Switching from ativan to klonopin with no taper

[[Buddie]]

I take .5 mg of ativan in the afternoon and 1mg at night. My doctor decided today that she doesn't like how long its taking me to come off of the ativan so she is switching me to klonopin. No taper plan just flat out switching me. Then once i get use to the klonopin we'll start the tapering off process with that. I'm really worried about switching though. Is it safe to switch at the flip of a hat like that? She said i will be taking .5 mg twice a day on the klonopin. I run out of ativan on Monday so the switch will be taking place then...Any advice? Is this a good plan or is my doctor out of her mind? Any suggestions would be great ..thank u

[[Buddie]]

I take .5 mg of ativan in the afternoon and 1mg at night. My doctor decided today that she doesn't like how long its taking me to come off of the ativan so she is switching me to klonopin. No taper plan just flat out switching me. Then once i get use to the klonopin we'll start the tapering off process with that. I'm really worried about switching though. Is it safe to switch at the flip of a hat like that? She said i will be taking .5 mg twice a day on the klonopin. I run out of ativan on Monday so the switch will be taking place then...Any advice? Is this a good plan or is my doctor out of her mind? Any suggestions would be great ..thank u

Some have no problems crossing to Klonopin. Ladyh switched from Xanax to Klonopin and I don't think there was any crossover time and she says it went well. According to Dr. Ashton for substitution purposes, .50mg of Klonopin equals 1.0mg of Ativan so it appears that she is substituting enough to cover you.

[[Buddie]]

I take .5 mg of ativan in the afternoon and 1mg at night. My doctor decided today that she doesn't like how long its taking me to come off of the ativan so she is switching me to klonopin. No taper plan just flat out switching me. Then once i get use to the klonopin we'll start the tapering off process with that. I'm really worried about switching though. Is it safe to switch at the flip of a hat like that? She said i will be taking .5 mg twice a day on the klonopin. I run out of ativan on Monday so the switch will be taking place then...Any advice? Is this a good plan or is my doctor out of her mind? Any suggestions would be great ..thank u

Because ativan has a much shorter half-life, it leaves your system fairly quickly.  Klonopin, on the other hand, has a relatively long half-life and takes a day or two to build up in your system.  It's possible you may have an uncomfortable few hours or even a day depending on how you metabolize the drugs.  It's safe to do, though, and, as  Theresa said, you are getting more than enough klono to make up for the ativan you'll be dropping.  Do you have your klonopin prescription filled? 

[[Buddie]]

I'm getting if filled tomorrow. I still have enough ativan to last until monday so im good there. Glad to hear that it might not be as bad as i was thinking it was going to be....Thanks guys!

[[Buddie]]

gin how is your crossover going,  just dropped by to lend support and answer questions if you have any.
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[[Buddie]]

The crossover went great...Tom my doc wants to knock me down again...she's taking .5 off of me ...Kind of wish i could go a lil slower but she;s pretty convinced i can do it that quickly tho,...i guess we'll see... Thanks for the support tho

[[Buddie]]

keep us informed on how things are going.
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[[Buddie]]

.5 sounds like a big reduction, any way you could go .25 instead?  Do you have enough pills?

[[Buddie]]

Hey guys..thank u for your support...I convinced my doc to let me cut .25 in the morning and stick with .5 in the evening. However i ended up cutting the full .5 in the morning by accident...My cousin passed away in a car accident at about the same time i was suppose to start my cut and everything got so crazy that i kept forgetting to take my morning pill. Before i knew it I had went 4 days only taking .5 at night and no pill in the morning. AFter making it 4 days and not having to much of a problem i decided it would be stupid to add back so I'm going to stick with the .5 at night....I do have one question ..Is it better to split that .5 and take half in the morning and half at night ..Would that keep me more regular and help to stop all together later on? Thanks guys!

[[Buddie]]

I'm so sorry about your cousin.    I can see why you were distracted, but you made a good decision not to up the dose.  Klonopin has a long half life, 18 to 50 hours so you're fine with taking it once a day if that's what you're used to.  However splitting the dose and taking it morning and night does give you a more gradual reduction when you get down to the really small doses. 

How do you like the fact that I didn't give you a straight answer?    Sorry about that, but it's up to you really, whatever works best in your situation.  As long as you're steadily reducing your dose, you're on the right track.