Benzos I'm addicted to Alprazolam. Should I micro taper my dose or switch to Diazepam?

[evo4ever]

Hello all.

I've been using Alprazolam for about 6 months at around 4mg a day. I've recently just switched to Clonazepam to try and taper off that instead due to it's longer half life compared to Alprazolam. With Clonazepam I can get roughly two days out of a single dose before withdrawals kick in. Alprazolam has a much shorter half life at around 6-12 hours which is a pain because you find your self dosing multiple times a day.

Should I stick to Clonazepam and make micro adjustments to my dose on a weekly basis or should I switch to Diazepam?

4mg of Clonazepam would equal to 80mg of Diazepam according to Ashton's equivalency chart. It would seem to be easier to use a taper plan with Diazepam rather than Clonazepam.

How do you think I should proceed? Help appreciated!

 

[nuttynutskin]

I went from xanax to kpin but I've heard people use valium also, I just don't have experience with it. If using kpin I would probably go down .5-1mg every 2 weeks or so. You can always adjust it if it's too much of a decrease. Also, I would suggest dosing daily and avoid going into withdrawal symptoms. You want to keep the medication at an even level in your system and titrate down slowly.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

The problem with diazepam is that even though it has a really long half life the duration of action is normally much shorter. This is due to the fast redistribution of the diazepam from the brain into the periphery (mostly muscle and fat tissue).
So while it's easier to dose clonazepam might be superior in terms of duration. Imo you should stick to what you're currently doing

Btw, I'll move your thread over to OD

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Use clonazepam; taper down with 0.25mg increments if possible (0.5mg can work too) until you can jump off.

 

[evo4ever]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'll stick to Clonazepam and I'll make weekly adjustments. At what rate should I titrate at? -0.25mg or -0.50mg a week? TBH I'd rather do a rapid taper. Two years ago I cold turkey'd and it was the most unpleasant experience of my life! Mind u it only took 7-10 days to feel completely normal again.

 

[pally pete]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'll stick to Clonazepam and I'll make weekly adjustments. At what rate should I titrate at? -0.25mg or -0.50mg a week? TBH I'd rather do a rapid taper. Two years ago I cold turkey'd and it was the most unpleasant experience of my life! Mind u it only took 7-10 days to feel completely normal again.

Go with Diazepam definitely. You can make smaller and more precise cuts. Diazepam (Valium) comes in 10, 5, and 2 mg tablets, so you can make your taper much more subtle.

It seems in the USA and/or US opinion always seem to favour Clonazepam. People mention that the duration of action of Clonazepam seems longer than Diazepam, even though they acknowledge the half life of Diazepam is longer... Well, the half life of Diazepam's active metabolite is longer (up to 200 hours) Also, the same goes for Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) which is slowly finding it's way in to favour for Benzo withdrawal over here in the UK.. Even over Diazepam.. Due to it's lower potency compared with Diazepam. And Clonazepam is far more potent than both of these.

I've been addicted to Benzos for around 10 years now, and I've withdrawn or cold turkey'd literally hundreds of times from various different Benzos, from various different doses. Believe me when I say a Diazepam taper is far more comfortable than a Clonazepam taper.

You say you can get 2 days out of Clonazepam before withdrawals start to kick in. With Diazepam you can get up to 7 - 10 days before withdrawals really kick in.

Whatever you choose... Good luck

 

[evo4ever]

Go with Diazepam definitely. You can make smaller and more precise cuts. Diazepam (Valium) comes in 10, 5, and 2 mg tablets, so you can make your taper much more subtle.

It seems in the USA and/or US opinion always seem to favour Clonazepam. People mention that the duration of action of Clonazepam seems longer than Diazepam, even though they acknowledge the half life of Diazepam is longer... Well, the half life of Diazepam's active metabolite is longer (up to 200 hours) Also, the same goes for Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) which is slowly finding it's way in to favour for Benzo withdrawal over here in the UK.. Even over Diazepam.. Due to it's lower potency compared with Diazepam. And Clonazepam is far more potent than both of these.

I've been addicted to Benzos for around 10 years now, and I've withdrawn or cold turkey'd literally hundreds of times from various different Benzos, from various different doses. Believe me when I say a Diazepam taper is far more comfortable than a Clonazepam taper.

You say you can get 2 days out of Clonazepam before withdrawals start to kick in. With Diazepam you can get up to 7 - 10 days before withdrawals really kick in.

Whatever you choose... Good luck

I wanted to change to Diazepam but other ppl persuaded me to use Clonazepam instead. I've gone and ordered 60x 2mg Rivotrils / Clonazepam tablets now (from <snip>) which will arrive either tomorrow or the next day. So I'm stuck with a load of Clonazepam. I suppose I'll try and taper with Clonazepam, if that fails then I'll switch to Diazepam.

