ASHTON TAPER / CUT & HOLD SUPPORT

[[ro...]]

Yes Lainey,

It's raining too and a long drive..

Just no sleep again, or only an hour or so...

Hate this....

Crying now..hate this..

 

Love. Rose

[[la...]]

I'm praying for you sister

[[ro...]]

Lain,  :smitten:

Rose

[[ro...]]

Hi, after another awful morning, of intrusive thoughts, sadness...watching a movie...

Trying to remain hopeful that this taper off valium will be the start of renewed health, joy again..

The v seems to have blunted my moods, motivation....

I'm at 5.5, Hoping some happy mood returns soon..my smiles are fleeting..

Just the weariness of constant tapering, sxs , and days ahead.

Hanging in there

Drew....Be the canoe...my wanders off course a lot.

I sure hope the mental crude lets up in the coming months.

Cry much, not meaning to whine buddies...I just am letting out my honest emotions. This is so surreal , scarey..I just have moments where I need to share..

Thanks to all who listen and don't judge..

Thanks for this forum..

Hope Ashton is right about getting ourselves back eventually..

 

Hugs to all. Rose

[[li...]]

Hello rosegal:

 

Hang in there....it does get better eventually. Try not to believe the benzo lies.

 

I remember when I was tapering & felt just like you do now. It is sad what we must endure to get off of these benzo's. My heart goes out to you...just hang in there & try to keep yourself distracted anyway you can. I continue to dream of going on exotic vacations once I am healed.

 

When I get down, I go here...check this place out rose...Mokulua islands:

 

I will one day visit this paradise...my ship has not sailed yet...but one day soon...

 

I continue to dream & know in my heart of hearts I will one day be 100% healed & so will you...

[[Sh...]]

I'm new to this "support group," but not to using the Ashton method of tapering, as I've been doing so for several months already, since daily tapering seemed too complicated for me to handle.

 

Now that I'm getting down to the lower doses of valium, I'm wondering if I need to slow down to cutting 0.5 MG rather than 1 MG. On the one hand, finishing sooner holds a big attraction to me. In fact, I try to cut every 7-10 days rather than going a full 2 weeks for more. The sample schedules in the Ashton Manual do seem to support sticking with 1-MG cuts every 1-2 weeks. However, she mentions that some people opt to slow down to 0.5-MG cuts once getting to 5 MG. My main concern in sticking with 1-MG cuts is my insomnia, which has always been my #1 symptom and thing that got me taking a benzo in the first place.

 

Has anyone had experience in continuing to do 1-MG cuts down to the end? And if so, how did it go for you?

[[li...]]

Hello Shirah:

 

Welcome to this thread.

 

I tried making 1mg cuts right after my CT. Proved to be to much of a cut for me. Symtoms became extremely difficult to handle, so I had to switch it up (I am very sensitive.) So I do not have  any personal experience with 1mg all at once reduction long term. How ever, after reading your posts, I am comfortable sharing my thoughts: it seems as if you are handling 1mg cuts fairly well (other than the insomnia), so I would feel ok  suggesting that you continue forth @ this cut amt/ rate & get off of this medication asap, paying specific attention to how you are feeling & adjusting your cut amt/rate accordingly if symptoms become problematic. 

 

I wish you wellness & smoooth tapering ...

[[Sh...]]

Thanks for your reply, Liljoe.

 

My plan at the moment is to go ahead and cut to 3 MG tonight, since I had my best night's sleep in a long time last night (~8 hours!). I do expect to feel the cut over the weekend, but hopefully it won't be too much worse than recent cuts, which have been pretty bad, but tolerable. And after this, I may compromise and cut by 0.75 MG, which means just 3 more cuts until I jump (2.25, 1.5, 0.75, done)!

 

At the same time, I've cut my Remeron dose in half to 3.75 MG and plan to keep it at that through the rest of the taper and beyond, until I feel stable.

[[li...]]

Sounds like a great plan!

 

Stick with it & you'll be done in no time then on your way to healing. 

[[bo...]]

Hi. Haven't been on here for ages, as I sat at 5mg for ages, not willing to taper further while trying to address onset of depression. I've now updates my signature to give a snapshot of my journey and current progress.

 

I'm doing 0.5mg dry cuts and currently am at 3.5mg. I know the impact of the cuts increases as I go lower, and am taking it carefully. I may well need longer holds, smaller cuts or titration to get off completely. I'm trying to stay functional while doing it - I'm a dad to 3 young kids, and a teacher (currently on a 6 month break touring around Australia, which has it's own set of stresses with kids!).

 

I find a fairly predictable pattern after making a cut. 2-3 days later are hardest, with greatly increased anxiety sxs both psychologically and physically. I get pretty irritable, with poor coping skills. I wake up with burning GI early mornings, get headaches and at times need to retreat to my bed when I can't cope with interaction or with anything much. I attempt to use as many non-pharma techniques for my anxiety as possible, and know I'll need them as I come off these last few mgs of V and live benzo-free (that sounds so good).

 

My last cut was 12 days ago. It has been hard work since then. I've read a lot on this site over the past couple of years, and am aware that by sticking with 'linear dry cuts' the % cut each time is increasing, particularly in these last few mgs. I'm open minded about whether I'll be able to go all the way to 0 using this strategy. But at present it's working OK - because of the long half life, the actual "cut" is reasonably gradual.

