Ashton Manual taper help- xanax

Hey everyone. I'm going to present my MD with two taper plans one of which is using the Ashton Manual. I am trying to work it out on a spreadsheet but am having problems on the conversions from xanax to valium since the manual uses the 4x/day plan for 6mg or 4mg daily doses.  I take 1mg Xanax 3x a day. Has anyone else been on that dosing and made the switch to Valium then stepped down using the chart template in the manual? I would appreciate the help. I am trying to come to him with solid plans and doing a straight cut method gets pretty high % cuts at the end..

I am looking at the manual at schedule 1 which deals with taking 2 mg of xanax three times a day and has you gradually converting to 20 mg of Valium for each Mg of Xanax.  Since you are on half that amount, I would just knock the amounts listed for the Xanax and the Valium in half.  Ashton has you working up to substituting 20 mg of Valium for each mg of Xanax.

 

The tables are given as samples.  Everyone is different.  I managed to switch from taking .5mg Klonopin twice a day to 10 mg of Valium twice a day.  I started having sudden problems with the Klonopin and I switched over the the Valium in a period of two days and had the anxiety go away on that dose of Valium.

Jeez thanks... I started with schedule 1 than had to get out of the doc and ended up going to schedule 7 which is the other xanax one. Derp

 

How is everything going with you?

If you decide to stay with Xanax to taper, I’m happy to help with a taper plan.  I started at 2mg a day (.5mg four times a day) and had tapered to .0625mg when I jumped.

 

If inter-dose symptoms are making it hard to taper, it may be from only dosing three times a day. I couldn’t have done that, too many symptoms in between doses.

 

Keep in mind many people find Valium to be sedating and a cause of depression, especially at first.

 

just my two cents. 

If you decide to stay with Xanax to taper, I’m happy to help with a taper plan.  I started at 2mg a day (.5mg four times a day) and had tapered to .625mg when I jumped.

 

If inter-dose symptoms are making it hard to taper, it may be from only dosing three times a day. I couldn’t have done that, too many symptoms in between doses.

 

Keep in mind many people find Valium to be sedating and a cause of depression, especially at first.

 

just my two cents. 

 

I would love to hear a plan for xanax. I worked it down to .125 mg on my spreadsheet. That was going down basically .25mg per drop which has pretty significant % cuts the further down you go! 33%x2 then 50%x2. That seems like a lot when people say go down 5-10%.  Thanks on advance!

Once you get to 2.5mg per day, you may find .25mg drops to be too much.  As you go down, the percentage (10% roughly, give or take) stays the same but the amount of each cut must drop.

 

So at 3mg daily, you might drop .25mg but once you get to, let's say 2mg, you may want to drop no more than .2mg at once.

 

Personally, I'd take it a cut at a time and adjust as I went.  At one point I held for two months because it was the holidays and stress was high.

 

 

This group: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=219884.220 is tapering Xanax, too.  Their focus is support (symptoms, etc).  I'd recommend you check in with them, too, and see if this group might be good for ongoing support as you taper down.

Once you get to 2.5mg per day, you may find .25mg drops to be too much.  As you go down, the percentage (10% roughly, give or take) stays the same but the amount of each cut must drop.

 

So at 3mg daily, you might drop .25mg but once you get to, let's say 2mg, you may want to drop no more than .2mg at once.

 

Personally, I'd take it a cut at a time and adjust as I went.  At one point I held for two months because it was the holidays and stress was high.

 

 

 

So physically shaving a pill down is what you are getting at? It sucks that xanax doesnt come in smaller doses like valium does. The smaller doses is why I was considering the switch.

Not shaving.  Xanax comes as small as .25mg, which can then be quartered easily into .0625mg bits.