method

[[ar...]]

i have just been led here from the introduction page I am interested in this method as my dr only will prescribe me 10 mg doses.I have been on 15 mgs a day for 4 yrs.I take 5 mgs three times a day.The chart is kinda overwhelming right now.I would like to do this with minimal withdrawal.My doctor misinformed me and suggest I stop altogether but I researched before I did.I am so glad I didnt just stop so....I would like some help if anyone can on what seems to be the best method of doing this from a 15 mg dosage=5 mgs three times a day morning mid and night.Thank you anyone for any help it is appreciated.I just want this done with.If some of this was hard to understand theres a little more of the story in the introduction section sorry if this is being done right  or not as I am new here.Thank you all again for your time...

[[Be...]]

I see from your introductory thread that you are on Valium.  Most people don't need to titrate off Valium but if you can only get the 10mg tablets, you probably will need to go that way.  Here's the information needed:

 

Start date: when you would like your titration to start.

 

Dose: the dose you anticipate you be taking at the start date (in mgs).

 

Tablet dose: the dose of your individual tablets.

 

Number of tablets: the total number (and/or fractions) of tablets you take per day. Examples: 2 tabs; 2.5 tabs; 0.75 tabs. These are the number of tablets (not doses), and the tablets used must be of the same dosage (strength).

 

Taper rate: if you are unsure, ask for the input of others. The majority of people probably titrate at a rate of about 10% of their dose every 7-14 days. If you are unsure of where to start, and unless you have good reason to think you need a particularly slow taper, 1% per day is probably a good starting point. The taper plan can be altered later if need be.

 

Cylinder details: I will need to know the size of the cylinder you are using (100ml is recommended). I will also need to know that size of the marked increments. Just make sure that there enough increments for the given cylinder to ensure that the pill can be divided into small fractions (100ml cylinder with 1ml increments is always fine; 100ml with 2-5 increments is probably fine; 50ml with 5ml increments is not very useful). If you are using very large dose pills (for your given benzo), such as 10mg Valium or 2mg Xanax, you will absolutely need lots of increments. This usually means a 100ml cylinder with 1ml increments.

 

You can just add a post to this thread with the information and someone will help you with a schedule.  I may take a week or so for someone to get to it as we don't have only one person who's doing them now.  So make your start date at least a week out.

[[ar...]]

I see from your introductory thread that you are on Valium.  Most people don't need to titrate off Valium but if you can only get the 10mg tablets, you probably will need to go that way.  Here's the information needed:

 

Start date: when you would like your titration to start.

 

Dose: the dose you anticipate you be taking at the start date (in mgs).

 

Tablet dose: the dose of your individual tablets.

 

Number of tablets: the total number (and/or fractions) of tablets you take per day. Examples: 2 tabs; 2.5 tabs; 0.75 tabs. These are the number of tablets (not doses), and the tablets used must be of the same dosage (strength).

 

Taper rate: if you are unsure, ask for the input of others. The majority of people probably titrate at a rate of about 10% of their dose every 7-14 days. If you are unsure of where to start, and unless you have good reason to think you need a particularly slow taper, 1% per day is probably a good starting point. The taper plan can be altered later if need be.

 

Cylinder details: I will need to know the size of the cylinder you are using (100ml is recommended). I will also need to know that size of the marked increments. Just make sure that there enough increments for the given cylinder to ensure that the pill can be divided into small fractions (100ml cylinder with 1ml increments is always fine; 100ml with 2-5 increments is probably fine; 50ml with 5ml increments is not very useful). If you are using very large dose pills (for your given benzo), such as 10mg Valium or 2mg Xanax, you will absolutely need lots of increments. This usually means a 100ml cylinder with 1ml increments.

 

You can just add a post to this thread with the information and someone will help you with a schedule.  I may take a week or so for someone to get to it as we don't have only one person who's doing them now.  So make your start date at least a week out.

 

Beeper I will get to someone as soon as possible.....I would like to start asap. The full days dosage at start date will be 15 mgs daily.The dose of my individual tablets is 10 mgs.Total number of tablets a day is 1.5...A taper reate of 1%per day sounds fine..I am not yet to have cylinder details as I have not picked one up yet...Hope thats what you need sorry for the direct quote or any info not given if needed just ask I am new and just trying to get the hang of how to look back at responses how to post new ones and what not.Thank you though to you and everyone as everybody has been great in kinda getting this going,helping me feel accepted,This whole thing is great as I no longer feel like a lone wolf or an outcast.Thank you for you time and I look forward to getting a method down...As soon as I pick up a cylinder I will let you know but I dont see a problem with the 100 ml one I will just have to locate it.Other than that I just ask If you could explain in detail so as that I do not become a hindrance due to lack of understanding and again thank you for your help and all of you guys have been a HUGE help.....

[[pr...]]

