Dry cuts

[[kl...]]

I was on 1.5mg of klonopin and felt stable. Been dry cutting and now very hard to stay under 1mg.  I have 0.125 tabs.  I cut those in half to get 1/16mgs.

 

Should I keep going down by 1/16 or try to switch to Valium?  I cannot find a doctor to switch me to Valium.  I thought 1/16 would be slow enough.

 

I dropped from 1mg to 0.9375 a week ago.  Withdrawal has been bad but getting better. Hold and repeat?

[[...]]

IMO K is just too potent to cut dry.  The pill sizes are all wrong.  Why not just drop it into full fat whole milk?  Then you could divide and cut as small as you liked.

[[kl...]]

I guess because klonopin does not dissolve in milk so you wouldn't know what you were getting.  It would just form a suspension.

 

I mean, I have 0.125 tabs.  That's pretty small.

[[kl...]]

I really would like to cut over to Valium.

[[Ju...]]

.0625mg is a good cut at your dose.  In fact, I tapered Xanax and did the same cut all the way to zero from just above 1.5mg.  Xanax and Klonopin are of equal equivalency according to Ashton.

 

When doing a taper like this there will be certain days where there will generally be increased symptoms.  For me, this usually started on day 4 or 5 after I made the dosage reduction.  It usually took 1-3 days for my symptoms to settle back down to their precut level.  Only when they settled back down did I cut again.  This is called listening to your body.  Cut, wait for the increased symptoms, then wait again for the increased symptoms to settle back down again and then cut again.  I made 32 cuts to stop taking 3mgs of Xanax and the entire last half of my taper was done doing .0625mg cuts. 

[[kl...]]

Juliea that is encouraging and very helpful!

 

I think 0.0625 is as much as I can handle but that's fine. It's been 8 days and it's very slowly getting better.  Exercise seems to help a LOT.

[[...]]

If you can find a compounding pharmacy I think that is the best way to go.  i got .4 .3 & .1 pills and a bottle of liquid I could adjust.  It cost me $35 per pill size no matter how pills you got so I just got a bunch at each dose.  I'm going to get some .05s when I get home because the liquid is a bit of a pain and I don't think quite as accurate because the stuff settles to the bottom and if  you don't shake just right and you get bubbles in the syringes its hard to get exact amount every time- but its good still to have on hand if you want to adjust to even smaller doses.  It may be a $150 or so expense but that hardly pays for one psych visit so I thought well worth it. 

[[...]]

Oops I think I replied to the wrong post with my last reply. 

 

I would give staying on Klonopin a try.  Two PDocs I went to said that Valium stores in your fat cells and you get withdrawal symptoms cropping up for a long time after you jump with it.  I'm a little early to talk but down to .25 Klonopin and it's been OK.  Been following longdistance runner  http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=103723.0

and she seems to be doing OK sticking to the Klonopin also and she just went down to .10.  Will be wishing you success. 

[[kl...]]

Super helpful. Wish my awful doctor would prescribe compounding.  The smaller the better.

[[tr...]]

I am just a couple of steps behind you. I also started my taper from 1.5 mg using approximately the same cuts as you. 1.5 to 1.375 to 1.25 to 1.16. Now after stupidly taking only 1 mg last night and paying for it today I am going to try 1.125 for a while (which I actually thought I was taking for the last three weeks).

Sometimes in order to achieve these numbers I have varied the daily doses - 1.5 and 1.25 every other day for example - it worked out fine. I felt the cut to 1.16 the most in terms of difficulty sleeping, groggy feeling, headache, etc. but it wasn't debilitating so I have been able to stick with it, unlike the last two times I tried and failed because I went to 1 mg too fast. I think the smaller overall cuts you can make the better, and for me it has been important to stick to exactly the same meds I have been taking all along - 1 mg tablets of clonazepam. .5 mg tabs were ineffective, so that makes cutting the doses tricky. I was able to cut one pill into 8 pieces or .125 mg but that's definitely as small as I can go. So the next time I reduce my dose I am looking at doing 1 and 1.125 every other day to achieve an overall  .0625 reduction. Wish I had the .25 tabs that would work for me, you're lucky and I would stick with them if I were you.

You could even cut the .0625 in half again couldn't you? If your symptoms become too uncomfortable that's something to consider. I have given myself a week or two to get used to the reduced amount and feel good for a while before making another cut - it's not a race (that's what I keep telling myself). Take your time and I would consider making an even smaller reduction than .0625 the next time if you're having a really bad time.

When you say you took 1-3 mg for 3 months, does that mean you increased from 1 to 3 mg or that you varied the amounts you took depending on how you felt?

[[kl...]]

Let me ask you guys this.  If after two weeks from my last cut, I feel generally ok, should I drop again?  I'm reading conflicting things about whether you should wait 2,3 or 4 weeks between tapers.  I'm at 0.9375mg klonopin and it's been 11 days.  Thinking of waiting to day 15 and dropping another 1/16.

 

Does this strike anyone as being too fast?

[[kl...]]

Hi Trode-

 

I wanted to respond to you. 

 

First, I was taking between 1-3 mg a day for three months per my doctors advice during an intensely stressful time of my life.  Wow was that a mistake.  Took me from a 0.5 stasis point right up to about 1.5 for me to not feel totally insane.

 

At first I was going down by 1/8s because all I had were 0.25 tabs that I would cut in half.  Cutting into fourths I've found is not accurate and I get worried about blood level fluctuations.

 

Then my doctor special ordered 0.125s which I can cut in half.  I seem to need these smaller cuts under the 1mg threshold

[[Ju...]]

Let me ask you guys this.  If after two weeks from my last cut, I feel generally ok, should I drop again?  I'm reading conflicting things about whether you should wait 2,3 or 4 weeks between tapers.  I'm at 0.9375mg klonopin and it's been 11 days.  Thinking of waiting to day 15 and dropping another 1/16.

 

Does this strike anyone as being too fast?

 

It does not strike me as too fast to cut again after stabilization occurs.  This is what I did and it served me well.  There are no exact days to hold in my mind.  It's all very personal and individual to the person, as related to their hit and stabilization pattern, IMO. 

[[Je...]]

Klonopin does dissolve in milk or binds equally to the fat. You do know what you are getting.