☼ erer: CT from Cymbalta and in trouble with Zyprexa, Diazepam and Valdoxan

[erer]

I am down to 6 drops of Diazepam, that is 2,1 mg.

I started tapering Valdoxan, I am on 22,5 mg.

[Tanha]

On 4/4/2019 at 11:08 AM, erer said:

I am down to 6 drops of Diazepam, that is 2,1 mg.

I started tapering Valdoxan, I am on 22,5 mg.

You made your way down to nearly 2 mg. Slowly and safely. So it can be done! Such good news for all of us.

[erer]

5 hours ago, Tanha said:

You made your way down to nearly 2 mg. Slowly and safely. So it can be done! Such good news for all of us.

 

I am actually down to 1,8 mg Diazepam. My last cut was Diazepam too. Now waiting to stabilise and then attempting another cut of Valdoxan hopefully.

[Altostrata]

Hello, erer. How are you doing with the Valdoxan taper?

[erer]

0 Diazepam since February.

[Glosmom]

Congratulations, @erer!  Great news.  Hoping your continued tapering with Valdoxan goes smoothly and also hope you are feeling okay. Best wishes, Glosmom

[ChessieCat]

erer posted this in their benzo topic:

  

13 hours ago, erer said:

 

It has been about 5 months since quitting Diazepam and I am dropping in to say that it is going well  
I am very happy to be off Diazepam! No notable symptoms have arised since I have taken the last dose (coming off the last dose was not more difficult than the previous reductions).
Best of luck to all of those who are still tapering! 

 

 

[Nicjk]

Hi @erer, I am pleased to read that you were able to taper off Olanzapine. I am just about to start my tapering process using the orodispersible tablets. I have a 10ml syringe that I was planning to use because I am on 5mg of Olanzapine currently. Do you think that 10ml of water will be enough to dissolve the tablet in? 

[erer]

20 minutes ago, Nicjk said:

Hi @erer, I am pleased to read that you were able to taper off Olanzapine. I am just about to start my tapering process using the orodispersible tablets. I have a 10ml syringe that I was planning to use because I am on 5mg of Olanzapine currently. Do you think that 10ml of water will be enough to dissolve the tablet in? 

 

I personally felt that dissolving the tablet in a larger quantity of water made the margin of error smaller - there is more water, the tablet is divided in a larger amount of water so if i personally make a 1 mm error pushing out the water from the syringe, the difference will be less. That was my own gut feeling. I don't really see a reason why you shouldn't be able to successfully taper using a 10 ml syringe. And perhaps this would make the math easier for you. Good luck on your journey!

[erer]

While I am here, I would like to take the opportunity to mark down that I am over 3 months off all meds. 

 

I finished tapering Valdoxan in the summer, taking my very last dose on July 14th 2020. I am doing well health wise. I have been having trouble sleeping lately, but I mostly contribute that to the stress of life that is weighing on me at the moment. 

 

I can tell you - it feels great to finally be off . The thing I was looking forward to the most was being able to just get sleepy in the evening, watching a film or something, and just being able to let myself fall right asleep on the couch not having to worry that, well, if I don't take my daily drop of poison I will DIE! It still makes me anxious thinking that "there is something important  I was supposed to be doing", but then I remind myself that no, I am not a slave to these drugs any more. It takes some getting used to - thinking of mysef not as the person dependent on the poison, my "dealer" and the psychiatric system that turns my stomach.

 

Good luck to all of you tapering! 

 

 

[Erell]

Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourself ❤💪

And thank you for taking the time to let us know how you do !

Can't wait to read your Success Story one day 🤗

[ChessieCat]

Because you're feeling better, I added our cheerful "here comes the sun" symbol ☼ to the title of your Intro topic, to show you're recovering.

 

Please continue to let us know how you're doing. I hope you will add your story to our Recovery Success Stories eventually!

[Nicjk]

On 10/23/2020 at 6:16 PM, erer said:

 

I personally felt that dissolving the tablet in a larger quantity of water made the margin of error smaller - there is more water, the tablet is divided in a larger amount of water so if i personally make a 1 mm error pushing out the water from the syringe, the difference will be less. That was my own gut feeling. I don't really see a reason why you shouldn't be able to successfully taper using a 10 ml syringe. And perhaps this would make the math easier for you. Good luck on your journey!

Thanks so much for sharing your experience @erer. I actually managed to get hold of a 20ml syringe with 1ml markings because I agree with your logic. Did you ever do reductions of less than 10%? @ChessieCat has suggested that I try and reduce by 2.5% or 5% to test how my CNS reacts to the reduction but I can't work out how to measure such small reductions using the syringe 

[erer]

1 hour ago, Nicjk said:

 @ererDid you ever do reductions of less than 10%? @ChessieCat has suggested that I try and reduce by 2.5% or 5% to test how my CNS reacts to the reduction but I can't work out how to measure such small reductions using the syringe 

Yes, of course I did. A lot. I just calculated the required amount to take in ml and when it came to measuring I used my eye and logic (:)) to determine where the line on the syringe should be and drew a line with a marker there so I would not create a difference by judging this amount every day. 

