20 replies to this topic

[mimimia]

I did a slow taper of the crap advice the doctors give "oh just take one every other day for a week and then every 3rd day for ......" Blah blah blah! And I'm on day 6 of no crapalta and can't take it. Nauseated, in pain, jumpy, uncomfortable, can't think straight etc.

 

Anyhow I have some 60 mg capsules left from when they tried to up my dosage last year. And even though I have additional refills left of the 30 mg I don't want to pay for it right now. ($95)

 

I want to take something to feel a bit better. I don't want a full 30 mg dose and I sure as heck don't want the 60 mg. dose.

 

About how many beads from a 60 mg capsule should I take it I want to take about 15 - 20 mg ??

[fishinghat]

The problem is that it depends on the manufacturer. According to some of he old entries it ranges from 200 to 400 beads!! My suggestion is the bead counting method if you have enough pills. You may have to open one capsule and actually count the beads and then calculate how many would be 15 to 20 mg. Then remove 4 or 5 more beads each day until zero.

[mimimia]

I feel silly now. Of course I needed to fill the 30 mg rx. I would need it to make the V E R Y long S L O W taper work. 

 

So after emptying a 60 mg capsule and going cross-eyed counting the little buggers I determined there were approx. 200.

Then after hubby came home with the 30 mg rx I promptly opened one of those and found the beads are even smaller!! YIKES!

I wasn't going to be able to count that until after I've gotten some relief from the med. So I took 1/3 of the beads from the 60 mg capsule and put them back in, closed it up and took it. Our thinking is if 200 beads equal 60 mg and I want to take 20 mg I needed 1/3 of 60 mg. 

[fishinghat]

Sounds like good math to me!!

[mimimia]

It's so bizarre that just 2 1/2 hours ago I felt so much worse. I take a partial dose and feel like a heroin addict that just got "their fix".

[CymbaltaCrap]

mimimia I know exactly how you feel!! Feeling sooo much better after only having a capsule a few hours ago!! A couple of weeks ago I was weaning like you had said in your original post; Lengthening out the time you have the capsule... I had one on saturday afternoon and by Tuesday morning I was becomming a real mess! By that afternoon I couldn't face anyone, horrible brain zaps, severe nausea, and by that evening uncontrollable crying then suicidal thoughts!!! I then realised it was this horrid drug that my body/brain wasn't coping with being without it for so long, so I took a capsule. About 1.5 hours later I was so much better!! Couldn't believe it!!

 

Keep all beads you're taking out of the capsule though. It's too expensive to just through away isn't it!? You can buy empty capsules fairly cheap off the internet, but I just went into a chemist and bought some. Then you can start using those also, saves wasting them!  Good luck with it! It's a long hard slog but you'll get there! Try and stay positive and there are lots of very helpful people on here that have done or are going through exactly the same as you

[lady2882Nancy]

mimimia - that is funny because I said the same thing to my hubbie the other day after I took my tapered dose of crapalta later than usual. I told him I was feeling a little high and giddy about 30 min after taking it. So much for not being additive. I think the brain gets hooked on it. 

 

I've only got about a week left of bead counting. My 30mg capsules had 280 beads. The first one I opened I wasn't careful enough and I had those little teeny, tiny beads all over the table. There were even some on the floor. Needless to say I had to open another one to count the beads - then I counted them again and got a different total Arghhhhh. LOL so then I had hubbie count and we used an average.

My biggest problem has been headaches and anxiety but I found things to handle those.

I swear by lemon balm tea (which is a medicinal herb, just make sure it is from a good source and not poland) and do not take otc sleeping meds with it.

I finally got some L-Theanine today and for the first time got relief from my headache.

There are lots of Ideas and suggestions here.

Welcome on board the Tapering off Crapalta train.

[CymbaltaCrap]

ladyNancy2882 yay you're nearly off!! Good for you!! When we counted them last night (the whole capsule) I tipped some out into a smal bowl and counted by 2s then when we got to 50 I'd put them into a small container and write 50 on a piece of paper so I knew where I was up to. Then tip  some more out and do the same, by 50s. That way there was less chance of getting mixed up...

