The Klonopin Klub#2

[[je...]]

Hi naperville

 

I think you're doing fairly well for a rapid taper in terms of what I've seen here - you are functional, a lot of people cannot do what you are doing. I know it doesn't make the suffering less though and I don't want to diminish what you're feeling, because you are clearly struggling.

 

1) Yes you are still experiencing what we call PAWS (Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome). This is the phase of withdrawal that happens after you stop benzo's. It happens to everyone even those who taper. No one can tell you how long it takes because everyone reacts differently.

 

2) Some people take meds other don't. It seems to be hit and miss. You can ask here for more advice: Other Medications

 

3) Unfortunately there's nothing usual about rapid tapering, cold turkey or even normal tapering. There's no curve or "normal" or tendencies we can point you to. Everyone is different and no journey is the same as someone else. That is what makes this so frustrating. Maybe this post will help: Four Phases of Withdrawal-Where Are You?

 

4) No, there's no rule to say you should never reinstate. My advice based on what you've described you are able to do would be to try and not reinstate. However this is a personal decision for each person and we can advice you on that, but whatever you decide, we don't judge around here and we will support and respect your decision.  Maybe this post will be useful: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=53305.0

 

Also, you will probably get more feedback if you post either here Cold Turkey, Detox & Rapid Withdrawal or here Post-withdrawal Recovery Support

 

I hope I haven't overloaded you with information, but I know when you're new, it's difficult to find things.

[[he...]]

I'm having a hard time right now DMT tapering at the equivalent of 6.3% / 2 weeks. I've been hit with a bunch of stressful life events in a row that have just compounded, and it's made my symptoms rev, and old ones have come back (bloating, gas, upset stomach, and back pain) like when I was cutting and holding early on at a higher rate.

 

I held my dose last Saturday, and that seemed to help, but this week got more stressful, and it seems like I'm in a similar situation. I hope it's not that I'm getting a certain point in filing tablets that I can't get an accurate dose. I may have to try crushing and encapsulating, but I'm worried about the absorption rate being different than a tablet. I guess my first step will be to hold for a day or two again and see if that doesn't give me some relief.

 

I've had a few days with no fog this week, but instead other bad feelings (anxiety, bloating, upset stomach) took its place. I often have fog every day for a period of time. I think the worst part of all this is that it's been bleeding over into the evenings, which I used to be able to count on every night for some relief from symptoms.

 

I think a short hold is in order as much as I can't stand to stand still on an already slow taper.

[[Li...]]

Hello, hereforhelp.

 

I’m sorry you’ve hit a rough patch in your taper.  One of the downsides of daily microtapering (especially a benzodiazepine with a longer half-life such as clonazepam) is that those seemingly tiny cuts can accumulate until a ‘tipping point’ is reached where the cumulative reduction becomes more than the body can handle.

 

I agree with you that a hold is in order. Your body needs time to ‘process’ the reductions made to date. 

Another benefit of a hold is that it will give you time to resolve and recover from the stressful life events you’ve been experiencing (as I’m sure you know, stress can cause major issues when tapering).

[[he...]]

Hello, hereforhelp.

 

I’m sorry you’ve hit a rough patch in your taper.  One of the downsides of daily microtapering (especially a benzodiazepine with a longer half-life such as clonazepam) is that those seemingly tiny cuts can accumulate until a ‘tipping point’ is reached where the cumulative reduction becomes more than the body can handle.

 

I agree with you that a hold is in order. Your body needs time to ‘process’ the reductions made to date. 

Another benefit of a hold is that it will give you time to resolve and recover from the stressful life events you’ve been experiencing (as I’m sure you know, stress can cause major issues when tapering).

 

Thanks for the reassurance and encouragement, Libertas. I'm concerned about a hold not doing what I hope it will. I started having paradoxical symptoms before I started tapering, which is why I started, which makes me think I've been in tolerance this whole time. Even still, I did a hold last Saturday, and it seemed to help a bit. Perhaps a two-day hold this weekend would really help. Only one way to find out. I'm hopeful that the nature of the DMT will also help me overcome this faster than if I were still cutting and holding (though that would've been impossible for me due to increasing symptoms).

