Tapering off Klonopin, any info is useful!

[[Al...]]

Just now, [[A...] said:

Yes I plan on doing the taper I took my .5 the last three days I have appointment with her on Monday and will tell her that I’m working on tapering but she always tells me .5 is such a low dose that I shouldn’t have a lot of withdrawals 

 

Just now, [[A...] said:

Yes I plan on doing the taper I took my .5 the last three days I have appointment with her on Monday and will tell her that I’m working on tapering but she always tells me .5 is such a low dose that I shouldn’t have a lot of withdrawals. But anywho how long should I do the .5 for and then what to do next? 

[[Al...]]

Also you are right I always experienced rebound anxiety by the 3rd-4th day after last dose but when I was pregnant i went a week with out and after the rebound anxiety passed I felt not bad 

[[Pa...]]

Klonopin is one of the most powerful benzodiazepines, .5 mgs is roughly equal to 10 mgs of Valium.  At any dose, these drugs make changes to your brain, once your body learns the drug is supplying you with the calming properties your body typically makes (GABA), your body will stop producing it.  If you try to stop taking the drug, your body has to once again start producing GABA, this takes time and its painful.  

What we've found is, it isn't the size of the dose that harms us, its the time on the drug and you've been on it long enough for your body to have stopped producing GABA.  Your doctor needs to inform herself about benzodiazepines and the downsides of taking and withdrawing from them.  To that end, here is some information for you both.

Benzo-Deperscribing.pdf (corxconsortium.org)

I'm glad you're going to see your doctor, I hope you can impress upon her how serious this is so you can urge her to supply you with enough of the medication to allow you to function as you taper from it. 

[[Al...]]

Okay I understand… so how should I taper from this point on? 

[[Pa...]]

I'd like to find out how you're handling taking the .5mg, are you experiencing any symptoms?  As I understand it, sometimes you were taking up to 1 mg a day, so is the .5 working for you?

 Since you've mostly been taking it PRN, we may be able to reduce again without waiting the usual amount of time.  We'll need to pay particular attention to your symptoms, it will help to write down your reductions and your symptom severity so you can get a feel for how your body responds and for help in deciding how much and when to reduce again.

Klonopin users will typically feel symptoms between days 2-6 after reducing which can begin to settle around day 10, we're all different so these are just averages.  These timelines for symptoms and them settling is why we wait between reductions.  This allows our body to realize the reduction and work to get function back.  I believe we're healing our GABA receptors while tapering, we remove the drug and our body has to step up a little at a time.

I'm hopeful you won't experience intense symptoms, there are many who can stop these medications with little to no problem.  The fact that your rebound anxiety passed within a week when you were pregnant makes me hopeful.

Are your pills .5 mg?  If they are, how do you feel about shaving off a portion of that pill and taking the remainder for a week or two?  You could try cutting your pill into quarters but I worry about a 25% reduction, so maybe you could cut your pill into quarters then shave off half of one of the quarters for the first reduction. 

This process is all about experimentation, finding what works for you and making adjustments when necessary. There will be times when you'll have some extra stress you need to deal with and arranging your taper around life events is important to be able to participate in your life.

I know I've probably overwhelmed you but I hope to see you able to take care of your family while freeing yourself from this medication.  If it turns out to be easier than what I've detailed her, this would make me very happy. 

 

[[Ma...]]

15 hours ago, [[A...] said:

I don’t want to take it everyday I want to only take it as needed

Unfortunately, you have been taking them sporadically but for a long time (1 year) and it sounds like most days more recently.  If your goal is to get off the medication, you need to take it every day and gradually taper off.  You cannot just skip days, even if you feel fine; that’s not going to work.  You will have rebound anxiety and withdrawal if you continue taking them that way.  The advice your doctor is giving you that you can just stop taking 0.5 mg of Clonazepam is not correct.  That may be true for someone who has only taken it once or twice but as @[Pa...] noted, dependence and withdrawal can develop in as little as 2 weeks.  You’ve been taking them for a year and 0.5 is not a low dose when you’ve been taking it for a year, even as needed.  You need to get on a stable dose, cut the medication by 5-10% every week or two and let your symptoms guide you.  There are guides here about how to taper off on this site.  

[[Al...]]

