Nine

Despite potential objections by my new physician, and possibly my wife, I've decided to switch my plan. Rather than this on-again off-again business I'm going to try a gradual reduction in dosage over a period of weeks.

I subscribe to one of the many message boards on this topic and there are countless numbers of people who swear up and down that the on-off method is completely terrible, at best. Add to that the advice from a physician who is a close friend of the family also suggesting a slow wean off the drug and I've pretty much made up my mind.

It's true, many many people come off the drug with minimal fanfare, but we can't ignore the possibility of some strange, adverse and even quite serious affects occurring. It is with this in mind that I will begin to taper starting tomorrow.

The new schedule:

Weeks 1 - 3, 15mg
Weeks 4 - 6, 10mg
Weeks 7 - 9, 5mg

This amounts to 2 weeks longer than the originally scheduled 7 weeks and I would also assume that I could go from 5 to 2.5 if I can find a knife sharp enough to eighth a pill (quartering will be tough enough as it is).

If life starts to become hell I can always stick on a level for longer until I acheive some sort of balance again. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Anyway, today was the 2nd of two days at a seminar. With no pill I was skeptical but it went alright. Dizzy as usual. Headache as usual. Grumpy (as usual - pill or no pill). I went curling and after the carpool guys dropped me off it was already late. I'm not tired but I feel like crap.

Tomorrow I'll take a pill, only it will be 15mg instead of 20. I'll take another one (technically 0.75) on Sunday and do this for 3 weeks and see how it goes.