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New(ish) here, looking for members that dry taper straight from Xanax using the


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I’m looking to make connections with members who do a direct dry taper from Xanax using the Gemini scale, I’ve read Pamsters post, I’m ready to start, just needing a support group. I don’t really know how to navigate the site yet or where to find more info on this, need direction in that as well. Thanks!
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Glad you found the right board, so I take it you watched the video, do you need help figuring out a taper rate? 

 

You mentioned in your other post that your new Dr wouldn't take you on until you're free from benzo's, will you have enough to do a slow taper?

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Hi thanks, no I haven’t watched the video yet, my phone was about to die.. but I will. I did find a new Dr that would take me only if I would agree to stop taking Xanax (he won’t prescribe it), but agreed to prescribe and help me taper during that process.
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Hate to sound  clueless ( which I can be about technology) but I am doing a Xanax taper ,  in third week, and would love to see video but don’t know how to find it.  Have posted before, doing direct dry taper , probably cut too much in beginning, holding for another week or so.  Thanks..
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Hi.. In third week of doing direct dry Xanax taper, would love to help if I can.  Was taking 0.5 mg three times a day for four years. Had no idea it was so addictive.  Took as Dr prescribed.  He retired, new Dr. told me I had to get off..  prescribed 60 pills for a month, so that set my taper rate.  It has not been as awful as I thought.  Now taking one pill in early morning, half (0.25) mid afternoon and half at night.  Not sure how much to taper and when... but please know that you can do it.  Haven’t seen video yet, but plan to ASAP.  Good luck.
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Hi thanks, no I haven’t watched the video yet, my phone was about to die.. but I will. I did find a new Dr that would take me only if I would agree to stop taking Xanax (he won’t prescribe it), but agreed to prescribe and help me taper during that process.

 

Good to hear you'll have enough to taper with, I hope he'll allow you to do this slowly, it would be helpful if we could find out what his plan is for you, most Dr's tend to taper their patients too quickly.  When will you see him again?

 

 

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Hi.. In third week of doing direct dry Xanax taper, would love to help if I can.  Was taking 0.5 mg three times a day for four years. Had no idea it was so addictive.  Took as Dr prescribed.  He retired, new Dr. told me I had to get off..  prescribed 60 pills for a month, so that set my taper rate.  It has not been as awful as I thought.  Now taking one pill in early morning, half (0.25) mid afternoon and half at night.  Not sure how much to taper and when... but please know that you can do it.  Haven’t seen video yet, but plan to ASAP.  Good luck.

 

Hi savescotus,

 

If you'll copy your post and paste it to this link http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=56.0 we can establish your own thread to discuss your taper so we don't confuse you and HiImHoward.

 

Just click on the link, select the blue oval on the upper right of the window that says New Topic, give your post a subject title and paste in your post.

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Hi thanks, no I haven’t watched the video yet, my phone was about to die.. but I will. I did find a new Dr that would take me only if I would agree to stop taking Xanax (he won’t prescribe it), but agreed to prescribe and help me taper during that process.

 

Good to hear you'll have enough to taper with, I hope he'll allow you to do this slowly, it would be helpful if we could find out what his plan is for you, most Dr's tend to taper their patients too quickly.  When will you see him again?

 

I’ll see him for the first time this week.. I know him personally so I think he’ll work with me on going slow.. I think as long as he can see me moving down the scale he’ll be ok with it. I’ve got a big bottle of scraps from when I tapered myself down this last year that should last me quite awhile too, so I think I’ll be ok for quite awhile..

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Hi Howard,

 

What is your current dose and how long have you been taking Xanax?  Could you add your medication history into your signature so members can see at a glance and be better able to help you?  Here are the instructions.  Add your history/signature 

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Currently I’m taking 1.5 mgs a day, divided into 2 doses, morning and night. My last Dr gave me the .25’s because I already had asked to start to taper off the drug myself, so I had come down a half of a .25 from my previous dose and stopped there because it was making my heart go nuts and I felt like s### all the time. Going too fast I guess, my hearts just now settling down, still having a lot of PVC’s. (which is what led me to find this site.)
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Thanks for filling in your signature, I've asked a member to drop by to help you get started using a scale, I'll keep watch in case he isn't able to respond. 

