Chapter Twelve

How to Taper Off Benzodiazepines, Anti-anxiety,
Anticonvulsant, and Sleep Medication

(The Fast and Gradual Taper)

Congratulations. You have completed your pre-taper program, and are ready to start reducing your medication.

Though not knowing your personal experience, I do know that the vast majority of people ready for tapering experience trepidation because they have suffered terrible side effects when trying to quit before.

As incredible as this might seem, this step should be the easy part of The Road Back Program. Take a moment and look at how you felt before the pre-taper. Compare how you feel now that the pre-taper is complete. You can make it off the medication.

Up till now, the problem with getting off medication has been availability of the medication in dosages that would allow gradual reduction.

Several of the drug inserts suggest reducing the medication every 3 days. Such rapid and large drops in the medication result only in suffering.

To survive, we sometimes need to change the current environment or change ourselves.

The existing environment of available dosages has been a constant problem for successful tapering.

Either the drug manufacturers needed to make their medication in dosages that would accommodate a gradual reduction or a solution had to be found to allow for large reduction while averting withdrawal side effects.

Most medications can be compounded by a pharmacist. When compounding, a pharmacist makes a medication for you at an exact dosage.

Psychiatric medications cannot always be compounded to exact dosages without altering the structure, and with some of the medications being time release, large reductions are the only option.

 

Therefore, for survival, we need to change the environment and change ourselves as well. In this case, the change was improving The Road Back Program to accommodate medications that could not easily be gradually reduced by a small percentage.

 

The Road Back Program will always be improving. However, at this writing, the program has made a giant stride in handling the environment, or better stated, handling the problem of available dosages supplied by the drug manufacturer.

 

This breakthrough includes benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleep medications, ADHD medications and even medications prescribed in time release form.

What to Do

 

Two days before the first reduction you will need to increase specific supplements. You will use data from your pre-taper Daily Journal during this phase.

 

You will be increasing supplements to avoid withdrawal side effects from starting and to greatly reduce the chance of having any problem with tapering off the medication.

 

If a side effect begins during the taper, the odds are greatest that it will be a side effect you had before the pre-taper. Be ready for that and make sure those supplements you used during the pre-taper are increased.

 

Each individual is different but there are common withdrawal traits a high percentage of people will share. Those are addressed in this taper and the goal is to never let them start.

 

You need to be the judge with the use of some of the supplements during this part.

 

Example: If you had anxiety and insomnia before the pre-taper which is now handled, you will want to address that potential during the taper by increasing the supplements that handled it during the pre-taper.

 

If the Body Calm Supreme totally handled daytime anxiety by taking 1 capsule every 4 hours during the day, you should increase the Body Calm Supreme to 1 capsule every 2 hours before you reduce the medication.

How to Increase Supplements

 

Use your Daily Journal and look back at the pre-taper. Locate the supplement or supplements that made the largest positive change. Detailed below is how much you can increase each supplement. You will also find located within ( ) what each nutritional supplement is good for.

 

Body Calm Supreme (anxiety and insomnia) – If you feel the Body Calm Supreme was the supplement that handled the daytime anxiety or insomnia you can increase the Body Calm Supreme to once every 2 hours during the daytime and up to 3 capsules at bedtime for sleep.

 

 

Body Calm (anxiety and insomnia) – If the Body Calm helped you the most with the daytime anxiety or insomnia or was used with Body Calm Supreme you can increase this every too every 2 hours.

 

Essential Protein Formula (anxiety and insomnia) – This nutritional supplement can be increased to 8 tablespoons per serving.

 

RenewPro (anxiety, energy and brightness) – You can increase the RenewPro to 1 full scoop 3 times a day.

 

Nature’s Vitamin C (anxiety) – You can increase this vitamin C to 6 capsules a day. (Avoid vitamin C and other fruit if taking ADHD medication to avoid vitamin/drug interactions. This includes fruit as well as natural fruit drink.)

