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Dry cut taper


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Hi,  I’ve been dry tapering from 0.25 mg Klonopin. I’m down to 0.20mg. I’m having small waves, insomnia, benzo belly, jittery. All mild. I hold for two weeks then increase the cut. It this doable til the end?  I don’t want to have severe withdrawal like I did at the beginning. ( I had no knowledge and went too fast!). The jewelry scale does not seem to get me low enough and the compound pharm is too expensive.
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If you experienced uncomfortable symptoms at the beginning of your taper then I’d recommend slowing it down towards the end, many members report it getting tougher the lower in dose they get.  Using your symptoms to guide your taper will hopefully keep you from facing severe ones.  While keeping to a schedule when taking your doses is a good idea, adhering to a strict schedule when thinking about your next reduction can work against you.

 

I’m going to ask another member to drop by who has experience weighing their doses on a scale or we could talk about using liquid titration.  I know it looks complicated, at least it does to me since I didn’t taper but I’ve heard members say once they get the hang of it, it’s easy to do.

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Hi,  I’ve been dry tapering from 0.25 mg Klonopin. I’m down to 0.20mg. I’m having small waves, insomnia, benzo belly, jittery. All mild. I hold for two weeks then increase the cut. It this doable til the end?  I don’t want to have severe withdrawal like I did at the beginning. ( I had no knowledge and went too fast!). The jewelry scale does not seem to get me low enough and the compound pharm is too expensive.

Alyce,

 

Pamster suggested I chime in.

 

You are much like me.  I was on Klonopin for 13 year (about 0.25 to 0.5mg) per day.

 

My taper was tough but as I got lower in does (less than 0.125 mg per day), I had to stop using a scale because they do not work so well at low weights.

 

So I started mixes my dose with a filler to get the scale to work better.  I could explain it to you, but it very complicated and a bit worrisome to do.

 

If I had to do it again, I would try this method first:

 

Bob

 

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Hi Alyce4212.  We have at least two members who are currently dry tapering clonazepam. I’ve sent them a PM asking if they would feel comfortable sharing their approaches with you.
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Hi,

  I've been shaving my tablets with a metal nail file and weighing on a .001 g GEM20 jeweler's scale.  Pretty soon I may use the 7/3 DMT method, where I reduce the clonazepam weight by .001 mg for 7 days and then hold the daily dosage for 3 days before resuming my taper.  My approach is more tedious than the DLMT method (using liquid titration), but I feel most comfortable with a dry taper and have become adept at shaving tablets.  If you have more questions, pls let me know..

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I’m dry tapering, but not weighing because I can’t figure out the scale. I’m an RN and I still can’t get the pill to weigh. Go figure. So the dry taper is my guess work. I’m afraid I’m heading to trouble. I need someone to spell out how in the heck to get this tiny pill to show a weight on the scale.
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I’m dry tapering, but not weighing because I can’t figure out the scale. I’m an RN and I still can’t get the pill to weigh. Go figure. So the dry taper is my guess work. I’m afraid I’m heading to trouble. I need someone to spell out how in the heck to get this tiny pill to show a weight on the scale.

 

There are many different jeweler's scales out there, so it's a little tricky spelling out the steps to take.

 

On my GEM20 scale, I have a Mode button that I press down until the readout shows a "g" for grams.  There are other settings, like one for ounces, but you want grams for the tablets. 

 

Another jeweler's scale that I have has the Mode button simply marked with an "M".

 

Before I weigh my tablets, I press the Tare button (sometimes simply marked with a "T").  This sets the readout to all zeroes.

 

I then weigh the tablets or pieces of tablets.

 

I don't know what model of scale you have, but you want one that measures to the .001 g.

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Hello, Alyce4212.

 

What is the model and manufacturer of the scale you are using?  Have you tried searching YouTube for videos on how to use it?

 

Also, can you tell us more about the tablets you are using? What is the manufacturer? What is the strength? Are these regular tablets or orally disintegrating tablets? 

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Hello, Alyce4212.

 

What is the model and manufacturer of the scale you are using?  Have you tried searching YouTube for videos on how to use it?

 

Also, can you tell us more about the tablets you are using? What is the manufacturer? What is the strength? Are these regular tablets or orally disintegrating tablets?

They are regular yellow scored tablets. Clonazapam 0.5mg. I’ll keep working at the scale.