 

For example if the syringe has a 15 ml and a 16 ml line and my calculations say I should take 15,8 ml of the liquid, logic says the line should ve somewhere near the 16 ml line. So I visually divide the gap between line 15 and line 16 by ten and decide where the .8 ml line should be.

 

Hope this helps!

[Nicjk]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:52 PM, erer said:

Yes, of course I did. A lot. I just calculated the required amount to take in ml and when it came to measuring I used my eye and logic (:)) to determine where the line on the syringe should be and drew a line with a marker there so I would not create a difference by judging this amount every day. 

 

For example if the syringe has a 15 ml and a 16 ml line and my calculations say I should take 15,8 ml of the liquid, logic says the line should ve somewhere near the 16 ml line. So I visually divide the gap between line 15 and line 16 by ten and decide where the .8 ml line should be.

 

Hope this helps!

Yes that helps a lot! Thanks so much. 

[Nicjk]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:52 PM, erer said:

Yes, of course I did. A lot. I just calculated the required amount to take in ml and when it came to measuring I used my eye and logic (:)) to determine where the line on the syringe should be and drew a line with a marker there so I would not create a difference by judging this amount every day. 

 

For example if the syringe has a 15 ml and a 16 ml line and my calculations say I should take 15,8 ml of the liquid, logic says the line should ve somewhere near the 16 ml line. So I visually divide the gap between line 15 and line 16 by ten and decide where the .8 ml line should be.

 

Hope this helps!

One more question. Did you have broken sleep or any sleep issues when you first started tapering Olanzapine? I started tapering two nights ago and my sleep has been broken. I am unsure if this is normal when tapering from Olanzapine. Thanks again! 

[erer]

9 hours ago, Nicjk said:

One more question. Did you have broken sleep or any sleep issues when you first started tapering Olanzapine? I started tapering two nights ago and my sleep has been broken. I am unsure if this is normal when tapering from Olanzapine. Thanks again! 

 

Yes, very much so! Broken sleep is a good way to describe it. I would wake up many times during a night, have terrible RLS, also needing to eat badly. 

I think it was fluctuations in blood sugar. The pattern of waking up would be almost regular. I would go to sleep and wake in a few hours' time and then I'd get up, stretch, eat etc, go back to sleep and wake again in a couple of hours and so on and so on.

[Nicjk]

6 hours ago, erer said:

 

Yes, very much so! Broken sleep is a good way to describe it. I would wake up many times during a night, have terrible RLS, also needing to eat badly. 

I think it was fluctuations in blood sugar. The pattern of waking up would be almost regular. I would go to sleep and wake in a few hours' time and then I'd get up, stretch, eat etc, go back to sleep and wake again in a couple of hours and so on and so on.

That sounds awful! I have read that a lot of people have broken sleep while tapering olanzapine. But the RLS and needing to eat would have made it much worse for you! 

[Spideygsm]

I didn’t have broken sleep. I have no sleep. Severe insomnia but I didn’t taper like SA recommends

[Nicjk]

2 hours ago, Spideygsm said:

I didn’t have broken sleep. I have no sleep. Severe insomnia but I didn’t taper like SA recommends

Do you still have severe insomnia or has it passed? 

[Spideygsm]

I had insomnia even before I started taking Olanzapine. I’m still have insomnia to this day. Nothing like I had during my Olanzapine withdrawal. 
 

I had severe insomnia (really just no sleeping) from 2 days after I started my taper until about 4 months after my last dose. One day, I started sleeping 2 hours, then 3 hours. My sleep is still poor (4 hours max). The difference is my head is clear, I don’t feel drugged by Olanzapine, and I can feel emotions. 
 

The journey was miserable, but I’d do it all over again to get off that miserable dangerous drug. 

[Glosmom]

Congratulations @erer!  So happy for you! You gave me so much inspiration a couple years ago reading about your antipsychotic taper!  So glad you are now off all drugs. Kindest Regards!  Glosmom

[Nicjk]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:52 PM, erer said:

Yes, of course I did. A lot. I just calculated the required amount to take in ml and when it came to measuring I used my eye and logic (:)) to determine where the line on the syringe should be and drew a line with a marker there so I would not create a difference by judging this amount every day. 

 

For example if the syringe has a 15 ml and a 16 ml line and my calculations say I should take 15,8 ml of the liquid, logic says the line should ve somewhere near the 16 ml line. So I visually divide the gap between line 15 and line 16 by ten and decide where the .8 ml line should be.

