low dose Clonazepam taper

[thelung]

So my Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at the methadone clinic I go to put me on a low dose (0.5mg/day) of Klonopin about 4 months ago. Since I have a history of abusing prescription drugs, I have to take it at the dosing window along with my methadone dose, and I'm only given a weeks worth at a time (#7 tablets). And if that's not enough, they count the pills every day. Since they put me on the Clonazepam the treatment team decided i had to be on a low dose of 'done (only 50mg) while taking the Clonazepam. Well needless to say the small amount of Kpin along with the low dose of methadone was doing nothing for me. So I decided to stop taking the Kpin.

My question is, would you guys advise I taper off the Klonopin gradually or is it safe to just stop Cold Turkey since its such a low dose and I haven't been on it for very long...I don't want to go into benzo w/d....but I need my dose to be higher and the only way i can do that is to be off the Klonopin.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[deos68]

.5mg is not a super low dose but it shouldnt be a hellish ride either
dont take any and assess you how you feel before you think about going cold turkey you would need to give it a few days since klonopin has a long half life
you might get some rebound anxiety but if you hellish anxiety where not even crawling out of your own skin would help
then you would need to taper, but i would talk to the clinic and ask them since they put you on klonopin since you didnt medicate on your own

i would just start cutting back until you get to an even lower dose then go CT
talk the NP first before you do anything they have to help you

 

[thelung]

.5mg is not a super low dose but it shouldnt be a hellish ride either
dont take any and assess you how you feel before you think about going cold turkey you would need to give it a few days since klonopin has a long half life
you might get some rebound anxiety but if you hellish anxiety where not even crawling out of your own skin would help
then you would need to taper, but i would talk to the clinic and ask them since they put you on klonopin since you didnt medicate on your own

i would just start cutting back until you get to an even lower dose then go CT
talk the NP first before you do anything they have to help you

thanks for the reply. i appreciate the advise!