Would like to stat Ativan 1 mg liquid titration NEED HELP

Hello! I would like some help in devising a good smooth slow liquid taper plan. Currently taking Ativan 1mg daily at bedtime. Thank you in advance! I really look forward to being in the "success stories" thread! I am new to this and very motivated to get started. Have been taking this mediation for over 10 years. Only thing I take for last 2 years. I appreciate ANY and ALL help I can get!

I take 1 mg per day too, but split into 2 doses, one at breakfast, one at lunch. I can tell you what my plan looks like so far.

 

First, I'm going to get used to taking a liquid preparation. And I'm a little iffy about making a one week supply at first, just because I don't want to find I've wasted a week's worth of tablet.

 

You can see the supplies I just bought on my progress blog http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=206662.0

 

My first step is to get used to liquid doses, because some people have said they had symptoms when first doing this. So I'm going to dissolve 2 tablets (0.5 mg each) in 2-3 mL of vodka. Then I will dilute to 100 mL with water, giving a 0.01 mg/mL solution. This will give me 2 doses. I'll take one liquid dose in the morning, and a tablet at lunch for a week. If I'm good I will move to having my lunchtime dose as liquid, so that I'm taking two liquid doses per day at my normal dose, 0.5 mg each.

 

By this time I hope to get more comfortable making a week's supply of dose. I'll dissolve 7 mg in 15-20 mL vodka, and dilute to 700 mL.

 

Then I'll start my taper. My original dose is 100 mL per day. Each additional day I will remove an additional 0.4 mL from my solution and take that. So like this:

Day 1 - pour 100 mL into container, remove 0.4 mL

Day 2 -  pour 100 mL into container, remove 0.8 mL

... All the way up to day 28. On day 28 I'll be taking 0.888 mg per day.

 

By this time, to keep reducing by the same percentage, I'll be removing less, which gets a little impractical with a 1 mL syringe. So I plan on making a more dilute solution of 0.007 mg/mL: dissolve a week's worth of tablets in 15-20 mL vodka, then dilute to 1000 mL with water. I have to adjust the amount of solution I take per day because the solution is more dilute.

 

on day 29: 126.8 mL

on day 30: 126.4 mL

day 31: 125.8

day 32: 125.2 - reduce by 0.6 mL every day until

... on day 42: 119.2 mL

 

That's as far as I've gotten. These reductions will be 5-6% every 2 weeks, which seem to be the recommendation. I am expecting to have holds though if the symptoms catch up with me. Hopefully they won't, but there is that possibility.

 

Other people have posted links to spreadsheets, web pages, etc, that will do all these calculations for you. But I can't seem to get them to work right.

 

I hope that helps you get started.