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Benzo Taper Questions

A

atlantaborn36

Greenlighter
Joined
May 6, 2017
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I know there are tons of threads aND info I could read and have read. I just want to run this by some people personally.

I am on 2 mg klonopin 1 mg morning 1 mg night. I feel a sense of impending doom about my future prescriptions with no real reason, but in the event something were to happen I couldn't handle a rapid detox or cold turkey. Here are some questions.

1) is .25 mg every 2-3 weeks to much at a time . 1/8 my total dose. It seems to be the easiest way to cut the pills and still know what I'm taking off everyday.
2) on average how intense with the symptoms be on a long taper like this. Will I likely be able to function or will I be debilitated by the symptoms
3) after I jump off my last dose will I feel stronger withdrawal symptoms or will the taper allow me to smoothly transition. I am aware this will take a long time but when will I feel somewhat better.
4) what dose should I taper first morning or night, and ie if I go morning first should I take the next eighth off the night or eliminate the full morning dose first.
5) is there any new research I may be looking over that would offer a treatment for benzo addicts in form of medication like suboxone for opiates that let's your brain heal while taking a cessation.

I have been on this dose prescribed for social anxiety for about 12 years and I have read as much second hand info as I can take without completely inviting complete terror into my life. I have never been great at posting threads so I'd there is any info I left out that's important let me know. Thank you
 
Hi I am also tapering my benzo (klonopin) for the same reason as you and I am also tapering oipoid patch too, same reason (( I do want off them )) But If I thought I could stay on forever I would ..I am prescribed them from my doctor....

So I am prescribed 1 mg at night for sleep and I have started my taper by going to .75mgs and it really has not been to bad, if I feel weird in my head I will go back up to my normal 1mg for a night, I have only had to do that twice in the 2 weeks since starting my taper ...

I have read somewhere as you go lower in the dose make the dosage you cut down lower because it is more of a impact going from half to half to half..... so my next cut will be at aprox 62.5 mgs .To explain easier my pills are .5 mgs I take 2 a night so now I am taking 1 and 1/2 pills next drop will be 1and 1/1/4 th a pill then I am not sure, I guess I will try the cut the pill into 1/8ths or google more about the liquid taper where you dissolve a pill in so many mgs of water then squirt a lil out you can google that for the exact directions ...

If it was me I would try tapering the morning dose first, just because the night may alter you sleep....Your lucky on you can experiment to see what works best for you on that. I have not had any issues with my sleep at all thankfully ...If you find you have to much anxiety take the normal dose then try at night and if its still not working try to cut a lesser amount down ...

I wish you and I well in this future of not know if we will be taken off our medications thanks to the powers that be, and have to be in a panic in a sense, over this. I know for me my brain can not go cold turkey off anything so I am trying to do what I can just in case ....
 
Oh and another thing I have not felt debilitated at all... I think your plan is a great start and like I said in my post above I am at 2 weeks now... I am not sure I am ready to drop my dose again yet I want to at least have a whole week without having to take that extra half, due to my brain feeling funny...I have 5 months before I see my doc again so I am not in a huge rush ... I do know from reading that this is not something we want to rush or we could have a seizure or worse .... I am also keeping a sheet with daily totals I am taking it would just get to confusing to me to remember what day I started and what days I dropped it and by how much and if it was too much of a drop and I needed to go back up for a day to normalize my brain .... I am basically doing it the way I got off the cymbalta a few years ago, My God that is one you don't want to cold turkey off of either...Talk about brain zap city it was awful took me a few day to figure out what on earth was going on with my brain and some google help LOL figured that out and was able to get off very easy ... And the crazy thing is the whole reason I wanted off the cymbalta is I did not feel like it was doing anything for me ughhh well it was really messing with my neurons for sure but I could not tell till I stopped taking it and my neurons told me with zap zaps all over in my head .....
 
Thanks for replying I have to get to my laptop. I keep getting an error when I reply but haven't abandoned the thread.
 
Switching to another longer acting benzodiazepine like diazepam can help your neurobiology transition to a life of abstinence after a period of long term use. Was clonazepam the only benzo you took over the course of the twelve years (if not, how long did you take which ones)?

Unfortunately the recovery from long term high dose benzodiazepine use is a long, often difficult road. But there are lots of different things you can do to help manage your stress (such as MBSR, getting exercise, maintaining a healthy diet and sleep schedule, as well as therapies like Forest Baths) that will help support your long term recovery.
 
Forest Baths??? TPD, could you elaborate? I love the sound of that. :)
 
toothpastedog said:
Switching to another longer acting benzodiazepine like diazepam can help your neurobiology transition to a life of abstinence after a period of long term use. Was clonazepam the only benzo you took over the course of the twelve years (if not, how long did you take which ones)?

