Need Help With Klonopin Withdrawal

[[Lu...]]

Hi! I have been taking 1 mg of Klonopin for 8 years. I have never taken more than that and I only take it at night for sleep. I have been doing the Ashton taper with a detox MD. Unfortunately, I was taken off of 32% of my meds in 5 months (3 big dosage drops) and I had to stop due to intolerable side effects. It has been a year and a half since my last drop and I suffer from lesser side effects now, but I really want to be off of this. After reading some info in this site I feel hopeful that if I switch to valium, which my doctor supports and suggested, that it may be much easier. Plus, I plan to drop 2.5% at a time instead of the huge drops my doctor had me do. I do take clonidine for sleep, even though certain nights I could probably sleep without it. I also take 600 mg of gabapentin 3 times a day. Valium always worked better for me than klonopin in the past. I would appreciate any help on how slow (what percentages of medication) I should transition from klonopin to valium. Also, I read that getting off of gabapentin (neurontin) makes getting off of valium easier. Any advice from people who have done this and have had success would be great. This is been awful and completely disrupted my life. Be well. Thanks! 

[[Ch...]]

Hi Luckygirl11 and welcome.

 

Glad you found this forum.  We have a number of members who can share their own experiences about crossing to Valium.  Here's a board that is specifically for crossing to Valium:  Valium/Diazepam Support Group

 

Ashton also has a section for crossing to Valium and I'll give you the link :Ashton Manual though it sounds like you may already be familiar with the Ashton protocol.

 

Please include your benzodiazepine information in your posts.  To make that easier by adding it to each post automatically, you can go up to Profile, choose Forum Profile, write the information in the text box and click Change Profile.

 

Take care,

Challis

[[be...]]

welcome  I think it would be a smart move to cross over to valium and then do a reduction at the recommended cut of 5 to 10 percent every two weeks. You can always adjust from there. Many of our members have found gabapentin to be helpful, including myself.

[[De...]]

Hello Luckygirl11,

 

I too would like to welcome you to the form 

 

Congratulations on your taper so far, I think you're very wise to be taking it slower from here, I'm sorry to hear that you suffered as a result of your doctor's enforced taper rate, its always better to be in charge of your own taper rate.

What is your current klonopin dosage? if you let us know the exact dosage you are now taking we can tell you what the diazepam equivalent dosage would be, for your information 1mg of klonopin is approximately equivalent to 20 mgs of diazepam. Should you decide to crossoover to diazepam, a gradual crossover is advised to allow time for the diazepam to build up in the bloodstream before the klonopin is completely withdrawn otherwise withdrawal effects from the klonopin could be experienced.

 

I will give you a link to The Substitution Taper Plan board where you can post for assistance with a crossover tapering plan :

 

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=61.0

 

For questions relating to The Gabapentin you can post on The Other Medications board, here is a link to it:

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=60.0

 

Finally here is a link to The Withdrawal Support Board where members discuss their symptoms :

 

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=145.0

 

I'm glad you found us and I wish you success with the taper.

 

Debbie