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Anyone Who Has Had Success Liquid Tapering Xanax Please Post


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                    There is another thread with people having problems with a liquid tapers.

 

  Is that only for Diazepam or other Benzo's too?

 

  After way too long mental juggling doing a dry taper, a dry/liquid combo or totally liquid, I'm totally confused on which is the best way.

 

    I'm on 1.5mg of Xanax, 31/2 years too long and to me, a LT is the most logical and safest route to go.............How are people having problems?

 

  Is it the type of benzo, their physiology?............No judgement, just curiosity, because we're all in the same boat.

 

    So, anyone had success with a total LT of Xanax? :)

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Liquid tapering is even more valuable for high potency benzos like Xanax.

 

The major advantage of liquid is it allows you to make MUCH smaller reductions than you possibly could by trying to cut tablets.

 

If you make a .1mg per ml solution, you can very  easily measure/dose down to .01 (hundredths) of a milligram.

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                I don't care if it takes me close to a year to jump...........want the smoothest transition if at all possible with minimal side effects...........I'm being a realist that there probably will be some degree of w/d symptoms.

 

    So to refresh my benzo fried brain, that would be at 1.5 mg of Xanax a ratio of 147ml water, 3ml vodka solvent for a 150 ml solution.

 

      For me a daily discard of 1 ml would be the proper reduction.............(I know, the purists say "just make what you need") and don't throw anything away.

 

    Maybe I will later but for now, this seems easier and later will make larger batches......Just want to make sure at first...........again, thanks :thumbsup:

 

 

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.

want the smoothest transition if at all possible with minimal side effects...........I'm being a realist that there probably will be some degree of w/d symptoms.

 

A daily microtaper will be the smoothest and probably produce minimal side fxs (but yeah, there will still probably be some minor, occasional ones)

 

For me a daily discard of 1 ml would be the proper reduction.............(I know, the purists say "just make what you need") and don't throw anything away.

 

"pull and discard" is a silly, wasteful, labor-intensive concept, but...what ever turns you on. ::)

 

, that would be at 1.5 mg of Xanax a ratio of 147ml water, 3ml vodka solvent for a 150 ml solution.

 

That will work, but you really don't need that much dilution.  1.5mg on 15ml will work just as well.  But again, whatever turns you on.

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          Ok................Here's where I'm confused :D

 

  1.5mg on 15ml...............If reducing 1ml a day, I'll be done in 15 days?

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          Ok................Here's where I'm confused :D

 

  1.5mg on 15ml...............If reducing 1ml a day, I'll be done in 15 days?

 

 

If you do a .1mg per ml solution, then your daily (liquid) reduction becomes .1ml

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Hi,

builder is the expert on making liquid for these tapers. :thumbsup:

 

I am tapering Xanax as well and use a combo of pills and liquid. 

(Don't let that confuse you just stating what I am doing, many use all liquid).

 

I know that for my taper, as Xanax is such a strong med, that I taper about .001mg a day, incorporating some holds in there.

:thumbsup:

SS

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      Sorry to be a pain in the arse here ???..............Builder, a .1ml reduction is considered safe and slow?

 

    If I did the 1.5 mg in the 150ml solution and reduced by 1 ml daily, what % reduction is that and what would be the weekly reduction?

 

      Sorry, I'm a cement head with math.

 

  SufferingSixty, if you don't mind, what is your protocol?

 

                                                                                                                                                            Thanks

 

ps. I just noticed something........it's a .1ml reduction, not a 1ml reduction..........How do you get that if you were doing the discard way or any other for that matter?

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Hi AI52,

Atm I am holding which can be a good thing to do sometimes.

When I taper i taper using mostly pills (.125 Xanax) mixing the rest of my dose as a liquid.  I then go down about .001mg daily or near daily.

 

Mostly I am concerned with percentages: 10% a month or thereabouts, and sxs.  Using a sxs based taper I can hold when sxs ramp up a bit to allow the body to catch up to the rate of tapering.  Some people taper at 5% a month, some faster, it's all about learning what your body can handle.

 

It's a "healing as we go" approach to this whole thing.  And I learned this from this forum! and the many people who have used this method to walk, not jump, off this stuff... hope this helps....

 

I'd suggest doing a bunch of reading, finding the threads where folks are having a decent time of it mostly, and looking closely at signatures.  I spent many hours educating myself as to what was working for others.  Then understanding that each taper is pretty personal, and what works for another may not work for me.

The take away is that you can do this!  Liquid is a great tool to allow for tiny cuts.