So lemon balm tea for anxiety and L-Theanine for headaches? I will have to try and find some of them.

[lady2882Nancy]

I found that all I had to talk of the L-Theanine was one 100mg tablet and it worked for both the headache and the anxiety. Of course I did have some lemon balm in my system still so that might have made the difference.

I have been constantly drinking lemon balm tea with fennel seeds as I really had a problem with bloating too. One day my knees, calves and ankles puffed up so much the skin looked strange and was hard to walk.

Anyway, I would try the 100mg to start and then up to 200mg if needed.

[mimimia]

For what it's worth I have the Eli Lilly blue and white 30 mg caps and it counted out to 200 beads. I also have the Eli Lilly blue and green 60 mg caps and they too counted to 200. The difference was the 60 mg's beads were slightly bigger. I'm not working with the 60 mg caps unless I have to keep going after my 30's are gone.

 

But today I took 134 beads of a 30 mg cap. And tomorrow will be 130 with each subsequent day taking 5 less beads. I hope that's not too fast. Because I do NOT want to go through this again. My sweating is back! I hate this! 

 

Can anyone tell me why a company that knows *now* that their drug is hard to come off of is not making smaller doses?? If they made 10 mg doses that would make our lives a little better, don't ya think?? 

[fishinghat]

mimimia, are you expecting common sense or caring out of a drug company? Shame on you. lol

[lady2882Nancy]

You would think so but keep in mind that this company still says that only 20% of people have some symptoms when discontinuing and that few are serious.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

They do not acknowledge that there is a problem.

I guess we should be glad the drug is not in powder form.

 

Your bead counting sounds good, but you will know if you are going too fast. If the symptoms are too bad just stay at the same dose for a day or two then start removing again.

You will be happy to know that the sweating eases up as your body gets used to the lower dose. I still get hot and icky sometimes, but doesn't seem to last as long now.

[CymbaltaCrap]

For what it's worth I have the Eli Lilly blue and white 30 mg caps and it counted out to 200 beads. I also have the Eli Lilly blue and green 60 mg caps and they too counted to 200. The difference was the 60 mg's beads were slightly bigger. I'm not working with the 60 mg caps unless I have to keep going after my 30's are gone.

 

But today I took 134 beads of a 30 mg cap. And tomorrow will be 130 with each subsequent day taking 5 less beads. I hope that's not too fast. Because I do NOT want to go through this again. My sweating is back! I hate this! 

 

Can anyone tell me why a company that knows *now* that their drug is hard to come off of is not making smaller doses?? If they made 10 mg doses that would make our lives a little better, don't ya think?? 

 

I have the blue and white ones and counted 280... I think there must be different amounts in different capsules...

mimimia you're taking out 134 today but 130 tomorrow??? Or do you mean you're taking out 130 today and 134 tomorrow??

And like ladyNancy2882 said, if your symptoms get too bad just slow right down and stay on whatever dose you're on for a couple of days or until you feel stable again. I started with taking 5 out each day and was feeling really good then jumped up to 10 each day. That only lasted for a couple of days because I was becoming so irritable with my family! So I've dropped back to taking 5 out each day and things are better.

And they do not give a toss about making it easier for 'us' to come off their drug. They want us to stay on it, more $$ for them. That's all drug companies care about unfortunately.... But luckily for us there is the internet! So there is a world of information out there for people like us wanting help coming off this horrible drug!

[mimimia]

I guess I was unclear what I meant about the 134 beads and 130 beads. I meant I am taking 134 beads that day and the next day taking 130 beads and removing an extra 5 each day after so that I would then take 125 beads, 120 beads, 115 and so on. I only went from 134 to 130 to make it a nice number to remove multiples of 5.