 

I'm glad to hear your heart is settling down, rapid tapers are painful so I'm glad you listened to what your body was telling you.  :thumbsup:

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Thank you! I think I’m ready to start. Just got off the phone with my cardio and there going to get me a holster monitor for the issues to be sure everything’s “just the norm”.. 👍🏻
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Hi Howard,

 

I can help you with the math.  Just let me know when you want to start.

 

Do you have a scale?  If not, see the link below for an example.

 

Once you have a scale, I will need to know:

(1) The dose of one of your pills (I think you have 0.25mg)

(2) You will need to weigh 10 pills and give me the number (I will divide by 10 to get an average weight)

(3) Select the taper rate (e.g. 5% every 2 weeks)

 

Bob

LINK TO A SCALE

[nobbc]https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Weigh-Precision-Milligram-Calibration/dp/B011J88S8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541012152&sr=8-1&keywords=Smart+Weigh+Premium+High+Precision+Digital+Milligram+Scale+with+Case%2C+Tweezers%2C+Calibration+Weights+and+Three+Weighing+Pans%2C+50+x+0.001g[/nobbc]

 

Edit: Deactivated commercial link.

 

 

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Hi Bob, sorry I haven’t checked in in awhile, been busy.. my current dose is 1.5 mgs Xanax divided into 2 doses,  morning and night. I get the .25’s so I take 3 in the morning and 3 at night. My previous Dr gave me the .25’s because I had already started to taper off the drug myself before I found out I was going to end up on this position of having to find a new Dr.. the office she works for quit taking patients with insurance for some reason.. up til now I didn’t know the Drs had started looking at benzos and the patients that take it the way they look at opiods and people who take those.. so, I wanted off anyway, suits me. I know I’ve been on it too long so I’d need to taper. I was going slower than I had read on the internet and did ok, I divided the .25 in quarters and cut out a quarter of my total dose about every 3 weeks. By day 3 I was feeling pretty bad and my heart would go crazy, really scary, but by day 5 I was ok. I think I would just like to go a little slower to stay below the side effects if that’s possible. Maybe a daily taper, maybe a daily taper until I’ve tapered a quarter of the .25 and hold for a bit.. Something along those lines. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

ps. I have the Gemini scale, looks just like the one in Pamsters video, the box looked different but the scale appears to be the same.

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I can make you a daily taper schedule but I must warn you, it is great effort to change your dose every day and it gets confusing if you are on two doses - one day you cut the morning and the next you cut the evening.  So let me give you some thoughts.

 

You are at such a high dose, I doubt if you need a daily taper yet.  I have found daily tapers are best used when you near the end of your taper - when the dose is so small you need tiny adjustments.  While you are on large dose, the cut and hold or even a liquid taper makes for a better life.

 

In short, your life will be easier if you do a reduction and hold 3 weeks until you get really low on the drug (<0.25mg per day).

 

However, if you want to do a daily taper, it is up to you.  I can help you either way.

 

So questions:

(1) Do you want to do a daily taper?  If so, how many mg reduction per day?

(2) If you want to try the reduce and hold for 3 weeks again, I can recommend a slower reduction using the scale.  You tried but didn't like (0.25/4)= 0.0625 mg reduction and hold 3 weeks.  How about we use the scale and change this is 0.05mg reduction every 3 weeks?

(3) In any case, I need you to weigh 10 of your 0.25mg pills and tell me the weight.  I will divide by 10 to get the average weight per pill and then make a reduction plan using method 1 or 2 above depending on your choice.

 

Bob

 

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You’re suggestions sound fine with me. I did “ok” with the way I did it before, just had to deal with the heart stuff and feeling bad a few days, but it kinda became like clockwork. I just don’t wanna get the heart stuff stirred up too much, it takes awhile for it to settle down. How much is 1/2 of a fourth of a .25? I think that would be a good cut.
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You’re suggestions sound fine with me. I did “ok” with the way I did it before, just had to deal with the heart stuff and feeling bad a few days, but it kinda became like clockwork. I just don’t wanna get the heart stuff stirred up too much, it takes awhile for it to settle down. How much is 1/2 of a fourth of a .25? I think that would be a good cut.

