Looking for advice for tapering

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Hi, I’m Jane and I’m so glad I found you all.  Thank you in advance for any and all kindness and guidance.  I am on 1.25 milligrams of clonazepam for sleep only/taken at bedtime.  I have .5 prescription pills, I take  2 and one half of these pills each evening.  At this point my sleep can be difficult, psych nurse working with me wants to prescribe tricyclics, but my appetite spikes, so I’m abandoning that. What materials, methods, and means do I need to employ to have a safe, slow, mostly comfortable taper.  Psych nurse is willing to work at de prescribing, but don’t know if he truly understands the process.

Thanks again friends,

jane

[[Co...]]

Hello @[...]. Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

For how long have been taking clonazepam, and for how long at this dose?

In general, after longer-term use, withdrawal should be carried out gradually.

I am not certain I understand - did you take a tricyclic? If so, for how long did you take it? And when did you quit?

I'll reply more fully when we hear back from you. 

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I’ve been on clonazepam for 20 years.  In the past year I’ve gone from 2mg at bedtime only for sleep to 1.25 mg in the evening to sleep.  This past year, with each taper, I’ve suffered insomnia and irritability.  My prescriber has tried to give me remmeron or trazodone(both of which make me feel worse) the following day. So I don’t want to take tricyclics.  How do I go from here to further reduce my clonazepam that is easier on my mood/sleep/body without adding any new drugs.  What methods, materials,and taper schedule do you recommend?

thanks

[[Co...]]

Hi @[...]

At a dose of 1.25mg clonazepam (two and half of your 0.5mg pills), reducing your dose by 0.25mg (half a pill) is more than many very people can reasonably manage. Is it possible for you to quarter your pills to allow reductions of 0.125mg?

If not, or if you find that you cannot manage with reductions of 0.125mg, compounded prescriptions are a possible option, or there are methods which will allow you make smaller reductions. Many of our members do this.

Have you discussed the possibility of a liquid prescription with your prescriber? If a prescription is not possible, many member make use of jeweller scales. Others use across-the-counter products to make a liquid.

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Thank you for your response. Since I am taking 2 of .5 and one half of .5 pill I will try to do 2/3’s of that last half, if that makes sense. (Oy vey math on top of everything else!)

[[Co...]]

@[...]

Do let us know if you need any help with numbers.