[[he...]]

Things have gotten "interesting" for me over the last few days. I basically had no symptoms yesterday other than bloating and pain in the evening, which has been happening now for over two weeks. But I seemed to have a new symptom pop up: excessive sweating. I have been so hypersensitive to cold during this whole taper, but now I'm getting hot and sweating even when the air is comfortable or slightly cold. It's happening again today, although much earlier in the day, and it's not hot in the office right now. I imagine this is a common wd symptom, but it's new to me and so different than what I'm used to. I feel like I go through phases of symptoms as I taper. Maybe this new phase involves more benzo belly (it had been basically non-existent until all the stress of the last two months hit), sweating, and palpitations, but the palps have been happening from the beginning.

 

Also, holding for awhile to try and sort out some of this stress from life events didn't seem to help much possibly due to tolerance/relative withdrawal. I don't know. So I started cutting again.

 

Today I'm at .179 mg daytime and .301 mg bedtime. Total of .480 mg.

[[Te...]]

Right now I am at clonazepam 0.75 morning, 0.25 lunch and 0.75 evening. My symptoms are worse in the morning, peaking around lunch. Should I try 1 mg morning and 0.75 evening, or 0.5/0.5/0.75?

Thank you very much.

[[Fi...]]

Right now I am at clonazepam 0.75 morning, 0.25 lunch and 0.75 evening. My symptoms are worse in the morning, peaking around lunch. Should I try 1 mg morning and 0.75 evening, or 0.5/0.5/0.75?

Thank you very much.

 

Hi Teologul,

 

I can only share my experience and what I have read over the years.  Most people, myself included, didn't feel great in the morning while tapering. My friend @welchie on this site, called it the morning creepies. 

 

If you are able to keep things the same and still taper, I suggest you do that. I think I shared with this thread that one of the ways my anxiety and fear showed up in withdrawal was my compulsion to want to change things when I wasn't feeling great. This usually back fired on me because I was trying to control the uncontrollable, which was withdrawal symptoms. I had to learn to ride through the tough times while caring for myself the best I could.

 

You may consider attempting to even out your day time doses, or all three.  This would mean making alternating cuts off your morning and evening dose while leaving the afternoon dose the same.  Once the doses were even, you could start including your afternoon dose in your cuts.

 

In my experience, adding more to a dose, (unless you need to up dose) doesn't solve the problems of withdrawal. Keeping things steady while you move down is usually the best way to go.

 

FH

 

[[Te...]]

"...one of the ways my anxiety and fear showed up in withdrawal was my compulsion to want to change things when I wasn't feeling great..." THAT'S ME!

So you suggest keeping 3 dosing times for now, and start tapering the morning or evening ones?

 

Thanks!

[[Fi...]]

"...one of the ways my anxiety and fear showed up in withdrawal was my compulsion to want to change things when I wasn't feeling great..." THAT'S ME!

So you suggest keeping 3 dosing times for now, and start tapering the morning or evening ones?

 

Thanks!

 

I get it!

 

Yes, that's what I am suggesting. I did a dry micro taper with my three doses though it works with liquid as well. 

 

I had a heavier dose at night for sleep (hah!) and then an AM and afternoon dose that were even.  I started cutting off my nighttime dose to get it even with my daytime doses. Occasionally I would switch and cut a tiny bit off each daytime dose when I needed a break from tapering only the heavier dose at night.  But I mainly concentrated on the night time dose.  Once I got the night time even with the daytime doses I started cutting, one dose at a time.  So each cut was off either the AM, Afternoon or PM dose. I did not cut all three doses at once.

 

As always, use your body as a gauge, hold when you need to and start up again when you feel ready to do so. 

 

You can do it!

[[Te...]]

So, Final Healing, you say for now 0.5/0.5/0.75 would be better. Next step, the night dose toward 0.5? I am so scared of insomnia...

