Going into 3rd night of .125 taper off Klonopin-feeling it already?

[[No...]]

Is it possible after two nights of only going down by .125 I am feeling it or is this just normal depression/anxiety?

[[No...]]

no one?  :'(

[[be...]]

Hi

 

 

I see you’re trying to taper klonopin. I tapered off a whopping 4.5 mg over a period of three years. I was actually on much more than that but my smart pdoc did a partial cross over to 70 mg of Valium. I’m not like you exactly because I became paradoxical to the K which meant it revived me up and caused terrible insomnia. Hence I was put on adjunct medication including seroquel which I see you are on.

 

I left the seroquel in place and in fact I’m still on it and will wait until I heal more before tapering it. It actually prevents a lot of withdrawal from my experience but it’s not the best drug to be in long term.

 

Feeling withdrawal of klonopin after three days is somewhat normal but I must remind you nothing about benzos is normal. You may have a fast metabolism. If you’re young I expect that’s the case. The general rule of thumb is a taper of about 5% to 10% 10 to 14 days. However I found that too fast and only dropped 5% a month.

 

You may want to consider doing what I felt helped me by the partial cross over. Remember that 1 mg of klonopin generally equals 20 mg Valium. So if you’re on 2.875 mg klonopin including that cut you made this is kind of what I did. I took 1 mg klonopin away and added 20 mg Valium. And then went about doing cut and hold on the klonopin. The best advice I can give you right now is don’t remove that 1 mg klonopin until a week or so after you take the 20 mg of Valium. Also be warned that initially the Valium will make you very sedated but that goes away with time. Some people seem to be in a rush and don’t like that but I think they are biting their nose off to spite their face if you catch my drift.

 

The reason for this is Valium is very slow to become a therapeutic dose but has a long half life. The long half life makes for an easier taper but don’t necessarily assume you’ll get off with no symptoms. All benzos are bad in my opinion.

 

Klonopin particularly stinks because it binds to your gaba receptors very tightly, doesn’t want to give up which makes for a longer healing period. Now I don’t want to scare you but some people get depressed on it. You already mentioned anxiety and depression but I’m not sure if you had them before. Cutting.125 mg may seem like a small cut but since the evil K is so strong it actually a cut of 2.5 mg Valium which I would never drop at once. My taper was very cautious but like my pdoc said as long as you’re not going to the moon what’s the rush? One can regret going too fast but I have yet to meet the person who regretted going too slow. If you ask around here you’ll find I’m somewhat of a marvel as I got off 200 mg Valium and was am highly functional the entire time. Feel free to message me and give me updates or ask questions which I’m not sure I can answer also please remember it’s against forum rules to provide tapering advice. :

[[No...]]

