Klonopin tapering from ~1.5 mg/day, 20 months of use

[[Gr...]]

I'm tapering clonazepam from a dose of, on average, somewhat over 1 mg/day. I was put on 1 mg/day (0.5 mg twice daily) of clonazepam in March 2013, around the time my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I upped the dose to about 2 mg around the time she died in July of this year, and reduced it haphazardly to an average of about 1-1.5 mg/day thereafter, without incident.

 

I went off the drug over the weekend when I ran out on a Friday evening about a month ago; by Monday the withdrawals were hellish and getting worse. I got it refilled that day and got better, but learned I needed to get off in a responsible way ASAP.

 

My current doctor, although better than the one that initially prescribed it, doesn't seem to realize how serious benzo withdrawals are even from relatively low doses. She thinks my reduction by 0.25 mg/day every 2 weeks is especially slow, although it's actually fast by the standards of people who actually know how to withdraw benzo patients. Still, she gives me what I ask for, which is more or less the best I've come to expect from psychiatrists.

 

I'm on my second day at 0.75 mg/day, down from 1. No withdrawal effects yet except bad insomnia last night; I slept about 2.5 hours in all. Hopefully, given the relatively low starting dose and having been on it for <2 years, I manage to pull through without the horror stories I've read. But if I do have bad withdrawals, hopefully the information on this site will be helpful.

[[Ch...]]

Hi Grebulocities and welcome.

 

I'm sorry for your loss, losing Mom takes a huge toll.  I'm also sorry for this struggle with withdrawing from Clonazepam (Klonopin) and glad to hear you've reinstated and are tapering slowly.  We follow the Ashton Manual protocol of no more than 5 to 10% every ten days to two weeks. 

 

Did you go from 1mg to .75mg in one cut?  That's a large cut and you may not be feeling it fully after two days.  Clonazepam is long-acting and the withdrawal symptoms can take up to two weeks to appear.  I would probably correct my dose back up to about .9mg if I were doing this, however, it's up to you of course. 

 

Here's a good place to start posting to the wider membership: General Taper Plans.

 

It helps to 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

[[Mo...]]

Hi G ,

i am sure after you have been here for sometime you will become very Benzo-wise.

more knowledge than any Doctor.

 

what is happening in our brain ? interesting.

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=66397.0

 

warm welcome and all the best,

Claudia.

 

[Guest [ma...]]

I'm on my second day at 0.75 mg/day, down from 1.

 

Hi Grebulocities,

 

So sorry for the loss of you mom.

 

As Challis pointed out a drop in dose of Klonopin from 1 mg to 0.75 mg all at once is considered a large cut. Klonopin is 20 times stronger than Valium. 1mg = 20 mg of Valium so your recent cut of 0.25 mg is like cutting out 5mg of Valium all at once.

 

Here is a link to the Benzo Equivalency Table in the Ashton Manual. This will help you to understand the varying strengths of benzos as well as the half life, and why it can take time for our body to feel the effects of a drop in dosage.

 

http://www.benzo.org.uk/bzequiv.htm

 

So glad you found BB. Best of luck with your taper. mandala