I'll arrive at the end of benzos

[[pi...]]

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

I've previously taken clonazepam very very short term as well, no more mare than 1 week total. But now ativan. I think i'd taken it for a few days previously, no more than 4 total plus these 3. Knowing all that, i've deicded to do a rapid taper over 1 week. I feel confident about it because i'm 101% sure I can manage symptoms now.

Having been off the antidepressants/antipsychotics so long i'm able to think a lot clearer and know what I can do to manage these symptoms.

I'm doing everything from worship music to working on cardiovascular and strength training. It's working wonders so far.

With such short term use I think you are making the right decision. Your attitude and your commitment will carry you through this process. 

[[st...]]

I made the jump off.

I was using meltaonin 10mg for about 3? days, then last night I halfed (it's fast disolve chewable so safe from what I researched) and got 7 hours. I unfortunately did drink 1 and a half beers for the new years. It helped but agrivated symptoms as well obviously.

[[pi...]]

50 minutes ago, [[s...] said:

I made the jump off.

I was using meltaonin 10mg for about 3? days, then last night I halfed (it's fast disolve chewable so safe from what I researched) and got 7 hours. I unfortunately did drink 1 and a half beers for the new years. It helped but agrivated symptoms as well obviously.

With this process you live and learn. Alcohol acts like a benzo in terms of the way it affects the central nervous system. I expect things will settle for you but I suggest refraining from alcohol until you’ve completely recovered. 

[[st...]]

Sorry folks, just using this as a log until I can figure it out better.

 

I had been using some melatonin 10mg. 10mg is literally all they had. I had went without it for 2 nights but my sleep was going back to pretty poor. Got 5 hours interrupted so I figured with all i'm doing and going through i'd better take one last night and took a whole 10mg. Got 9 hours and feel pretty rested at least.

 

Seeing now even melatonin can throw you into a wave, they say it's non-habit forming but idk.... I also feel I get withdrawals off melatonin. Oddly enough I never really had issues with sleep once off everything and it normally goes back to pretty good.

 

So I took a 10mg pill and split it into a half and 2 quarters. Wondering now if I should just jump off it or taper. Will see. Other than that doing pretty good! My cardio priority exercise has been improving my physical and mental wellbeing so much. I've been eating less meat and feel like that's actually a good thing, seeing all the vegan movements I used to make fun of. But it's basically an industry of death and suffering. They literally breed animals just to torture and kill to sell for meat and it's an endless cycle.

Edited January 4 by [st...]

[[ve...]]

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

Sorry folks, just using this as a log until I can figure it out better.

I had been using some melatonin 10mg. 10mg is literally all they had. I had went without it for 2 nights but my sleep was going back to pretty poor. Got 5 hours interrupted so I figured with all i'm doing and going through i'd better take one last night and took a whole 10mg. Got 9 hours and feel pretty rested at least.

Seeing now even melatonin can throw you into a wave, they say it's non-habit forming but idk.... I also feel I get withdrawals off melatonin. Oddly enough I never really had issues with sleep once off everything and it normally goes back to pretty good.

So I took a 10mg pill and split it into a half and 2 quarters. Wondering now if I should just jump off it or taper. Will see. Other than that doing pretty good! My cardio priority exercise has been improving my physical and mental wellbeing so much. I've been eating less meat and feel like that's actually a good thing, seeing all the vegan movements I used to make fun of. But it's basically an industry of death and suffering. They literally breed animals just to torture and kill to sell for meat and it's an endless cycle.

The standard pill of melatonin is between 1~2mg max.  If you're taking 10mg it's too much.

Edited January 4 by [ve...]