Help please, benzo taper advice.

[geraggh34]

Hi bluelighters, I've been a long lurker here and just want to say I love this community and glad to be a part of . Anyways a little background, a couple years ago I was a dumb naive kid who abused xanax for a few months and took from 2-10mg a day. Went cold turkey had a seizure and then didn't take benzos for a a couple years.

I've been addicted to opiates for two years and am now and have been trying to stay on bupe ususually using oxymorphone on the weekends (40-70mg dose). While tryiing to get on suboxone i took alprazolam to help deal with cravings. I have now been taking 1-2mgs of either alprazolam or clonazepam a day for 3 to 4 months now, big mistake.

I get my clonazepam and alprazolam off the street but from friends who have their own, so supply is not an issue for the taper.

I'm hoping I can go ahead and get it over with with what i have at the moment, which is 27mgs if clonazepam and my bupe of course, probably will use a full agonist while im kicking the benzos.

can anyone recommend a taper to get off pretty clean, i don't want to have 2 addictions i need to grow up but im afraid of seizing out just to be honest.


Thanks for any herlp.:D

 

[Tripman]

Clonazepam is a good benzo to taper on because of it's long half life. If you have been taking say 2mg a day. I would drop it to 1.5mg and stay at that level for a week or two, then drop it to 1mg and stay for a week or so and drop it to .5mg.

It's not going to be particularly comfortable but getting off benzo's never is. Lyrica helps if you can source any.

 

[Mugz]

you say you have 27mg left of clonazepam. A quick taper that could get you off with what you have could be.

1 week of 1.5mg a day
1 week of 1mg a day
1 week of 0.75mg a day
1 week of 0.5mg a day
1 week of 0.25mg a day

That equates to 28mg if I am doing the maths correctly. So the first week make it a 6 day week maybe to get it under 27mg.

That is just something off the top of my head, in an ideal world you should really go and speak to your doctor and try and get some diazepam prescribed to switch to and to do a longer taper, but if you don't have that option, the quick taper I suggested might be helpful.

There is a lot more information on benzo tapers here if you wanted to read up on it.

Hope you can get off them, I have been stuck with them for 7 years + now and regret ever trying them.

Good luck.

 

[geraggh34]

Thanks a bunch for the reply guys, I get the clonazepam from a buddy who goes to doc( i apologize if im not supposed to say that kind of thing) but hes my best friend and does not take them and gets rid of them for other purposes. Would it help is after i get down to 0.25 a day i could take that dose every other day? I'm getting off these guys for good and then time to take care of the opiate habit. Thanks again fellas, and i don't expect it to be painless i've been through opiate withdrawals plenty of times I just don't want to have another seizure even though im sure its because i came off alot of alprazolam even though a short period.

and i can get 60mg the 13th so i can make it a longer taper if that helps

 

[geraggh34]

Bump. Sorry, can anyone just give a little advice on my last question? if i get down to 0.25 clonazepam a day i get another script and dose every other day? just trying to come off as clean as possile

 

[effie]

I think it woud help if you went to 0.25mg every other day for another week if you can - clonazepam has a long half life, so I think that would work. If you have access to more clonazepam, perhaps think about doing a slower taper overall?

 

[Mugz]

That sounds like it would make it a cleaner WD if you can manage to to get more, just make sure you don't end up taking bigger doses because you have a few more around, it is easy to start doing that after a bit of self justification. I was under the impression that this wasn't prescribed, your doctor should be able to help if you speak to them about it. There is a chance that by the time you get down to the end of the week with 0.25mg you don't feel like you need another week of 0.25mg every other day, but you may feel that you need another week taking 0.25mg. It is hard to predict.

 

[geraggh34]

That sounds like it would make it a cleaner WD if you can manage to to get more, just make sure you don't end up taking bigger doses because you have a few more around, it is easy to start doing that after a bit of self justification. I was under the impression that this wasn't prescribed, your doctor should be able to help if you speak to them about it. There is a chance that by the time you get down to the end of the week with 0.25mg you don't feel like you need another week of 0.25mg every other day, but you may feel that you need another week taking 0.25mg. It is hard to predict.

I'm not prescribed, my best friend gets scripts and only keeps 15 to 20 out of 90 and lets me purchase the rest so i can make the taper as long as possible.

Thanks for all the help guys if there is any other possible advice i can be given i'll be very grateful

Getting my life straightened out and staying a few hours away from home for a while to stay with a group of my old bestfriends who are going to let me stay and help support me while i kick my opiate habit, so i may stay on 1-2 mg for a few weeks until i begin to taper down. This is my only chance to get the fuck out of this town and surround my self around the best possible people i could be and an environment a thousand times better than where i'm at now.

Thanks again for all the input and anymore possible

 

[Rizza312]

Tapering benzo's should be in quarters. I was on 5 mgs of xanax a day. I tapered in quarters, weekly. It was very uncomfortable the first 2 or 3 weeks. The discomfort is worse if you suffer from PTSD/Panic Disorder because your symptoms will return. However, if you do not have a serious anxiety disorder...the withdrawal is a little easier. It will still be miserable as I am sure you already know. Just do it slowly in quarters weekly and you will be OK. Expect to feel anxious, more irritable, headaches, and nausea and that crawling out of your skin feeling. These feelings are only temporary and it's important to remind yourself of that throughout the process. Good Luck.