Water taper

[[Pa...]]

Members rarely produce perfect or precise measurements, even using a scale is subject to inaccuracies due to environmental, operator error and scale irregularities.  Having confidence in your method is what's important.  Whether you shave or cut, you're going to end up with pill pieces, so just do your best to make the piles fairly uniform.  And yes, save all of your pill pieces, you never know if or when you may need them. 

You got this, you're taking your power back!

[[Sa...]]

How long for each one? Like a week or so? Can I touch base with you after a week? If I was on for 9-10 weeks since second week of April would a 4 week taper be too fast? Nervous about that…but don’t want to prolong taper if I don’t have to…what about sleep? Anything to take? I didn’t sleep for a year because of visual snow syndrome so wound up taking klonopin as every other drug never worked. I appreciate you so much! You have no idea. 

[[st...]]

 

I tapered my last 0.25mg K eq. over 6 months. This is not long for those sensitive to quicker tapers. For me the taper length could NOT be short, even though I was only on K for 10 days to begin with. This was my last and slowest 0.25. My original dose was much higher at 2.25mg K eq. My quicker 0.25, earlier on, was at about 3 months.

So based on my reaction to reductions (which with K usually began on second day) my taper speed of 0.25 varied from 3 months to 6 months. I must say again that the jewelry scale I linked in my prior post was a life saver to make things more accurate than eyeballing it, which resulted in less symptoms.

I reduced a little bit every day. Let's say I wanted to taper a 0.25 tablet over 3 months or 13 weeks or 90 days.

- The simplest way was to weigh one tablet.

- Tablet weight divided by 90 would equal my daily reduction.

- So I subtract the daily reduction weight from full tablet weight to get that day's net weight.

- It was fairly easy to then get that day's tablet to reduced net weight by scraping off excess with nail file.

 

Edited June 24 by [st...]

[[Cr...]]

4 hours ago, [[P...] said:

want to stress that this is not going to be pleasant, whether you taper quickly or slowly, you're going to be uncomfortable, this is the price we pay to be free, the only way out is through, I'm sorry to say.

This is important. Just because you notice withdrawal symptoms after a cut does not mean it was too much or too fast. You will have to make judgements based on what you feel you are capable of tolerating.

Some people expect that tapering means they can avoid most of the withdrawal symptoms altogether, which only causes them to panic when they get worse resulting in a hasty decision to updose or make them assume they must do smaller cuts and longer holds.

[[Cr...]]

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

what about sleep? Anything to take? I didn’t sleep for a year because of visual snow syndrome so wound up taking klonopin as every other drug never worked. I appreciate you so much! You have no idea. 

Have you had your B12 levels checked? Often times doctors think about symptom treatments before causes.

If sleep has been an issue before klonopin it will likely remain so upon tapering and cessation. There is a section on this site for insomnia discussions (Insomnia, Depression, and Anxiety) under the 'Health and Well-being' category. You may find many useful tips from other members that could potentially help.

[[Pa...]]

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

How long for each one? Like a week or so? Can I touch base with you after a week? If I was on for 9-10 weeks since second week of April would a 4 week taper be too fast? Nervous about that…but don’t want to prolong taper if I don’t have to…what about sleep? Anything to take? I didn’t sleep for a year because of visual snow syndrome so wound up taking klonopin as every other drug never worked. I appreciate you so much! You have no idea. 

Yes, a week might be a good place to start but this is where your observations will come into play, we encourage using your symptoms to determine your reductions so good record keeping is important. 

This first reduction will tell us a great deal and yes, please report here how you're feeling so we can help you figure out what your next steps will be.  You may find that this rapid taper is too much for you to deal with, and you'll need to slow down as @[st...] had to do.  But as I stated and @[Cr...] emphasized, you're going to feel symptoms, so it will be your job to let us know if this rapid taper is possible.  I hope it will be because like you, I hate to see you accumulate more time on the drug. 

[[Sa...]]

@[st...] you’re saying you tapered over six months after only being on kpin for 10 days? That seems like you’re putting more kpin in the system than necessary no? I feel like if I’ve been on it for 9 weeks I should taper for 6 months seems like added kpin to the system 

[[Sa...]]

I know rapid tapers don’t work for me so @[Pa...] and @[Cr...] I don’t know where to start. Should I take out a 1/4? That would be a 20 percent reduction no? Can others chime in or are there other people who have been on for 2 months and came off in 1-2 months? 

[[st...]]

33 minutes ago, [[S...] said:

@[st...] you’re saying you tapered over six months after only being on kpin for 10 days? That seems like you’re putting more kpin in the system than necessary no? I feel like if I’ve been on it for 9 weeks I should taper for 6 months seems like added kpin to the system 

I might not be the best example because after 10 days of being on 2.25mg, I tried to get off within days and that didn't work. I then tapered for 2 months and got a seizure. So then I had to start over and taper for 16 more months and I made it.

[[Cr...]]

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

I know rapid tapers don’t work for me so @[Pa...] and @[Cr...] I don’t know where to start. Should I take out a 1/4? That would be a 20 percent reduction no? Can others chime in or are there other people who have been on for 2 months and came off in 1-2 months? 