I see you tapered mirtazapine, too. I am on liquid right now, trying to lower 0.02 ml (one gradation on the syringe) every day or every other day. Started at 1.25ml (18.75mg), now at 1.15 ml, after a month! Not sure that's a good idea, to lower both simultaneously...but my wife is pushing/supporting me. Maybe I should keep the mirtazapine steady and taper Clonazepam ONLY? That means years more on mirtazapine (and Lexapro). What kind of scale you have? For now I use a pill cutter...

Thanks a lot!

[[Fi...]]

So, Final Healing, you say for now 0.5/0.5/0.75 would be better. Next step, the night dose toward 0.5? I am so scared of insomnia...

I see you tapered mirtazapine, too. I am on liquid right now, trying to lower 0.02 ml (one gradation on the syringe) every day or every other day. Started at 1.25ml (18.75mg), now at 1.15 ml, after a month! Not sure that's a good idea, to lower both simultaneously...but my wife is pushing/supporting me. Maybe I should keep the mirtazapine steady and taper Clonazepam ONLY? That means years more on mirtazapine (and Lexapro). What kind of scale you have? For now I use a pill cutter...

Thanks a lot!

 

Sorry, my explanation may have been confusing.  No, I would not add to the afternoon dose.  I would keep that the same and concentrate on lowering the morning dose and occasionally the PM dose.  I understand your fear of insomnia so if that concerns you, you can keep that dose heavier.  Eventually you will have to bring it down but you can gauge how fast you want to go.  I concentrated on my night time dose because it was heavier than the other two and I wanted to have all three doses even.

 

I did taper Mirtazapine, which was the first medication I tapered.  I was not on a benzo at the time but I was on Lamictal. After bringing my Mirtazapine dose down for 6 months, I then started tapering the Lamictal at the same time.  That was a very personal choice and I know it's not the recommended course of action.  I just felt I could handle it and I could.  Once I got off of the Mirtazapine, I continued tapering the remaining Lamictal. The end of that taper got me back on benzos but that was due to some other circumstances-some my responsibility and some outside of my control. 

 

All this to say is that to the best of your ability, make the choices that feel right to you.  I appreciated all the feedback and guidance I got from different sites and people. Ultimately, I took that information and customized it for me.

 

I used the Gemini 20 scale on the gram setting to weigh my pills and used a metal nail file to shave 0.001 off of each dose that I was cutting.  So if a .5mg pill of Klonopin weighed 200 grams on the scale, I would cut 0.001 off of that pill so that the pill weighted 199 grams on the scale and take that amount till I made the next cut.  Then the next time I cut, I would shave the 200 gram pill down to 198 and so on. 

 

I got the scale on Amazon. It is a jumpy scale so I followed the directions to balance the scale every time and probably weighed the pill 3 or 4 times to get an accurate weight. 

[[Te...]]

Thank you very much, Final Healing!

[[he...]]

I used the Gemini 20 scale on the gram setting to weigh my pills and used a metal nail file to shave 0.001 off of each dose that I was cutting.  So if a .5mg pill of Klonopin weighed 200 grams on the scale, I would cut 0.001 off of that pill so that the pill weighted 199 grams on the scale and take that amount till I made the next cut.  Then the next time I cut, I would shave the 200 gram pill down to 198 and so on. 

 

Hey Final, how much did your Solco pills vary in weight? My Accord pills tend to average between 169 and 170.5, but the lightest pills can be 166 mg and the heaviest 174 mg. Thankfully the very light and very heavy pills are few and most fall within 168 to 172. Of course this still makes me nuts. I want them all to be the same. When I have a heavier one, I try to balance it with a lighter one to get close to my average weight. I know clonazepam has a long half life, but even still, I don't want to cut two heavy pills one day and get less medicine than the average and then perhaps do that again the next day. What are your thoughts on this? Am I overthinking it? I feel like if I'm not grinding the tablets to powder and encapsulating, I can't just go by the average weight with this kind of variation. 8 mg of variation seems at least somewhat significant to me.

 

And what you said about fear and having a compulsion to change something when you were having issues...yup, that's me too. Seems to be a common thread among us. "I'm having trouble, so I must be doing something wrong." What I wrote above speaks exactly to this compulsion. I just don't want to rule out something legitimate that might actually be causing an issue.

