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Micro Tapering/Daily Tapering off of Klonopin – Success Story -


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I have not come to this forum on a regular basis. Due to the many opinions of taper methods I stayed away. At first I sifted through the many opinions. I did join Jana's group in July/Aug 2013  to start micro tapering. But I rather like the term “Daily Tapering”.

 

The taper was the right choice for me. I left the group midway and just took care of myself for the rest of the taper which was considerably many months.  I found certain things not true on my own and other things very helpful.

 

I started tapering the last day in July 2013 by December 2013 I was noticing lots of improvements however I did go through two frozen shoulders, one at a time and that was painful.

 

I had all the symptoms most people list so I am not going to list every single symptom.

 

If I can look back most my psychological symptoms faded away in December 2013. I now consider that a phase one. Phase two was the pain phase, nerve pain, arm pain muscle pain and all that started to fade by October 2014 in fact I had hardly any symptoms so end of phase two and onto phase three which was the healing phase. I lost all my symptoms except for fatigue and started to improve dramatically after October 2014. I was tapering but the only thing that reminded me was taking the actual doses and being fatigued, other than that I felt pretty normal, I still had dry hair and skin though.

 

My taper took 15 months for .50mg Klonopin.

 

Did I heal before my last drop of a dose because of the taper?

 

Or was it because of the time it took?

 

Would I have healed in the total time of 15 months if I tapered faster? I will never know.

 

Am I totally healed now? I would say yes to all the withdrawal symptoms however I feel that I am returning slowly to homeostasis.

 

I am happy that I did it this way because I wanted the safest taper possible I could find and even though this was incredibly slow it delivered what I wanted. I was tapering and able to regain a lot of my life and function while tapering. If I had to go back and do it over again I would do exactly how I did it.

 

I was on Klonopin for over 20 years and in my opinion this was the best plan for my situation.

 

The first time I tapered I tapered 5 percent every two weeks and I got down to .25mg a day. I held for eight months due to my best fried passing away.  Then one morning about 3:00am I woke up in a bolt of blind terror. I had no idea I was in acute tolerance withdrawal. After about a week of that I went to the ER, I had no idea it was the klonopin because I was still taking .25mg a day.

 

The ER Doctor gave me .50mg of Klonopin and when I got relief of my symptoms I realized that what I experienced was klonopin withdrawal. The ER Doctor did not tell me I was in withdrawal all he said was to throw out the rest of my klonopin and he wrote a prescription for seven days of Xanax. I tore up that prescription and called my prescribing doctor who then told me it was break through anxiety and just upped my klonopin to .50mgs 3 x a day.  I knew it was withdrawal and I only took .50mg twice a day for two days when it hit me that this will just happen again in the future. I went back to .50mg a day and started to look for taper types and learned about daily tapering. I took my .50mg dose and put it in whole milk and divided it up to take three times a day, I did this for a month because  that helped me to be stable.

 

I started out tapering at .0005mg a day August 2013 then doubled that to .001mg in November 2013 and decided to stay there for as long as I could.

 

I did not have to slow down towards the end, in fact towards the end I felt really normal. All I had towards the end was fatigue.

 

I keep seeing posts of people saying that slow tapers have to face acute after their tapers and this did not happen to me at all! So it is not true everyone faces acute even if they do a very slow taper. How slow do you think tapering slow is?

 

This taper might not be for everyone but it was the best one for me. I don't have fear of acute anymore, I have freedom from withdrawal and doctors. All my phobias disappeared.  even my phobias I had before withdrawal and before I ever took a benzo.

 

My hair is starting to thicken and the dry part is softening up some.

 

My shoulders are still sore from the frozen shoulders episodes, I hope with exercise my muscle will return. I have already been exercising while tapering and have upped my exercise now and I am building up my muscle mass.  Exercise energizes me now, instead of wearing me out. My skin is making me happy now, no more dry skin (I was so sick of the dry skin) .

 

I do not have any withdrawal anxiety whatsoever.

I do not have any depression whatsoever.

I sleep like a rock now and wake up feeling good and do not have that tired and wired feeling.

I have had coffee and sometimes I feel jittery and sometimes I feel fine,  so I don't know what that means.

 

I will not drink now, maybe will try in a year.

 

I never doubted that the taper would not work, but it took such a hell of a long time that I felt it would never end. But it does end and we do heal, maybe not when we wish but it does and when it does it is wonderful and worth it.

