Please help with liquid titration schedule - severe withdrawal symptoms

I have been on and off clonazepam for several years due to Bipolar I - I never want to go back on it, but eventually I just agree to it bc life at that point is ridiculously difficult.  Anyway, that's the broad strokes background. 

 

My Initial Dose

This time around, I had been taking clonazepam (3-4 mgs daily) for six months, close to seven.  Gradually tapered from 4mg to 3mg over three months this spring.  In early June, I decided to quickly taper (big mistake).  Having tapered before, I knew to expect intense anxiety and some issues with insomnia - maybe even feeling a bit flu-ish.  But, I had no idea what was in store for me with the fast taper I was about to commence. 

 

My Taper

I knew I was initiating a fast taper bc I had successfully tapered off clonazepam before, and had better experiences the slower I did it; but this time around, I just felt impatient.  In June I knew I was still on a high dose (3mg) and I thought I'd remembered reading that higher doses could be tapered more quickly, and that tapering slowed down as the dose got smaller and smaller.  Well, starting at a solid 3mg a day, I cut .5mg one week; .5mg the next; and .5mg the next -- until I am where I am now, which is 1.5mg. 

 

Withdrawal

I have never experienced a withdrawal from clonazepam like this before - which I realize is a result of the very rapid tapering schedule I was doing.  I experienced (am experiencing) incredible tension and muscle cramps in my shoulders, neck, jaw, cheeks and temples - nearly constant tension headaches which turned into full-fledged migraines with aura.  Insomnia.  Night sweats.  Intense anxiety.  Horrible lethargy and agoraphobia.  I have been on this 1.5 mg dose for a month now and I feel the withdrawal symptoms leveling out a bit, though the tension headaches and migraines still come and go, as do the night sweats -- and I'm no where near menopause or even halfway to life-expectancy.   

 

Pill size

I use .5mg pills.

 

Goals

Getting completely off clonazepam with minimal side-effects.  The side-effects I've been experiencing this time around are at a level I've never, ever felt before, which I guess is bc of my rapid withdrawal from a substantial dose (tapering .5mg each week from an initial dose of 3mg.)  Please, I'm looking for someone to help me with a liquid titration schedule, so I can ease the withdrawal burden on my mind and body.

 

Advice?

Does anyone have recommendations or a schedule they can provide me regarding titrating with liquid from 1.5mg (slowly and with minimal withdrawal symptoms, as I'm sort of tortured right now and can't handle more of this).  I really appreciate any and all information and responses.  Thank you.

Hi,  What kind of taper are you thinking of?  Daily or cut and hold?

Well, I was originally thinking cut and hold - but I'm open to daily cut - I've never done that before.  Which would you recommend based on my description of my situation?  How would you suggest I go about each of them?

I'm for daily cut.  The reason is it does not remove drug from your body until your body is ready to deal with that shortage.  Cut and hold is more remove few weeks worth and recover.  If done right daily cut can be much less traumatic.  I wish I had known about it much sooner.

 

8mg K is quite a high dose.  I am wondering if it can be removed more quickly for a while at that dose.  I honestly don't know, but I suspect this might be the case.

 

At any rate I would suggest what I always suggest, which is finding your best daily cut by searching from the bottom up in two week intervals.  Usually, I recommend jumping in at .001mg K, but at your high dose I don't know where to jump in.  Maybe .002mg or .003mg?  The cut you can handle is the cut you can handle and the trick is to find it and not exceed it.

Thank you for the information!  I guess my original post wasn't clear though.  I'm not at 8mg.  I'm at 1.5mg daily - 0.5 in the am and 1.5 in the pm.  I started at a total of 4 mg total daily back in January and I'm at 1.5mg total now. 

 

So my question is - how does one go about getting .001?  That is a very small amount and I have no idea how to do that.  If I were to grind up a half of a .5 tablet, that'd be .25 ground up that I'd add to liquid, but how do I remove only .001? 

 

Again, thank you for your input, I very much appreciate it.

I read the titration instructions and it says to grind and then dilute the 1.5mg daily amount into a 100 ml, then remove 1mg.  Bc I take a 0.5mg tablet in the morning, I would take 1/3 of the remaining amount in the am and the remainder in the pm. 

 

Is the daily dose reduction method you are suggesting, SG57?

Sorry, I must have mixed you up with another member.  Good that you are only on 1.5mg!!  Your taper just got a lot shorter, lol.

 

You'll need a few jars, a 1ml and a 10ml oral syringe.  That's about it.  We'll make the solution to match the syringes so you can make your cuts.  For example, if you put 1.5mg into 150ml each ml would contain .01mg.  On a 1ml syringe a tenth of it is .001mg.  Just an example.

 

With K whole homogenized milk is a good liquid to use.  Often the pill does not need to be ground - it can just be dropped in and it will break apart on its own.  Some pill brands need help though.

Thank you very much.  I really appreciate the information.