Hi..m from india and on 1 mg clonazepam from 2 and half months and before that 0.25..i m looking for simple taper method.mi weak in maths i cant do calculations like jewellers scale n all..while clonazepam is insoluble in water anybody have idea what do i do?
Hi Juve, and welcome! The easiest way for you to taper is going to be using a compounding pharmacy to prepare your doses for you. Otherwise, if you do it yourself there will be some measure of math involved.
Venlafaxine (tapering) - Current dose 17.92 mg Trazodone - 50 mg Levothyroxine - 25 mcg “Your brain and body know how to heal. Trust the process and keep going.” Please Note: I am not a healthcare professional. Any advice given is based on personal experience and that of others in the lay withdrawal community.
How are you doing, Juve? Yes, getting used to the math can take some time but I see that you are already preparing for your taper and are planning to get a jeweler's scale. That's a good first step. It's good to get a metal nail file, too, since that's useful for shaving your tablets to the size you want.
As for the math, what I have found helpful is to use the Online Calculator. You can do a search on Google for it. That will do all the math for you. What you need to know first is the average weight of your tablets. Usually that means weigh 5 tablets together on your jeweler's scale, see what the total weight of those is, and then divide the total weight by 5 using the Onlline Calculator. Next, decide on what reduction percent you want for your first cut. It's generally recommended to have that percent number somewhere between 5-10%. You may want to start at 5% to see how you do and then adjust that later depending on any symptoms. So, as an example, let's say you decide to start at 5% reduction. That means that you will end up with 95% of that tablet. Let's say the average weight of your tablet (as figured above) was .140 gram. Then, since you want 95% of that whole tablet, the numbers you'd plug into the online calculator would be: .140 (the weight of your tablet) X .95 (that's the decimal form of the 95% of the tablet you want to keep). So the weight of the tablet you'd want to see on your scale would be .133 gram (.140 X .95).
When it comes time for your next reduction, the math is the same--only the numbers change. So your 2nd reduction would use your current dosage (not your original tablet weight), which is .133 gram. If you wanted your 2nd reduction to be the same 5% reduction as in your first, then using the online calculator, you'd plug in .133 X .95, which equal .126 (your reduced dosage). Just do this for every reduction step in your taper.
If you decide you want to change the percent of your reduction, like from 5% to 10%. Then first calculate, as you did with 5%, the percent of the tablet you want to keep. So for 10% reduction, the remaining tablet percent will be 100% (the whole tablet) - 10% (the percent you want to reduce it by), which equals 90% (the percent of tablet you want to keep). Like in your first reduction, just change that 90% to its decimal form, which is .90. Then plug that number into the online calculator and multiply it by the current weight of your tablet ( which is .126 gram now) and the result will be the new reduced weight you will want to see using your scale.
Hope this helps. It sounds a little complicated, but after doing it some, it will be quite easy.
That's very helpful information Gaucho...thank you for sharing all that!
Venlafaxine (tapering) - Current dose 17.92 mg Trazodone - 50 mg Levothyroxine - 25 mcg “Your brain and body know how to heal. Trust the process and keep going.” Please Note: I am not a healthcare professional. Any advice given is based on personal experience and that of others in the lay withdrawal community.