 

Again builder is the man when it comes to liquid and how to make a liquid medicine.  And Jim Hawk can help tremendously with schedules... (i always get confused as to whether it is a solution or a suspension)

:thumbsup:

SS

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          Thanks SufferingSixty,

                                                  It seems the folks here know more than physicians on how to get off of this poison and I'm glad this place exists. The professionals want you to cut WAY to fast IMHO.............Yes, everyone is different and what works for somebody might not for another.........That's why I'm always open to all advice...............Continued success on your journey! :)

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Yes , absolutely some people on this forum know way more than most docs...

I’m lucky that my doc will follow my lead— and I hope yours will too.

Good luck with the liquid I hope it works out really well for you.

😀😃😄

SS

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      Sorry to be a pain in the arse here ???..............Builder, a .1ml reduction is considered safe and slow?

 

   

                                                                                                                                                            Thanks

 

ps. I just noticed something........it's a .1ml reduction, not a 1ml reduction..........How do you get that if you were doing the discard way or any other for that matter?

 

.1mg per ml....a .1ml cut = .01milligram

 

.01mg per ml........a 1ml cut = .01 milligram

 

Its the same either way.  The only difference is how much liquid you drink.  The amount of benzo is the same either way.

 

If you make a 100ml batch and throw away 1 ml, you drink 99ml

 

If you start with a bigger batch (like 1000ml) and draw up 99ml in your syringe, then you drink 99 ml.  Its the same either way, except 1) you don't have to make a batch each day, and 2)  you don't waste any.

 

 

Pretend your doc gave a scrip for a liquid med, and his dosing instruction was "Take 10 tsp the first day, then lower your dose by 1 tsp each day"

 

I'm pretty sure day 1 you would measure out and dose 10 tsp, day 2 you would measure out and dose 9 tsp, day 3 you would measure out and dose 8 tsp, day 4 you would measure out and dose 7 tsp, etc...You wouldn't throw some away each day, you would just measure out and drink the scheculed dose.

 

That's exactly how a daily taper works.  If you want to lower by 1ml each day, you measure out and drink 100ml the first day, measure out and drink 99ml the second day, measure out and drink 98ml the 3rd day, etc...

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            Got it :thumbsup:

 

    A lot easier drawing up what you need................It clicked for me with the Doctor's script story!

 

                                                                                                                                                                Thanks again

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            Got it :thumbsup:

 

    A lot easier drawing up what you need................It clicked for me with the Doctor's script story!

 

                                                                                                                                                                Thanks again

 

 

:thumbsup:;):thumbsup:;):thumbsup:;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

          Thanks SufferingSixty,

                                                  It seems the folks here know more than physicians on how to get off of this poison and I'm glad this place exists. The professionals want you to cut WAY to fast IMHO.............Yes, everyone is different and what works for somebody might not for another.........That's why I'm always open to all advice...............Continued success on your journey! :)

 

For sure AI52.  When I was about to start my taper, I called a local substance abuse recovery center.  I called them all and found the one place that said they have long term tapering plans because they realize that Benzos are not like other substances that can be cold-turkeyed.  I met their expert physician.  He was wrong about 2 things: 1) He said he used to be a cardiologist and magnesium supplements can't fix PVCs, and 2) He said at .75mg xanax/day, I could jump any time I want.  This guy was the specialist in my state.  THEY KNOW KNOTHING!  6 months later, I'm still tapering.

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I am currently doing a liquid taper. I have been taking 0.5 mg xanax twice a day for two years.

 

I reduced my dose to 0.4 mg twice a day in 20 days in 0.01 mg increments daily. That is a 20% cut in 20 days.

 

After that 20 days I needed to hold, because I started to feel just a little weird and I didn't want the weirdness to get worse. I've been on my hold for 7 days and I feel much better. Tomorrow I will start reducing again.

 

Success? Not yet. But I feel like I'm on a good path.

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        Jumping from .75 mg..................Is he nuts??

 

  I've read on other threads here of people making quick cuts(dry) and doing ok...............I guess everybody's metabolism varies and so does the taper.

 

  For me at 1.5 mg a day and taking care of my mom with dementia, the stress is off the charts and I haven't even begun and I know irritability is certainly going to be there when I start as a side effect.

 

    Good luck to you guys and continued success!

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I'm doing a daily liquid micro-taper of Xanax and it is going very smoothly.

I started with dry cutting, then switched to a set quantity type reduction ... now I'm doing 10% reductions per month - and it is by far, the smoothest of the three.

 

I've been tapering for just over a year and hope to jump sometime in December, (but will continue my taper if I don't tolerate it.)