 

I am keeping all the beads that I remove in a prescription bottle. And ordered #2 size empty capsules on the internet. So when my prescription is gone I'll still have a lot of beads to use in maybe an extended low dose for a while at the end. 

 

I took 95 beads last night and feel very blue today. So far my mood has been manageable but even with blue skies and sunshine today I'm gloomy. So I might take a few days at this dose to give my body a chance to catch up with the difference.

[mimimia]

Just a quick update. I've been taking 100 beads per day for 6 days.  And I'm not feeling much improvement. So I took a trip to a natural health store

and got L-theanine. I'm also looking into an herb/plant from South Africa called Kanna (or Canna or Sceletium) it's hard to locate but this is said to improve mood, decrease anxiety, increase mental clarity, decrease appetite (probably because depression is improved in my op.) and improve libido (again, improve depression and that does improve). 

 

I'll let you know as I find out more.

[lady2882Nancy]

It sounds like the plant you are talking about is Kanna or Sceletium toruosom and it is a herbaceous plant native to South Africa.

The alkaloids contained in kanna include mesembrine, which has ancedotally been reported to possibly be a potent selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) with very strong antidepressant effects.

There is a South African company, HGH Pharmaceuticals, that is looking into supplying it as an OTC but I haven't seen it anywhere other than online.

Let us know what you find. It would be interesting to see what they come out with as the plant itself is said to have no withdrawals even after periods of extended use.

I do see some possible problems with it being an OTC though as it can cause a euphoric high in large doses.

[mimimia]

Yes Nancy, that IS in fact the plant.

I thought it was interesting that there is a God supplied naturally occurring plant that helps in the same way as these chemically created pharmaceuticals. Did they know that this plant had this effect and then chemically reproduce it?

 

We've only found it only too and the sellers and or their websites leave us feeling a little less than comfortable conducting business with them. Most are shipping directly out of South Africa. And of the US suppliers we've found (only 2), one is in Las Vegas with a shady address.

 

I've read so many reviews of it with 98% of them being positive. The only negatives I've found is that some people of course are abusing it like anything else. I read where one guy used an entire bottle of a tincture because "the effect had lessened after he smoked his pot" And others of course tell you things in relation to "the high" and what dose is needed for that. 

 

I will most likely keep searching for a bit and eventually break down and order it from the least suspicious looking seller I can find. 

[lady2882Nancy]

Well be careful as it is really hard to say what exactly will be in the package when you get it.

I have been looking at some Holistic websites that also have stores that you can go to and finding some herbs and plants that are grown in Canada and the U.S. as I don't want to risk getting who knows what from another continent.

[beadcounter]

I found that all I had to talk of the L-Theanine was one 100mg tablet and it worked for both the headache and the anxiety. Of course I did have some lemon balm in my system still so that might have made the difference.

I have been constantly drinking lemon balm tea with fennel seeds as I really had a problem with bloating too. One day my knees, calves and ankles puffed up so much the skin looked strange and was hard to walk.

Anyway, I would try the 100mg to start and then up to 200mg if needed.

 

Well be careful as it is really hard to say what exactly will be in the package when you get it.

I have been looking at some Holistic websites that also have stores that you can go to and finding some herbs and plants that are grown in Canada and the U.S. as I don't want to risk getting who knows what from another continent.

 

 

I have lemon bee balm in the garden. Do you suppose it is the same as what you use for your lemon balm tea? Please indicate how much you use and how long you steep it. What might I experience if I drink too much? Right now I have a swimmy head and nausea and need to sleep!

[lady2882Nancy]

Hi beadcounter

 

I grow Lemon Balm myself and am using it now instead of buying it for the summer anyways. Just check your seed package or plant info to make sure it is Lemon Balm as Bee Balm is not the same thing. Both are lemon scented but that is where it ends. Bee Balm is an antiseptic and used for healing and flavor and is actually a stimulant whereas Lemon Balm is used to relax you and relieve anxiety. The complete opposite of each other.

 

Take care

[Ape]

Where l can find lemon balm I wonder if I can use instead of ativan