Thank you so much for your reply. You are absolutely amazing. My doc doesn't want to do a crossover to Valium. I already printed out the 1.5 Klonopin to Valium crossover taper from the Ashton website. She wants to do a straight taper. I am on 1.5 and went down by 8% for the last two nights. I think I will actually cut that .125 in half and weigh it with my scale. I think it will make me a lot more comfortable and just make me feel like I'm dipping my toe into the water. I'm having major issues with my 14-year-old son right now, which just adds stress to a taper. I guess I also need to stop begging my husband to let me go to a 28-day facility because I know it won't help. I did not have ANY depression before benzos entered my body in October 2018. I remember the first day I took Ativan and how much relief it gave me. It tricked me, for sure. I have had anxiety in the past. I went to my then psych after being on Zoloft for 16 years successfully. I never took anything else. I just wanted an AD change because I was starting to have panic attacks. At that point I was on 125 mg Zoloft. She took me up by 25 mg up to 200 mg every eight weeks, which took from October til April. I never got any relief, so she cross tapered me to Lexapro. I have texts between us with my saying something was not right with the Ativan in my body and I thought I was having a bad reaction. She was incredulous to this and blew it off, saying, "Oh, don't worry about it, we can get you off when it's time, no problem." I trusted her. My depression got worse and hit its peak after three weeks of taking both 2 mg Ativan and 16 mg Valium at the same time. This was supposed to be the beginning of my taper and she just left me there, taking both for three weeks. My mood went down fast. I checked myself into a mental health facility, where I was was switched to Librium, in the hopes I could be tapered off Librium fairly quickly. When my new doc cut me from 30 mg to 15 mg Librium, I had awful side effects. I had horrible nightmares and could not control my emotions. I was hysterical. They then switched me to 3 mg Klonopin per day and quickly realized that amount knocked me out, so I went to 1.5, which is where I've been since July. I am convinced I am partially depressed (maybe not 100%) because I am still on Klonopin. I have been discouraged, as my doc told me she is sure we have to go very very slowly or I will have seizures and possibly die. This has scared the hell out of me, and the two times since I've been out of the hospital and the doc has tried to wean me quickly, my body has freaked out. Soooo, now, every little feeling I have that feels like it could be a side effect like before almost sends me into a full blown panic. I just got bumped to 80 mg Prozac Wednesday, so that has a few weeks to kick in. She can't give me anymore Seroquel because I started almost passing out. She said I won't be taking it forever. As I said, I believe benzos did cause most of my depression. I probably had a little because my family life had been extremely stressful for a year before the anxiety attacks came back. The new doctor is an Addiction Specialist and is Ivy League educated, so I'm trying to trust her. This Wednesday, at first she said I couldn't taper, then changed her mind and approved the .125 cut. So, that's my story. It's been pretty rough. I have been hospitalized twice, for a total of 17 days over the summer. I have three children to take care of and a husband who travels twice a month. I feel like I'm cramping his style. He is the reason for the terrible year we had, now he is fine, on top of his game career-wise, training for a marathon, etc. I'm paying the price for all the pent up feelings I had for a year while I had to be the strong one. Now I just feel like he doesn't want to deal with my fragile emotions. Enough of that. Thanks for reading.

[[be...]]

Benzos are awful buggers. I got off the equivalent of 200 mg Valium. I was highly functional and still am. Look, I have not forgotten about you and want to help. But I’m ready to pack and soon drive 600 miles home after staying and helping with my elderly and disabled mom. Some vacation. I will do my very best to get back to you either late tomorrow night or around 4 pm eastern time. Try not to fret. A lot of people have been where you have and managed to get off. If you have the will we have the way. Stay strong and I hope someone else chimes in. Btw reducing that cut is a very good decision.

[[Th...]]

I’m sorry I didn’t understand. Does K cause depression or V?

[[No...]]

Both can cause depression, because benzos are Central Nervous Suppressants. Valium has a little bit more of a reputation of causing depression than some others, but all carry the risk.

[[No...]]

Benzos are awful buggers. I got off the equivalent of 200 mg Valium. I was highly functional and still am. Look, I have not forgotten about you and want to help. But I’m ready to pack and soon drive 600 miles home after staying and helping with my elderly and disabled mom. Some vacation. I will do my very best to get back to you either late tomorrow night or around 4 pm eastern time. Try not to fret. A lot of people have been where you have and managed to get off. If you have the will we have the way. Stay strong and I hope someone else chimes in. Btw reducing that cut is a very good decision.

 

Thank you, Benzogirl...I did reduce the cut by half last night. I weighed it out and everything. 600 miles, wow! I look forward to hearing from you.

[[be...]]

I’m leaving soon. You’re right. Benzos are CNS depressants. I found klonopin to wake me up. It’s the Valium that has the reputation of causing depression but it’s not something everyone gets, IMO.  There are tons of people here on it and I don’t hear a lot of complaining. It was just an FYI. I’ll try and drive fast. Lol 😂 good decision to make that smaller cut. A big congrats.🎊🎉🎈🍾. You’re getting the hang of it already.

