Chapter Fourteen

What to Do if You Have Already Started to
Taper Off Your Medication or Just Quit Cold Turkey

The key to handling withdrawal side effects once you begin to reduce the medication is: Put Control Back in the Process Again.

Roughly 80% of the people who begin The Road Back Program have already started to taper off their medication and are experiencing withdrawal side effects. The recommendations or suggestions offered in this chapter come from years of experience assisting these individuals.

First, it is not YOU. That may be difficult to grasp at first, but in time, you will come to understand it was not you; it was the withdrawal side effect.  

The First Decision
 

• Do you stay where you are at on the drug and try to handle the withdrawal side effects and then continue with the taper once the side effects are gone?
   
• Do  you  go  back up to the last dosage of the  drug you were doing better on and hope the withdrawal side effects stop?
   
• Do you just suffer through the withdrawal side effects and hope for the best?
   
• Do you begin taking an additional drug to try to mask the withdrawal side effects from the drug you are reducing?
  

These four questions are your basic options. Choosing the correct course of action will determine how your life will be for the next several months or years. I urge you to work closely with your physician before making the decision.

Understanding how you probably feel and the urgency you most certainly have, time is of the essence. Let your doctor know this. If you cannot schedule an office visit within one day, call and speak with the physician on the telephone, but alert your physician now.

What to Expect With Each Option
 

• Do you stay where you are at on the drug and try to handle the withdrawal side effects and then continue with the taper once they are gone?
  

If you remain at the new dosage that started the withdrawal side effects and do nothing else, the withdrawal side effects probably will not stop. Usually, allowing additional time to pass will not make the withdrawal side effects stop. For the few who had some relief by just allowing time, the relief was minimal and usually new side effects began as more time passed.

Depending on the severity of the withdrawal side effects, starting the pre-taper protocol as laid out for the type of medication you are taking should help. How long you have waited to begin the pre-taper nutritionals will usually determine how fast and how well you experience relief.

The normal response to starting the pre-taper nutritionals will be around seven days. You may feel some relief on day number one, but count on feeling the major positive changes around day number seven. During the next few weeks, you should feel better each day.

Continue with the pre-taper protocol and once you have eliminated all or nearly all of the withdrawal side effects that were present, then, and only then, reduce the medication once again.

• Do you go back up to the last dosage of the drug you were doing better on and hope the withdrawal side effects stop?

This option has been used by a few with success, but what will probably happens is; the existing withdrawal side effects will remain and additional side effects will begin when you return to the last higher dosage you were taking.

The course of action to take would be to use the pre-taper protocol for the type of medication you are taking and give yourself some time to recover. You may not feel one positive change for a few weeks, but there is a good chance relief will come if you just stay on the pre-taper.

The problem most people encounter with using this option will be not feeling relief soon enough and they jump to something else, switch to a different medication, and add an additional medication to try and stop the existing withdrawal side effects.

This is usually when another medication is prescribed for anxiety and sleep. Usually, between one to two weeks after the new medication is started for anxiety and sleep, it will no longer provide relief, but will increase the daytime anxiety and insomnia.

Use this option with caution.

If you have already taken this course of action, use the pre-taper for taking multiple medications. Ideally, you do not begin a third medication to try to handle the side effects from the two you are taking. If you have added a third, just follow the pre-taper, but expect to spend a little more time to get rid of all of the existing side effects.

• Do you just suffer through the withdrawal side effects and hope for the best?

If the withdrawal side effects are very mild and you have been doing very well reducing the medication in the past, you might try doing nothing except remaining at the dosage where you are at now, wait until the withdrawal side effects stop, and then reduce the medication again further.

Some people have “rolled a seven” and are the lucky ones who can simply reduce the medication without much problem and not suffer in the least. Congratulations to you!

• Do you begin taking an additional drug to try to mask the withdrawal side effects from the drug you are reducing?

 As described in an earlier option, this choice has an extreme downside. You may experience some temporary relief, but you will usually lose the relief in a short time and have new side effects from the additional medication. Additional medications will then be added to try to combat all of the new side effects, and you then wind up on a cocktail of medications that are all being used to try to stop the negative reactions from the other medications.

Avoid this option unless it is a life-or-death situation.

If you have already taken this route, follow the pre-taper guideline, get rid of all or the majority of existing side effects and then taper the medications one by one.

Deciding which option to take will put control and predictability into the process for you and your physician. No matter which option you choose from the choices available to you, at least control and predictability will take place if you knowingly choose an option.

The attempt here is to remove the guessing of “what is behind door number 1-4.” 

The odds are extremely high that you will make it through what you are currently experiencing. Knowing what to do next is 99% of the battle.

If You Quit the Medication Cold Turkey

If you found The Road Back after stopping a medication abruptly, you now know what happens with that decision.

There is always a solution.

·        Let the prescribing physician know what you have done. Please do this. Let the prescribing physician know what you have read in these pages.

·        If you have been off the medication for less than one week, it is suggested that you go back on the last dosage you were taking. Begin the pre-taper program for the medication you just quit and get stable once again. Then proceed with The Road Back program to taper off the medication.

·        If you have been off the medication for more than 7-days, you have reached that area close to the point of no-return regarding taking the medication again to get relief from the side effects.

The odds are extremely high that if you go back on the medication again, the withdrawal side effects will not stop and a host of new side effects will begin. This is not written in the literature supplied by the drug manufacturer or medical journals. This is based on communication with thousands of individuals who were at this crossroad during the past years and what happened when they took a specific avenue.

Again, inform your physician about what you have done and share this information with the physician.

Start the pre-taper for the medication you were taking and give the pre-taper some time to work. It might take 14-days before you feel any relief, but the chances are very high that relief is obtainable.

Do not give up hope.