 

I am using JimHawk's online tool for figuring out daily doses.  If it helps, here's a link to my Progress Log that shows the parameters that I used to fill out the form.  (It can be kind of confusing when you're starting, but it's well worth the effort of playing around with it in order to understand how it works...)

 

I hope this helps some.  There are a lot of ways to taper and it can take some experimentation to find out the one that's best-suited for you.

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I am currently doing a liquid taper. I have been taking 0.5 mg xanax twice a day for two years.

 

I reduced my dose to 0.4 mg twice a day in 20 days in 0.01 mg increments daily. That is a 20% cut in 20 days.

 

After that 20 days I needed to hold, because I started to feel just a little weird and I didn't want the weirdness to get worse. I've been on my hold for 7 days and I feel much better. Tomorrow I will start reducing again.

 

Success? Not yet. But I feel like I'm on a good path.

 

Just an opinion, but if you start tapering from .75mg xanax a day or higher, I think you can make 7-10% cuts for 10-14 days all the way down to about .30mg/day  I think that's the level where symptoms get a little stronger.  I wouldn't bother micro-tapering until this level.  I didn't start until I hit about .11mg.  At this level, I think daily microtapering is the way to go, and I'm just going to suffer through some daily symptoms until zero.  THAT's when the true healing really begins, I expect.

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It's important to do a sxs based taper that may look quite different from someone else's...

It's a very personal process, which is part of the difficulty with this whole thing!  What works for me.....

And you can start micro-tapering from anywhere, it's less shock to the sxs than cut and hold.  Although some prefer cut and hold..

 

And there are two schools of thought regarding the healing process,

That we heal as we go down ( i think there's lots of evidence of this especially with folks who walked off without any acute phase)

 

And the idea that we don't heal until we are off....

SS

 

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            Thanks for all the great advice and sharing :smitten:

 

    JannaBean, are you using vodka as your solvent?

 

    As a side note, a buddy of mine who has been on X for close to 20 years has decided to reduce his dose from 2mg in a 24 hr period down to 1 mg..............He's not on the internet, but I told him about this place..............Also told him to be careful, a 50% reduction is just crazy.

 

    Haven't talked to him in a few days, wonder how he's doing.............I think he's also drinking a little to counter  the s/x's.

 

    Not a good way to cut down.

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    JannaBean, are you using vodka as your solvent?

 

Yes, my routine these days involves dissolving my tablets in a small amount of vodka and then adding water to make a total volume of 100 ml.  Then I make my weeks worth of doses from that solution, using JimHawk's form.  (I've printed out the schedule which I also use to keep notes about specific issues that pop up...)

 

I know lots of folks draw their daily doses off each day, but it is easier for me to prepare the entire week in advance so I don't have to think about it.

 

I hope your friend is ok.  That sounds pretty dramatic - and as you know, managing the sx with alcohol is a slippery slope...

 

I hope you are doing well.  :)

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I am currently doing a liquid taper. I have been taking 0.5 mg xanax twice a day for two years.

 

I reduced my dose to 0.4 mg twice a day in 20 days in 0.01 mg increments daily. That is a 20% cut in 20 days.

 

After that 20 days I needed to hold, because I started to feel just a little weird and I didn't want the weirdness to get worse. I've been on my hold for 7 days and I feel much better. Tomorrow I will start reducing again.

 

Success? Not yet. But I feel like I'm on a good path.

 

Just an opinion, but if you start tapering from .75mg xanax a day or higher, I think you can make 7-10% cuts for 10-14 days all the way down to about .30mg/day  I think that's the level where symptoms get a little stronger.  I wouldn't bother micro-tapering until this level.  I didn't start until I hit about .11mg.  At this level, I think daily microtapering is the way to go, and I'm just going to suffer through some daily symptoms until zero.  THAT's when the true healing really begins, I expect.

 

Yeah I'm making 10% cuts every 10 days. There was a 7 day hold, but now I'm on the 10% cut every 10 days.

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  • 3 weeks later...

    JannaBean, are you using vodka as your solvent?

 

Yes, my routine these days involves dissolving my tablets in a small amount of vodka and then adding water to make a total volume of 100 ml.  Then I make my weeks worth of doses from that solution, using JimHawk's form.  (I've printed out the schedule which I also use to keep notes about specific issues that pop up...)

 

I know lots of folks draw their daily doses off each day, but it is easier for me to prepare the entire week in advance so I don't have to think about it.

 

I hope your friend is ok.  That sounds pretty dramatic - and as you know, managing the sx with alcohol is a slippery slope...

 

I hope you are doing well.  :)

 

I’m new, considering this taper..

What do you keep your solution in? Do you have to refrigerate it?

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