Reshan30: Paxil

[Ninabird]

Hi @Reshan30

Im so glad you found SA. It’s truly a wonderful  and safe place to get help w tapering and WD support. Reach out if you need to chat. Wishing you love and light. 🌺❤️
NB

[brassmonkey]

Over the years I've been doing this I've learned the hard way that it is best not to give personal information to members. I'm quite sure you are a fine trustworthy person, but my own paranoia gets the best of me. However, I am quite willing to work with you here online. That has its advantages in that the other moderators who have tapered paxil can also help. Having a variety of experiences to draw on can be quite a help. It will also keep all the information we share in one place for easy reference and can be a great help to others who are also tapering.

 

It looks like CC has given you a lot of very good information, enough to really make things confusing. We know you want to taper so we need to decide which method will be best suited to you.

 

There are two main ways to taper, Solid or Liquid. Each has it's pros and cons but both work quite well.

 

Each method requires its own special equipment, it's not expensive, but it's not interchangeable.

 

Doing the solid method take some preparation time every week or so. The capsules you make are very portable if you travel and store for a long time. If you have a cooperative doctor, you can get the medication "compounded" by someone else. This can get expensive fast and is less flexible than doing it yourself.

Doing the liquid method also requires preparation time. If you make your own liquid, it is every three or four days and the homemade liquid needs to be stored in a refrigerator. Some places you can buy premade liquid, but it is sometimes not available and doctors are reluctant to prescribe it. For paxil it does not need refrigerated, but it is hard to transport.

 

Both methods can be accurate in dosing, the liquid is a little more so. The solid method has dosing problems at the end of the taper, which is a long ways off, but they can be worked around.

 

There is a third technique which involves cross tapering to prozac and then doing your taper with that. This is called a Prozac Bridge. I have to mention it, but I do not recommend it because of its very low success rate.

 

Of the two methods mentioned I prefer the solid method because of the storage requirements and portability. What are your thoughts?

[Reshan30]

Hello, and thank you for your information. I preferred the liquid at first but reading what I’ve read here I think it’s best to continue in tablet form because it’s already filled with no questions asked and no adjusting to a liquid which could prove to be to potent for me. I’m already suffering from side effects as well as discontinuation syndrome. I have a pill crusher so I’m able to turn it in to a powder but am not able to swallow big capsules they would have to be very small for me if I did so not sure how I would do that unless I mixed the powder in a shake or something everyday. To weigh out the doses what equipment would I need that would work best for this? The problem for me is having to type all of this out instead of just talking on the phone I understand it’s better written so that you can refer to it later if needed but not exactly easier. 
 

Thanks,

Reshan

[Reshan30]

@Ninabird Thank you very much Nina! How are things coming along for you? 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by ChessieCat
added tag

[Ninabird]

Hi there! I had a great window from early afternoon until this morning. I’m doing ok today. Back in another wave. I take it day by day. Sometime hour by hour. 
min still working and functioning…. Thank goodness. 
 

How are you doing? Glad you found this site. 
 

 

[ChessieCat]

Hi Reshan,

 

Just a tip about posting.  When you quote a post you need to click underneath the quote in the Reply Box and type your response beneath it, otherwise you end up making 2 posts, ie a post with only a quote and then another post with your reply to that post.

[Reshan30]

4 hours ago, ChessieCat said:

Hi Reshan,

 

Just a tip about posting.  When you quote a post you need to click underneath the quote in the Reply Box and type your response beneath it, otherwise you end up making 2 posts, ie a post with only a quote and then another post with your reply to that post.

 

Ok thank you for the tip!

[brassmonkey]

You probably already have most of what you will need to weigh and make up capsules. You will need to purchase a jeweler's scale that measures in milligrams and some small empty gel caps. Both are available from Amazon for reasonable prices.

 

The Scale that most of us use is the Gemini-20. There are a number of clones available too. The thing to look for is that they weigh to 0.001 grams.

