Example of a Valium/Diazepam Daily Reduction Method

[[ar...]]

I commiserate arty. This is a very difficult thing to do, but your dose is getting really low now, so the end is coming into view.

 

Thank you.  I (we, everyone...) need all the encouragement I can get!

[[...]]

Hi DP

 

Thanks for starting this great thread.

 

Please could I ask for some help/support/advice.

 

I would like to start the liquid diazepam taper asap.

 

I can't use alcohol however, even a tiny bit.

 

I am currently on 5mg a day. I dose 3 times, 2mg at 6am, 1mg at noon and 2mg at 6pm.

 

I think I would like to drop the noon dose first.  I guess milk is my only option? What equipment will I need? I would like to stay within the 5-10% range of cut. Just not sure where to start!

 

Thank you for any help.

 

Maa 

[[Di...]]

Hi MAA

 

If you don't want to use vodka, the options are using milk, or you could also use Ora-Plus/Ora-Sweet to create a liquid titration, or you could try the weighing method with jeweller's scales. Here are links to those methods if you want to give them a try.

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=97043.0

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=92221.msg1182191#msg

 

So, if you want to try the milk method, it's pretty easy. Just go back to the first post in this thread and that will give you all the information you will need. If you have any questions just let me know.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about percentage cuts because they don't really play a part in daily cuts. Just try to find a daily cut that works for you. If your current dose is 5mg I would suggest a starting point of 0.02mg per day (or 2ml of the 100ml mixture). From there you will get an idea over a week or two how you feel making those daily cuts. If you find things aren't so good you could hold for a while and reduce the cut, or if things feel pretty good you could try going up a little to 0.025mg (or 2.5ml) per day.

[[...]]

Hi DP

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I just ordered 10 glass jars with lids - they are only 60ml though - I also already have a 5ml and 1ml syringe -will this equipment be okay to start?  The jars should be here tomorrow.

 

I will be using fullfat milk to make the liquid.

 

Once I have all the equipment set up I am sorry to say I will probably post again to help me get started.

 

maa 

[[...]]

Hmmmm...sorry DP, just read the 1st post and have now changed my jar order to 120ml glass jars instead

[[Di...]]

Yes the 120ml jars will be better. Sounds like you've got everything else you'll need. The 5ml syringe should be fine. You'll just need to do extra filles to get the 100ml. If you can get some 10ml syringes though that would be easier. Just yell if you need any help.

[[...]]

Hi DP are you home today 

 

I started my milk titration yesterday, 1mg over 50 days as per your original schedule.

 

Quick q about the suspension? Do I need to crush the 1mg diazepam first before adding the milk. I ask as yesterday it didn't fully dissolve? Or maybe my milk was too cold or I need to leave it longer before drinking?

 

Thanks DP.

[[Di...]]

My tablets always broke down very quickly so I never bothered with crushing them first. You will see some clumps at the bottom, but that's just the fillers in the tablets and they won't dissolve. The valium will be suspended though as long as you keep the mixture moving around while you're measuring your dose.

[[dp...]]

Has anyone gone from intolerable hell to having manageable symptoms when switching to micro-tapering??? I know the answer is yes, lol, but I'm in the intolerable hell and would love input.

 

My sig shows what I've done, and it hasn't been pretty.

 

I'm holding for a few weeks and then going to start micro-tapering starting at about 2mg every 90 days with the 2mg tablets.

 

Thanks to any input.

[[Di...]]

For me - definitely yes. I was on a lower dose than you, but when I first tried to taper I tried to do a cut and hold taper by cutting just 0.25mg from 5mg, and it was hell on earth. After 2 weeks I still felt like absolute crap and had to reinstate. I tried doing it a couple times, with the same result each time (they say the first sign of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results..lol..).

 

However, as soon as I started doing a daily liquid taper everything changed. I was able to cut my first 1mg much quicker than I would have ever been able to if I'd tried to force myself to stick to a cut and hold taper.

[[do...]]

Thank you so much for your post Diaz-Pam!

 

I'm just getting ready to start a titration taper from 3 mg of Klonopin. I've been struggling with how to actually calculate the increments. Your post is a huge help!

 

I went from 6 mg to 3mg in a very haphazard and inconsistent manner of pill cutting and had a very rough time. That is why I am currently stuck at 3mg. Titration seems like the perfect solution for me. I plan to follow your schedule for a 1ml cut daily. That means 300 days to jumping off, but that is perfectly acceptable to me. After several dealings with Cold Turkey, I NEVER want to experience anything like that again.