[[Ra...]]

Thank you so much for your reply. You are absolutely amazing. My doc doesn't want to do a crossover to Valium. I already printed out the 1.5 Klonopin to Valium crossover taper from the Ashton website. She wants to do a straight taper. I am on 1.5 and went down by 8% for the last two nights. I think I will actually cut that .125 in half and weigh it with my scale. I think it will make me a lot more comfortable and just make me feel like I'm dipping my toe into the water. I'm having major issues with my 14-year-old son right now, which just adds stress to a taper. I guess I also need to stop begging my husband to let me go to a 28-day facility because I know it won't help. I did not have ANY depression before benzos entered my body in October 2018. I remember the first day I took Ativan and how much relief it gave me. It tricked me, for sure. I have had anxiety in the past. I went to my then psych after being on Zoloft for 16 years successfully. I never took anything else. I just wanted an AD change because I was starting to have panic attacks. At that point I was on 125 mg Zoloft. She took me up by 25 mg up to 200 mg every eight weeks, which took from October til April. I never got any relief, so she cross tapered me to Lexapro. I have texts between us with my saying something was not right with the Ativan in my body and I thought I was having a bad reaction. She was incredulous to this and blew it off, saying, "Oh, don't worry about it, we can get you off when it's time, no problem." I trusted her. My depression got worse and hit its peak after three weeks of taking both 2 mg Ativan and 16 mg Valium at the same time. This was supposed to be the beginning of my taper and she just left me there, taking both for three weeks. My mood went down fast. I checked myself into a mental health facility, where I was was switched to Librium, in the hopes I could be tapered off Librium fairly quickly. When my new doc cut me from 30 mg to 15 mg Librium, I had awful side effects. I had horrible nightmares and could not control my emotions. I was hysterical. They then switched me to 3 mg Klonopin per day and quickly realized that amount knocked me out, so I went to 1.5, which is where I've been since July. I am convinced I am partially depressed (maybe not 100%) because I am still on Klonopin. I have been discouraged, as my doc told me she is sure we have to go very very slowly or I will have seizures and possibly die. This has scared the hell out of me, and the two times since I've been out of the hospital and the doc has tried to wean me quickly, my body has freaked out. Soooo, now, every little feeling I have that feels like it could be a side effect like before almost sends me into a full blown panic. I just got bumped to 80 mg Prozac Wednesday, so that has a few weeks to kick in. She can't give me anymore Seroquel because I started almost passing out. She said I won't be taking it forever. As I said, I believe benzos did cause most of my depression. I probably had a little because my family life had been extremely stressful for a year before the anxiety attacks came back. The new doctor is an Addiction Specialist and is Ivy League educated, so I'm trying to trust her. This Wednesday, at first she said I couldn't taper, then changed her mind and approved the .125 cut. So, that's my story. It's been pretty rough. I have been hospitalized twice, for a total of 17 days over the summer. I have three children to take care of and a husband who travels twice a month. I feel like I'm cramping his style. He is the reason for the terrible year we had, now he is fine, on top of his game career-wise, training for a marathon, etc. I'm paying the price for all the pent up feelings I had for a year while I had to be the strong one. Now I just feel like he doesn't want to deal with my fragile emotions. Enough of that. Thanks for reading.

 

My Dr. won't do a crossover either. She said absolutely not even though I gave her a copy of the Ashton manual.  She wants me to stop cold turkey and keeps trying to give me antidepressants.  I'm very frustrated as well.  It will take me four more months to taper the rest of the way. I'm praying for a miracle. Good luck to you! 

[[be...]]

Hi

 

I just got home. A lovely 12 hour drive with mostly construction which made it worse. I’m going to try and address both of you but I just can’t keep my eyes open. Oh, if you want to know the reason why some doctors don’t use Valium because it got such a bad rap in the 60s. Mothers little helper and all that. Oddly they are much easier than the second generation which includes the wonderful Xanax and klonopin. Just for party talk, all were invented by a Dr. Leo Sternbach. He’s buried in chapel hill. I plan to pee on his grave one day but shh! Don’t tell anyone.