I think you can get graduated cylinders on Amazon these days. 

 

I get my supplies (I use pipettes) from a website that sells stuff for people to do science fair projects, much cheaper than from commercial lab suppliers.

 

One thing I recommend that's a little different than other people say, is to actually start your taper rate going slow.  If you make, say, a week of 1% cuts each day, then wait a week and see how long it takes to actually feel the effect of the cuts.  If you don't feel any effect, keep tapering slowly, but once you reach about 13 mg, hold for two weeks.  And see what happens:  do you feel nothing, do you feel worse, do you feel better, do you feel worse and then better? Observe your own body's reactions.

 

This is to give you time to see how your body is going to respond to the cuts.  Valium has a delayed effect so that people don't really feel the cuts at first, and then by the time the cuts kick in after a week or two or three, they have sometimes cut too much and they end up really miserable and then can't figure out if they should go back up in dose or what. 

 

So if you take your time at first and figure out how long it takes for your body to really feel a cut, you won't get ahead of yourself. 

 

Then once you know your own body's withdrawal pattern, you can gradually speed up to the rate that works best for you.

 

Just something to think about. 

 

Also, in general I personally recommend always holding a taper whenever symptoms ramp up.  Just stop cutting for a while until they start to settle back down again.  Not everyone does that, some people have a more kamikaze approach, but over the long term I have seen people get themselves in a lot of trouble that way.  (I myself have had a couple of close calls due to impatience and trying to push my taper in spite of increasing symptoms.  It never pays off, I always end up having to spend more time holding to recover and it ends up taking even longer in the end.)

[[ar...]]

thanks phriannon...helps alot and I appreciate the time as I hope to receive feedback from many as I am new to this and just want to do it with the least amout of what seems to be inevitable effects.Thank you for your time.And listening to the body doesnt sound bad.Patience is my downfall but I also am willing to do what is needed to get this handled thanks again for the help

[[Be...]]

I see from your introductory thread that you are on Valium.  Most people don't need to titrate off Valium but if you can only get the 10mg tablets, you probably will need to go that way.  Here's the information needed:

 

Start date: when you would like your titration to start.

 

Dose: the dose you anticipate you be taking at the start date (in mgs).

 

Tablet dose: the dose of your individual tablets.

 

Number of tablets: the total number (and/or fractions) of tablets you take per day. Examples: 2 tabs; 2.5 tabs; 0.75 tabs. These are the number of tablets (not doses), and the tablets used must be of the same dosage (strength).

 

Taper rate: if you are unsure, ask for the input of others. The majority of people probably titrate at a rate of about 10% of their dose every 7-14 days. If you are unsure of where to start, and unless you have good reason to think you need a particularly slow taper, 1% per day is probably a good starting point. The taper plan can be altered later if need be.

 

Cylinder details: I will need to know the size of the cylinder you are using (100ml is recommended). I will also need to know that size of the marked increments. Just make sure that there enough increments for the given cylinder to ensure that the pill can be divided into small fractions (100ml cylinder with 1ml increments is always fine; 100ml with 2-5 increments is probably fine; 50ml with 5ml increments is not very useful). If you are using very large dose pills (for your given benzo), such as 10mg Valium or 2mg Xanax, you will absolutely need lots of increments. This usually means a 100ml cylinder with 1ml increments.

 

You can just add a post to this thread with the information and someone will help you with a schedule.  I may take a week or so for someone to get to it as we don't have only one person who's doing them now.  So make your start date at least a week out.

 

Beeper I will get to someone as soon as possible.....I would like to start asap. The full days dosage at start date will be 15 mgs daily.The dose of my individual tablets is 10 mgs.Total number of tablets a day is 1.5...A taper reate of 1%per day sounds fine..I am not yet to have cylinder details as I have not picked one up yet...Hope thats what you need sorry for the direct quote or any info not given if needed just ask I am new and just trying to get the hang of how to look back at responses how to post new ones and what not.Thank you though to you and everyone as everybody has been great in kinda getting this going,helping me feel accepted,This whole thing is great as I no longer feel like a lone wolf or an outcast.Thank you for you time and I look forward to getting a method down...As soon as I pick up a cylinder I will let you know but I dont see a problem with the 100 ml one I will just have to locate it.Other than that I just ask If you could explain in detail so as that I do not become a hindrance due to lack of understanding and again thank you for your help and all of you guys have been a HUGE help.....

 

Your post was just fine, artist252. I wanted to mention that some people get their cylinders at sciencestuff.com as well.  Assuming you will get a 100 mil cylinder with 1 ml markings, it's pretty easy to do a 1%/day taper.  YOu just follow the general directions on this Taper board for doing a titration taper to mix up 100ml of milk and your crushed tablets, remove 1 ml of the well-stirred liquid (this is where the syringe comes in handy), and divide the rest into however many doses youi want to take; in your case, I guess that would be 3.  The next day you remove 2ml from your new batch, the 3rd day remove 3 mil  and so forth.  You can hold whenever you feel you need to and just start up again wherever you left off.  Hope this makes sense.  If you have any questions, just ask.