 

I'm also considering tapering only my daytime dose once I get down to .25 mg at night. I'm currently still tapering both doses concurrently. My thought is once I get to around .25 mg at night (maybe just below to make it easier), then it's easy to cut a tablet in half and possibly file a bit as a final adjustment, and I'm done with that dose. Then I can focus on tapering my daytime dose down to zero. I get all my symptoms during the day after dosing, outside of still having broken sleep, so as long as the half-life doesn't bite me, it might be to my advantage to eliminate the daytime dose as quickly as possible instead of tapering both doses all the way to the end. Just my thinking...but I know others on clonazepam have done this too, and it's worked out.

[[Te...]]

I do have back pain every time I am cutting a bit of clonazepam. Beside belly stiffness and brain fog, increase agitation...

[[he...]]

I do have back pain every time I am cutting a bit of clonazepam. Beside belly stiffness and brain fog, increase agitation...

 

I've had back pain when I cut too much along with bad benzo belly symptoms. When I cut slower, that stuff goes away. Unfortunately my brain fog and agitation do not, but I'm hoping they get better as I get further along. Hope they do for you as well, Teologul. What we're doing is not for the faint of heart.

[[Te...]]

Thanks, hereforhelp. Today is not so bad...I hope it will stay this way! Let's stay in touch and support each other!

[[he...]]

Thanks, hereforhelp. Today is not so bad...I hope it will stay this way! Let's stay in touch and support each other!

 

Very glad to hear it. I hope it does too. I'm definitely here to help support anyone I can, but I need to do a better job of setting limits for my own well-being, and that includes my time spent on here.

[[Fi...]]

I used the Gemini 20 scale on the gram setting to weigh my pills and used a metal nail file to shave 0.001 off of each dose that I was cutting.  So if a .5mg pill of Klonopin weighed 200 grams on the scale, I would cut 0.001 off of that pill so that the pill weighted 199 grams on the scale and take that amount till I made the next cut.  Then the next time I cut, I would shave the 200 gram pill down to 198 and so on. 

 

Hey Final, how much did your Solco pills vary in weight? My Accord pills tend to average between 169 and 170.5, but the lightest pills can be 166 mg and the heaviest 174 mg. Thankfully the very light and very heavy pills are few and most fall within 168 to 172. Of course this still makes me nuts. I want them all to be the same. When I have a heavier one, I try to balance it with a lighter one to get close to my average weight. I know clonazepam has a long half life, but even still, I don't want to cut two heavy pills one day and get less medicine than the average and then perhaps do that again the next day. What are your thoughts on this? Am I overthinking it? I feel like if I'm not grinding the tablets to powder and encapsulating, I can't just go by the average weight with this kind of variation. 8 mg of variation seems at least somewhat significant to me.

 

And what you said about fear and having a compulsion to change something when you were having issues...yup, that's me too. Seems to be a common thread among us. "I'm having trouble, so I must be doing something wrong." What I wrote above speaks exactly to this compulsion. I just don't want to rule out something legitimate that might actually be causing an issue.

 

I'm also considering tapering only my daytime dose once I get down to .25 mg at night. I'm currently still tapering both doses concurrently. My thought is once I get to around .25 mg at night (maybe just below to make it easier), then it's easy to cut a tablet in half and possibly file a bit as a final adjustment, and I'm done with that dose. Then I can focus on tapering my daytime dose down to zero. I get all my symptoms during the day after dosing, outside of still having broken sleep, so as long as the half-life doesn't bite me, it might be to my advantage to eliminate the daytime dose as quickly as possible instead of tapering both doses all the way to the end. Just my thinking...but I know others on clonazepam have done this too, and it's worked out.

 

Hi,

 

My Solco pills did vary in weight between 198-204.  I first tried to use as many in the 199-201 range as I could. I remember getting advice from someone on this site that as long as I was moving down in a consistent manner, that I should try to avoid being too fixated on the numbers. (I was anyway). But it did help me let go of the fear of being off by 0.001 or 0.002.