I also had the "heart scares" during the worse part of my taper.  It got so bad my doctor gave me buspar which helped after 3 weeks and then I stopped it without issue.

 

To answer your question, 1/2 of a fourth of 0.25 is 0.03125mg.

 

If you tell me the weight of your 0.25mg pills, I can tell you how much 0.03125 mg weighs on a scale and we can make you a taper chart.

 

To make sure we don't have any errors, weigh one pill and give me the number and then weigh 10 pills and give me that number.

 

Bob

 

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I’ll try to do that today.. I’m really not understanding how to calibrate the scale, but I’ll go through the motions.. I’ll get back with it later today. Thank ya much
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After you calibrate it and before each measurement, you can tare it to zero the scale.  That will make sense as you use it.

"Tare" means you force the display to show Zero before you make a measurement.

 

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Sorry I’m late, long day. Ok, so if I did things right, I went through the motions without really understanding it but I think I did it right. I did the little weights that came with it a few times then put the little plate on it and it showed zero across the board. 1 pill was .131 and 10 pills was 1.311 ~ I weigh both groups several times and those numbers came up the most.. over and under once or twice but that was the “high average”.. (if I did it right)
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You did it perfectly Howard.

 

I can now tell you many things.

 

Assume you wanted to take X mg of your benzo.

Then the weight on the scale in grams = X times 0.131 divided by 0.25

For example, if you wanted to take 1.5mg (your current dose), that should weigh = 1.5*0.131/0.25 = 0.786 grams on your scale

 

Now for tapering.  You said you wanted to taper 1/2 of a fourth of a 0.25mg pill = 0.03125 mg.

Since your current dose is 1.5mg, your dose after reducing 0.03125 mg is (1.5 - 0.03125) = 1.469 mg.  Therefore,

    Weight on scale = 1.469 * 0.131/0.25 = 0.770 grams

So put pills on your scale so it weighs 0.770 grams (you can use a pill splitter or razor blade or sand paper or emery boards to remove bits of the pills).

 

For your next reduction, take your current dose and again subtract your taper number of 0.03125.  Then compute the weight on the scale again. 

 

TO MAKE THINGS EASY FOR YOU, HERE IS A TABLE OF THE FIRST 20 REDUCTIONS:

 

# Dose (mg) Weight On Scale (grams)

1    1.500    0.786

2    1.469    0.770

3    1.438    0.753

4    1.406    0.737

5    1.375    0.721

6    1.344    0.704

7    1.313    0.688

8    1.281    0.671

9    1.250    0.655

10    1.219    0.639

11    1.188    0.622

12    1.156    0.606

13    1.125    0.590

14    1.094    0.573

15    1.063    0.557

16    1.031    0.540

17    1.000    0.524

18    0.969    0.508

19    0.938    0.491

20    0.906    0.475

 

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Thanks for the info and the example... that’s a lot for my little brain, I’m a manual labor type dude.. but I’ll study it, maybe my math will come back to me and I’ll understand it after I work the equations out on paper myself.. I think I can get it.

 

So, I’m not sure how to navigate this site.. do I just stay here on this thread and go back and forth with you, and whoever? Or am I suppose to move to a different thread now?

Thanks, Howard

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Instead of trying to figure out the math, just use the table I created for you at the end of my last message.  Each time you want to do a new reduction, just read it from the table and weigh your dose on the scale.

 

You can do both - stay on this thread and read other stuff.  I will see your messages on this thread because I know about it.

 

There are so much other supportive information - please explore the website.

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So, I’m not sure how to navigate this site.. do I just stay here on this thread and go back and forth with you, and whoever? Or am I suppose to move to a different thread now?

Thanks, Howard

 

Just look around the forum and if you see a thread that interests or speaks to you then feel free to jump in and comment.  Or if you'd like to get feedback on an issue that's important to you then you can start your own thread.  Don't be afraid to jump in and experiment a bit, it's easy when you get the hang of it.

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