 

Probiotic Supreme (anxiety, fatigue and depression) – Do not increase beyond recommendation on the bottle.

 

Ultimate Omega 3 (fatigue, brain zaps, depression and head feelings) – You can increase up to 5 softgels in the morning and 5 softgels at noon. (Make sure you are taking 400 i.u. vitamin E daily if taking Omega 3.)

 

Vitamin E – Do not increase beyond the 400 i.u. a day.

 

CLA (anxiety and depression) – You can increase to 1 softgel in the morning, 1 at noon and 1 additional before 4 pm. (Make sure you are taking at least three Omega 3 and 400 i.u. vitamin E daily if you are going to use the CLA.)

 

Calsorption (brain zaps) – You can take 5 grams each day. There is no benefit taking more. Calsorption increases the absorption of calcium and can be helpful with side effects in the gut. CalesiumD is the only recommended calcium supplement.

 

CalesiumD (brain zaps) – CalesiumD and Calsorption work together as a team. To achieve the highest potential calcium absorption Calsorption is needed. Take 800 mg of CalesiumD daily or the amount recommended by your physician.

 

Biotin – Biotin may very well be the answer for depression or tingling or numbness of the extremities. Start with 5,000 mcg in the morning and give the biotin 3 days to be effective. If no change you can increase to as much as 10,000 mcg in the morning and 10,000 mcg in the afternoon. If these symptoms continue to persist, keep taking the biotin daily. Several clinical trials confirm benzodiazepines deplete biotin from the body and depression and the numbness of an extremity are symptoms of biotin deficiency.

 

All these nutritionals work quickly when they are what your body needs. Having them all on hand to draw from as needed is very beneficial.

 

Here is an example of how to increase the nutritional supplements 2 days before a medication reduction.

 

Scenario – At the end of the pre-taper you are taking the following supplements. Your major symptoms before the pre-taper were anxiety and insomnia.

·         (1) Body Calm every 4 hour (alternating with the Supreme)

·         (1) Beta 1, 3-D Glucan in morning

·         (1) Body Calm Supreme every 4 hours (alternating with the Body Calm)

·         (1) Teaspoon of Essential Protein Formula every 4 hours and at bedtime

·         (2) Ultimate Omega 3 in am and 2 additional at noon

·         (1) Vitamin E

·         (1/2) Scoop of RenewPro 3 times a day

Example of how to increase supplements 2 days before taper:

·         (1) Body Calm every 2 hours (alternating with the Supreme)

·         (1) Body Calm Supreme every 2 hours (alternating with the Body Calm)

·         (1) Teaspoon of Essential Protein Formula every 2 hours and at bedtime

·         (3) Ultimate Omega 3 in am and 3 additional at noon

·         (1) Vitamin E in morning

·         (1) Scoop of RenewPro 3 times a day

·         (1) CLA in the am, noon and 3 pm

·         Probiotic Supreme in the morning ( As directed on bottle label)

·         (2) Beta 1, 3-D Glucan in the morning, 2 at noon and 2 before 4 pm

·         (1) Scoop of Calsorption anytime in the day

·         800 mg of CalesiumD in morning

Five days after the medication is reduced, as long as there are no side effects or only very mild side effects, reduce the supplements down to the amount you were taking before the increase.

 

Wait 10 full days after you reduce the supplements, then increase again for 2 days and then reduce your medication. Again, five days after the medication is reduced, as long as there are no side effects or only very mild side effects reduce the supplements back down to what you were taking before the increase.

 

Wait 10 full days after you reduced the supplements and then increase supplements again for 2 days and then reduce your medication.

 

Repeat this sequence until off the medication. Make sure to stay on the increased supplements for 5 full days after your final reduction of the medication.

 

Follow instructions in the chapter Once Off Medication to complete program.

Example:

You are taking 5 mg of a medication.

1.      Increase supplements 2 days before reduction of medication.

2.      First reduction is to 4.75 mg.

3.      5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if all is well.