That would be a 25% reduction, roughly. The point of starting with quarter cuts is to determine the fastest way to come off of this med in a manner that is still tolerable to you.

If you want to start off with doing 10% cuts right away then you are looking at possibly 6 months or more.

.250>.225>.203>.183>.165>.149>.135>.122(half of original dose)

This is just rough mental math. If you held 2 weeks in between cuts it would be around 3 months to reach half of your original dose.

Someone can correct if I am wrong but the quartering route with 1 week holds would be like this.

Week 0 .25 mg

Week 1 .187

Week 2 .125

Week 3 .06

Week 4 stop

So 1 month total. If you decide to hold for 2 weeks between cuts it would be about 2 months total.

[[Pa...]]

On 23/06/2024 at 13:12, [[S...] said:

That’s how I feel just don’t know how to cut and what method? Hoping others can chime in. I was thinking in the next 6 weeks? Hoping 

You mentioned tapering for 6 weeks in a previous post, is this something you would feel comfortable with?  My encouraging you to do a rapid taper was in the hopes you wouldn't have to taper longer than you were on the drug but if you're not comfortable with this then I'll defer to your wishes. 

[[Sa...]]

@[Pa...] you are amazing first of all. I just don’t know what’s right. I’ve been polydrugged this last year on so much shit. On lexapro then off then on seroquel then on depakote then off then lithium then off then lamictal and klonopin im surprised im alive. My poor brain. I really want off k pin bc I know the longer I’m on it the harder it will be to get off . Just don’t want to aggravate my nervous system even more but don’t want to do more damage by starting on it longer then necessary. Just need someone to tell me what to do. Someone said .25 is till a big dose. I didn’t think it was..lost and confused 

[[Pa...]]

@[Sa...], indecision is very stressful and stress is not our friend.  I get it, whatever decision you make will most likely invite pain and who wants that?  But we have to start somewhere and starting will make you feel better, like you're taking control of your situation.

What about cutting your tablet into quarters, then take one quarter and cut that in half, so you'll make a reduction of 1/8th.  Starting with a smaller reduction will hopefully give you an idea of how you're going to react and maybe the next reduction can be bigger or maybe you'll need to stick with that one.  Yes, you're going to end up with crumbs but that's okay, we're just looking to find out how you're going to react to a reduction.  

 

[[Sa...]]

@[Cr...] i like the week 1 .187 then hold for another week so essentially two weeks of .187 then two weeks at .125 then two weeks of 0.6 then off…that would be six weeks no? I like that…

[[Pa...]]

I can see you're overwhelmed by the other medications you're taking, but remember that elephant, we can only eat it one bite at a time so try to focus on tapering the Klonopin for now. 

[[Sa...]]

@[Pa...] the only other med im on is 25mg of lamictal for visual snow syndrome and yes You’re right. Focus on Klonopin. Scared I was already polydrugged and this will just aggravate me even more but I gotta do it. Thank you. 

[[Sa...]]

@[Pa...] last ? If I did 1/8 reductions for 1 week each how long would that take? Two months right? Bad at math. #drugbrain

[[Cr...]]

@[Sa...] yes 1/8 reductions should should take around 8 weeks with a cut every 7 days. Don't worry too much about being exact. If you were on klonopin a very long time and/or showed signs of being super sensitive to minor dose reductions then precision would be a bigger factor.

Just let us know when you make your first cut. If you test the waters with 1/8 cut and feel no withdrawal effects you may be able to speed up the taper. But this journey needs to start with that first cut.

[[Sa...]]

Beautiful will start tomorrow when I get my pill cutter thanks again I owe you big time. Hoping this isn’t too rough. 

[[Pa...]]

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

@[Pa...] last ? If I did 1/8 reductions for 1 week each how long would that take? Two months right? Bad at math. #drugbrain

As @[Cr...] mentioned, we're testing the waters with a 1/8th cut, no need to look beyond this to estimate the length of your taper, this is only the first step and we may be looking at a different plan after this.  All tapers need to be adjusted to account for symptoms and life events, so lets just take it one step at a time. 

[[Sa...]]

Okay sounds good. Just looking at my pills and cutter and hoping it can do 1/8. Thanks again @[Pa...]you’re the best!

[[Sa...]]

@[Pa...] i did it! I cut my first pill and got it down to 1/8th off well not perfect but close enough. It’s less so will try that for a week and then go from there! Hoping to cut another 1/8th next week or 1/4 essentially from today. Please pray for me. I’m so sensitive to meds and already miserable but need off! 

[[Pa...]]

I'm happy to hear you made the cut, and close enough is just fine for now.  I'm hopeful you'll hardly notice this 1/8th reduction, wouldn't that be great?

But really, congratulations on taking this first step towards freedom @[Sa...], and who knows, you may decide to change your name to happyandhelpful. 

[[Sa...]]

I was thinking about that today. If I can get my energy and visión back. Pretty much bedridden because of psych drugs hoping someday to be free and happy again and not live my life on the couch. Please let this be the first step in healing. 

[[Pa...]]

How are you doing, is the 1/8th too much?