I'm in serious need of help with a taper plan. Thanks!!!!

Hello, 

I've been taking benzos for about 7 years after initially being given a prescription during a serious illness/pain crisis.  My health recovered and I'm sooooo ready to get this stuff out of my system.  I have my doctor's blessing and support and she wants this for me as much as I do.

I switched from Klonopin (.5mg) to Valium (5mg) a few months ago in preparation for a taper. However, I was trying to do a dry cut taper and realized that I was going too fast (25% reduction) and it wasn't successful due to withdrawal effects.  Do any of you get CRAZY hot flashes when withdrawing?  I mean, thanks to menopause my internal thermostat is broken anyway, but withdrawal seems to send it into high gear. 

I've decided to be super kind to myself and do a slower taper with guidance from all of you.  Here is my info. Would someone be willing to create a schedule for me to follow for titration (milk) tapering?  Thanks in advance!!

Here's my information:

Start date: September 24

Valium Dosage: 5 mg x 1 per day (the orange tablets)

Reduction rate: 10% weekly (per the suggestions of this group)

Using a 100ml container

Again, thank you SO MUCH!

Hello Lisbonlady,

I'm sure that we can help you.

One thing I noticed in your post, you were crossed from 0.5mg of K to 5mg diazepam; by Ashton equivalents I think this is a 50% reduction in equivalent benzo dosage. If you weathered this cross well, I think you're very fortunate and this could be a good sign that your taper will be well tolerated. If there's more to your story about the crossover this might be valuable to share at some point. For now I'll stick to answering your tapering questions.

A taper schedule is a plan, but not a promise. I suggest implementing a symptom-based tapering approach, where you adjust your percent-based tapering rate depending on your withdrawal symptoms. To do this, I suggest setting important functionality goals as clearly as possible (sleep, appetite, exercise, etc.), based on what you need to function in your life. Then I suggest adjusting your rate from reduction to reduction to meet these goals, and holding between reductions long enough to recovery any functionality lost before making another reduction.

If you want to start at 10%/week you can. That's not ideal IMO for diazepam, which can take several weeks to realize a reduction and several more weeks of holding to recovery from increased symptom severity if the rate is too fast. I suggest starting with 10%/2-weeks maximum, but the decision is yours. If you want to do weekly reductions, I suggest starting with 5%/week maximum.

I understand you will be deconstructing a 5mg tablet in 100ml of whole homogenized milk, i.e. the milk method, which creates a 0.05mg/ml suspension. I understand you will be discarding some from this amount to get your remaining consumption dose; I suggest following all the instructions around the forum for safe handling and dosing of a relatively unstable suspension such as made with milk. Most simply, I suggest giving enough time (an hour maybe) for total deconstruction of the tablet(s), vigorous stirring/shaking immediately before withdrawing your discard amount from the middle of the volume of liquid, and after consuming the milk doing a light rinse of the measuring vessel with water and consuming this water to get all the medicine with your dose.

To adjust your taper as you go, I will share with you the math to calculate each discard volume based on the previous using a desired percent reduction. It's pretty simple...

1] Calculate Current Consumption Volume

100ml - (current discard volume) = (current consumption volume)

ex. 100ml - 0ml = 100ml

2] Convert Desired % Reduction to Decimal Form of % Reduction

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

ex. 10 / 100 = 0.1

3] Calculate New Discard Volume

(current consumption volume) * 0.1 + (current discard volume) = (new discard volume)

ex. 100ml * 0.1 + 0ml = 10ml

Simply repeat the above three equations in-order every time you want to take a reduction and you will get a new percent-based discard amount at the end. I suggest recording this volume in a tapering journal along with the date, any withdrawal symptoms you're experiencing and their severity.

You can also get your current dose by calculating...

(current consumption volume) / 0.05mg/ml = (current dose in mg)

ex. 100ml * 0.05mg/ml = 5mg

Edit: Fixed math typo above.

I suggest holding as long as you need to between doses to recover from any increase in symptom severity so that you can meet your functionality goals. And I suggest adjusting the taper rate as necessary if your functionality goals are repeatedly compromised with reductions.

I don't mean to worry you with all my cautions and concerns; I think it's better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully you've had an easy time so far, and you'll have smooth sailing the rest of the way!

Let us know if you need more help!

Thank you so much!!  I made the switch early last summer from klonopin to diazepam, but I was living abroad and walking a lot(!), so I was getting exercise and distracted, which helped manage any withdrawal symptoms.  However, we're home now for the academic year and I have found that about four days after I reduce my dosage by a 25% cut (which was recommended to me) I have disabling hot flashes and sweating and have to go back to the original dosage to stop them. So I need to slow way down or this won't be successful. 

Thankfully, I have a very supportive doctor, but she told me to cut my dosage by 50% and then keep reducing it.  If I can't handle a 25% reduction, a 50% reduction would really not work.  So, I realized that I need encouragement and support from this wonderful support forum. 

Again, thank you!

Robin