PS: I'm doing this without a doctors supervision hence <snip> no sources. Reason being is that I want to keep it off the record. If I go my GP with a benzo addiction that might affect my chances of being prescribed anything in the future as I will show up as a red flag.

I'm already prescribed Oxycodone and Pregabalin for Neuropathy in my left arm which is due to have surgery on. I'm also prescribed Mirtazapine and Quetiapine for BPD.

If I told my GP I've got a hefty benzo addiction he might cut back on my pain meds.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

You can do either, but it's much easier to switch to an equidose of diazepam as soon as possible because it stays in your system a lot longer and so is more comfortable to taper from. Plus it comes in a tiny 2mg tablet making it so you can do it very slowly if you want without having to break up tablets into multiple pieces.

 

[Speed King]

Klonopin is better, mainly for no real metabolites. The valium turns into temazepam,nordiazepam and oxazepam. The Klonopin is business. 3x day max. Diazepam is 4 due to length of action. Klonopin is more to the point in this case IMO. i'd go clonazepam/Klonopin for ease of use and no point to abuse.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

I wanted to change to Diazepam but other ppl persuaded me to use Clonazepam instead. I've gone and ordered 60x 2mg Rivotrils / Clonazepam tablets now (off Nightmare Market) which will arrive either tomorrow or the next day. So I'm stuck with a load of Clonazepam. I suppose I'll try and taper with Clonazepam, if that fails then I'll switch to Diazepam.

PS: I'm doing this without a doctors supervision hence Nightmare Market. Reason being is that I want to keep it off the record. If I go my GP with a benzo addiction that might affect my chances of being prescribed anything in the future as I will show up as a red flag.

I'm already prescribed Oxycodone and Pregabalin for Neuropathy in my left arm which is due to have surgery on. I'm also prescribed Mirtazapine and Quetiapine for BPD.

If I told my GP I've got a hefty benzo addiction he might cut back on my pain meds.

Enough of those four last substances should take care of benzo withdrawl, taper slow and be carefull for epilepsy.

 

[pally pete]

I wanted to change to Diazepam but other ppl persuaded me to use Clonazepam instead. I've gone and ordered 60x 2mg Rivotrils / Clonazepam tablets now (off Nightmare Market) which will arrive either tomorrow or the next day. So I'm stuck with a load of Clonazepam. I suppose I'll try and taper with Clonazepam, if that fails then I'll switch to Diazepam.

PS: I'm doing this without a doctors supervision hence Nightmare Market. Reason being is that I want to keep it off the record. If I go my GP with a benzo addiction that might affect my chances of being prescribed anything in the future as I will show up as a red flag.

I'm already prescribed Oxycodone and Pregabalin for Neuropathy in my left arm which is due to have surgery on. I'm also prescribed Mirtazapine and Quetiapine for BPD.

If I told my GP I've got a hefty benzo addiction he might cut back on my pain meds.

Good luck whatever route you take.. I truly mean that.

I've had what has turned in to a 10 year Benzo addiction.. sometimes on, sometimes off, sometimes stupidly high doses, sometimes taper... then fall at a hurdle. Then repeat the whole process of abuse, or muster up enough courage to taper and get clean. But, once clean, I can last 2-3 months and I'm always back in the arms of Benzodiazepines. This has been a literal 10 year cycle now. I'm not trying to put people off getting off them.. But each withdrawal throws something new at you, and makes things that little bit harder every time.

Here in the UK (My part of the UK anyway) The medical community, and even the local drug services are woefully inept. It's almost unbelievable.

All the very best to you...

 

[Roland_smalls]

Hello all.

I've been using Alprazolam for about 6 months at around 4mg a day. I've recently just switched to Clonazepam to try and taper off that instead due to it's longer half life compared to Alprazolam. With Clonazepam I can get roughly two days out of a single dose before withdrawals kick in. Alprazolam has a much shorter half life at around 6-12 hours which is a pain because you find your self dosing multiple times a day.

Should I stick to Clonazepam and make micro adjustments to my dose on a weekly basis or should I switch to Diazepam?

4mg of Clonazepam would equal to 80mg of Diazepam according to Ashton's equivalency chart. It would seem to be easier to use a taper plan with Diazepam rather than Clonazepam.

How do you think I should proceed? Help appreciated!

Congratulations for stopping xanax
I went through xanax wd and it was not easy.
If your coming off xanax, I would personally cut the dose by half every 2 weeks, while subsituting the missing doses of xanax with valium, until your completey off the xanax, them start tapering off the valium.

But DO NOT rush the taper off of valium, take your time with it. Benzos w/d can be very long unfortunately.