Down to .0625 mg Klonopin...any advice out there in BB Land? Any???

[[Co...]]

Hi Juliea,

 

You are a wonderful person for sticking around and helping us out.  Many thanks.......

 

I would like to know how it was for you when you walked away at .0625 mg X.

 

I am down to .0625 mg K as of yesterday and debating what I should do.  Both X and K have the same equivalencies so I am thinking, well, if Juliea did it, then maybe I can also. This is like walking away from 1.25 mgs. of Valium - probably safe from a medical standpoint.

 

I plan to stay on .0625 mg Klonopin for a few more days.

 

What do you think?  How was it for you?

 

Thanks again.

[[Ju...]]

You're very welcome.  It's my pleasure.

 

I personally don't believe in benzo equivalencies for any other reason than a cross over from one benzo to another.  So I did not consider myself jumping from such and such a dose of Valium.  Professor Ashton was very clear about this in the Ashton Manual, the equivalencies were for determining cross overs only and also the equivalencies were estimates.

 

I actually did fine when I jumped.  I did not get hit with acute withdrawal, (this happened at the top end of my taper when I was cutting too fast ).

 

The only thing different that happened to me is sleep became a problem for about three months.  But my sleep cleared up and I sleep well most nights now.

 

I believe .0625 is a good jump dose for Klonopin as is .0625 a good jump dose for Xanax.  But a lot depends upon how the taper is going for a person when they reach the typical jump dose level.

 

For myself, I really did not feel my cuts starting at .25mg all the way to zero.  So I felt very comfortable jumping at a dose at least 10 buddies I had posted with at the time jumped from.  Had I had significant symptoms as I began my taper down from .25, I might have tapered down to .03125, but since I didn't, I jumped.  It was anticlimactic.  Nothing new happened.  No acute withdrawal appeared, like at the top end of my taper.

 

Congrats on getting down to .0625!!  Super job!! 

[[Co...]]

Thanks Juliea,

 

Here is why I was thinking about crossing-over to Valium now that I am on .0625 mg Klonopin (1.25 Valium equivalency).

 

Per Ashton:

 

Some doctors in the US switch patients onto clonazepam (Klonopin), believing that it will be easier to withdraw from than say alprazolam (Xanax) or lorazepam (Ativan) because it is more slowly eliminated. However, Klonopin is far from ideal for this purpose. It is an extremely potent drug, is eliminated much faster than diazepam (See Table 1, Chapter I), and the smallest available tablet in the US is 0.5mg (equivalent to 10mg diazepam) and 0.25mg in Canada (equivalent to 5mg Valium). It is difficult with this drug to achieve a smooth, slow fall in blood concentration, and there is some evidence that withdrawal is particularly difficult from high potency benzodiazepines, including Klonopin. Some people, however, appear to have particular difficulty in switching from Klonopin to diazepam. In such cases it is possible to have special capsules made up containing small doses, e.g. an eighth or a sixteenth of a milligram or less, which can be used to make gradual dosage reductions straight from Klonopin. These capsules require a doctor's prescription and can be made up by hospital pharmacists and some chemists in the UK, and by compounding pharmacists in North America. A similar technique can be used for those on other benzodiazepines who find it hard to substitute diazepam. To locate a compounding pharmacist in the USA or Canada this web site may be useful: www.iacprx.org. Care must be taken to ensure that the compounding pharmacist can guarantee the same formula on each prescription renewal. It should be noted, however, that this approach to benzodiazepine withdrawal can be troublesome and is not recommended for general use.

[[Ju...]]

I very highly doubt Professor Ashton would recommend a crossover to anyone on .0625mg of Klonopin, who was having no problems tapering off of Klonopin.  In fact I've read that Professor Ashton herself did not recommend crossovers 'right off the bat' for people who had not at least attempted to withdraw from their original benzo and run into difficulty.

 

Ashton's cases in her clinic were people who were having severe difficulty withdrawing from their original benzo.  This is why the Ashton crossover was developed. 

 

A Valium crossover is not for everyone.  And certainly not for anyone not experiencing problems withdrawing from their original benzo, IMO.  Changing benzos can be extremely destabilizing.  A person who tolerates one benzo may not tolerate another one as well.  This can equate to symptoms.  I would not want to do anything that would even have a remote possibility of increasing my symptoms if I was having a good, stable taper.

[[Co...]]

Thanks for straightening this out for me.

 

Klonopin it is...............

[[sa...]]

It always makes me happy and gives me hope when I read someone is close to jumping or has just jumped! 

 

It can be done I think!

 

Thanks for posting and best of luck!

[[Co...]]

Hi Saul43,

 

Yes. It can be done and you will do it also. Patience is one of the keys

 

Best of luck.

 

Steve