 

I do take multiple doses 3 times a day. Since the evening dose is essential to me being able to sleep for a decent period, I plan to titrate the afternoon dose down to zero, then the morning dose, then the evening dose. I think with the half-life of Klonopin, this shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thank you SO much for your advice! I feel I ran across your post at just the right time for a reason.

 

May the rest of your taper be symptom-free! 

[[Di...]]

Thanks dogman. I'm sure you're going to do very well with your taper.

[[Mr...]]

Hi DiazPam,

 

I'm on a very low dose and wonder if it's too late to start a liquid taper at this point.  Right now I'm using .25mg valium tablets which I cut in half to make .125mg then crush and divide to make smaller amounts.  At this point I'm dividing the .125 into 12 parts to make a .01 daily dose.  I can eyeball the cuts pretty accurately, I think, and even if the valium vs. filler ratio could be a bit off on each dose, it seems to balance out over time.  I'm afraid as I get lower, I won't be able to do this very well anymore and since I want to do the vapor caper, it seems liquid would work best.  Do you think I need to go back up to dissolving 1mg in 100ml or something?  That seems like a lot of waste.  I don't know.  I stink at math and especially those dreaded story problems, which this seems to be.  I would appreciate any ideas.

 

Thank you 

[[bu...]]

Hi DiazPam,

 

I'm on a very low dose and wonder if it's too late to start a liquid taper at this point.  Right now I'm using .25mg valium tablets which I cut in half to make .125mg then crush and divide to make smaller amounts.  At this point I'm dividing the .125 into 12 parts to make a .01 daily dose.  I can eyeball the cuts pretty accurately, I think, and even if the valium vs. filler ratio could be a bit off on each dose, it seems to balance out over time.  I'm afraid as I get lower, I won't be able to do this very well anymore and since I want to do the vapor caper, it seems liquid would work best.  Do you think I need to go back up to dissolving 1mg in 100ml or something?  That seems like a lot of waste.  I don't know.  I stink at math and especially those dreaded story problems, which this seems to be.  I would appreciate any ideas.

 

Thank you 

 

Where are you getting .25 mg valium???  The smallest tablet in the US is 2 mg.  I wasn't aware there was any smaller dose tablets anywhere in the world.

[[Mr...]]

Hi builder,

 

I've gotten .25 and .50 mg tablets from a compounding pharmacy.  My doc wrote me a script for it.

It has made a huge difference in being able to taper small amounts accurately.  The pharmacy told me they could make any amount requested.  It seems they've dealt with lots of benzo tapers. I'm sure you could get the smaller mg tabs if your doc would write a script.  Any compounding pharmacy will fill it and mail them to you if you don't live near one.

 

 

[[bu...]]

Hi builder,

 

I've gotten .25 and .50 mg tablets from a compounding pharmacy.  My doc wrote me a script for it.

It has made a huge difference in being able to taper small amounts accurately.  The pharmacy told me they could make any amount requested.  It seems they've dealt with lots of benzo tapers. I'm sure you could get the smaller mg tabs if your doc would write a script.  Any compounding pharmacy will fill it and mail them to you if you don't live near one.

 

OK...thanks for the info.  Glad you found a doc and a pharmacist to cooperate with you.

[[Di...]]

Hi DiazPam,

 

I'm on a very low dose and wonder if it's too late to start a liquid taper at this point.  Right now I'm using .25mg valium tablets which I cut in half to make .125mg then crush and divide to make smaller amounts.  At this point I'm dividing the .125 into 12 parts to make a .01 daily dose.  I can eyeball the cuts pretty accurately, I think, and even if the valium vs. filler ratio could be a bit off on each dose, it seems to balance out over time.  I'm afraid as I get lower, I won't be able to do this very well anymore and since I want to do the vapor caper, it seems liquid would work best.  Do you think I need to go back up to dissolving 1mg in 100ml or something?  That seems like a lot of waste.  I don't know.  I stink at math and especially those dreaded story problems, which this seems to be.  I would appreciate any ideas.

 

Thank you 

 

Hi Mrs G

 

Yes you can certainly make a liquid mixture using your tablets. Seeing as you've got 0.25mg tablets, what I'd do is make a 1:100 ratio mixture, but just make a smaller proportion. I used to do that when I was using Liquid Valium.

