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Please help me taper


[Da...]

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A little about me...

I was on the antidepressant citalopram for 7 years from 2011 to 2018. I tapered too quickly based on my doctor's advice. I had withdrawal symptoms right away but did not know they were withdrawal. I had constant intrusive thoughts for 2 years as well as many other symptoms.

 

In October 2020 I reinstated 0.5mg citalopram and immediately felt worse. I did this for 2 days and stopped. After hearing people say it gets worse before better, I reinstated 3 more times at low doses and for short periods. There was also a low dose 4 day prozac stint in there. I developed akathisia.

 

I started taking ativan for my akathisia on December 14 2020. I take split doses...0.25mg in the morning, 0.25mg at supper and 0.50mg at bedtime. It helped a lot for 2 weeks but now I feel like I'm getting worse. The ativan doesnt seem to be helping much now. I want off benzos. Right now I dissolve my tablet in water and draw out with a syringe. What should I do? I feel extremely trapped. I dont want worse akathisia but I dont want a long term benzo dependence either.

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[73...]
I think that it would be good for you to get stable again.  What happens if you take your dose as a solid pill instead of dissolving it in water?
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[73...]

I think you can quarter the pill pretty accurately by eye.  Since you use one pill per day, if you're a bit low or high on one of the quarter pill doses, it will even out with the next dose.  You can get more precise by purchasing an inexpensive milligram scale.  A lot of people buy a Gem-20 balance from Amazon.  Costs around $22 and works pretty well for the money.

 

Ativan is very poorly soluble in water.  That's not a very good approach for taking/tapering this drug.

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Thank you.  I actually just got a milligram jewelry scale.  How do i use this?  Do i crush the pill?  Do i just file it down until it weighs a certain amount?  I am very unfamiliar with dry tapering.  I'm also very new to this forum so forgive me if i should be looking somewhere for this information.  I browsed the tapering section but didn't see how to precisely dry taper.

 

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[73...]

Weight 10 pills to determine an average weight of one pill.

 

That (average) weight is the amount of pill material needed for 1 mg of drug.

 

So a quarter of that pill's weight is needed for a 0.25 mg dose.  And half of the pill's weight is needed for 0.50 mg.  Easy peasy.

 

You can probably split the pill with a pill splitter or knife then add or subtract little pieces to achieve the desired weight.  Don't fret if you're 1-2 mg off when you weight doses out. 

 

To taper, you'll simply decrease one or more doses by a small amount.  We generally recommend cuts of no greater than 10%.  Many people make smaller cuts than that.  Cuts can be made every couple of weeks, depending on how you're feeling.  Some people opt to make very small cuts on a daily basis.  Their reductions are usually less than 1%, but they'll make a reduction daily (again, depending on how they're feeling).

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Hello

I'm thinking I want to do a liquid taper instead. I know to dissolve the benzo in alcohol and then add water. Maybe a dumb question but I know we should not drink any alcohol in withdrawal at all. Will the alcohol in this liquid solution affect me? I'm confused about this. Thank you.

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[73...]
You'll use small amounts of alcohol that should not affect your withdrawal.  Grind up the pill and dissolve it in 3-4 ml of alcohol (that's about 1/8th of a 'shot').  80-proof stuff like vodka, gin, whisky, etcetera work fine.  Let it dissolve for several minutes (with occasional mixing).  Then add the desired amount of water.  Some people make the solution up to 100 ml.  Some make 300 ml.  Mix well, remove the amount you are cutting and drink the rest.
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