Moderator Emeritus scallywag Posted August 22, 2016 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted August 22, 2016 Troyer -- I've merged 2 other topics you started into this one, formerly "Troyer Medical Marijuana" and "Micro Taper of Cymbalta," so that all your information is in one place. We've got a "one intro per 'customer' " rule for that reason. I see that you're following this thread -- you'll get notifications of new posts. You may want to save this page as a favorite or a bookmark so that you can get back to it easily. Why are you considering a weekly reductions of 1 bead (0.17 mg)? This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to 0.0 mg Aug. 12; details here scallywag's IntroductionOnline spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet Link to comment
Troyer Posted August 22, 2016 Author Share Posted August 22, 2016 Troyer -- I've merged 2 other topics you started into this one, formerly "Troyer Medical Marijuana" and "Micro Taper of Cymbalta," so that all your information is in one place. We've got a "one intro per 'customer' " rule for that reason. I see that you're following this thread -- you'll get notifications of new posts. You may want to save this page as a favorite or a bookmark so that you can get back to it easily. Why are you considering a weekly reductions of 1 bead (0.17 mg)? Hi Scallywag, Sorry about that, I really wasn't sure where to post and couldn't find my original one. I was thinking about taking 1 out this week, 2 next week, 3 the following week, and so on. I'm just trying to go as slow as possible since I've been on it for 10 years now, and I'm trying to avoid w/d symptoms. I see you are also on Cymbalta and are down to 13.2 mg. That's great! I'm very sensitive to medication and I tried to taper too quickly before. Plus I thought this would be simpler for me to do instead of the 10% taper. After reading everything about it I still don't understand completely how to take the right amount of pellets each time. I'm not even sure if I understand how to do the micro taper correctly. I have been taking benzos off and on since 1986 because I started experiencing panic attacks after an unnecessary hysterectomy. In 1997 a dr prescribed Ativan and told me that I would be better off taking it daily. I went off of it finally in 2006 cold turkey with horrible withdrawal symtoms. My family dr prescribed Cymbalta for my anxiety in 2006. I decided to try a taper in March of this yr, but stupidly by mistake did it with the generic brand instead of switching to the regular brand. I was down to 2 of the mini-tablets when I started having nausea, anxiety, etc. I didn't know what else to do so I went back on the regular dose of 30mg once a day. Gender Female Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus scallywag Posted August 23, 2016 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted August 23, 2016 I understand now. You'll want to build in hold periods of 3-4 weeks. Making weekly reductions with no breaks won't allow your CNS (central nervous system) to catch up to the changes. One of our members+moderators, brassmonkey, has done something similar with Paxil, "the brassmonkey slide": Week 1: small cut Week 2: small cut (same amount) Week 3: small cut Week 4: small cut Week 5: hold at dose Week 6: hold at dose back to week 1. This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to 0.0 mg Aug. 12; details here scallywag's IntroductionOnline spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet Link to comment
Troyer Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 Even if I'm just removing 1 pellet each week at .17 mg? I thought I was being very conservative doing it this way. I have been taking benzos off and on since 1986 because I started experiencing panic attacks after an unnecessary hysterectomy. In 1997 a dr prescribed Ativan and told me that I would be better off taking it daily. I went off of it finally in 2006 cold turkey with horrible withdrawal symtoms. My family dr prescribed Cymbalta for my anxiety in 2006. I decided to try a taper in March of this yr, but stupidly by mistake did it with the generic brand instead of switching to the regular brand. I was down to 2 of the mini-tablets when I started having nausea, anxiety, etc. I didn't know what else to do so I went back on the regular dose of 30mg once a day. Gender Female Link to comment
Moderator brassmonkey Posted August 23, 2016 Moderator Share Posted August 23, 2016 Hi Troyer-- building in some hold periods is very important. These drugs work by making physical changes to ones brain. These changes require the presence to the drug to work properly. When we reduce the amount of the drug the brain has to rebuild itself to work without it. Making those changes take time, by holding we allow the brain to catch up with the repair work before we take away more of its "needed" drug. Otherwise the little bits of unfinished repairs start adding up and at some point cause the entire thing to come crashing down. Reducing by one pellet a week is good, adding the hold is even better. 20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013. Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks. The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better. Final Dose 0.016mg. Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017 "It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general." Stephen Hawking Link to comment
Troyer Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 Hi brassmonkey, Wow, the pellets are so teeny, tiny that I thought it would be okay to take one out every week since most people seem to decrease their dose by 10% each time. This will take many years with the holds built in but I don't want to fail again so I will be patient. Thank you and scallywag for the advice. It sure has taken a long time for me to get it through my thick head how powerful this drug really is. I have been taking benzos off and on since 1986 because I started experiencing panic attacks after an unnecessary hysterectomy. In 1997 a dr prescribed Ativan and told me that I would be better off taking it daily. I went off of it finally in 2006 cold turkey with horrible withdrawal symtoms. My family dr prescribed Cymbalta for my anxiety in 2006. I decided to try a taper in March of this yr, but stupidly by mistake did it with the generic brand instead of switching to the regular brand. I was down to 2 of the mini-tablets when I started having nausea, anxiety, etc. I didn't know what else to do so I went back on the regular dose of 30mg once a day. Gender Female Link to comment
Moderator brassmonkey Posted August 23, 2016 Moderator Share Posted August 23, 2016 It's truly frightening how powerful they are. Yesterday I dropped to 0.4mg of paxil. The amount of powder is smaller that the "o" on powder, yet I can still feel some effects from it. And to think I was once on 100X that much (40mg). Wrapping ones head around the time factor is a tough one. I have found it much better to track progress and not how much further I have to go. My original plan would have had me totally off about a year and a half ago. By setting a plan and sticking to it and adjusting as needed I will be drug free in a few months. In total it's taken five years to do it, but the payoff has been in not suffering the severe WD that so many of the other members here talk about. Not that I've been symptom free, far from it, but it has been manageable the entire time. That's why I advocate the slow taper, because I know it works. 20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013. Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks. The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better. Final Dose 0.016mg. Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017 "It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general." Stephen Hawking Link to comment
Troyer Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 This makes me feel so much better! Thank you for sharing your story with me and congratulations on you being almost drug free. Makes me hopeful that I can really do it this time. I have been taking benzos off and on since 1986 because I started experiencing panic attacks after an unnecessary hysterectomy. In 1997 a dr prescribed Ativan and told me that I would be better off taking it daily. I went off of it finally in 2006 cold turkey with horrible withdrawal symtoms. My family dr prescribed Cymbalta for my anxiety in 2006. I decided to try a taper in March of this yr, but stupidly by mistake did it with the generic brand instead of switching to the regular brand. I was down to 2 of the mini-tablets when I started having nausea, anxiety, etc. I didn't know what else to do so I went back on the regular dose of 30mg once a day. Gender Female Link to comment
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