 

You could put a 0.25mg tablet with 25ml of liquid and then you can reduce as you want. This will be exactly the same as putting 1mg with 100ml, except you're just making up a smaller amount. You can choose whether you want to use full fat milk, or maybe dissolve the tablet in a very small amount of vodka and then top up with water.

 

Just remember though that you are using a 1:100 ratio, so that means that if you are measuring say 0.005mg that will actually be 0.5ml (you mulitply by 100).

 

You're so close. I'm so excited for you.

[[Mr...]]

Thanks so much, DP.  I think I'll go with the vodka since I don't tolerate milk very well.  Can't wait till this is over, but I'm not going to push it.

 

I'm so glad you're feeling well.  You've been an inspiration to so many.

 

[[...]]

Hi All

 

Am in a bad hole after daily tapering .4mg over 4 weeks with no holds. Past 3 days have been BAD. I have been holding at 4.6 since last Friday. Should I continue to hold for another week or so and wait for it to settle? I don't want to updose unless I have to.

 

My daily tapering was going so well and then slammed, I am scared - any thoughts/advice please?

 

Thank you.

 

Maa 

[[Di...]]

Hi MAA

 

Sometimes this can happen with daily tapering, and there often isn't any explanation for it. It's just one of those benzo mysteries, and is probably due the accumulation effect of valium. I had a similar experience when I got to around 1mg, and had to end up holding for a total of 2 months. I also did a couple of small dose corrections too.

 

I know it feels like a backward step to dose correct, but sometimes it's the quickest way to get out of a hole, and it gives your body a chance to recover more quickly. When you're daily tapering the "updose" usually doesn't need to be that much because you've been bringing your dose down in very small increments. It's completely different to doing an updose when you're doing a cut and hold taper. At what dose did you last feel okay? Sometimes that's the key to learning what dose your body is at.

 

Alternatively you could keep holding and eventually things will settle, but try not to rush it. If you need to keep holding for a few weeks, or even a month or two, don’t worry about it. Things will settle.

 

[[...]]

Thank you DP 

 

I will hold for a few more days at least and see how it pans out.

 

I am nearing ovulation too so I think that may be contributing too.

 

I think I need to put in some more frequent holds in the future too so I don't hit a wall again.

 

Thanks again you are a star. 

[[Di...]]

Unfortunately hormones do have a nasty habit of derailing a taper. I've experienced that many times. 

[[Mo...]]

Hello I've been reading through your taper plan for a few days and am preparing a plan as soon as I feel stable and ready to taper. I am on klonopin 2xs a day and would like to cut 2mls or 4mls weekly. In your opinion would that be a good start point? Also im horrible at math and was going to use 100 ml but while reading saw I can use less liquid. Would you mind explaing some math for me? If I used 25 ml with my .5 would I still subtract the same amount of mls? I want to be sure to go slow and cozy. I'm a mom who went through some quite desturbing tolerance withdrawal that put hardship on my family followed by a hellish detox until I reinstated on k.

 

Sorry if this sounds stupid.

[[Di...]]

I'm sorry, I really have no experience at all with K, so I wouldn't like to give you any advice on how to go about doing a liquid taper because the doses are completely different to the valium I used.

 

Perhaps you could post in the Klonopin support thread. I'm sure there would be people there who are doing a liquid taper. http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=57791.0

 

Or hopefully someone who has experience with K will reply on this thread. 

[[...]]

Hello I've been reading through your taper plan for a few days and am preparing a plan as soon as I feel stable and ready to taper. I am on klonopin 2xs a day and would like to cut 2mls or 4mls weekly. In your opinion would that be a good start point? Also im horrible at math and was going to use 100 ml but while reading saw I can use less liquid. Would you mind explaing some math for me? If I used 25 ml with my .5 would I still subtract the same amount of mls? I want to be sure to go slow and cozy. I'm a mom who went through some quite desturbing tolerance withdrawal that put hardship on my family followed by a hellish detox until I reinstated on k.

 

Sorry if this sounds stupid.

 

Hi mom, How's the research going?   If you put .5mg into 100ml then each ml will contain .005mg (.5 divided by 100).  If you put .5mg into 25ml each ml will contain .02mg (.5 divided by 25).  Each ml will contain 4x more when 25ml is used so you would want to reduce by 4x less liquid to get the same cut.

 

At your dose (.5mg right?) I'd suggest beginning with a .001mg daily cut and see how that goes for a few weeks.  If 25ml is used this would be .05ml, which is a small fraction.  This is a slow rate and you will likely be able to go faster, but it is a good starting point.