 

I do think it took me such a long time and that was a bummer, however I was able to function like anyone else and that was the plan, I had no idea it would take 15 months. But in my mind I had to pick from fast and non functional or slow taper and fully functional.

 

 

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Congratulations Kay, and thanks for your story. In my experience on this board, most folks who went extra slow had a relatively easier time. I did the last .5mg of K over about 6 months and really speed up at the end. (Stubborn and impatient). I think if I had it to do again I would have tapered the whole 1 mg over 2 years. That's just my opinion based on how I felt and what I've read of others stories. I think your story will benefit someone.  :smitten:
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Hey Kay,

 

Thanks for coming and sharing your success story and how you got here.

 

I plan on helping people get off these drugs when I am finally healed...I had no knowledge of Benzo's when I came off..hence I am 31 months next month..and still not functional....so you did it the right way. I only wish my doctors....even one of them had known about benzo WD.

 

Congratulations on your success and I hope you pass the word along to as many people as you possibly can that these drugs are very dangerous.

 

Love and healing,

Causing

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Kay, Congratulations! I needed a post like this of yours! Functional all the way to zero! I am so happy for you!  What a wonderful success!

Thank you so much for sharing it  :smitten:

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Thanks so much Kay - I am also going very slow and hoping that by doing this I won't get slammed after I am off of benzos.  Your post gives me hope that this will work for me. Thank you again for sharing and so glad you are feeling fine. 
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Kay2020, congratulations! It's so interesting to read about what worked for you. I'm glad you did so well with your taper and I wish you all the best. It's an amazing feat to get off medication that you've been on for so long. You must be thrilled!

 

One thought on which method to use: For those of us who have struggled with dizziness as a major symptom, it's hard to know whether a micro (or "daily") taper would be better or worse. Because benzodiazepines are "vestibular suppressants", ie. they suppress the function of the very system we need to be able to stand up and walk without falling down, it's questionable whether a slow taper would allow the system to normalize faster. I wanted to get the drug out of my body more quickly so that my vestibular system could start to heal. I wish I'd gone a bit faster, actually.

 

I hope that one day there is solid research to help us understand such things so that there's less of this guessing game.

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This is a great story and I hope all the people who are taking a slow taper will have your same experience.  As you say, nobody can ever know how their own story would have been different if they'd taken a different route, so we really need the documentation of the stories like yours for people to see what's possible and figure out how they want to proceed.  Thanks so much for taking the time to detail your story. :thumbsup::smitten:
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I just started a slow taper and have fully excepted that it might take up to 18 months. I agree with you. I choose slow and functional. So far things have been pretty uneventful with my taper. Things just keep getting clearer and clearer, and have a lot more energy. Ready for my next cut. I think slow tapering, for some, can be agonizing because they are already in tolerance w/d. I was lucky, and didn't hit tolerance. Thank-you for sharing. I found your post to be very inspirational and wish you continued success and healing.  :smitten::thumbsup:8)
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Congratulations Kay!  Your story really inspired me that even though we can be c/t or rapid tapered , reinstating and going through the taper process again doesn't mean that we will suffer horrendous acute w/d. You have given me much needed hope .

 

I wish you well  :)

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Thanks everyone.

 

BlueSwan, I agree with you. I had the one failed taper before this one and before that I had two failed attempts of tapering off of lexapro, this is how I learned about withdrawal and taking it slow, after that I did a 14 month taper of the lexapro tapering 10 percent every three to six weeks and had success with that, before that I was on phenobarbital for years for epilepsy. With the lexapro, I did 10 percent every three weeks for 14 months.

 

So either I am really lucky or there is something to the slowness of it.

 

 

 

 

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Congrats!

 

I think the reason people believe everyone goes through an acute phase at the end--even with a long taper--is that they may not understand how to manage the end of the taper if you're feeling worse. I was due to be done on 4/18, but the last week, my withdrawal sx increased. As a result, I have slowed my taper several times..adding two weeks at a time (by adding more water to my liquid V solution). So while it's annoying that I'm STILL not done yet, every time I slow it, I'm back on track. (I was having night sweats and chalked it up to menopause, but they completely left when I slowed my taper.)

 

I figure I didn't taper this long to feel bad at the end so I will stay focused on feeling well and the end will come when it comes.

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  • 2 weeks later...
[f6...]

Bubbles,

I agree with you,I was ready to slow it down in t \he end if needed be, I didn't have too thankfully, I tapered all the way to zero, I promised myself that I would taper all the way down to zero.

