Please help me with a Klonopin taper

[[Hu...]]

I know that this group has a wealth of knowledge to share and I need your help please. I want to do a gentle taper.

 

I am currently taking Klonopin as follows:    .25mg AM, .25mg Noon and .5mg at bedtime.

 

How do you taper when taking 3 doses per day?

 

Please help!

 

[[...]]

If it were me, I'd liquify part or all of the dose and do a microtaper.

[[NJ...]]

You have not been at your current dose for very long. How did you do when your doctor reduced your morning dosage due to sedation? If it was not too bad, you may want to try to remove 1/2 of one of your .25 dosages and see how you do. What size pills you have, if you don't want to liquid taper, may impact how easily it is to do this. Since you haven't been on that long I would say to do as quick a taper as you are comfortable with.

[[Hu...]]

My pills are .5mg.  And I don't understand how you taper when taking doses 3 times per day.

 

With the reduction to .25 in the morning and afternoon I am still feeling anxiety. Is this normal or should I not be feeling the anxiety?

 

Is liquid taper the best way to do this? I don't understand how to microtaper, can someone explain this to me?

[[...]]

My pills are .5mg.  And I don't understand how you taper when taking doses 3 times per day.

 

With the reduction to .25 in the morning and afternoon I am still feeling anxiety. Is this normal or should I not be feeling the anxiety?

 

Is liquid taper the best way to do this? I don't understand how to microtaper, can someone explain this to me?

 

Your dose is 1mg a day and it is broken into three doses.  K pill sizes are not conducive to this nor are they right for tapering, but if you liquify, the problem goes away.  You'll have the flexibility to dose any way you need.

 

To microtaper, I'd make a 1mg=100ml liquid.  It is easy and many are doing it.  There are several choices...

 

- PG/water

- Alcohol/water

- Whole milk

- Ora Plus

- Compounding pharmacy

[[NJ...]]

My pills are .5mg.  And I don't understand how you taper when taking doses 3 times per day.

 

With the reduction to .25 in the morning and afternoon I am still feeling anxiety. Is this normal or should I not be feeling the anxiety?

 

Is liquid taper the best way to do this? I don't understand how to microtaper, can someone explain this to me?

 

I'd suggest you look around the forums and think about how you might want to proceed--liquid or dry cut (perhaps with a scale for more accuracy). I dose just once a day but I would think you would want to first make a cut to one of your doses, perhaps the one you feel like you need the least.

 

I do think that as a short term user at 1 mg you may not have significant problems and can probably get through this quickly. I used to use .5 mg of K for months at a time and stop with no problem.

[[Hu...]]

Thank you SG but I do not understand the taper process once you have the liquid and I assume this method does not require a scale.

 

To microtaper, I'd make a 1mg=100ml liquid.

 

Can someone tell me step by step by step what to do? 

[[wa...]]

Hi Hummingbird9,

 

So I will elaborate a little more on what SG57 is saying. He has helped many of us here. He can correct me if I am wrong. I received your message but this is the best place to reply to get others input. I read over your posts and signature. It looks like you were in tolerance and the doc increased your dose to .5 mg 3 x day but then due to sedation reduced your am doses to .25 mg x 2 then .5 mg at night over 2 weeks ago. How did you handle that cut? Sounds like you have some anxiety breaking through. So here is the idea: 1 mg in 100 mls of your choice of medium (milk, water and alcohol, etc)

 

1 mg (total dose)/100mls(choosen medium)=.01mg per ml/10 (each mark on 1 ml syringe is .01 adding up to 10)=.001mg per line reduction.

 

Now you decide how much to reduce. I just put my .75mg in 75 mls of milk in a jar overnight. I shake it up a few times and make sure it is dissolved. I don't crush it. That step is unnecessary in my eyes. In the morning I take it out of  fridge half hour before I cut and shake it up more. Depending what dose I am at I cut and empty that into sink. Then divide my doses x 3.  If you are already in tolerance it may help to even out your doses which is what I eventually did. It depends on how you are sleeping.

 

I use a 100 ml glass cylinder you can order on Amazon. I got two in case I broke one. Then you will need 1 ml and 10 ml syringes which you can also order on Amazon.  I also have a 60 ml syringe to draw up my milk and divide my doses but you don't necessarily need that.

 

So here are some numbers in terms of percentages of reductions at your dose:

 

.001 mg (.01 ml)/1mg=.001 mg  per day x 30 days=.03 which is a 3% reduction a month

.002 mg (.02 ml)/1mg=.002 mg  per day x 30 days= .06 which is a 6% reduction a month

.003 mg (.03 ml)/1mg=.003 mg per day x 30 days/.09 which is a 9% reduction a month

 

You get the picture. Hope this has helped out.

[[Hu...]]

Hi Hummingbird9,

 

So I will elaborate a little more on what SG57 is saying. He has helped many of us here. He can correct me if I am wrong. I received your message but this is the best place to reply to get others input. I read over your posts and signature. It looks like you were in tolerance and the doc increased your dose to .5 mg 3 x day but then due to sedation reduced your am doses to .25 mg x 2 then .5 mg at night over 2 weeks ago. How did you handle that cut? Sounds like you have some anxiety breaking through. So here is the idea: 1 mg in 100 mls of your choice of medium (milk, water and alcohol, etc)

 

1 mg (total dose)/100mls(choosen medium)=.01mg per ml/10 (each mark on 1 ml syringe is .01 adding up to 10)=.001mg per line reduction.

