Starting my taper again... lots of questions

[[jd...]]

Hello all,

I have spent the last 6 months going from 40mg valium down to where I am currently at 7. I got to 6.5 mgs about 2 months ago and realized when i was essentially reduced to a ball on the floor that i was going too fast and cutting too much. I took a couple of months off from the taper and went back up to 8.5 mgs to allow my body to recover from my fast taper and to stabilize. About 2 weeks ago i cut from 8.5 to 8 and yesterday i cut to 7. Today I have been feeling extremely anxious and I am a little bit lost... Generally in the past it took me around 4-5 days to feel a cut but today I am feeling that awful but familiar feeling on 7mgs.

 

I am Confused and lost...

 

I don't know how to cut correctly and safely

 

I want this to be as painless as possible after the hell i have been through on this poison.

 

Please help.....

 

MY dosage is:

2mgs 8am

1mg 12pm

1mg 4pm

1mg 8pm

2mgs bed

 

Am I dosing correctly or should i be taking it all at once or twice a day..

 

How can i make smaller cuts when i can only really cut the tiny pill in half, and quarters are too small to take.

 

I am back on my taper and determined this time to get to the end and do it right..

 

Please help me with any knowledge, tips, tricks, methods, experiences, best practices, anything that might be helpful in doing this right. I am determined and feeling strong this time and ready to put this behind me.

 

Greatly appreciative and looking forward to all of your wonderful input

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Edit: Removed personal information

[[Kl...]]

Hi " J". It is not clear how fast you are cutting. Ashton recommends a 10% cut every 1-2 weeks depending on what your body is telling you. So if you are at 7mg valium, a 0.5mg cut is reasonable.

 

I do think you can go to dosing only twice a day. I am down to just 0.5mgs and this week I only dose in the morning. I don't think my body misses the evening dose to much. Valium has a 200 hour half life.

 

If you are dry cutting your pills try and get your doc to script you the 5mg tablets and the 2mg tablets (the smallest they make). If you are making 0.5mg cuts you can generate your daily total for two cuts using combinations of 5mg and 2mg pills....and only needing to cut them in half....not quarters. Before you get to a daily dose of 1.5mgs you may want to get a script for the liquid concentrate for accuracy.

 

Most of my symptoms were in the morning...that is common. So when I had to take uneven doses I dosed heavier in the morning.  For example, at 5.5mgs I would take half of a 5mg tablet in the morning and I would take all of a 2mg tablet in the afternoon.

 

It is normal to hit rough patches that last for 2 or 3 days. Just hang in there an hold if you feel you need to. I hit a rough patch at 4.5-4.0mgs and it has been fairly mild from 3mg on down.

 

I hope this helps. God Bless.

[[jd...]]

Thank you very much for your reply. I am cutting now about every 2 weeks as recommended. I have found that I am very sensitive to any script so these cuts hit me very hard. I went from 8 to 7 after 2 weeks and found that it was too much to handle I am only 2 days into 7 and pretty miserable so I'm going to go to 7.5 and start doing this the right way. My biggest mistake is when I start to feel good, I think I can handle more or get ahead of myself. This has been a hard learned lesson that has come back to bite me over and over. I wondering how I might dose twice a day correctly? How would I split up the 7.5 to twice daily so it will get me through the day and night?

 

Thank you ,

J

[[Kl...]]

"J", It sounds like you are on the right track. I would consider a 1mg cut in valium a big step at the 7.5mg level. I am not surprised you got hit although if it happened within a day or two of your cut you may actually be feeling the cut you made previous to your last cut. It just seems kind of quick for valium to respond that fast to a cut. But everyone is different.

 

You asked how to split up a 7.5mg daily dose into two doses?? I will answer assuming you are dry cutting (I hope you got a pill splitter at the drug store) and that you have both the 5mg and 2mg valium tablets.

 

I would not worry about making sure the doses are exactly even. Just try to keep the same daily total and rely on the the long half-life of valium to smooth out the bumps. If sleep is your biggest issue than take a bigger percentage in the afternoon or evening. If morning symptoms are the biggest issue that take the bigger dose in the morning. I dose a 2am and 2pm.

 

So.......for a 7.5mg daily total I would take a full 5mg tablet in the morning (that is the tough time for me) and I would take half of a 5mg (2.5) in the afternoon. Do not cut a bunch of 5mgs up ahead of time. I have two small containers for half pieces. One is labeled 5mg and the other is labeled 2mg. In this example of a 7.5mg daily total. I would be sure and use the other half of the 5mg pill I cut for my afternoon dose on the following afternoon. The reason is that when dry cutting you seldom get a perfect 50/50 cut. So if I get a 60/40 split....by using up the other half the next day I am still getting a full 5mgs/two days in my afternoon doses.

 

I suspect that if you are making 0.5mg cuts every two weeks as you indicated, you will find things getting smoother. I like lots of small steps often vs. big steps far between so you might want to think about 0.25mg steps every week. If you go that way you may want to get the liquid concentrate soon so you can accurately measure 0.25.  There are other ways that involve crushing tablets and dissolving in liquid. Legos (Leslie) is a master at this. She has a buddie blog "Seeking shelter from the storm" where you can catch her. She is tapering in very small daily increments off of valium.