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Tapering off anti-psychotics


primrose

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Is the rules for tapering off antipsychotics the same as those for AD's

 

Thank you

pregan taper 600mg down to 240mg, daily cuts since xmas

valium, just over 75mg, tapering 0.1 a day, will keep this more udated, cos amounts going down

i have borderline personality, chronic ptsd, and suspected adhd and substance misuse as a symptom, which i am addressing with help of medical staff, drugs agencies & mh sta

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Yes, the same. We suggest an initial trial taper of 10%, hold for a month to see if withdrawal symptoms develop. If they do, back up a little in dosage and taper with smaller reductions.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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Unfortunately there's not the body of anecdotal experience available for tapering antipsychotics that there is for tapering benzos and antidepressants. So you're kind of blazing a new trail. Personally I don't really feel qualified to give good advice in this area, other than my "always" advice, which is "start stable and go very slowly, stop whenever symptoms appear or ramp up at all and hold until stable again." Which can mean a 10% cut followed by weeks of holding, or can mean much smaller cuts and shorter or longer holds. That's the approach I would start with if I were trying to taper an antipsychotic.

 

Also always good at the beginning of any drug taper to wrap your mind around the idea that this may take much longer than you would like it to and much longer than any doctor will tell you it should. Better to take two years and be safe and successful than try to get it done in a few months and fail and end up sicker than ever, in my opinion.

 

The Icarus Project has a guide to tapering off psych meds that I think everyone should download. I think Will Hall is in the process of updating it but I don't know if the new edition is out yet. Regardless, it's worth having.

 

http://theicarusproject.net/HarmReductionGuideComingOffPsychDrugs

 

Also everyone should check out Gianna Kali's blog Beyond Meds for links and resources and withdrawal ideas. Check out her Withdrawal 101. And be sure to dig back into the archives, especially back when she was still posting comments from other people. You may find more histories and suggestions there.

 

Good luck! All my best wishes go with you.

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

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Thanks for that info, Rhi.

 

Seroquel, at least, comes in a liquid form for tapering.

 

primrose is also in the middle of a benzo taper, could you add your $.02 to her Intro topic at http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1155-primrose-tapering-off-valium-others/

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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Hi

 

I went to the icarus project and tried to download their 40 page guide in english.

I followed the link to the relevant pdf document, but it wouldnt direct me to that pdf, instead it kept directing me to the original page with the link on.

 

I hope that makes sense.

pregan taper 600mg down to 240mg, daily cuts since xmas

valium, just over 75mg, tapering 0.1 a day, will keep this more udated, cos amounts going down

i have borderline personality, chronic ptsd, and suspected adhd and substance misuse as a symptom, which i am addressing with help of medical staff, drugs agencies & mh sta

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This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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That link works, thanks, I will have a read of that book.

 

Many thanks

pregan taper 600mg down to 240mg, daily cuts since xmas

valium, just over 75mg, tapering 0.1 a day, will keep this more udated, cos amounts going down

i have borderline personality, chronic ptsd, and suspected adhd and substance misuse as a symptom, which i am addressing with help of medical staff, drugs agencies & mh sta

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I had a quick read of the book.

As I am so anxious, I found a lot of it anxiety provoking, but it is good to know there is guidelines like the 10% rule.

As for needing people around you to suppport you, I have found, as well as others tapering from benzos, that people just do not understand how withdrawal feels, and it's very duration causes them to 'lose interest' or tire of you, as it's a drain on them.

I thought my troubles would be over, once I have come off benzos, but now I fear I have worse to look forward to.

I cannot understand why these fears are still bothering me because I know FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real

pregan taper 600mg down to 240mg, daily cuts since xmas

valium, just over 75mg, tapering 0.1 a day, will keep this more udated, cos amounts going down

i have borderline personality, chronic ptsd, and suspected adhd and substance misuse as a symptom, which i am addressing with help of medical staff, drugs agencies & mh sta

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primrose, it's normal to be afraid of an unknown future. Don't try to push your fear down, acknowledge it and accept your apprehension. You can't control the future, so give up that sense that you must. You'll do the best you can. That's as much as anyone can do.

 

In any unknown situation, there's a 50% chance it will go badly and 50% it will go well. Since you can't know for sure what will happen, believe in the more positive result. Why not?

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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primrose, it's normal to be afraid of an unknown future. Don't try to push your fear down, acknowledge it and accept your apprehension. You can't control the future, so give up that sense that you must. You'll do the best you can. That's as much as anyone can do.