 

However, I would shave off of the heavier weighing pills to get them to 200 and then shave more.  I didn't do that often because I hoarded a lot of medication and had pills to choose from.

 

Some people weigh 10 pills and take the average. They do basically what you are doing, which is to average it out over the course of using those pills.  That seems to work.

 

In terms of what you want to do with you daytime dose, it seems like you are getting a handle on how symptoms hit you. So I say trust yourself and do what feels right for you.  That's what worked out for me-listen to feedback and then choose what of that feedback feels appropriate to you.

 

FH

[[he...]]

I used the Gemini 20 scale on the gram setting to weigh my pills and used a metal nail file to shave 0.001 off of each dose that I was cutting.  So if a .5mg pill of Klonopin weighed 200 grams on the scale, I would cut 0.001 off of that pill so that the pill weighted 199 grams on the scale and take that amount till I made the next cut.  Then the next time I cut, I would shave the 200 gram pill down to 198 and so on. 

 

Hey Final, how much did your Solco pills vary in weight? My Accord pills tend to average between 169 and 170.5, but the lightest pills can be 166 mg and the heaviest 174 mg. Thankfully the very light and very heavy pills are few and most fall within 168 to 172. Of course this still makes me nuts. I want them all to be the same. When I have a heavier one, I try to balance it with a lighter one to get close to my average weight. I know clonazepam has a long half life, but even still, I don't want to cut two heavy pills one day and get less medicine than the average and then perhaps do that again the next day. What are your thoughts on this? Am I overthinking it? I feel like if I'm not grinding the tablets to powder and encapsulating, I can't just go by the average weight with this kind of variation. 8 mg of variation seems at least somewhat significant to me.

 

And what you said about fear and having a compulsion to change something when you were having issues...yup, that's me too. Seems to be a common thread among us. "I'm having trouble, so I must be doing something wrong." What I wrote above speaks exactly to this compulsion. I just don't want to rule out something legitimate that might actually be causing an issue.

 

I'm also considering tapering only my daytime dose once I get down to .25 mg at night. I'm currently still tapering both doses concurrently. My thought is once I get to around .25 mg at night (maybe just below to make it easier), then it's easy to cut a tablet in half and possibly file a bit as a final adjustment, and I'm done with that dose. Then I can focus on tapering my daytime dose down to zero. I get all my symptoms during the day after dosing, outside of still having broken sleep, so as long as the half-life doesn't bite me, it might be to my advantage to eliminate the daytime dose as quickly as possible instead of tapering both doses all the way to the end. Just my thinking...but I know others on clonazepam have done this too, and it's worked out.

 

Hi,

 

My Solco pills did vary in weight between 198-204.  I first tried to use as many in the 199-201 range as I could. I remember getting advice from someone on this site that as long as I was moving down in a consistent manner, that I should try to avoid being too fixated on the numbers. (I was anyway). But it did help me let go of the fear of being off by 0.001 or 0.002.

 

However, I would shave off of the heavier weighing pills to get them to 200 and then shave more.  I didn't do that often because I hoarded a lot of medication and had pills to choose from.

 

Some people weigh 10 pills and take the average. They do basically what you are doing, which is to average it out over the course of using those pills.  That seems to work.

 

In terms of what you want to do with you daytime dose, it seems like you are getting a handle on how symptoms hit you. So I say trust yourself and do what feels right for you.  That's what worked out for me-listen to feedback and then choose what of that feedback feels appropriate to you.

 

FH

 

So you didn't seem to notice any real issues cutting your tablets even when they got small and quite possibly the clonazepam was not evenly distributed and thus was giving you fluctuations? I would think this would be the time when things really wouldn't even out. At smaller and smaller doses, you don't really have any leeway. This is what concerns me, but I probably just need to let it go and see what happens.

 

My fogs have started to go away, but intense anxiety and benzo belly symptoms seem to be filling in the void, usually in the afternoon and lasting through evening. This has just happened this week. I don't know what to make of it. I think it's the next stage in my taper. The non-linear nature of healing really is enough to make you crazy. It is so hard not really knowing how I'm going to feel on any given day. Makes planning anything nearly impossible.

