Xanax buddies: please share which tapering method used to get off!

I hear so many different things on here about tapering alprazolam(xanax). I'm confused.

Started a dry taper period off 2mg for a couple of weeks, then updosed back to 2mg because of side effects, moved to liquid, I'm a little over 7 days into a 2-3 week holding period from the switch as advised here on BB, to see how body responds to the transition.  Can these terrible chest tightening and shallow breathing Sx be from the switchover? Am I getting improper doses because I'm doing a water taper? I am afraid, that I will never get this down correctly.  Terror.

Feel like I'm not making sense.  I hate to switch methods again or revert, but I want to know if a water taper isn't the best.

 

I understand how confusing this can all be. There are many different ways to taper benzos. There are maybe as many different ways as there are taperers.

 

There is no way for us to know if you're getting inaccurate doses from your water suspension, or if that inaccuracy is significant enough to cause symptoms; this is a trial-and-discover type operation, like most of medicine in my opinion.

 

I wonder if someone on the forum has experience using Ora-Plus; this is one of many commercial suspension vehicles that can be bought in drug stores or online and used to suspend medications. I have never used it myself but at least to my understanding, it has the convenience of not needing to deal with drug solubility and provides a number of beneficial properties such as preservation, pH buffering, and of course, far superior suspension of the drug particles than water.

 

A water taper is, as I've been saying, not "the best" in my opinion. It might be "the best" for you given in your circumstances and if it is I suggest doing what you can to get your method as reliable as possible. I gave you the tips I know of for pure water; there is also an alcohol-soak stage that many people include with various rules of thumb for how much ethanol per milligram of medicine.

http://benzo.alwaysdata.net/titration/titrationHelp.htm?help=Readme+First

 

I suggest regarding your terror and anxiety as withdrawal symptoms. I know these can be hard to manage when we have this huge responsibility to lead our own taper, especially with unfamiliar and/or unconventional methods. I hope this will improve with holding at your dose until you're stable.

 

It seems we're all needing to take this tapering business a little differently; what worked for others might not work for you, and what hasn't worked for others might suit you perfectly. The only way that I know to find out is by trial and discovery.

 

I suggest tracking your symptoms and trying to stabilize here with your water suspension. If you cannot stabilize on your current liquid approach I would suggest returning to tablets, stabilizing there if possible and considering other options for tapering.

 

I hope this helps.

Thank you slow and steady.  If I do return to tablets, and forgive me if you already sent me a link, but how do I know how much to file off of a tablet. I read it should be 5-10% of the total dose?  IS there a table or chart that helps you figure things out?  I'm sorry if my questions are tedious or repetitive.

Dry tapering requires a scale; ideally the most expensive accurate scale you can afford, but many people manage on cheap scales with a few tricks and patience. Liquid is much easier to measure and dose IMO, but scales avoid the mystery of a liquid and replace it with the mystery of an electronically measured weight.

 

A percent based reduction by pill weight is very simple to calculate. I'll show all three steps, but only the last one is necessary to repeat if you're going to keep going with the same % reduction rate at each reduction.

 

1] Convert % Reduction to % Remaining

100 - (desired % reduction) = (desired % remaining)

ex. 100 - 5 = 95

 

2] Convert % to Decimal

(desired % remaining) / 100 = (decimal form of % remaining)

ex. 95 / 100 = 0.95

 

3] Calculate Remaining Pill Weight

(current daily pill weight) * (decimal form of % remaining) = (new daily pill weight)

ex. 261mg * 0.95 = 248mg

 

For alprazolam tapering, I suggest considering a daily micro taper (DMT). If you want to do this dry or wet there is a very handy DMT schedule generator made by Jim Hawk. I wrote an instructional for it here:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=254653.5#post_generator

 

I hope this helps!