Liquid titration of Klonopin at fairly high dose, help please?

[[Buddie]]

As my signature shows I’m at what some consider a high dose of K. I don’t have scored tablets and I’m not sure if I want to do the scale thing for micro tapering yet. Now I know with liquid titration I don’t need to break pills, weigh, etc. Can someone please help me figure out how I would start at the dose I am at? I also dose 3 times a day. Anyone who can help me figure this out I greatly appreciate it!

[[Buddie]]

Hello!

If you're familiar with and have access to Excel, there is a great spreadsheet that I found super easy to use posted in this thread:
http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=152430.0

I considered a dry taper with K, but I didn't want to deal with the minutia of weighing, cutting, etc. I fully appreciate those who dry taper, but it's just not for me. Besides, K dissolves easily and doesn't have an awful taste. But enough about me, this is about you 

I did so much research before my taper, my head was spinning. The one resource that truly clicked with me was on the Benzo Brains YouTube channel. A no nonsense, straight forward liquid tapering method that can be used on it's own or in conjunction with the above spreadsheet. You may have to try a couple of different methods before you find one you're comfortable with. Remember to be patient with yourself and beware the information rabbit hole.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best on your journey!

[[Buddie]]

Bump! I’ve watched the benzo brains video on YouTube and I’m still confused! If I am taking out 1 milliliter on the first day, 2 on the second, etc, how do I know when to reduce my starting dose? So, I dissolve 3 tablets and distribute them into smaller jars for my daily doses, but how do I know when I no longer need to dissolve 3 tablets? Is that how it works? Anyone?

[[Buddie]]

I am not aware of members who have implemented the Benzo Brains approach with multiple high-dose clonazepam tablets.  This seems risky to me.  However, to answer your question …

Assuming that you (1) use the same volume of water shown in the video (300mL) and (2) are able to tolerate linear reductions of 0.01mg a day, it would take 100 days to reduce your dose from 3mg to 2mg. At that point, you could disperse (see Note) two 1mg tablets in 200mL of water.

Note:  Clonazepam has an extremely low solubility in water.  When water is added to a regular clonazepam tablet, the tablet disperses (as in falls apart).  The clonazepam in the tablets does not dissolve (as in go into solution).

[[Buddie]]

I am not aware of members who have implemented the Benzo Brains approach with multiple high-dose clonazepam tablets.  This seems risky to me.  However, to answer your question …

Assuming that you (1) use the same volume of water shown in the video (300mL) and (2) are able to tolerate linear reductions of 0.01mg a day, it would take 100 days to reduce your dose from 3mg to 2mg. At that point, you could disperse (see Note) two 1mg tablets in 200mL of water.

Note:  Clonazepam has an extremely low solubility in water.  When water is added to a regular clonazepam tablet, the tablet disperses (as in falls apart).  The clonazepam in the tablets does not dissolve (as in go into solution).

In the video she says it’s not supposed to be a solution and explains that there will be little particles. She says to add a little bit more water after drinking a dose to get the remaining bits that may be in your jar. I dunno, it’s all very frustrating.

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...],

My husband had a similar experience as you with the crossover. I have gone over several forum posts and it seems that there are some people that, unfortunately, cannot cross over successfully. Looking into it more, it seems that k binds more tightly to the receptors than v. That's one issue... the other is that even though Heather Ashton has said that benzos are non-selective, it seems that some affects the patient differently than others (i.e. xanax is excellent for anxiety, klonopin is good for anxiety but also has myoskeletal relaxing properties that xanax does not etc.). I wish there was a better understanding but it is what it is for each person going through this.

We switched to a compounding pharmacy rather than try to titrate at home. You can see in the signature that a TEVA batch mess CT-ed my husband unintentionally and triggered akathisia... it was hell.

The solution we use in an attempt to imitate the effect and slow taper of valium is a 1mg:20 ml solution of propylene glysol a bit of water (5%), peppermint flavoring and pure clonazepam powder. The simplicity of the ingredients and lack of fillers is essential to my husband's taper.

If you want to follow this route, a few recommendations:
1. Find an accredited pharmacy through BIC or what not. I can't stress this enough.
2. Insurance rarely covers compounded medication, so this may get to be quite expensive. In our case, it was necessary, because of the terrible reaction he's had to so much. We needed the help...
3. For all that is wonderful about compounding pharmacies, the FDA accepts a 10% variation in compounds. That may be nothing for most people, but when tapering from benzos... everything matters. The reason that I say this is that you must have a relationship of trust with your prescriber and the pharmacy because you WILL likely need to bring back a compound and have the prescriber override so the pharmacy can refill. Maybe you never will (I pray you won't) but jic, always prepare for the worst case scenario in these matters.

If you do want to go this route, I can provide you with my pharmacy info and any compounding pharmacy can reach out and get the "recipe" we came up (a couple of members have already asked me about this and my pharmacist is am awesome person that is more than happy to share.

I would be remiss if I didn't say that @[...] deserves MAJOR kudos for talking about propylene glysol when my husband I were tying to figure out the correct compound.

I hope that this helps a little..