Posted by fachad on March 17, 2002, at 18:25:01
In reply to Withdraw was too much, posted by CygnusX1 on March 17, 2002, at 2:48:15
It may require patience and persistence, but if you really want to quit and you don't want to be miserable, you need to go slower. If you try to go too fast, you will just get discouraged and give up.
Find the smallest increment you can with dosage. If you get scored 25mg tablets, it is easy to snap them in half for 12.5 mg. If you buy a pill cutter, you can cut those pieces into 6.25 mg slivers.
Start with your current dosage for three days, then a smaller dosage, then your current for three days, etc. So if you are at 50mg now, it would be 50, 50, 50, 43.75, 50, 50, 50, 43.75 etc. Maybe you could just do every other day at the lower dose. 50, 43.75, 50, 43.75, 50 etc. You will know if you are going too fast because you will feel miserable.
Remember that each time you change the dose pattern, you have to give your brain time to physically and chemically change. For me a month is about minimum between dosage changes if I don't want to feel symptoms when I make another dosage change. You may be able to go faster, or you may need to take it slower.
Again, if you go too slow you will not have any bad effects, but if you go too fast, you will get all kinds of unpleasantness and may even precipitate a new depression or rebound target symptoms.
Rush is a great band, but a poor strategy for SSRI tapering (sorry, that was so pathetic, but I couldn't Resist).
poster:fachad
thread:98400
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/98499.html