[[No...]]

Thank you so much for your reply. You are absolutely amazing. My doc doesn't want to do a crossover to Valium. I already printed out the 1.5 Klonopin to Valium crossover taper from the Ashton website. She wants to do a straight taper. I am on 1.5 and went down by 8% for the last two nights. I think I will actually cut that .125 in half and weigh it with my scale. I think it will make me a lot more comfortable and just make me feel like I'm dipping my toe into the water. I'm having major issues with my 14-year-old son right now, which just adds stress to a taper. I guess I also need to stop begging my husband to let me go to a 28-day facility because I know it won't help. I did not have ANY depression before benzos entered my body in October 2018. I remember the first day I took Ativan and how much relief it gave me. It tricked me, for sure. I have had anxiety in the past. I went to my then psych after being on Zoloft for 16 years successfully. I never took anything else. I just wanted an AD change because I was starting to have panic attacks. At that point I was on 125 mg Zoloft. She took me up by 25 mg up to 200 mg every eight weeks, which took from October til April. I never got any relief, so she cross tapered me to Lexapro. I have texts between us with my saying something was not right with the Ativan in my body and I thought I was having a bad reaction. She was incredulous to this and blew it off, saying, "Oh, don't worry about it, we can get you off when it's time, no problem." I trusted her. My depression got worse and hit its peak after three weeks of taking both 2 mg Ativan and 16 mg Valium at the same time. This was supposed to be the beginning of my taper and she just left me there, taking both for three weeks. My mood went down fast. I checked myself into a mental health facility, where I was was switched to Librium, in the hopes I could be tapered off Librium fairly quickly. When my new doc cut me from 30 mg to 15 mg Librium, I had awful side effects. I had horrible nightmares and could not control my emotions. I was hysterical. They then switched me to 3 mg Klonopin per day and quickly realized that amount knocked me out, so I went to 1.5, which is where I've been since July. I am convinced I am partially depressed (maybe not 100%) because I am still on Klonopin. I have been discouraged, as my doc told me she is sure we have to go very very slowly or I will have seizures and possibly die. This has scared the hell out of me, and the two times since I've been out of the hospital and the doc has tried to wean me quickly, my body has freaked out. Soooo, now, every little feeling I have that feels like it could be a side effect like before almost sends me into a full blown panic. I just got bumped to 80 mg Prozac Wednesday, so that has a few weeks to kick in. She can't give me anymore Seroquel because I started almost passing out. She said I won't be taking it forever. As I said, I believe benzos did cause most of my depression. I probably had a little because my family life had been extremely stressful for a year before the anxiety attacks came back. The new doctor is an Addiction Specialist and is Ivy League educated, so I'm trying to trust her. This Wednesday, at first she said I couldn't taper, then changed her mind and approved the .125 cut. So, that's my story. It's been pretty rough. I have been hospitalized twice, for a total of 17 days over the summer. I have three children to take care of and a husband who travels twice a month. I feel like I'm cramping his style. He is the reason for the terrible year we had, now he is fine, on top of his game career-wise, training for a marathon, etc. I'm paying the price for all the pent up feelings I had for a year while I had to be the strong one. Now I just feel like he doesn't want to deal with my fragile emotions. Enough of that. Thanks for reading.

 

My Dr. won't do a crossover either. She said absolutely not even though I gave her a copy of the Ashton manual.  She wants me to stop cold turkey and keeps trying to give me antidepressants.  I'm very frustrated as well.  It will take me four more months to taper the rest of the way. I'm praying for a miracle. Good luck to you! 