13 hours ago, [[M...] said:

Unfortunately, you have been taking them sporadically but for a long time (1 year) and it sounds like most days more recently.  If your goal is to get off the medication, you need to take it every day and gradually taper off.  You cannot just skip days, even if you feel fine; that’s not going to work.  You will have rebound anxiety and withdrawal if you continue taking them that way.  The advice your doctor is giving you that you can just stop taking 0.5 mg of Clonazepam is not correct.  That may be true for someone who has only taken it once or twice but as @[Pa...] noted, dependence and withdrawal can develop in as little as 2 weeks.  You’ve been taking them for a year and 0.5 is not a low dose when you’ve been taking it for a year, even as needed.  You need to get on a stable dose, cut the medication by 5-10% every week or two and let your symptoms guide you.  There are guides here about how to taper off on this site.  

Thank you for this info I appreciate it so what is 5-10% of what I’m taking I’m not good with percentages and don’t know what to cut from my pill.

[[Al...]]

Just now, [[A...] said:

Thank you for this info I appreciate it so what is 5-10% of what I’m taking I’m not good with percentages and don’t know what to cut from my pill.

Today I got anxiety bad I took .5 for three days so today I had to take 1mg because I felt like light headed. I appreciate all the advice. My brain is all foggy now and not the way it was before when I’m with out my medicine. I wish I never got to this point… but I’m trying to help myself! 

[[Al...]]

23 hours ago, [[P...] said:

I'd like to find out how you're handling taking the .5mg, are you experiencing any symptoms?  As I understand it, sometimes you were taking up to 1 mg a day, so is the .5 working for you?

 Since you've mostly been taking it PRN, we may be able to reduce again without waiting the usual amount of time.  We'll need to pay particular attention to your symptoms, it will help to write down your reductions and your symptom severity so you can get a feel for how your body responds and for help in deciding how much and when to reduce again.

Klonopin users will typically feel symptoms between days 2-6 after reducing which can begin to settle around day 10, we're all different so these are just averages.  These timelines for symptoms and them settling is why we wait between reductions.  This allows our body to realize the reduction and work to get function back.  I believe we're healing our GABA receptors while tapering, we remove the drug and our body has to step up a little at a time.

I'm hopeful you won't experience intense symptoms, there are many who can stop these medications with little to no problem.  The fact that your rebound anxiety passed within a week when you were pregnant makes me hopeful.

Are your pills .5 mg?  If they are, how do you feel about shaving off a portion of that pill and taking the remainder for a week or two?  You could try cutting your pill into quarters but I worry about a 25% reduction, so maybe you could cut your pill into quarters then shave off half of one of the quarters for the first reduction. 

This process is all about experimentation, finding what works for you and making adjustments when necessary. There will be times when you'll have some extra stress you need to deal with and arranging your taper around life events is important to be able to participate in your life.

I know I've probably overwhelmed you but I hope to see you able to take care of your family while freeing yourself from this medication.  If it turns out to be easier than what I've detailed her, this would make me very happy. 

Yes my pills are .5 and so I was doing okay the last few days on .5 today I did experience light headed and had waves of anxiety. But I also I had broken sleep. I took a .5 at 3am and then I slept from 5am to about 12 noon. I got ready and as I was walking around I felt light headed so and anxiety so I took one. 

[[Al...]]

Just now, [[A...] said:

Yes my pills are .5 and so I was doing okay the last few days on .5 today I did experience light headed and had waves of anxiety. But I also I had broken sleep. I took a .5 at 3am and then I slept from 5am to about 12 noon. I got ready and as I was walking around I felt light headed so and anxiety so I took one. 

Tomorrow I will continue to take a .5 again I think my body will get used to it. I will watch my symptoms. I don’t know what you mean by shaving I have a pill cutter. My pill has a score on it 

[[Pa...]]

11 hours ago, [[A...] said:

Today I got anxiety bad I took .5 for three days so today I had to take 1mg because I felt like light headed. I appreciate all the advice. My brain is all foggy now and not the way it was before when I’m with out my medicine. I wish I never got to this point… but I’m trying to help myself! 

It looks like your withdrawal symptoms showed up in about the typical timeframe, this is good to know.  I'm sorry we have to use your pain to inform us but you're the subject in this terrible experiment and its the only way find out what's working.

And we understand about regret but I applaud the fact that you're taking control of this situation and helping yourself. 

[[Pa...]]

