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Clonazepam titration not working for me. Going to try slow switch to diazepam


[pf...]

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I'm now a week into cutting clonazepam at 0.5% a day and I feel as bad as I did when I was making a dry cut at 12.5% and holding. That tells me I'm doing this wrong. No way should cutting 3% over a week make me feel like this. I think I'm losing part of my dose somehow. I didn't want to make a taper schedule to show my doctor to switch me over to diazepam the way the Ashton manual shows as it would involve varying amounts of diazepam: 10, 5, and 2 mg. I really just didn't want to bother with it because I thought I could do it by titrating clonazepam, plus switching has it's own issues. So now I'm back to my 1 mg/day clonazepam (no rescue dose!). I'll contact my doctor and get the ball rolling. Any thoughts you may have will be welcomed. Thanks in advance.
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Klonopin also comes in .125 mg and .25 mg so you could take those and cut from there. Be warned however, those doses have to be melted under the tongue and crumble very, very easily.
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Hi benzogirl. The smallest available strength where I go is 0.5 mg. If I wanted the lower strengths I'd have to pay full price at a regular pharmacy which is out of my price range since I'm unemployed. Nice idea though. Valium is cheap. I'm hoping I won't have a problem switching over if I do it slowly. I had a hard time switching from xanax to klonopin but I did it all at once not knowing what I was doing.
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Hi Pf,

 

Do you know how many mgs. a 5% a day taper is? How many mgs are you cutting a day? Just wondering for my own information. Does anyone know?

 

Jenny

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Hi Pf,

 

Do you know how many mgs. a 5% a day taper is? How many mgs are you cutting a day? Just wondering for my own information. Does anyone know?

 

Jenny

 

Well, 5% x 7 days = 45, so this would equal 45% a week.  The recommended taper is 5-10%, every 10 to 14 days. 

 

pf100, this might be why you're experiencing such severe symptoms.  Maybe you might consider re-stabilizing on Klonopin and try reducing your dose much more slowly. 

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A 5% cut of 1 mg is 0.05 mg so the dose would be .95 mg. Then every day cut 0.05 mg. I was cutting at 2% every 4 days which is 0.02 mg or .98 mg and then cut .02 mg every 4 days.
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Juliea, I was going slow at 0.5% a day, not 5%, but I wasn't doing it right somehow and was losing some in the titration process because I was having withdrawals way too bad to be caused by such a small cut.
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Juliea, I was going slow at 0.5% a day, not 5%, but I wasn't doing it right somehow and was losing some in the titration process because I was having withdrawals way too bad to be caused by such a small cut.

 

I'm not great with titration but the number I see used quite often is .001 ML per day.  Depending upon the concentration of one's liquid to benzo ratio, this would amount to differences in tiny, tiny Mgs cut per day.  I do see a lot of folks use a 100ML solution and some use more liquid and some less depending upon their symptoms.

 

I wish I could be of more help with titration, but since I've never done anything but try to practice titration on a couple of occasions, I'm not much help.

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Pf, I'd say you are doing it wrong.  If you are on 1mg K and cutting .5% that is a .005mg daily cut.  That is at the top end of what people can handle.  Most people can't cut that much and you are probably one of them.  It's pretty fast.  How did you get up that high?  And what liquid are you using?
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I'm mixing one .5 with milk, putting that in a 50 ml graduated in 1 ml increments container, taking out 1 ml with a syringe without the needle, and taking the rest. After 4 days I take out another 1 ml. So that's 4 days with 1/50th removed, and 3 days with 2/50 removed from one of the two 0.5 mg I take a day. So that, on paper, should be unnoticeable almost. At least for the first week. 
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So .5mg into 50ml is a .01mg/ml concentration.  How many doses?  And the other .5mg is a dry pill?

 

A couple of things.  First I think there is a difference between daily cut and four day cuts.  Second, I think you are starting too high.  1ml every four days is not slow, but if you do it daily it might work.  But the thing is you are jumping in too high IMO.  .01mg over four days is still .0025mg per day and it is common for people to be able to handle that but not everyone can.  I'd begin at .1ml or maybe .15ml per day and see where you stand rather than jump in high and crash.  Work your way up by testing different levels rather than starting high.

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Hi benzogirl. The smallest available strength where I go is 0.5 mg. If I wanted the lower strengths I'd have to pay full price at a regular pharmacy which is out of my price range since I'm unemployed. Nice idea though. Valium is cheap. I'm hoping I won't have a problem switching over if I do it slowly. I had a hard time switching from xanax to klonopin but I did it all at once not knowing what I was doing.

 

pf:

 

Where do you actually buy your benzos from? I don't know what country you live in, but pharmas in the US carry those small doses. You need a script for them, plus they will have to special order them as they are not widely used.. If you live in the US, then your pharmacy is lying to you. There are generic companies that make those doses. Mylan and Teva, to name two. I have a large pile of them. Anyway, I made a partial C/O from K to V and did so gradually without a hitch. But once I get down to 10 mg of V, I will have to titrate. Scary to me but it seems like the best choice from what I have read on this site. :smitten: Bets

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