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Using a scale to weigh and measure doses


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15 hours ago, ThisIsthestart said:

Hi folks, I am trying to reinstate to curb withdrawals from a TFT (pre-learning about SA and hyperbolic taper) as I'm in a very stressful time in my life - getting married, preparing to move states this summer. 

I bought the Gemini 20, the pill grinder @YachtRock linked above, and 00 veggie capsules. The issue i'm finding as I try and prepare capsules for reinstatement is with the scale not being sensitive enough, as many of you have mentioned, and I'm wondering if I'm doing more harm than good. 

I crushed one 25 mg Sertraline pill (average weight of all the pills in the bottle was 0.077g), and by the time I got the powder out of the canister and into the small circular tray I had ~.065g. I added a 10g weight to the tray with the powder to hopefully increase the scale's sensitivity, and as I'm trying to reinstate with only 1mg I tried to ballpark around .003g into each capsule. Definitely spilled some of the powder, and there is no way these are perfectly accurate but it seemed to be the best I could do.

I'm wondering though if this is more harm than good, and if I should just try the route of dissolving a 25 mg Sertraline pill in a certain amount of ml of water and then do the syringe route. I've attached a photo of the chart I got from the SA thread with my info. I made 7, 1mg capsules, out of the ~.065g of powder from my 25mg pill, spilled some, and tossed the rest so I'm worried I might have put too much in each of them because the scale wasn't sensitive enough. 🤷‍♀️

Any insight or advice is greatly appreciated as I've read a lot on this site and this is still hella intimidating! 

Screenshot 2024-02-20 at 12.01.01 PM.png

Can you try calibrating your scale?

Feb 21 50mg Zoloft - 1mg Rispridone - 200mg Depakine; Mar 21 CT; Aug 21 5mg Olanzapine, 50mg Zoloft, 1 mg Ativan*; Mar 22 Zoloft some days*; Aug 22 Paroxetine 10mg; Jan 23 CT; Mar 23 25mg Zoloft; Apr 23 Tianeptine & Trazadone; Jun 23 Mirtazapine; Jul 23 Trintellix 10mg; Aug 23 5mg trintellix, 300mg gabapentine. Dec 23: 4.5 mg trintellix liquid, 300mg gabapentine; 13 Dec 23: 5mg trintellix, 300mg gabap; 17 Jan 24: ↘️ 4.5 mg Trintellix, 300 mg gaba, 17 Feb ↘️ 4.05 mg Trintellix, 300mg gabap,  17 Mar ↘️ 3.65 mg Trintellix, 300mg gabap, 15 Apr ↘️ 3.28 mg Trintellix, 300mg gabap

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4 hours ago, meehai said:
20 hours ago, ThisIsthestart said:

Can you try calibrating your scale?

I calibrated a few times, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in it's ability to pick up such small changes unfortunately. 

20mg citalopram - 11/2010 ~ 2014 (prescribed for panic attacks)
20mg escitalopram (Can't remember why i changed meds) - 2014 - 3/2020 

10mg citalopram - 3/2020

5mg citalopram - 4/2020
Withdrawal from 4/2020-7/2020

Reinstated with 50 mg Sertraline - 7/2020 - 6/2023
25 mg Sertraline taper and micro dosing Psilocybin - 7/2023
12.5mg Sertraline taper every other day and micro dosing Psilocybin - 8/2023
0 mg Sertraline and micro dosing Psilocybin - 9/2023
Micro dosing ~125mg Psilocybin off and on July 2023-January 2024

Withdrawals began in early November 2023// Found SA in January 2024
Attempting Reinstatement: 1 mg Zoloft liquid solution 2/22/2024 - present

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3 hours ago, ThisIsthestart said:

I calibrated a few times, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in it's ability to pick up such small changes unfortunately. 

You could also consider using a compounding pharmacy if you don't feel confident in the doses you are making.

 

Personally, I would follow the method for the homemade suspension:

 

Mix your 25mg tablet with 100ml of water, add it to a dark-glass medicine bottle, and put it in the fridge. When you take your dose the next day, give the mixture a stir with a 10ml syringe and draw 4ml from the middle of the container.

 

Use this suspension for 4 days, then chuck the rest and start the process again.

Active Monday-Friday UK time

 

MEDICATION:

1) Sertraline:

50mg - Oct 2020, 100mg - Dec 2020, 50mg - April 2021, 75mg - May 2021, 50mg - Sep 2021; Failed taper attempt (50 -> 49) - Jan 2024; Second attempt to start taper - 17 Feb 2024

Current dose: 48.9mg (Feb 2024)

2) Mirtazapine:

15mg  - Nov 2020

SUPPLEMENTS:

Cod liver oil

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  • 1 month later...

Dear all

 

Just wondering how people are using the Gemini scales. My pills weigh 0.068 plus or minus roughly 0.005. the weight changes each time I measure it by roughly that much. 

 

I'm looking to use brass monkey's method of crushing between two spoons. 

 

I'm wondering if people have similar accuracy with their scales? And how they combat? 

 

Thank you.

2023 Q1 - amitriptyline for a few weeks to help with sleep and then 10mg Citalopram initially two weeks on and two weeks off for a few months before taking it continuously from about June / July 2023

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Please ignore above. Recalibration again seems to have done it.

 

Thank you.

2023 Q1 - amitriptyline for a few weeks to help with sleep and then 10mg Citalopram initially two weeks on and two weeks off for a few months before taking it continuously from about June / July 2023

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