 

I know you're having a hard time, Raquel. You can't stop cold turkey. I don't know why these doctors don't get that. I am taking Prozac 80 mg and Seroquel. My doctor said I am "not buying" any of these support meds for after the taper. I was doing an 8% cut and I scaled in back to 5% after two nights. I don't care how long it takes me to get off as long as I can feel okay doing it. I basically spend all day trying to keep myself at a very mellow baseline. If something happens with one of my children, like them fighting, I get very upset and feel like I can't deal. This usually ends up with me in tears and my begging them to please stop because I can't stand it. I exercise a bunch. When I have pent up anxiety and frustration, I throw on my running shoes and either run or walk for a half hour. None of this is easy. I thank God for this forum to give me strength. It does help.

[[No...]]

Hi

 

I just got home. A lovely 12 hour drive with mostly construction which made it worse. I’m going to try and address both of you but I just can’t keep my eyes open. Oh, if you want to know the reason why some doctors don’t use Valium because it got such a bad rap in the 60s. Mothers little helper and all that. Oddly they are much easier than the second generation which includes the wonderful Xanax and klonopin. Just for party talk, all were invented by a Dr. Leo Sternbach. He’s buried in chapel hill. I plan to pee on his grave one day but shh! Don’t tell anyone.

 

Yikes, 12 hours. I bet you are worn out. I actually live 30 minutes from Chapel Hill. I'm going to go over there and pee on it for all of us. I never had depression until benzos. Anxiety, oh yes, but never depression.

[[be...]]

Please give him a good soaking for all of us here.

[[Ra...]]

Hi

 

I just got home. A lovely 12 hour drive with mostly construction which made it worse. I’m going to try and address both of you but I just can’t keep my eyes open. Oh, if you want to know the reason why some doctors don’t use Valium because it got such a bad rap in the 60s. Mothers little helper and all that. Oddly they are much easier than the second generation which includes the wonderful Xanax and klonopin. Just for party talk, all were invented by a Dr. Leo Sternbach. He’s buried in chapel hill. I plan to pee on his grave one day but shh! Don’t tell anyone.

 

Yikes, 12 hours. I bet you are worn out. I actually live 30 minutes from Chapel Hill. I'm going to go over there and pee on it for all of us. I never had depression until benzos. Anxiety, oh yes, but never depression.

 

Where is Chapel Hill..  I would like to do some bad stuff there too.    I'm totally in!! 

[[Ra...]]