 

Hope this helps!

Hi @erer, I hope all is well with you. When you were tapering, did you spend much time trying to remove bubbles from the syringe? I started tapering using a syringe but I would always suck bubbles into the syringe 

[erer]

3 hours ago, Nicjk said:

@ererWhen you were tapering, did you spend much time trying to remove bubbles from the syringe? I started tapering using a syringe but I would always suck bubbles into the syringe 

I did not find it difficult. I would just hold the syringe upright, pull a little air in, then tap it gently with my fingers to get the bubbles to disappear, then push the air out again holding the syringe slightly tilted.

[ChessieCat]

5 minutes ago, erer said:

pull a little air in, then tap it gently with my fingers to get the bubbles to disappear, then push the air out again

 

I'm going to try this tonight.  I've been having trouble getting the air bubbles to release from inside the syringe.

 

[Rosetta]

Congratulations on completing your tapers!

 

🦋Rosetta

[erer]

5 hours ago, Rosetta said:

Congratulations on completing your tapers!

 

🦋Rosetta

Thank you, Rosetta

[erer]

Yesterday I got a question in my mailbox asking me how I dealth with the fear of making things worse by tapering while already in chaos.

 

So I thought I'd share my response here, in case anyone else is interested in reading it:
 

The short answer to your question is that I just really believed that getting rid of the meds was the only answer, that this was the only thing that (in some far away future) could bring ANY relief at all. And of course, the torture was so severe that I could not tell very well what was due to tapering and what was not. 

 

If you read my thread carefully you'll see that I did have long holds aswell. So it was not like I was just tapering all the time. When I felt it was necessary, I held a long time. The only way I can tell you is to (I know it does not sound like much advice :)) listen to your body. Trust your own gut feeling and listen to your body. And if that gut feeling is telling you you cannot handle things getting even a little worse, then clearly you are not ready to be tapering at this point. But if you find there is strenght in you to endure just one taper, then you can consider your circumstances and perhaps plan to do that one taper. 

I think the clue is to just plan one taper at a time. One dosage. That's all you can do. Do one taper, listen to what your body is saying. Wait a long time to be safe and sure. And then, if it feels right, you can start thinking about doing another one. This is how I approached it. I did NOT plan a long taper ahead of me at the beginning. Well, that's not entirely true. Of course I WANTED to taper  and get rid of my meds. But I also calculated that the timeline would be about 10 years. So all I could do was just take it one reduction at a time and not be pressed by some sort of a plan saying I had to reduce every month or anything like that.

[NNhope]

Hi erer,

 

Hope all is well with you.

[erer]

6 hours ago, NNhope said:

Hi erer,

 

Hope all is well with you.

Thank you for checking in. I am good

[erer]

I haven't visited here for a long time, but I came to read someone's thread, someone I know and something caught my eye there on which I want to comment here for my thread.

 

So I thought I would leave this entry for myself regarding how it feels to take supplements after being off everything for 1,5 years.

 

I take and have taken numerous vitamins, minerals and supplements during this time and the only thing I find I still react to is zinc for some reason. I try to stay away, because it is the one thing I have found that really makes me feel unwell. Otherwise I have been taking supplements eagerly (very eagerly!) and nothing.

 

Recently I even did something, that whilst tapering brought on one of the biggest waves I have ever had. It was soaking in a Dead Sea pool in a spa. It contains a high concentration of different minerals and is said to be highly detoxing. Years ago it brought on a horrendous wave. Now - nothing

[concerned]

Congratulations! Your journey is an inspiration to me.
 

Concerning your Zyprexa taper, I was wondering why you began taking larger and larger cuts once you hit 0.66 mg. 
 

Did you experience any worsening of withdrawal symptoms? 
 

I’m sure the home stretch felt wonderful!

 

Thank you very much!

[erer]

On 7/23/2022 at 12:19 AM, concerned said:

 

Concerning your Zyprexa taper, I was wondering why you began taking larger and larger cuts once you hit 0.66 mg. 
 

Did you experience any worsening of withdrawal symptoms? 
 

Hmm, I don't really remember, but it must have been because I could

I wanted to be off this poison and I probably saw that I could handle these cuts.

 

Cannot really comment on the symptoms in retrospect, it was a very extreme time and I had constant debilitating symptoms at all times.

 

If you can see my timeline (I myself am not looking at it right now), then it is also worth noting that at the very end of 2016 (or was it the end of 2017? Whichever matches the time of the Zyprexa taper!) I cut out all dairy (had been off gluten for years already) and cutting dairy made me take a big leap for the better together with the lowering dosage of the poison. Cannot have those opioid peptides in the brain messing things up 😉