74 year old would like some help with LT from 1mg K

I am a refugee from the FB benzo groups who have managed to confuse me with differing opinions on the best way to taper.

History

Took .50mg Alprazolam as sleep aid starting 2008. Last year I started getting weird symptoms which after a lot of Googling I came to find they were tolerance  withdrawal symptoms. I decided I did not want to take a benzo any more. My doctor could only tell me not to stop taking pill suddenly.

Found FB benzo groups and got a lot of information and help.

Tried water titration to get off Alprazolam but could not do it.

Suggested I crossed to 10mg liquid V and was given schedule. Struggled for many months but could not reduce much. Thought maybe I had started before I was stable and it was suggested that I up dose a little. This I did and got severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

Then it was suggested that I cross to .75 Klonopin this I did and held but never felt stable so up dosed to 1 mg. I then felt reasonably OK and began taper using 60mls milk 1mgK, removing 0.10ml and then dividing mixture into 5 daily doses. I only managed to remove 0.30mls and started feeling bad.

Posted my problem and was told 60mls was not enough milk and 5 doses a day were too many.

Went to using 100mls milk and 3' daily doses. Managed to get to removing 1.0 mls and started to feel awful again. It may well be I simply did not persevere enough and what I was feeling were normal wdsxs !

FB Admin told me to hold , use 200 mls milk 1mgK make no cuts and divide into 3 daily doses.

This is where I am now. Have made no cuts since October 14th. I still feel awful ...don't known if it's a wave , tolerance of the 1mg or what!

Any suggestions as to what I might do now would be welcome

It's difficult to get accurate information about withdrawing because everybody's experience is a bit different.  The advice and approaches that you've tried generally make sense to me.  Withdrawal is difficult for a fair number of individuals, and even a slow taper may cause some pretty nasty withdrawal symptoms in some individuals.

For what it's worth, there's little reason to take three doses per day of klonopin.  K has a fairly long half-life, so 1-2 doses per day should suffice.  However, there's no harm to doing 3 doses (or even 5).  It's just more work for you.

The amount of milk you use doesn't matter so much (be sure to use whole milk and mix it up really well).  100 mls is fine.  So is 200 mls.  Removing 1 ml from 100 mls results in a 1% decrease in dose.  Removing 1 ml from 200 mls results in a 0.5% decrease in dose.  The rate at which you choose to taper depends on how you feel (and how much 'discomfort' you feel you can handle). 

So I guess that I have a few questions to clarify where you are and what you've tried...    I assume that you felt stable on 1 mg of klonopin in milk.  Right??  After a week or two of being stable on 1 mg, you tried reducing your dose by 1 ml (out of 200 mls).  Right??  And after that 0.5% cut you began to feel bad.  Again, is that correct or did you reduce your dose each day for some days and then start feeling bad?? 

Sorry if it feels like I'm asking a lot of questions, but I'm just trying to get a better feel for your history.

I managed to remove 1.0mls from 100mls milk mixture 0.10ml at a time then got stuck. I have been holding since Oct 14th and over the past few days have gradually started to feel worse rather than stable. Don't know why.....tolerance to the 1 mg, a wave , whatever....but it's nasty. Have been told by some making a cut of 0.10ml might help but have not tried it .....or up dosed the K much as I feel like it right now!

One of the mantras here is for you to listen to your body and act appropriately.  There's no knowing how long it will take for you to feel better.  Personally, I hope it's very soon.  You can hold for as long as it takes to stabilize or you can plunge slowly ahead if you feel that you can do that.  I wish there were some more definitive program to help get you through this ordeal, but sadly, there's not. 

If you share your symptoms, perhaps some folks will chime in with approaches they have used to help them cope with the withdrawal symptoms.

Hallo Granny Murray from another Granny of approaching 70 and another member of Facebook groups.

I can't comment on your taper as I cold turkeyed but just wanted to say hello and give you support. It seems, for many of us, whether we cold turkey or do a slow taper symptoms can get pretty bad but somehow we get through with the help of others here. The main thing is to do what you feel is best for you and what amount of symptoms you can put up with.

It's a long, hard journey for some of us but we all heal in the end and I have this on good authority from the Benzo 'experts'. I'm  nearly two years off benzos now but beginning to see the light. I was also in severe tolerance when I stopped.

Good Luck