have not tried the taper ,but was put on low dose hydocortisone last year ,which made me feel much worse ,what i didn't know at the time was that my cortisol was already sky high and hydrocordisone made it that much higher , it was later discovered by a 24 hour urine cortisol test on a scale from 6 to 22 my cortisol output was at 19 with out any stress whatsoever , the doc at the time said that I was borderline cushings syndrome ,but could not explain it , it is now in the 12 range or normal