I'm trying to quit Ativan, and am on day 34 of a water taper. However I believe it is only forming a mixture and not a solution and am worried that I am not removing a consistent amount each time. Any tips?

[[sk...]]

 

I am trying to quit a 1mg per day Ativan habit that I've had for 2 years, but I am concerned that my water taper is removing varying amounts of Ativan per day, and I am wondering if there is a way to make the whole process more precise.  Here is what I do:

I place the ativan into hot water within a 90ml measuring glass, and then I use a pipette to remove 1 more ml per day. So today I'm on day 34, so I removed 34ml and drank the rest.

I use very hot water, and when I put the pill into the water it breaks down quickly. But it never fully dissapears and it just forms many small pieces that float to the bottom pretty quickly after I stop stirring.

So I've been stirring up until the last instant when I start drawing up water into the pipette. This seems to be working, and I can see the bits of ativan floating in the pipette, so I know I'm getting some, but I'm wondering if there is better way to do this.

One concern I have is that when I stir it and everything is swirling circularly, most of the ativan particles are in the center column. I wonder this because when I watch them settle they always settle in the center first while it is still swirling. So pipetting from the center vs the outside edge might give me varying amounts.

I feel like this water taper was supposed to be pretty precise and exact, but I'm finding the opposite.

Maybe other benzos dissolve better? I don't know. The Ativan doesn't seem to do well.

Let me know what you think, or ways I can make this more precise. I don't have a precise enough scale to do the pill shaving thing, but I guess I could get one.

Or is there a way to make it dissolve more? I always use the hottest water from the sink, if I used boiling water would it dissolve more?

Thanks <3

 

Edited May 5 by [sk...]

[[je...]]

Whenever we use liquid home brew methods it should be considered a suspension and not a solution. The best way to go about is to thoroughly agitate the liquid, then quickly draw up the amount you want to discard. Once you’ve taken the med, rinse the container with water and drink that water to make sure you get any particles left behind. 

I am not sure about the hot water. I haven’t heard about that before. I don’t know how heat interacts with the active ingredient. I think most people use cold water. I would recommend you use bottled water and not tap water as we don’t know what chemicals are in the tap water. 

[[sk...]]

Thanks baby jelly <3

Ya I started doing counter clockwise, then clockwise, then back and forth zig zagging. 

When I first put the pill in it looks like this:

Then I stir it and it looks like this:

But like, VERY QUICKLY after I stop stirring it starts to settle, and tends to settle in this pattern:

If I'm just stirring clockwise. So that's when it occured to me that if I pipette from the very center while it's still swirling I must be removing a much higher percentage of the ativan, and if I remove the water from the edge I'm removing a smaller percentage.

Which is when I started stiring zig zag etc after the clockwise etc. 

But ya wow, this is all kinda disconcerting lol I really thought the water taper would be more precise than this. 

I hope the hot water doesn't affect it negatively because it takes ages to dissolve when I use cold water. (I only know this because we had the hot water in our building shut off for 2 days and it was a pain in the ass). 

[[Kh...]]

Try milk...i used this method and it worked.  Make sure you get a whole milk.    there are youtubes on the process and also here in the forums somewhere.  Good luck

Edited May 6 by [Kh...]

[[sk...]]

3 hours ago, [[K...] said:

Try milk...i used this method and it worked.  Make sure you get a whole milk.    there are youtubes on the process and also here in the forums somewhere.  Good luck

Hey friend thanks for responding. So with milk, does it dissolve more completely? Or does it have to do with the thickness of the liquid, does that help the suspension stay suspended for longer? What is the benefit?

The reasons I'm hesitant to try milk are 1, because I feel like since it isn't clear I won't be able to tell if it has settled at the bottom or not, and 2, it will dirty the inside of the pipette and may be hard to clean? 

What do you think?

[[Kh...]]

Don’t know exactly.  But it worked for me.  I made the “solution” for 3 days in advance and would shake it an hour or two before ingesting for good measure.  Here are some discussions..

 

[[Kh...]]

Oh. And I would start with like 100ml milk because it was easy to remove a certain percentage like 20 or 30% using a syringe.  The math is pretty straightforward.  

[[Li...]]

@[sk...] I have the same question as @[je...] about the use of very hot water.  I’ve read that lorazepam is subject to hydrolysis so I wonder if it is also subject to thermal degradation?   My inclination would be to use water that is within the recommended temperature range for lorazepam tablets:

 

“Store at 20°-25°C (68°-77°F) [see USP Controlled Room Temperature]. Excursions permitted to 59° to 86°F (15° to 30°C).”

@[Kh...] Tip of the hat for finding that thread from 2011.  Quite an interesting discussion.

My apologies if I’ve already shared this with you, but here’s what the recently published Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines has say about using milk as an off-label option for patients who require smaller doses:

“Benzodiazepines are more soluble in oil or fat than in water (Macheras et al 1990).  When mixed with full-fat homogenized milk, some or all of the drug will dissolve in the milk fat.  This should form an evenly dispersed emulsion when shaken vigorously …. As stability cannot be assured, the measured dose should be taken immediately and the remainder discarded.” (Horowitz & Taylor, 2024, p. 341)