Crossing over from K to Valium

I am currently taking .25 mg of Klonopin every night.  I am, unfortunately, in tolerance and must now pay the piper so to speak.  My main symptom right now is out of control anxiety and burning feet!  I'm not so concerned about the burning feet....doesn't scare me.  The out of control anxiety is a beeyotch.  My husband and I read this board last night and he and I discussed my options.  We decided to try and cross over to Valium for its longer half life to see if that will help.  Ashton's Manual does not give any advice for this small a dose of Klonopin so here is what I was thinking:

 

Take .125 mg of K and 2 mg of Valium for a week.  Then take half of the .125 for a week and 3 mg of Valium.  After two weeks, drop the K and go to 5 mg. of Valium. Stay at the Valium for a month and then start weaning from there.

 

Does this sound like a reasonable cross-over plan?

 

Thanks for any tips and advice.

Sounds very reasonable, Amayas Nana.  You've obviously done your homework.  My only suggestion is to maybe allow 10-14 days between substitutions to give the valium more time to build up in your system.  BTW, have you checked out the many threads on the Anxiety Board?  I tried probably a dozen or more of the self-calming techniques until I found several which could help in different situations.  For instance, listening to the body scan meditation was a big help at bedtime.  Good luck with your crossover. 

Hi Amayas Nana,

 

I recently opted to do a cross-over from Ativan to Valium over the holidays. I'm just hitting the 30 day mark. It's too soon for me to tell you my advice overall, but I have some small observations. One thing I did do was not to rush and give more time between the phases. I also made sure that I didn't have a lot of stressors going on when I did it. Luckily, I had 3 weeks off of work from saving my days this year. This helped a great deal.

 

Although in my last, third phase of the cross-over, I did have to shorten it a bit due to going back to work. I wish that I had more time to be a bit gentler to my system through that last stretch. So, I agree with Beeper about giving more time between substitutions.

 

I am also listening to how my body feels vs. keeping track of days too much. While I wished I could start tapering starting after 30 days, I'm not ready to do so yet. It also helped to have someone to talk through this and one of my good friends was a good support, my family, as well as everyone here. You need support and it sounds like your husband is really there to help you through what you decide. I wish you the best and hope this helps in some way.

 

-Jan