 

In any unknown situation, there's a 50% chance it will go badly and 50% it will go well. Since you can't know for sure what will happen, believe in the more positive result. Why not?

 

You are right about believing in the positive result. I agree in believing in the most positive result, yet I still cannot understand why I am getting these intrusive thoughts.

 

Love

p

pregan taper 600mg down to 240mg, daily cuts since xmas

valium, just over 75mg, tapering 0.1 a day, will keep this more udated, cos amounts going down

i have borderline personality, chronic ptsd, and suspected adhd and substance misuse as a symptom, which i am addressing with help of medical staff, drugs agencies & mh sta

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Well, now you know you tend to have intrusive worrying thoughts, pop on over to our many topics on Psychotherapeutic techniques to cope with withdrawal. You're not the only one who's had to deal with this! Many of us are coping with the very same thing.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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primrose, it's normal to be afraid of an unknown future. Don't try to push your fear down, acknowledge it and accept your apprehension. You can't control the future, so give up that sense that you must. You'll do the best you can. That's as much as anyone can do.

 

In any unknown situation, there's a 50% chance it will go badly and 50% it will go well. Since you can't know for sure what will happen, believe in the more positive result. Why not?

 

You are right about believing in the positive result. I agree in believing in the most positive result, yet I still cannot understand why I am getting these intrusive thoughts.

 

Love

p

 

Intrusive thoughts--like REALLY intrusive, compulsive thoughts--that's a classic benzo w/d symptom, as universal as tinnitus and anxiety and agoraphobia. It's particularly common for people to develop obsessions with health problems and fears about their health. (Also obsessions with relationships and past relationships for some reason.)

 

I don't know if I can emphasize enough how common this is. When you're experiencing it, it's very difficult to get past it or outside of it. It's an interesting phenomenon, actually.

 

It's not easy to address this with the usual "change your thoughts" kind of stuff. I mean, sure, you want to change your thoughts, but something about whatever the benzos and GABA receptors are doing, and whatever the heck else is going on, makes them extremely resistant and "stuck". It's hard to see out of, if that makes sense; something about the phenomenon itself makes it difficult to get any perspective on it. It kind of sucks you in.

 

That's what I think is happening. I think you're stuck in one of the "brain loops" that we get into in benzo withdrawal.

 

It can be hard for your support people because you may need to hear the same reassurances over and over again, and it feels like you're just not listening, but I understand, it's not that you're not listening, it's that your brain is stuck. And I understand about how you want to think positive and it's so hard--it's not that you aren't trying or you're doing something wrong.

 

This will pass eventually. Personally I take it as a sign that I need to slow down my taper when it happens to me.

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

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  • 7 years later...
On 9/5/2011 at 1:19 PM, primrose said:

Hi

 

I went to the icarus project and tried to download their 40 page guide in english.

I followed the link to the relevant pdf document, but it wouldnt direct me to that pdf, instead it kept directing me to the original page with the link on.

 

I hope that makes sense.

Here you can find the harm reduction guide to coming off psychiatric drugs and withdrawal by Will Hall , the Icarus project and freedom center: http://willhall.net/comingoffmeds/

In 2008 I was 16 years old. 2008 - 2010 paxil, clonazepam & semisodium valproate. 2013 - 2017 many psych meds with cold switches and CT's prescribed by psychiatrists.

Nov/30/17 started quetiapine IR tablets 100mg 0-0-1. Dec/1/17 started pristiq 50mg tablets 1-0-0. Jan/14/18 started 1.5mg melatonin 0-0-1

Tramadol: 2 year well done (slow and gradual) taper: from Mar/12/18 to Feb/11/20 

Pristiq taper: Jun/15/20 Converted from pristiq 50mg to efexor xr 75mg for 57 days (felt good).  Aug/11/20 weaned to efexor 37.5mg and stayed there for 2 months with 26 days (felt good). Nov/6/20  CT 0mg of efexor xr (felt good). Total time in tapering pristiq 50mg by converting to efexor xr 75mg: 4 months with 22 days: Jun/15/20 to Nov/6/20. (felt good)

Efexor 0mg and quetiapine 100mg (Nov/6/20 to Dic/11/20) (felt good being without effexor and taking 100mg quetiapine)

Dic/11/20 quetiapine 75mg, so 75mg from Dic/11/20 to Jan/4/21  25 days. Jan/5/21 quetiapine 50mg (1 day in 50mg).