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What is the manufacturer?  Teva?

 

(The manufacturer should appear on the label of your pill bottle.  If it does not, let us know the imprint on the actual pill itself. Or you can call your pharmacy to ask.)

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Yeah, the yellow ones are Teva.

 

What exactly are you having trouble with? Your pills should average about .170 g. So you take that average weight and use it for every cut, no matter the weight of each individual tablet.

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Alyce,

I started a dry taper on 11.27.22 from 1mg ClonazePam (once per a.m.). I use the orange (Accord) 0.5mg scored tablets. Sounds like you have the Teva (yellow scored). As hereforhelp noted, pretty much the same. I received a ton of help from hereforhelp, Rocknroll, and also, Winters Sun. I am truly grateful!

 

I purchased the: Smart Weigh 50g x 0.001 Grams, Premium High Precision Digital Milligram Scale, Includes Tweezers, Calibration Weights ,Three Weighing Pans and Case.

 

I think this one is popular from Amazon: GEMINI-20 Portable Precision Digital Milligram Scale 20g x 0.001g

 

A few notes:

My 1st “doctor ordered” cut of 0.25mg was way too high. Major anxiety.

I somehow managed for a week, but decided to eyeball cut to 0.875mg instead of 0.75mg. It was still a pretty fast cut when I finally measured it out because it was actually more like a 15-20% cut. Very hard to be accurate by eyeballing.

 

I then bought scale, metal nail file, razor blades, weekly pill case.

Per suggestions, I continued a weighed dose of approx. 0.297 (this was the “g” weight on scale) for approx. one month. The above kind souls explained how to work out dosing weights:

Start with pill weight (on scale) example: my 0.5mg pill weighs approx 0.170g on calibrated scale.

If that’s starting point, multiply 0.170 x 0.90 to get your 10% cut dose weight. (X 0.95 to get 0.5% cut)

Set up a taper schedule by multiplying each subtracted dose sum by 0.9 and put in a column in a dated notebook. Subtract the 5 -10% from last dose weight and NOT the original full dose weight. Use current dose weight each time you cut. Your 0.25mg pill will be approx. 1/2 of my 0.5mg. I had to stop thinking in terms of 1mg, 0.5mg, 0.25mg, etc., and stick to actual “g” weights from scale.

 

 

Other observations:

1. I let my symptoms guide me, not the date or schedule, but I will not updose. I’ve cut 10% as well as 7% and held. My first cut was held for a month. I felt the worst symptoms after about 12 days, but cut was pretty large (by mistake). I felt my 2nd cut symptoms about 4 days in. They’ve leveled out after a week. I’m going to hold for at least a couple of weeks and see how I feel.

 

2. The scales are crazy sensitive. I was told to buy new batteries. I think that helped.

I haven’t been able to get consistent readings on my scale, but my house is a crooked antique, drafty with forced air system. Scale should be very still, no air, no electronics nearby, no movements. Probably best not to touch surface scale is placed on. I tend to reweigh a lot. I cut each pill with a razor blade on top of a smooth glass surface (or fine china plate base). Then I weigh and shave off small amounts with file if necessary. I try to cut the 0.5mg tablet in half, and cut each half into halves or thirds and work from those bits. I assume it will get tougher as I get to much smaller doses.

 

3. I measure out all doses for each week, once a week, and put in pill containers. This way you should only have to calibrate each week before weighing. I guesstimate size and cut the pills before weighing and trimming.

 

I’m so new at this I’m not sure I should give advice, but it seems with the short time of your usage, plus current dose, you could just do smaller cuts and hold a bit longer and have minor symptoms. Your first cuts may have been too much too fast, but it seems that’s the “medical” schedule, which I hope most will ignore. I’m horrible at math, impatient and have been on these for over 20 yrs., so I know I have a long road ahead. Learning to slow down and if I have to switch to liquid down the road I will. Others have not, so I’m hoping I can continue to dry cut. It feels more comfortable at the moment. There are YouTube videos that show how to weigh meds using these scales. I put a couple at bottom.

 

Keep in mind that Clonopin is a very potent, long-lasting benzo, so 0.25mg is a low dose for Clonopin, but not a low dose of benzos.

 

I hope this helps, but listen to the others who have much deeper experience.

 

A few YouTube vids on scales. Not perfect, but general idea.

 

Gemini Calibration

 

 

❤️

C

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