4.      Wait 10 days.

5.      Increase supplements 2 days before next reduction of medication.

6.      Reduce medication to 4.5 mg.

7.      5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if all is well.

8.      Wait 10 days.

If all is well you can increase reduction to 10%.

9.      Increase supplements 2 days before next reduction of medication.

10.   Reduce medication to 4 mg (10 %).

11.    5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if all is well.

12.   Wait 10 days.

13.   Increase supplements 2 days before next reduction of medication.

14.   Reduce medication to 3.5 mg.

15.   5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if all is well.

16.   Wait 10 days.

17.   Increase supplements 2 days before next reduction of medication.

18.   Reduce medication to 3 mg.

19.   5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if all is well.

20.  Wait 10 days.

21.   Increase supplements 2 days before next reduction of medication.

22.  Reduce medication to 2.5 mg.

23.  5 days after reduction of medication, lower supplements to previous amount if  all is well.

Continue with the above reduction procedure until completely off the medication.

If you were able to use the Slow and Gradual procedure for your fist 3 reductions, you would begin the Fast and Gradual procedure by:

 

·    Increasing the supplements 2 days before reducing the medication

·    Reduce the medication by 10% of the original dosage

·   Follow the procedures as outlined in the previous example to complete the taper

What to Do If Side Effects Begin During Taper

It is important to take action if side effects begin while tapering off the medication. While withdrawal side effects can happen, addressing them early and knowing what to do will usually keep them mild and short lived.

 

Go back to the section earlier in this chapter called How to Increase Supplements. Use this guide to increase the supplement that is geared for your side effect.

The Taper

Stage 1

 

Successfully reduce the medication by 5% every 14 days for two reductions, then move on to Stage 2. If you are not able to reduce by exactly 5%, reduce the medication as close to 5% as possible.

 

Once successful reducing the medication at least 2 times, you’ll see that you can do this and still feel well. Then you and your physician should decide if you should reduce the medication at a larger percentage.

 

Make sure you work with your prescribing physician before changing medication dosages.

 

Ask your physician to write a prescription to accommodate a 5% reduction, or as close as possible. You may need a compounding pharmacy to fill this prescription.

Again, we are not in a speed race. Experience success and then move on to Stage 2.

If you compound the medication it is important that the compounded drug is identical to the drug you are currently taking.

Unless the pharmacist can assure you that the medication is exactly the same, avoid compounding.

A generic drug may not act the same and withdrawal side effects can begin.

Switching from one drug to another because it has a longer half-life will create withdrawal side effects from the drug abruptly stopped and potential new side effects from the new drug. Avoid this altogether.

 Only reduce the medication 5% for the first two reductions. The 5% reduction is based on the original dosage of the medication. The 5% reduction is based on milligrams.

Never skip any days of taking medication.

 Always take your medication at the same time each day.

 If you take your medication more than once each day, make sure the total reduction of the medication is no more than 5%.

 Take each supplement at least half an hour between taking the drug, but ideally, 1 hour apart. It is much better to take the supplements an hour after the drug, instead of before.

Continue with your supplements and “super foods” at the same times and amounts established during the pre-taper. Only increase supplements if a side effect begins.

 Take each supplement at the same time each day.

 Fill out your Daily Journal each day and keep taking all the supplements exactly as you did at the end of the pre-taper unless an adjustment was needed to handle a withdrawal side effect.

 After you have reduced the medication twice during Stage 1 and allowed for 10 days to pass and you are doing well, move onto Stage 2.

Stage 2
Taper Procedure:

Keep taking all supplements exactly as you did at the end of Stage 1.

Keep your Daily Journal up to date.

Compound medication for a 10% reduction if possible or reduce the medication as near to 10% as possible, using the drug manufacturer’s available tablet or capsule.

Make sure you have at least 7 consecutive days of feeling very well before reducing the medication again.

Never skip any days of taking medication.

Tapering can be this simple.

Once you are off the medication, make sure you keep taking the supplements for 45 days. Read the chapter, “Once Off All Medication” and follow the ending program completely.