 

Now you decide how much to reduce. I just put my .75mg in 75 mls of milk in a jar overnight. I shake it up a few times and make sure it is dissolved. I don't crush it. That step is unnecessary in my eyes. In the morning I take it out of  fridge half hour before I cut and shake it up more. Depending what dose I am at I cut and empty that into sink. Then divide my doses x 3.  If you are already in tolerance it may help to even out your doses which is what I eventually did. It depends on how you are sleeping.

 

I use a 100 ml glass cylinder you can order on Amazon. I got two in case I broke one. Then you will need 1 ml and 10 ml syringes which you can also order on Amazon.  I also have a 60 ml syringe to draw up my milk and divide my doses but you don't necessarily need that.

 

So here are some numbers in terms of percentages of reductions at your dose:

 

.001 mg (.01 ml)/1mg=.001 mg  per day x 30 days=.03 which is a 3% reduction a month

.002 mg (.02 ml)/1mg=.002 mg  per day x 30 days= .06 which is a 6% reduction a month

.003 mg (.03 ml)/1mg=.003 mg per day x 30 days/.09 which is a 9% reduction a month

 

You get the picture. Hope this has helped out.

 

 

Hi Warrior  thank you for the info it really helps. I think that I may be ultra sensitive to dosage changes which is why I need to do it gently.

 

To answer your questions, when the morning dose was reduced I began to feel the anxiety after a few days. I am now feeling the skin prickling as well with the .25 dose in the morning and .25 in the afternoon.

 

In regards to evening out the doses, I am able to sleep fairly well thanks to the Remeron but I wake up a few times during the night.

 

You suggested that evening out the doses may help. Does that mean to reduce the current night dose from .5 (1 tablet) to .25 (1/2 tablet) directly or go to 3/4 of a tablet first? Is the intent to be taking the same amount at each dose? So .25 AM, .25 Noon, .25 Bedtime

and then begin the taper from that point following the method you so thoughtfully provided?

 

I am so scared after the experience I had when I hit tolerance taking only .25 per day in the beginning.

 

Thank you so much for your help!

 

 

 

 

[[wa...]]

Hummingbird9,

 

Stay at 1mg total. Do not cut out .25 mg more of your dose before you taper. Rather when you start to taper measure out the amount you want to cut out. Waste that. Then make each of your doses the same. For example, say you want to cut just .01 ml the first day. That leaves you with 99.9 mls. Divide that into 3 doses. It doesn't have to be perfect.given clonazepam has a relatively long half life. Make sure you shake rather than stir your mixture each time you measure out your doses. Place some water in original container to get all your med and divide that up as well. Let me know how else I can help.

[[Hu...]]

How do you determine how much liquid to use?

[[wa...]]

Hummingbird9,

 

Sometimes when people switch to a liquid taper i have heard that it feels like making a cut. So if you switch over. Just put your 1 mg dose in 100 mls of milk and divide that into three doses.  Stay there for 10 to 14 days than proceed with your taper. Use whole milk as well. 

[[Hu...]]

So you are tapering at .01 per cut. Is that considered slow or gentle?

[[wa...]]

100 mls is just an easy unit of measure to your 1 mg of clonazepam. You could use 200 mls if you want more liquid. The math would look like this: 1mg/200mls=.005 mg per ml/ 10=.0005 mg per line on syringe.

 

How do you determine how much liquid to use?

[[Hu...]]

So you are tapering at .01 per cut. Is that considered slow or gentle?

[[wa...]]

I consider it slow. But my nervous system is taxed. I tried cutting .02 mls everyday and the cuts proved too much that I was holding every 4th day. Everyone is different. You may be able to cut faster. But these nasty benzo cuts have a way of catching up to you when you least expect it. Try slow then increase if you feel you can.

 

So you are tapering at .01 per cut. Is that considered slow or gentle?

[[Hu...]]

Thank you so very much. As I said I am very scared after hitting tolerance at .25 1x per day.  Ended up at the hospital with jerking muscle movements and huge ER bill.

[[wa...]]

Wait I thought you said you were at 1 mg total right now. Is that right?

[[Hu...]]

Yes. I have .5mg tablets and take 1/2 in the morning, half at noon, and 1 whole tablet .5mg at night

 

My comment above about the hospital was when I was taking only .25 per day total. The doctor then increased to .5mg 3x per day.  Then reduced morning to .25mg due to sedation as well as the noon dosage to .25 and night stayed at .5 for a total of 1mg per day.

[[wa...]]

Why on earth would your doctor increase your .25 dose to 3 x .5 mg after that instead of just a smaller updose to stabilize you. This simply infuriates me at the lack of understanding how potent these pills are. Not to mention the yo yo of up and down. Argh. I am sorry you are dealing with this. I am sorry we are all in this boat together. But onward we go.

[[Hu...]]

She felt that if I was in withdrawl then the best way to resolve it was to increase.  The .25 taken 1x per day was not enough to help my anxiety for long. I was having panic attacks when I started on the Klonopin.