 

 

 

 

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Wow

 

I'm envious.

 

I tapered from 0.5 mg of K over a year and a half and I still got slammed. 

 

Still dealing with the fallout...

 

I am so jealous...

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Hey cookienose, I'm sure that genetics play a role in how we experience withdrawal, which is why one size does not fit all with benzo withdrawal. The important thing is that you have successfully and safely ended your use of benzos, and your body is healing. I hope you're getting some times when you feel better and that your symptoms are lessening. I took the same medication, and clearly, the effects for some of us can take a long time to wear off.
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cookienose,

This is my second taper, the first attempt I was doing the 5 percent cuts every two weeks and I got half way through and got slammed while still on .25mg and ended up in the ER.  I went back up to .50mg and tapered the daily way for 15 months and had nor problems at the end. Plus I was not taking any other medications.

 

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Kay...wonderful success story...I am so happy for you...and thank you for posting your story. We need all the hope and encouragement we can get. It is good to be open minded about tapering and w/d approaches. I have a friend who is withdrawing from depakoate.. his doctor has a completely different method...he takes his medication after a 6 month month taper down to half his last prescribed dose...and then takes that dose every other day.  reducing the dosage by 2.5 % each 6 weeks....He reports feeling pretty much ok with this approach... ...

..I did a direct dry cut from 1 mg of ativan ( after c/t off the additional 1 mg....because I didn't know any better)...I am at 28.5 months out and hit a rough place at months 17/18.....Would I have had an easier time with a slower taper...a crossover to v.  a reinstatement back up to 2 mg and then a taper???....I don't know...

.Your story is very inspiring no matter how people are choosing to taper and jump....you have helped a lot of people with your story.....cooperten....

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Hi Kay,

congratulations on your successful taper! And thanks for posting as it gives us all so much encouragement.

Enjoy your newfound freedom!!

 

 

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[f6...]

Cooperten, Congratulations to you being benzo free!  :thumbsup: Its terrible that you hit that rough patch though.  :-\

 

88freedom88, I wish you a smooth as possible ride off the benzos. I have a friend that was on klonopin for 30 years and he halved and then quartered his pill and was off. He did not have this type of withdrawal, I was shocked! And he took it for 30 years!!! I guess some people have no problems and some people have some and others have a lot. I had a lot so I chose this and it worked for my sensitive system.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
This is a very inspirational story for me because I am just starting a taper.  Well, I'm just starting it over because I got so impatient and made a much too big cut and am now suffering so I'm going to go back to where I was ( made the big cut two weeks after switching over to diazepam )  This has all just happened in the last month , and the last two weeks are when I felt the hit from cutting so rapidly. It am going to just take it very very slow because I have to be abler o function, and when I switched over to diazepam I was functioning good, why did I go screw it up? I wish I hadnt . Thank you for the story.
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Djd,

I just finished my 3.5 year taper of 10 mgs of Valium yesterday! :) (I just posted earlier today in the benzo-free celebrations.) You have to really wrap your brain around the fact that it's about minimizing your symptoms while optimizing your function rather than being OFF. I had to pep talk myself about this again and again.

 

This could've been a 2 year taper if I hadn't made a few major errors. In fact, a year ago Feb I was down to the the last few weeks and updosed a few times to rid myself of extra withdrawal and then got really sick when my body re-acclimated to a higher dose (due to the long half-life). I had to seriously suck it up and go BACK UP to 4 mgs from like .2 mgs, adding more than a year. BUT that allowed me to sleep, get off the couch, and take a major trip to Europe. Don't regret it.

 

Now I'm off and feeling well! Go slow. I cut .12 daily at the beginning of my taper and less than .01 nearer the end.

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Congratulations, Kay.  :thumbsup:

 

I am also coming to the end of a microtaper and feeling pretty amazing most of the time. It was the best option for me as well. Good luck going forward. Life is beautiful. :)

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Congratz and a great taper and finally being benzo free!!  Another wonderful success story from a daily taper.  Thank you so much for coming back and sharing if with us.  So important to everyone here.

 

Stay strong!

Sharkey

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[f6...]

Congratulations, Kay.  :thumbsup:

 

I am also coming to the end of a microtaper and feeling pretty amazing most of the time. It was the best option for me as well. Good luck going forward. Life is beautiful. :)

 

Congratulations!!  :thumbsup:

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