10 hours ago, [[A...] said:

Tomorrow I will continue to take a .5 again I think my body will get used to it. I will watch my symptoms. I don’t know what you mean by shaving I have a pill cutter. My pill has a score on it 

I hope your symptoms on the .5 mg will settle soon, but it could be rough for a little while.  You may need to consider increasing your dose to .75 if you're not functional but whatever you do, please allow your body the time it needs to adjust to the dose.  Our brains do best with consistency, going up and down in dose isn't ideal so if you decide .5 won't work for you, then going higher and staying on that dose in order to stabilize might be worth considering. 

Members have had good luck with shaving their pills with a razor blade, some can eyeball their doses and feel confident in their taper method, others will use a jewelers scale, still others will use a liquid to reduce their dose.  If you feel comfortable, you could cut your pill into quarters, then use a razor blade or metal file to shave off about half of it.  You could try reducing by that much the first time out, if its not enough, its easy enough to increase the reduction.  If its too much, it can take longer for symptoms to settle and they may be more intense.  The goal is to be always moving in a downward direction, not going up and down. 

[[Al...]]

41 minutes ago, [[P...] said:

I hope your symptoms on the .5 mg will settle soon, but it could be rough for a little while.  You may need to consider increasing your dose to .75 if you're not functional but whatever you do, please allow your body the time it needs to adjust to the dose.  Our brains do best with consistency, going up and down in dose isn't ideal so if you decide .5 won't work for you, then going higher and staying on that dose in order to stabilize might be worth considering. 

Members have had good luck with shaving their pills with a razor blade, some can eyeball their doses and feel confident in their taper method, others will use a jewelers scale, still others will use a liquid to reduce their dose.  If you feel comfortable, you could cut your pill into quarters, then use a razor blade or metal file to shave off about half of it.  You could try reducing by that much the first time out, if its not enough, its easy enough to increase the reduction.  If its too much, it can take longer for symptoms to settle and they may be more intense.  The goal is to be always moving in a downward direction, not going up and down. 

Okay so what is a .75 so is that 1/2 and then a cut from another pill?

[[Al...]]

Just now, [[A...] said:

Okay so what is a .75 so is that 1/2 and then a cut from another pill?

Idk what you mean by shave lol I will look this up! 

[[Al...]]

I looked up online what shaving is I understand now. I possibly could try the .75 then go to a half. I will get a scale as well and begin that dose today. I guess I was taking the 1mg a lot more than I realized. So like you said going slow will be good! I’m feeling better about my plan now! 

[[Al...]]

Should I do the .75 then go down to half the next week?depending on my symptoms.

[[Al...]]

Would this scale work? It’s gram scale 

[[Pa...]]

1 hour ago, [[A...] said:

I looked up online what shaving is I understand now. I possibly could try the .75 then go to a half. I will get a scale as well and begin that dose today. I guess I was taking the 1mg a lot more than I realized. So like you said going slow will be good! I’m feeling better about my plan now! 

A plan is good because indecision can be stressful and I consider stress to be the biggest contributor to increased symptom severity. 

 

[[Pa...]]

59 minutes ago, [[A...] said:

Should I do the .75 then go down to half the next week?depending on my symptoms.

Using your symptoms is good, and recording them and your doses is the best way to know what you need to do.  Our cognitive functions are compromised when we're doing this and also our perceptions.  Our brain will constantly tell us we're hopeless, we're not going to recover and we're getting worse when we're actually improving so recording what you're feeling will give you a better idea of what's really going on.

Lets wait to see how you feel in a few days after taking the .75 then figure out if a 33% reduction would be okay, we typically suggest between 5-10% so I'm not sure you'd want that drastic of a cut. 

[[Pa...]]

1 hour ago, [[A...] said:

Would this scale work? It’s gram scale 

I've seen scales like this used, while accuracy is challenging, you can work with it by using the tare function, plus weighing 10 pills and taking the average because its not sensitive enough to weigh them individually.

[[Al...]]

I will buy jeweler scale off Amazon I’m confused about the milligrams and grams I don’t know how to convert them 

[[Al...]]

I found  mg scale off Amazon I’m confused about the milligrams and grams I don’t know how to convert them. Lol 

[[Al...]]

I will buy jeweler scale off Amazon I’m confused about the milligrams and grams I don’t know how to convert them 

[[Al...]]

I plan to use conversion calculator. Is this conversion correct? For .75 I just wanna make sure I did this the right way so whatever it is in grams I can convert that number 

[[Pa...]]

Hey @[Al...], I'm glad to see you embracing this taper method but when it comes to the details, I'm hoping we can get someone on the thread who has experience with scales, I don't.  I'll see if I can find someone to help.