Clonazepam taper question

[[De...]]

I am currently tapering from 1 mg of Clonazapam. I am down to 2.7 mg at night and 2.7 mg in the morning. I have been reducing at a rate of about 3.5% on the 15th day. I am “functional” in that I am showering, making my family dinner and doing laundry and I just started driving very short distances. I am not working. I have had a few windows but they are infrequent. I always get super anxious before I cut as I had a horrific cold Turkey experience. I would like to know how I taper the end. As I know if I keep doing 3.5% of current dose I’ll never fully get off the drug. Do I take this linear at some point and if so when? 

[[je...]]

Hi @[De...]

I just want to check your numbers. I suspect you meant to say you are at 0.27mg at night and 0.27mg in the morning?

When it comes to the end, it's still very important to let your symptoms guide your taper. Lots of people still go by percentages. I understand your question though and I struggled with the same problem. I actually wrote a post about How I tapered the end. The way I did it will probably be too fast for you because my functional percentage before going linear was 7.5% every two weeks which is much higher than yours. But it might give you some idea of possible approaches or what will not work for you i.e. it might be too fast. 

[[De...]]

@[je...]Yes I meant .27 mg. I am so afraid to drop. I don’t want things to get worse then they already are. 

[[je...]]

It seems like what you're doing is working for now and keeping you functional even though it's not easy. I would just stay the course, hold if needed and pay attention to symptoms. 

[[or...]]

I'm with @[je...], when I feel too unsure about tapering again, I hold until I feel better and more secure to taper again.  That's the beauty of our freedom to slow down our taper, we don't have to stick to a rigid schedule, and instead listen to our bodies   It's taking me longer on my last taper, but it's better to not move on to next taper for me until I feel more stable, Denise PS I learned all that's working for me, about tapering, right here on BB.

[[De...]]

Clonazapam or Paxil? I was put in Clonazapam and Paxil after a really bad ativan cold Turkey. I can’t help but feel like my life is ruined and I’m going to be on these drugs forever. 

[[Br...]]

I know that feeling that it will take forever to dig yourself out of the hole. But as the proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  You're taking the first step by carefully considering which drug to taper off first.  There are a few questions it's important to answer as you make this decision. First, how long ago did you CT Ativan?  Are you still experiencing withdrawal symptoms?  it's important that your nervous system is as stable as possible before you start a new taper?   How long have you been on Clonazepam and Paxil.  How do each of them make you feel? One approach I've seen is to taper the more activating drug first so that you have the cushion of the more sedating drug as you taper off the more activating one.  As you probably know it's very important to taper carefully off both clonazepam and Paxil in order to keep withdrawal symptoms as manageable as possible.

I think it would also be helpful to visit survivingantidepressants.org to ask the same question.  

As part of your decision-making process you may also want to check for drug interactions using this tool:   http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html.

[[De...]]

@[Br...]I’ve always been tapering Clonazapam and yes I am feeling symptoms. I never totally stabilized from the ativan withdrawal. I am decreasing Clonazapam by 3.5% of daily dose every 14 days. I am bouncing between anxious, tired and crying. There is not much else. I have no idea which drug is doing what. My doc wants to move me to add Prozac and then remove Paxil before I’m don’t the clonazapam wean. I don’t know what to do. I am living in a nightmare. I can’t start reading another form as it just adds to my stress. And everything I read seems to conflict with each other. I am so broken and defeated. 

[[Br...]]

I know this is very hard.  We will help you find the best way forward. You will get through this.

I see you have another thread on this forum.  I'm going to merge the two threads.  We encourage members to have one thread on a forum.