.25 mg Klonopin taper- Long Covid complexity

Hi there,

Under the guidance from my neurologist, I just cut my Klonopin dosage from .5mg to .25 mg and have been holding there for eight days. Now I know better. I've been on Klonopin .5mg for ten weeks for sleep due to Long Covid issues. So this is all a bit complex as Covid has hit my neurological system fairly hard. My symptoms are insomnia, though I'm still getting about 6-7 hours of sleep, gastro issues including nausea, bloating and cramps and headache. My plan is to hold at .25mg for another week or until symptoms stabilize a bit. And then do a slower taper. I've read the guidance but still feel a bit confused. Any advice for me?

Thank you!

I think it's a good plan to hold at current dose of .25mg Klonopin but hopefully others with more tapering expertise will weigh in here.

Your symptoms will likely continue to be rough since your neurologist had you do a 50% reduction.  You may find you need to hold for longer than a week - I'm glad you're thinking in terms of letting your taper be guided by your symptoms.  General guidance is to make cuts of no more than 5-10% every two weeks or longer but as you know we suggest doing a symptoms guided taper.  If I were you I would make cuts closer to 5% to start out with and then hold until symptoms stabilize.  By stabilize we mean symptoms are not increasing in number or becoming more severe and that they're tolerable. 

 

If you're thinking of doing a dry cutting taper you may want to get a jeweler's scale like this: https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Weigh-Precision-Milligram-Calibration/dp/B011J88S8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541012152&sr=8-1&keywords=Smart+Weigh+Premium+High+Precision+Digital+Milligram+Scale+with+Case%2C+Tweezers%2C+Calibration+Weights+and+Three+Weighing+Pans%2C+50+x+0.001g

 

You would start by weighing 10 pills and divid the total by 10 to determine the average weight.  If you're doing 5% cuts you would multiply the weight of pill by 0.95 to get your new dose.  When you're ready for your next cut you'll multiply the weight of your most recent dose by .95 and so on. 

Let us know if you have questions!

Thank you! This is very helpful.

I have already ordered the scale.

One question- I am assuming that some level of symptoms is to be expected, correct? Today is already better than where I was on Monday so hopeful that I'll continue to stabilize at this hold.

Thank you again. I really appreciate it.

It's great your scale is on the way.  You seem well prepared!

I think it's likely you'll experience some symptoms - the initial cut was big.  But slowing down your taper will help make this easier on your system and it's the best way we know of to keep symptoms to a minimum. 

Gosh I'm sorry. As if it's not enough to struggle through LC you now how to deal with this as well. I'm also recovering from LC and tapering and I'm doing fairly well. I was tapering when I got Covid. I don't know how bad your LC is but mine was pretty rough the first 5-6 months. If you're struggling with LC my advice would be to go very slow. Withdrawal symptoms are very similar to LC and if you're trying to recover from both it's tough if you're tapering too fast. I did pretty good at a low taper percentage. It might also be worth it to consider micro tapering. Usually we don't recommend it as a starting point but it really helped me with LC symptoms. I barely felt my withdrawal symptoms and were able to make really good progress with LC.

 

As Brighterday has said since your first cut has been quite big you probably need to hold a bit longer.

Thank you so much! I am also so sorry you're dealing with LC. It's a truly insane syndrome and not one I would wish on my worst enemy. I agree with the slow approach, absolutely. My nervous system is already so traumatized from Covid that gentle is the only way to go. As much as I want to be done with Klonopin, I do believe that I have to do this gently. I am going to try cutting 5% and see how it goes once I stay on the .25mg for a bit longer. I hope you are feeling better and sending lots of gratitude and healing thoughts to you.

Yes, 5% is good. I micro tapered at 5% every two weeks and I managed it really well. I get so upset at doctors prescribing benzo's for LC. It's like they don't know how to treat it so they just throw benzo's at it and then people are worse off in the long run.

 

I'm always happy to share what worked for me if you ever need it. I went through it pretty much alone (I'm almost done tapering in rhe next couple of weeks) and had to figure out a lot of it by myself. There's no guarantee it'll work for you, but I know it's just good not to be alone in this type of situation.

Thank you, again!

Yes, so many things about our medical system and LC are a disaster.

I see your schedule in your signature so that is helpful. I am going to also follow my symptoms and see how that goes with a max of 5%.

I wasn't on it for a super long time but b/c I am sensitive to meds and have LC, the turtle wins the race.