 

Empty Gel Caps come in a lot of different sizes from huge to pretty tiny. You are restricted to ones that can hold all the powder that a crushed tablet produces. For 20mgai (milligrams active ingredient) paxil that will be about 250mgpw (milligrams pill weight). So, you will need to use #3 capsules, or you could use 2 #5 capsules and put half the dose in each one. I would start with a bag of 100 to see how they work for you. By the time you use then up you should be able to go to a smaller size.

 

You have a pill crusher already; you will also need a couple of small postit notes and an exacto or other small craft knife.

 

When you get that all pulled together, we can walk through how to weigh the dose and fill the capsules.

 

Before we can start the taper, you need to decide how much you want to decrease by each time and how often. The baseline taper that SA recommends is 10% of your previous dose every four weeks. This works for many people, but some members find the large percentage to be too harsh and causes too many symptoms. So they need to go smaller and slower. It is also possible to do many combinations of percentage and length of time as long as you don't exceed 10% or go faster than four weeks.

 

Many of our members are using the Brassmonkey Slide Method with great success. I designed this method to minimize the symptoms caused by each reduction but still maintain a 10% taper rate. It involves reducing by 2.5% a week for four weeks and then holding for an additional two weeks. This gives a total reduction of 10% every six weeks. Yes, it takes a bit longer, but the reduction of symptoms is so worth the extra time.

 

We can discuss this more while you are waiting for your scales to arrive.

 

[Reshan30]

12 hours ago, brassmonkey said:

You probably already have most of what you will need to weigh and make up capsules. You will need to purchase a jeweler's scale that measures in milligrams and some small empty gel caps. Both are available from Amazon for reasonable prices.

 

The Scale that most of us use is the Gemini-20. There are a number of clones available too. The thing to look for is that they weigh to 0.001 grams.

 

Empty Gel Caps come in a lot of different sizes from huge to pretty tiny. You are restricted to ones that can hold all the powder that a crushed tablet produces. For 20mgai (milligrams active ingredient) paxil that will be about 250mgpw (milligrams pill weight). So, you will need to use #3 capsules, or you could use 2 #5 capsules and put half the dose in each one. I would start with a bag of 100 to see how they work for you. By the time you use then up you should be able to go to a smaller size.

 

You have a pill crusher already; you will also need a couple of small postit notes and an exacto or other small craft knife.

 

When you get that all pulled together, we can walk through how to weigh the dose and fill the capsules.

 

Before we can start the taper, you need to decide how much you want to decrease by each time and how often. The baseline taper that SA recommends is 10% of your previous dose every four weeks. This works for many people, but some members find the large percentage to be too harsh and causes too many symptoms. So they need to go smaller and slower. It is also possible to do many combinations of percentage and length of time as long as you don't exceed 10% or go faster than four weeks.

 

Many of our members are using the Brassmonkey Slide Method with great success. I designed this method to minimize the symptoms caused by each reduction but still maintain a 10% taper rate. It involves reducing by 2.5% a week for four weeks and then holding for an additional two weeks. This gives a total reduction of 10% every six weeks. Yes, it takes a bit longer, but the reduction of symptoms is so worth the extra time.

 

We can discuss this more while you are waiting for your scales to arrive.

 

 

Hello, I've got the scale on the way. I haven't found any capsules tiny enough for me to take. I take Paroxetine 20mg a white little tablet. Could I weigh the powder and put it in my shakes? I asked Pharmacist if the tablet was a delayed release and she said no it wasn't. 

[brassmonkey]

Taking the powder in a shake should not be a problem. I wouldn't mix it in really well though, more like leaving it sit on top or mixed lightly instead. If you mix it in really well, you risk leaving some of it in the little bit left in the glass when you're done. That could throw your dose off. You could also mix it with things like applesauce or fruit juice, not grapefruit juice or anything hot. If I remember rightly the powder can taste pretty nasty, but it's been a while.

 

Have you tried swallowing capsules with a mouthful of well chewed food? Chew up something really well and then pop in the capsule just as you are about to swallow.

[Ninabird]

@Reshan30

 

Hi sweet lady. How are you doing today? I am sending you positive thoughts from cloudy California. ☺️