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Switching from Clonazapam


[rd...]

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Hi rdogg,

 

Jelly baby asks a good question.

 

I just want to touch on and clarify something I mentioned on a thread the other day, as I don’t want to sound contradictory when it comes to crossing to Diazepam.

 

After I c/t’d from clonazepam for 19 days, the new doctor I saw advised me to reinstate with diazepam (no slow crossover). I didn’t have the knowledge at the time to question whether this was sensible or not. I had heard that Diazepam was easier to taper from because of it’s longer half life, but didn’t know about the need to crossover slowly. At that point, 1 of 2 things should’ve happened - I should have been reinstated on clonazepam to stabilise and then slowly crossed to diazepam, or I should have reinstated, stabilised and remained on the clonazepam to taper.

 

As it happened, I went though a an unnecessary difficult, prolonged period, trying to adjust and stabilise on the diazepam. It felt as though I had remained in an acute withdrawal state from the clonazepam c/t. Eventually, after a long period, I finally adjusted to the diazepam, but if I had my time again, with the knowledge I have now, I would’ve had the clonazepam reinstated and tapered the clonazepam. I was doing fine on the clonazepam until I decided to c/t, my body was used to it, so the most sensible course of action, as I see it now, would have been to not confuse my body by switching to diazepam whilst there a continued underlying withdrawal from clonazepam was ongoing.

 

The other day I mentioned that many people who try crossing to diazepam have difficulty adjusting to such a different benzodiazepine, and so they choose to switch back, whereas if the majority of them just allowed more time to adjust to the diazepam, eventually, they most likely wouldn’t have felt the need to switch back to their original benzo. There are always exceptions, of course. My intention wasn’t to advocate for the switch to diazepam, it was simply that once you’ve already made the decision to make the crossover, and you’re already there, the best option may be to wait out the adjustment period, rather than crossing back to the original benzo. However, if you’re doing reasonably well (and only you will know this) on your clonazepam which still has a relatively long half life, then why upset the apple cart. Taper from the clonazepam. If I had my time again, I certainly would have!

 

I hope this helps in some way, rdogg

 

WS

 

 

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