Unfortunately the recovery from long term high dose benzodiazepine use is a long, often difficult road. But there are lots of different things you can do to help manage your stress (such as MBSR, getting exercise, maintaining a healthy diet and sleep schedule, as well as therapies like Forest Baths) that will help support your long term recovery.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, this is one reason I'm here. I found the perfect taper at benzos.org.UK and vaguely brought up switching to my psychiatrist and he shot it down. I have to tread lightly or I'm afraid of what will happen. I see a really good doctor but he is tathered to a clinic that serves hundreds of low income patients. Something like this he would likely say I don't have the ability to monitor something like that. That is what I was told when I inquired about suboxone and learned he was licensed.

I was once a power lifter until opiods destroyed that. So, when I get out of the worst part of paws the gym is my first stop.

I have read that klonopin is usually the first choice in the US to detox given the 50 hour half life. Unless I can find a script of valium I need a taper plan with the kpins.

I have never been prescribed any other benzos and have very rarely taken them. I have had to rely on xanax or valium once or twice when my script ran out to soon. Never for more than a few days though. I was never a fan of the benzo high, so I've never abused them either.
I can't really find out what I'm in for on a long taper so I am not sure how I should plan for it. I have considered filing for disability for mental health and other injuries. I have also considered trying to gut it out at work. I know everyone's different but I just need an idea.
 
I am on the same dose as you OP 2mg a day. I also get a sense of impending doom that I'm going to lose my doc somehow and be up shit creek. He's kind of a croaked and he's old which makes me more nervous. Like this Friday will be day 30 on my script I can't go before Friday for financial reasons. If he's not thereally Friday for some reason I'm gonna have to call a dealer if he's out then I guess I am going to the ER.
 
I'm on 2mg x daily. Geez going on 15 years now. I was worried switching insurance and doctors that it might be a problem but it was not hot. How would you suggest a taper schedule should be? .25 on am dose then lower pm dose .25 every two weeks and so on?.
 
OP, I'm sorry to hear about your frustrating time working with doctors. Have you been taking this same benzodiazepine for the full time you were on them, or is this something the doctor switched you too relatively recently? I ask simply because sometime using a different benzodiazepine for the actual taper seems to be helpful, and there are other benzodiazepines than diazepam (I'm thinking Librium) that may be helpful replacing it with in the taper at some point.

That's a shame you don't have a doctor who is willing to work more with you. Finding a good doctor can be hard to do sometimes, but it might be worth interviewing another one or two about this till you find someone who is more willing to work with you.
 
I've just come off 6mg klonopin after 4 years taking it daily, I took just under 4 months to taper off it completely. Not rapid but pretty fast. I've found reading about benzo withdrawal to just make things worse for myself. 99% of symptoms didn't end up happening to me. I was more anxious, sensitive, irritable and got muscle twitches but that was about the extent of it.

I dropped 0.5mg every 5 days then slowed to 0.25mg cuts once I got down to 3mg.
I ended up switching over to 20mg diazepam once I was at 1mg Klonopin and slowed it down to 2.5mg cuts towards the end. I preferred to drop the evening dose first, but it really doesn't matter too much IMO. Ideally you want to keep your blood levels stable and keep both doses even.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The anticipation and apprehension were worse, but the WD's were never unbearable or unmanageable. I stayed at an inpatient rehab for part of it and leant a lot of mindfulness and CBT techniques to cope with WDs. My worst fear was not being able to sleep, but I found keeping myself busy every day and sticking to a schedule to be the biggest things.

Biggest tip would to just make a taper schedule and stick to it, if you're feeling terrible then slow it down if you need. Accept that you will feel unpleasant some days and not try to fight it. Mindfulness meditation has been invaluable for me and help keep things in persective. I find that I tend to catastrophize small events easy when coming off benzo's and always assume the worse. CBT has helped me challenge my thinking a bit and made things alot more manageable.

Good luck!
 
Thank you for that feedback basix. About time we had someone who's actually done this chime in ;) we are definitely in need of a resident gabaergic substance specialist.
 
Hi,

Firstly I feel for you. Jesus, benzo's man. I'm still not of them. I took a ton of clonzolam (not 'pam') + everything else... best I can do is convert my usage into diazepam. I went from around 200mg daily to 4.5mg currently, over the course of around 2yrs. I'll be free of them yet. So will you if you put your mind to it and visualize. It's horrible. Best of luck to you mate.
 
It's unfortunate their prescribing doctor doesn't understand the value of switching to diazepam.
 
Ive been on etizolam for about 2 1/2 years. Recently my doses have skyrocketed from 2-5mg daily to 10mg plus. Have gotten back on the alcoholic bandwagon for a year and a half or so too. I try and quit one and the other use skyrockets. 6-10 tallboys of Bud Ice daily.

I want to drop the alcohol completely and get a valium or kpin script to taper (would need a script for legal reasons, or Id just get some diclazapam...)

Im kinda stumped as to how to explain my usage tk a DR and actualky get a script. "Hey I take 5x a regular xanax dosr of some RC youve never heard of. Whats up with an ashton taper.

Have the feeling Ill have to go to 3-5 DRS and feel them out and make shit up as i go before I am successful. Am in the usa. Any advice appreciated.
 
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