 

Thankfully I am able to go for good walks, I am dreaming, the anhedonia left a long time ago, agitation and irritability seem to have gotten better than they were (which is good with a 5- and 7-year-old with tons of energy), I am still working (although it can be a real challenge), and I'm still able to take care of basic needs with my family (mainly helping my wife with the kids and other tasks around the house...sometimes it just takes a bit longer than it used to). It is a challenge, though, to give my wife the breaks from parenting that she so desperately needs. I'm hoping I'll be able to do that better the lower down I go.

 

Today, I'm down to .170 mg daytime and .288 mg bedtime.

[[Fi...]]

I used the Gemini 20 scale on the gram setting to weigh my pills and used a metal nail file to shave 0.001 off of each dose that I was cutting.  So if a .5mg pill of Klonopin weighed 200 grams on the scale, I would cut 0.001 off of that pill so that the pill weighted 199 grams on the scale and take that amount till I made the next cut.  Then the next time I cut, I would shave the 200 gram pill down to 198 and so on. 

 

Hey Final, how much did your Solco pills vary in weight? My Accord pills tend to average between 169 and 170.5, but the lightest pills can be 166 mg and the heaviest 174 mg. Thankfully the very light and very heavy pills are few and most fall within 168 to 172. Of course this still makes me nuts. I want them all to be the same. When I have a heavier one, I try to balance it with a lighter one to get close to my average weight. I know clonazepam has a long half life, but even still, I don't want to cut two heavy pills one day and get less medicine than the average and then perhaps do that again the next day. What are your thoughts on this? Am I overthinking it? I feel like if I'm not grinding the tablets to powder and encapsulating, I can't just go by the average weight with this kind of variation. 8 mg of variation seems at least somewhat significant to me.

 

And what you said about fear and having a compulsion to change something when you were having issues...yup, that's me too. Seems to be a common thread among us. "I'm having trouble, so I must be doing something wrong." What I wrote above speaks exactly to this compulsion. I just don't want to rule out something legitimate that might actually be causing an issue.

 

I'm also considering tapering only my daytime dose once I get down to .25 mg at night. I'm currently still tapering both doses concurrently. My thought is once I get to around .25 mg at night (maybe just below to make it easier), then it's easy to cut a tablet in half and possibly file a bit as a final adjustment, and I'm done with that dose. Then I can focus on tapering my daytime dose down to zero. I get all my symptoms during the day after dosing, outside of still having broken sleep, so as long as the half-life doesn't bite me, it might be to my advantage to eliminate the daytime dose as quickly as possible instead of tapering both doses all the way to the end. Just my thinking...but I know others on clonazepam have done this too, and it's worked out.

 

Hi,

 

My Solco pills did vary in weight between 198-204.  I first tried to use as many in the 199-201 range as I could. I remember getting advice from someone on this site that as long as I was moving down in a consistent manner, that I should try to avoid being too fixated on the numbers. (I was anyway). But it did help me let go of the fear of being off by 0.001 or 0.002.

 

However, I would shave off of the heavier weighing pills to get them to 200 and then shave more.  I didn't do that often because I hoarded a lot of medication and had pills to choose from.

 

Some people weigh 10 pills and take the average. They do basically what you are doing, which is to average it out over the course of using those pills.  That seems to work.

 

In terms of what you want to do with you daytime dose, it seems like you are getting a handle on how symptoms hit you. So I say trust yourself and do what feels right for you.  That's what worked out for me-listen to feedback and then choose what of that feedback feels appropriate to you.

 

FH

 

So you didn't seem to notice any real issues cutting your tablets even when they got small and quite possibly the clonazepam was not evenly distributed and thus was giving you fluctuations? I would think this would be the time when things really wouldn't even out. At smaller and smaller doses, you don't really have any leeway. This is what concerns me, but I probably just need to let it go and see what happens.

 

My fogs have started to go away, but intense anxiety and benzo belly symptoms seem to be filling in the void, usually in the afternoon and lasting through evening. This has just happened this week. I don't know what to make of it. I think it's the next stage in my taper. The non-linear nature of healing really is enough to make you crazy. It is so hard not really knowing how I'm going to feel on any given day. Makes planning anything nearly impossible.