Thank you so much for your reply. You are absolutely amazing. My doc doesn't want to do a crossover to Valium. I already printed out the 1.5 Klonopin to Valium crossover taper from the Ashton website. She wants to do a straight taper. I am on 1.5 and went down by 8% for the last two nights. I think I will actually cut that .125 in half and weigh it with my scale. I think it will make me a lot more comfortable and just make me feel like I'm dipping my toe into the water. I'm having major issues with my 14-year-old son right now, which just adds stress to a taper. I guess I also need to stop begging my husband to let me go to a 28-day facility because I know it won't help. I did not have ANY depression before benzos entered my body in October 2018. I remember the first day I took Ativan and how much relief it gave me. It tricked me, for sure. I have had anxiety in the past. I went to my then psych after being on Zoloft for 16 years successfully. I never took anything else. I just wanted an AD change because I was starting to have panic attacks. At that point I was on 125 mg Zoloft. She took me up by 25 mg up to 200 mg every eight weeks, which took from October til April. I never got any relief, so she cross tapered me to Lexapro. I have texts between us with my saying something was not right with the Ativan in my body and I thought I was having a bad reaction. She was incredulous to this and blew it off, saying, "Oh, don't worry about it, we can get you off when it's time, no problem." I trusted her. My depression got worse and hit its peak after three weeks of taking both 2 mg Ativan and 16 mg Valium at the same time. This was supposed to be the beginning of my taper and she just left me there, taking both for three weeks. My mood went down fast. I checked myself into a mental health facility, where I was was switched to Librium, in the hopes I could be tapered off Librium fairly quickly. When my new doc cut me from 30 mg to 15 mg Librium, I had awful side effects. I had horrible nightmares and could not control my emotions. I was hysterical. They then switched me to 3 mg Klonopin per day and quickly realized that amount knocked me out, so I went to 1.5, which is where I've been since July. I am convinced I am partially depressed (maybe not 100%) because I am still on Klonopin. I have been discouraged, as my doc told me she is sure we have to go very very slowly or I will have seizures and possibly die. This has scared the hell out of me, and the two times since I've been out of the hospital and the doc has tried to wean me quickly, my body has freaked out. Soooo, now, every little feeling I have that feels like it could be a side effect like before almost sends me into a full blown panic. I just got bumped to 80 mg Prozac Wednesday, so that has a few weeks to kick in. She can't give me anymore Seroquel because I started almost passing out. She said I won't be taking it forever. As I said, I believe benzos did cause most of my depression. I probably had a little because my family life had been extremely stressful for a year before the anxiety attacks came back. The new doctor is an Addiction Specialist and is Ivy League educated, so I'm trying to trust her. This Wednesday, at first she said I couldn't taper, then changed her mind and approved the .125 cut. So, that's my story. It's been pretty rough. I have been hospitalized twice, for a total of 17 days over the summer. I have three children to take care of and a husband who travels twice a month. I feel like I'm cramping his style. He is the reason for the terrible year we had, now he is fine, on top of his game career-wise, training for a marathon, etc. I'm paying the price for all the pent up feelings I had for a year while I had to be the strong one. Now I just feel like he doesn't want to deal with my fragile emotions. Enough of that. Thanks for reading.

 

My Dr. won't do a crossover either. She said absolutely not even though I gave her a copy of the Ashton manual.  She wants me to stop cold turkey and keeps trying to give me antidepressants.  I'm very frustrated as well.  It will take me four more months to taper the rest of the way. I'm praying for a miracle. Good luck to you! 

 

I know you're having a hard time, Raquel. You can't stop cold turkey. I don't know why these doctors don't get that. I am taking Prozac 80 mg and Seroquel. My doctor said I am "not buying" any of these support meds for after the taper. I was doing an 8% cut and I scaled in back to 5% after two nights. I don't care how long it takes me to get off as long as I can feel okay doing it. I basically spend all day trying to keep myself at a very mellow baseline. If something happens with one of my children, like them fighting, I get very upset and feel like I can't deal. This usually ends up with me in tears and my begging them to please stop because I can't stand it. I exercise a bunch. When I have pent up anxiety and frustration, I throw on my running shoes and either run or walk for a half hour. None of this is easy. I thank God for this forum to give me strength. It does help.

 

Thank you for the reply. I feel the same way... I can't do drama. In fact my younger grown son moved out cause I was yelling about his rap music.. I can't take stressful music, arguing, people yelling even in movies and I sometimes get irritated with the cat.  I'm like super sensitive and this sucks.  My boys final years with me are going to hold bad memories for them.    :'( 

[[be...]]

Hi

 

I just got home. A lovely 12 hour drive with mostly construction which made it worse. I’m going to try and address both of you but I just can’t keep my eyes open. Oh, if you want to know the reason why some doctors don’t use Valium because it got such a bad rap in the 60s. Mothers little helper and all that. Oddly they are much easier than the second generation which includes the wonderful Xanax and klonopin. Just for party talk, all were invented by a Dr. Leo Sternbach. He’s buried in chapel hill. I plan to pee on his grave one day but shh! Don’t tell anyone.

 

Yikes, 12 hours. I bet you are worn out. I actually live 30 minutes from Chapel Hill. I'm going to go over there and pee on it for all of us. I never had depression until benzos. Anxiety, oh yes, but never depression.

 

Where is Chapel Hill..  I would like to do some bad stuff there too.    I'm totally in!! 

North Carolina