 

Anyway, that's me at present - so hello, or hello again. And I'm journeying with you.

[Guest [in...]]

Great to hear from you bolders Youre still traveling! What an experience! Do you have 2mg and 5mg pills to cut?

[[bo...]]

Yep Ingrid, cutting with both 2 and 5mg. Got scoreable pills to try and make cutting a bit more accurate but generally just cut into halves. Will need 1/4s when I get lower.

[Guest [in...]]

bolders I also have 2mg and 5mg pills. My next cut will be .25mg instead of .5mg b/c I want to cut the % rate since I"ll be under 5mg. Im gonna cut a 5mg pill into 4 pieces and take 3 pieces to = 3.75mg and then Im gonna cut the 2mg pill in 1/2 to =1mg for a total of 4.75mg. 

[[bo...]]

Sounds good Ingrid. I'm gonna try and cut another 0.5mg from 3.5 to 3 in about a week or so, and see how it goes.

I may also need to start going to 0.25mgs, by chopping the 5s into quarters like you. I only have a basic pill cutter - do you use something more fancy than that? It's difficult to get good even quarters.

 

[Guest [in...]]

bolders I just bought a new pill cutter b/c I felt the blade would be sharper. I also have an Exacto-knife that I purchased at an arts and craft store- Michaels. I havent used it in a while. I can do quarters with my pill cutter pretty well now. I take Actavis generic diazepam, maybe they crumble less? 

[[bo...]]

Thanks Ingrid. I'm not sure whether to do another 0.5mg cut or just do 0.25 by quartering a 5mg. My experience so far of chopping with my 'budget' pill cutter is there are crumbs left if I chop more than once. So might need a better cutter. Would be good to make the cuts smaller as I move down into the "low 3s" and then the "2s".

 

[[Sm...]]

Hi Bolders.

 

Quartering a 5mill would be 1.25 not 0.25.

 

maybe you did a typo?

 

Small.

[Guest [in...]]

Maybe he meant doing .25mg cuts by taking 1,2,or 3 of the 4 pieces of the 5mg and combining it with the 1,2, or 3 pcs of the 4 pcs of a 2mg pill to get a certain dose?  That's what Im going to do with my next cut. I go from 5mg to 4.75mg using 5mg and 2mg pills. 

[[...]]

Hi, I haven't posted much on this thread but have a question.

 

I'm at 4.5 mg diazepam after cross tapering from ativan. I have been taking 2 mg in the morning and 2.5 before bed but am finding I'm very drained and tired during the day ... so I'm thinking of putting all the dose in the evening and then just tapering down from the one dose. Does that make sense? I want to avoid being so sleepy and dumb during the day. I imagine there will be sxs as I switch the dosing plan...

 

Then the idea will be to try to cut and hold as I've done so far - more or less 0.5 mg every couple of weeks. The next cut is slated for tomorrow...!

 

 

[[Sh...]]

Yes, I think that absolutely makes sense to just take the full dose in the evening before bedtime. As I recall, in all of the sample tapering schedules in the Ashton Manual, once you get below a certain amount -- I think somewhere around 10 or 15 MG, changing over to once daily is the way to go.

[Guest [in...]]

HI NYC I take all my Valium at 9pm every night, just once a day. Has worked out well for me. But Ive been holding longer than Ashton protocol. Good luck! 

[[Br...]]

Hi, I haven't posted much on this thread but have a question.

 

I'm at 4.5 mg diazepam after cross tapering from ativan. I have been taking 2 mg in the morning and 2.5 before bed but am finding I'm very drained and tired during the day ... so I'm thinking of putting all the dose in the evening and then just tapering down from the one dose. Does that make sense? I want to avoid being so sleepy and dumb during the day. I imagine there will be sxs as I switch the dosing plan...

 

Then the idea will be to try to cut and hold as I've done so far - more or less 0.5 mg every couple of weeks. The next cut is slated for tomorrow...!

 

If your body is okay with only one dose of diazepam a day then use just one dose.  However if you notice your symptoms getting worse as you approach the time of your usual your daily dose then it may be worth considering if you are going into daily withdrawal.

 

 

[[bo...]]

Cut to 3 from 3.5mg 3 days ago. Going good so far, after finding the previous cut really hard going. Will hold now for a fortnight and look to keep going down 0.5mg.

 

Thx for replies RE chopping up 5mgs into quarters - I have my maths right but the post was badly written. On reflection I'm not keen to quarter the pills, they get too crumbly and aren't accurate quarters. Will keep doing 0.5mg cuts which only requires halving 2 or 5mg pills until I get below 2mg.

[Guest [in...]]

Hi! bolders I was gonna cut yesterday, another .5mg, but decided to go to a 5 week hold, since it worked last cut. Im planning to use a nail file once I get to .5mg....seems to be in the far, far future! 

[[bo...]]

Nail file, Ingrid. Good thought. Will 'file' that one away for when I get there! Do the hold you need to do - some of mine have been many weeks.

 

This cut to 3 has gone really well for me, probably because the hold at 3.5 was a month.