[[ar...]]

Beeper I appreciate the feedback so quickly I think I am going to start next week I am thinking if I did my math correctly that will cut me by 1.5 mgs approx every 10 days or so...I know everyone is different and there is no one size fits all.But in your opinion do you think this will rid me of the valium without a benzo hell so to speak.I am expecting some anxiety and ancyness so on...But I have read of people having hallucinations from coming of to quick or going cold turkey.I do not want that ....I know that I have read valium has a long life or halflife..whichever but If it is so long wont (and just a silly question)but wont I be cutting again as soon as it really starts to feel the effects of the last cut?Cause if I am doing my math on the 15 mgs then 1.5 mgs would be cut every 10 days.I am not expecting a candy walk but I would hope this is tolerable....If you or anyone shed light on the subject It would be greatly appreciated....I understand that it stays in the system longer and I guess I am just more curious as to if I just begin to feel one taper wont cutting it again make my mind go haywire?I am just trying to prepare for this journey the best way possible.If anyone has has a similar situation I ask that you could share a story so as I am prepared.Thank you for your time I had another question but I lost it......lol......Thanks for the help beeper and everyone

[[Be...]]

I thought you were planning to titrate 1%/day, not drop 10% at one go.  Am I wrong about that?  The main reason people titrate is to make tiny reductions every day or so rather than a "chunk" all at once. That seems to allow the body to continuously adjust so there isn't a big shock to the system.  Titrating off of a long-acting benzo like Valium should result in the gentlest taper I know of.  Of course, some people -0 including me - just do the dry cutting and dropping "chunks" every week or two and do okay, too, but the odds are in your favor using titrating instead. 

[[ar...]]

beeper 1% a dAY from 15 mgs would be 1.5 mgs dropped every 10 days......if my math is correct i am gonna taper slow using method but the math would mean 1.5 mgs every 10 days would drop.....Did i do the math correctly?Thanks for the concern and feedback...Get back at me

[[pr...]]

beeper 1% a dAY from 15 mgs would be 1.5 mgs dropped every 10 days......if my math is correct i am gonna taper slow using method but the math would mean 1.5 mgs every 10 days would drop.....Did i do the math correctly?Thanks for the concern and feedback...Get back at me

 

Yes, 1% a day for ten days will always add up to 10%.  Most people would find that to be too fast if it was ten days in a row.  But you don't have to cut 1% a day.  You can spread it out.  You can cut every other day.  You can cut every third day.  You can cut every day for five days and then hold at the same dose for a week, or longer if you need to. 

 

In other words, you can adjust your rate of speed and how long your breaks are (your "holds") as necessary to keep your symptoms under control. 

 

With Valium, as you have mentioned, there's a lag time between when you make the cuts and when you really feel the withdrawals.  (That's absolutely NOT a silly question, it can make or break a taper!)

 

So I'd recommend, the first time or two around, cutting a bit (I'd say 5 to 8%, 10% is a bit much) and then holding for two weeks, so you can observe for yourself how long it takes for the symptoms to kick in and how long it takes for them to subside and how bad they get in between.  If after two weeks you aren't feeling good enough to cut more, you can hold longer.  But the first couple of times around I would recommend that even if you are feeling good before two weeks is up, go ahead and hold the full two weeks, just so you can really see what your own personal cut/withdrawal/recovery/stability curve really looks like, its full shape.

 

After you do this a few times you'll get the sense of how long it takes to feel a cut and how long it takes for the withdrawal symptoms to subside between cuts, and then you can figure out what pace of taper will work best for you--faster, or slower.  We are all different and you need to do what works for you.

 

Also, once you see how bad your symptoms get, you can adjust the amount that you cut; if they get intolerable, then cut less before taking a break, and if they're really light and you feel you could handle more, cut an extra percent or two before taking a break.

 

The important thing (!!!) especially at first (!!!) is taking your time and taking those holds, so that you can learn how your body is going to respond to the taper.  You won't know without holding for a while, because with Valium there's that lag time between cuts and symptoms.  If you're patient at first and take it slow that will give you a chance to figure out for yourself what works for you, without getting so far ahead of yourself in the taper that you end up in withdrawal hell. 

 

And at any time during your taper, if your symptoms are ramping up and you're getting scared that things will spiral out of control, you can always add back in 1% or 2% and take a longer hold until things settle down.

 

So with this kind of taper, you are really in control.  You aren't doomed to a nightmare experience.  You can absolutely make it work! 

 

That's how I'd recommend approaching it, given your concerns and your past history.  We're all rooting for you!