 

Thankfully I am able to go for good walks, I am dreaming, the anhedonia left a long time ago, agitation and irritability seem to have gotten better than they were (which is good with a 5- and 7-year-old with tons of energy), I am still working (although it can be a real challenge), and I'm still able to take care of basic needs with my family (mainly helping my wife with the kids and other tasks around the house...sometimes it just takes a bit longer than it used to). It is a challenge, though, to give my wife the breaks from parenting that she so desperately needs. I'm hoping I'll be able to do that better the lower down I go.

 

Today, I'm down to .170 mg daytime and .288 mg bedtime.

 

No, I really didn't notice the fluctuations and like you, I made the choice to let it go.  To be fair, I did not use the pills that weighed 207 grams on the scale and had enough in my stash to choose the lower weights.

 

I also chose not to get fixated on whether the medication was evenly distributed through pill discussion.  With my benzo injured brain tendency to fixate, I had to make choices on what to let go of so I could continue.  What also helped was reading this post on Surviving Antidepressants, written by a member.  Remember, it's only this person's opinion based on their research but reading it, especially the section that starts with It's All in The Mix, which is halfway down, really helped me.

 

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/22065-myths-about-your-drugs/

 

Congratulations on getting lower on your benzo. 

[[he...]]

Thank you for your reply and the link to that article, Final. And thank you for the congrats. It's been hard fought, and I still have quite a ways to go. I'm down 48.5% from my initial dose, which was just over .875 mg as far as I can tell based on how well I was able to cut accurately into quarter tablets. And I tended to weight the bedtime dose a bit higher when cutting to try and help my daytime symptoms and help me sleep better. Not sure if it helped or not.

[[Te...]]

Awful agitation, chills, tremors, SI...2 days ago I forgot to take my evening dose 0.75. Can all this be from that and now I an catching up? I assume I am in tolerance. Again I am questioning going 0.5/0.5 and 0.75 in the evening, or 1 mg around 11am and 0.75 at night? I am totally non-functional, shaking as a leaf. My Doc offered my clonidine, quetiapine and gabapentin....but I am reluctant to add to the mix (already taking lexapro and mirtazapine). Any ideas?

[[Ul...]]

Awful agitation, chills, tremors, SI...2 days ago I forgot to take my evening dose 0.75. Can all this be from that and now I an catching up? I assume I am in tolerance. Again I am questioning going 0.5/0.5 and 0.75 in the evening, or 1 mg around 11am and 0.75 at night? I am totally non-functional, shaking as a leaf. My Doc offered my clonidine, quetiapine and gabapentin....but I am reluctant to add to the mix (already taking lexapro and mirtazapine). Any ideas?

 

If you're tapering, then you're in tolerance. In tolerance, our bodies want us to add to our doses to "fix" us for the moment, but we're all decreasing our doses in order to taper and get off this benzo journey. Personally, I'd say to stay where you are until you get some level of improvement ("improvement" has a different definition sometimes during withdrawal) or maybe just get to some level of stability. When I was going through it and finally got "stable", I then evened all three of my daily doses and then tapered on down to zero. I just think our bodies like consistency throughout any given 24 hour period, but I do realize that we're all very different. I've been on the same boat you're on. Just stick with it, try to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, distract with something that gives some degree of peace, and believe that you'll get through it! We've all been there and we're with you. As they say, "when you're in hell, keep going". You'll make it

[[Te...]]

So better dosing thrice than twice a day?

 

Thank you so much.

[[Pi...]]

Hello,

 

 

Ive been having a persistent headache since Jan 22, 2022. (pressure, pain, heaviness, discomfort, pressure cooker, you name it)

Is this normal for a w/d symptom to stay this long with no relief from pain killers?

 

Should I stay at this dose a little longer or just move on with the taper and this awful headache?

Some other members have offered their opinions and suggestions in other threads, and I appreciate all their help.

I'm just trying to make a decision in the next day or two and all advice is appreciated.

 

Thank you and hope you are all doing better today.