Tapering Clonazepam question?

[[Su...]]

Hi I am tapering from 0.50mg x2/day.

Is it a good idea to taper down the morning dose all the way first? And then taper my evening dose after? 

[[Re...]]

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

I am glad you joined the community, many helpful and kind members in our forum.

Could you help and tell us what kind of benzodiazepine you are taking and since when? 

Have you tapered down any other psychiatric drugs? Did you /do you have issues with your reduction? 

It really can depend on the answers to the questions above I believe. 

I am happy you found us @[Su...], I am certain our Buddies will soon share their thoughts and experiences.

Take care, RR

[[...]]

If it were me...

If you take it for sleep, discontinue morning first.

If you take it for nerves, discontinue the evening first.

[[Su...]]

On 31/03/2024 at 12:53, [[S...] said:

Hi I am tapering from 0.50mg x2/day.

Is it a good idea to taper down the morning dose all the way first? And then taper my evening dose after? 

I am tapering Clonazepam. I started taking lorazepam in early December because i was experiencing pretty extreme anxiety. Previously to starting ativan, I tapered off of welbutrin 300mg( after 15+years). The first few months after quitting welbutrin were not so bad, and out of no where my anxiety got so bad that I went to my family Dr. and was prescribed 2mg ativan 2 times per day. I took lorazepam for 1 month then i went to my Dr. because I wanted to explore other options to control my anxiety. I talked to him about propranolol and we decided we would try that out. My Dr. told me i can just take lorazapam as needed... i felt the propranolol really helped with my anxiety, so I never took anymore lorazepam. And around 2 days later I had terrible anxiety and panic attacks, and i had never slept in four days... i held out as long as I could before i went to the emergency, where i was admitted to the psych ward. The psychiatrist's there decided to stabalize me on Clonazepam (0.50mgx2 daily morning and night).

I was discharged 1 week later and I attended a day program at a pychiatric hospital for 1 month. My goal was to taper off clonazepam, and was hoping for help to get off clonazepam while attending the day hospital. My first cut as agreed upon with the pharmacist at the day hospital was to cut 1/2 (0.25mg)a pill from my morning dose. Which failed within the first few fays so I restabalized at a full pill (0.50mg).About a week later I was feeling good to make another cut, so we agreed to try a smaller cut of 3/4 pill (0.375mg). Which I completed successfully after around 10 days of withdrawal. I then made another cut down to 0.375mg (this time on my night time dose) which i completed successfully after around 2 weeks of withdrawal this time with more severe symptoms. Because I endured so much and was trying to return to work I decided to put a hold on tapering until I returned to work and got settled in. About 1 month later, just before I was set to return to work, I started experiencing a lot of anxiety and other withdrawal, which I assumed to be from developing tolerance to the current dose of clonazepam (0.375mgx2 daily). I couldnt return to work in this condition so the next day I decided to push through, and make another cut, this time of my morning dose. I took 1/8 out of the 3/4 pill which I think is 0.3125mg. The first 4 days of this taper were really bad but day 8 into it im feeling ok. I recently got a jewelry scale off amazon to help make more accurate cuts. My next cut im planning to do at the 2 week mark (6 days from today), at 10% less from my morning dose). I am planning on reducing my morning dose completely than working on my evening dose. Thanks for reading. 🙂🙂🙂