Jan/6/21 1st CT of quetiapine. Mar/1/21 CT melatonin. Felt terrible so Mar/25/21 reinstated 100mg quetiapine. 

100mg quetiapine 19 days (Mar/25/21 - Apr/13/21) Felt good while in quetiapine 100mg. 75mg quetiapine 55 days (Apr/14/21 - Jun/8/21) the 55th day (Jun/8/21)  felt hellish so CT'd quetiapine for a 2nd time on Jun/9/21. 

Jun/9/21 - Nov/16/21 1st days insomnia, anxiety, took cbd and felt very good many days (healed insomnia & anxiety), CT'd ginkgo which made me felt terrible so reinstated ginkgo. Started intolerable back pain (spasm) so tried other herbs along with cbd, then started derealization, panic, indecisiveness, nostalgia & others. Stopped taking cbd & herbs, reinstated quetiapine 75mg Nov/17/21, immediately after taking it, had severe heart palpitations, so Nov/18/21 back to cbd (no quetiapine). Nov/20/21 reinstated 75mg quetiapine (stopped cbd & herbs), severely couldn't breathe for 5 seconds after taking quetiapine 75mg so reduced to 50 mg on Nov/28/21 had new and worse and very severe adverse effects, got indecisive if CT or keep taking quetiapine because I was terrified of CT, but since the new severe adverse effects were very severe I CT, and because of indecisiveness and panic to CT, I reinstated again, then CT'd and reinstated many times, last time I was taking quetiapine it was 25mg and had severe TD, hellish anhedonia, suicidal, intrusive thoughts of imagining myself running into a wall and crashing into it and I was feeling the pain as if I was doing it in real life, involuntary thoughts of punching my face or head and shashing it against the wall and some times I did punch my face, and when I didn't, I also felt the pain just by imagining it, so definitive CT on Jul/15/22. 

Free from quetiapine and psych meds since Jul/15/22.

MY BEST ADVICE: FOLLOW SA'S GUIDELINES, DON'T CT BECAUSE IT IS HORRIFIC AND BE PATIENT TO WAIT A LONG TIME TO DO VERY SLOW AND GRADUAL TAPERS IN ORDER TO GET OFF OF YOUR MEDICATIONS, IT IS WORTH IT. THE ONLY MOMENTS WHERE IS RIGHT TO CT IS AFTER YOUR 1ST CT THAT YOU DID BECAUSE OF IGNORANCE OR IMPATIENCE, IF YOU REINSTATE AND FEEL SEVERE ADVERSE EFFECTS LIKE TD, ANHEDONIA, FEEL LIKE YOU ARE DROWNING, OR THE ONE'S I HAD, IT IS BEST TO CT IN MY EXPERIENCE, BECAUSE WHEN I REINSTATED I GOT MUCH WORSE THAN WHEN I WAS IN THE PREVIOUS CT. I'm not a doctor.

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  • ChessieCat changed the title to Tapering off anti-psychotics
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I've been tapering off Abilify and have found that the 10% rule established on this forum applies equally well to APs.

2000–2015: sertraline 50mg, eventually up to 150mg for most of those years. Prescribed for dysthymia and generalized anxiety disorder. Two major attempts at discontinuing per psychiatrist's tapering advice were failures; each failure resulted in the dose being increased by 50mg. Those were my only increases in dose over the first 15 years

2000–2002: clonazepam .5mg 3x/day, then tapered quickly with no withdrawal
Jan 2015–Dec 2016: tapered sertraline from 150 to 50mg (relatively slowly from 150 to 100 and then pretty quickly from 100 to 50); severe withdrawal at 50mg
Jan 2017-Aug 2018: increased dose of sertraline from 100mg to 150mg to 200mg/day over the course of a few months per psychiatrist, who also added aripiprazole 1mg/day and clonazepam .5mg 2x/day

Found SA; Aug 2018-May 2023: Slowly tapered off clonazepam and abilify from 2018 to 2020; sertraline 200mg/day (200 mgai)

Taper: May 2023, 200 mgai; June 2023; 190 mgpw; July 1, 185 mgai; July 29, 181 mgai; Aug 27, 178 mgai; Oct 31, 175mgai; Dec 1, 171mgai; Jan 21, 2024, 168mgpw

 

 

 

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