vicscavies replied: "How to Reduce the Medication The ideal sequence: 1. Have your physician write a prescription to accommodate a 2% reduction. You will need to use a compounding pharmacy to fill this prescription. 2. Only reduce the medication by 2% every 14 days. 3. Never skip days. 4. Always take the medication at the same time each day. 5. If you take your medication more than one time each day, make sure the total reduction of the medication is no more than 2% of the daily total taken. You continue to take the nutritionals at the same amount that you established during the pre-taper while reducing the medication. You continue to take the nutritionals for 45 days after you took the last dosage of your medication. The above is the ideal taper. It can happen and does happen continually for people using The Road Back Program. What to Do if Side Effects Begin During the Taper Do the following in sequence: 1. Review your Daily Journal. The odds are extremely high you changed something between the day you began to feel poorly and 3 days earlier. Look for any changes. Did you change the time of the day you took your medication, nutritionals, begin exercising, go on a diet etc. With you already responding well to the nutritionals in the pre-taper, the odds are extremely high it will be from some change you made just before you felt the negative change. Once you locate the change, return to exactly what you were doing and give it 3 days to return back to normal again. If you do not locate any changes to your daily routine, move on to # 2 below. 2. With these medications it will probably be a change in anxiety level or sleep. Sometimes anxiety and the time of the day it begins will shift on you. You should have made notes in the Daily Journal what time of the day the anxiety started. Take the Body Calm and Essential Protein ½ hour to 1 hour before this new anxiety is starting. This should handle the problem. 3. If # 2 above did not resolve the issue, increase the Essential Protein Formula by 1 teaspoon each time you take it. 4. If # 3 did not resolve the problem and what you are feeling is too much to even stand, get with your physician and discuss going back to the last dosage of the medication you were at and remain at that old dosage until the side effects stop once again. This step is rarely ever needed. 5. If you needed to use # 4 above, the next time you reduce the medication stay at that new dosage amount for 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks. If you were reducing the medication by more than 2% each week and you have tried #’s 1-3 above and did not get relief, get with your physician and discuss reducing the medication by 2% from here on out. You should stop reducing the medication further until you have eliminated the withdrawal side effects. Do not begin to reduce the medication again until you are feeling very stable. -Don’t change anything so long as you’re feeling better and experiencing progress! Keep one additional thing in mind while tapering off the medication: Sometimes all of us may have anxiety during the day and a rough nights sleep. If you have a rough day it may not be the medication is the cause. If a negative feeling last more than 3 days it is probably something that has changed and is related to the taper unless it is a life related event. A few don’ts: Don’t change your diet! Don’t add exercise to your regimen! Don’t double or triple or change any amount of Nutritional you’re taking! Don’t change your sleep or rest schedule! Don’t change physicians! Don’t try another program! Don’t add another program to this one! Don’t take out parts of this program! CHANGE NOTHING (except your clothes, of course…). The rule here is if it works, don’t fix it. Continue your reduction schedule. Take your Nutritionals. -Continue to maintain the levels of Nutritionals you were at, when you reached the end of the pre-taper: DO WHAT’S WORKING. This is the simplicity of the Road Back. If you do not use a compounding pharmacy to reduce your medication The other options of reducing the medication are: Use the reduction schedule located in this book. If we did not include a reduction schedule for the exact medication you are taking or the current dosage you are taking, print out a copy of any reduction schedule for the type of medication you are taking and show it to your physician and pharmacist. They can use this as a guideline or an example to structure a reduction schedule for your particular medication or dosage. The other option you have is to shave a little off the medication each day. This is not a recommended choice of The Road Back Program. ONCE YOU ARE OFF THE MEDICATION Stay at the level of nutritionals you are at for the next 45 days. It is important you now rebuild your body. After the 45 days, you can decide what you want to do with the Nutritionals. We all need Omega 3 in our body. It needs to come from a food source or from supplemental Omega 3 oil. Usually one or two of the Ultimate Omega 3’s each day is plenty for a maintenance amount. If you enjoy the Power Barley Formula and other Nutritionals, it is very fine to keep taking them for a prolonged period. They are great for general health. Once you know your sleep is handled, you might try taking the Body Calm and Essential Protein Formula on a need to basis. If you have been off the medication for months and you begin to feel tired again, try taking a little of the Power Barley Formula once again. All of us get fatigue from time to time when we are living life at a rapid pace. This fatigue does not mean it is a side effect from when you took the medication."