At what dose should I step off of Clonazepam?

Hi all,

 

I am planning out the remainder of my tapering schedule and wondered what a good dose might be to finally step off completely? You can see my path to present in my signature box.  I have the Clonazepam in liquid form, so I suppose I could taper all the way down to .010 ml before stepping off if I need to, but I don't really want to wait that long as I am a "short-timer" and have had a relatively easy withdrawal.  I don't want to drag it out any longer than it has to be as I understand the real healing starts after your last dose. 

 

Is .125 ml/day too much to step off from?  .075ml?  .050 ml? How will I know when the time is right?  Clonazepam seems to be one of the more potent benzos, so I don't want to take too big of a jump for my last one, but, again, don't want to drag the process out too long either.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Since titrating, my only withdrawal symptoms have been headaches and muscle/joint aches, fatigue, and slight dizziness.  But all of these have been pretty minor and definitely tolerable.  No depression, anxiety or insomnia to speak of.  Still able to work everyday, take care of kids, etc.  I don't want to rock the boat, but I'm sooo ready to be done with this (like everyone else here).

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and suggestions!

brand , sounds to me like you are one of the lucky ones.  I know on another post the colin indicated many jump off at teh .125 mark and since you seem to be handling the reductions well,  this might be a good spot for youu.    I am titrating down, currently at .4mg.  not sure how low in taper I will go. but since my wd's are also very mild , especially the last 2 weeks.  I may jump off around the .10 mark  or slightly under that.  I have been patient for the last 6 weeks, so I figure, since wd's are very mild , just doesn't matter if I use that extra week to get off the poison

good luck with choice

St

 

Hi Brandi,

 

I'm not clear at what dose you should jump off, I hope someone will be along shortly.  Colin did say on another thread that .125 was acceptable to jump off at, but I believe he was referring to mg, not ml. 

 

Pam

 

Is .125 ml/day too much to step off from?  .075ml?  .050 ml?

 

Do you mean mg, not ml? milligram (mg) is a measure of dry weight, milliliter (ml) is a measure of liquid volume.

 

I stepped off of 0.125mg klon, but I was dry cutting . Since you have the liquid, you could take another step. 0.0625mg would be reasonable.

 

Honestly though, reading your benzo history, I think you will be fine coming off 0.125mg.  

Wait, maybe I do mean mg instead of ml.  The pharmacy gave me 0.1mg/1ml of suspended compound.  So, if I am taking 1.5mls of the liquid, I am essentially taking 0.15mgs.  Is that correct?  If not, my dosages may be WAY off.  Someone please confirm that I have been doing this correctly for the last week or so!!

 

Above, I DID mean mg.  Math and measurements are not my strong point, as you can see.

Your maths is correct. A suspension of 0.1mg/1ml would indeed give a dose of 0.15mg Klonopin for every 1.5ml consumed.

 

In all probability, you will be fine jumping off at 1ml (0.1mg). If you are unsure, you could take half the amount (0.5ml = 0.05mg Klonopin) for few days, and jump off from there. You are right though, if your usage has been limited, then it is wise to get of sooner rather than later.

Thanks everyone.

 

I still have about 2 weeks until I reach the 0.1mg mark so I will see how I am feeling at that point.  So far, so good.

 

Thanks Colin for reassuring me that my dosage is correct.

stay with it kiddo,, looks like you may finish just about the same time I will if all goes well,  around the end of sept.  maybe sooner if you jump off at the .1mg mark.  best of luck

ST.

Thanks ST. 

 

As you mentioned, we seem to be on about the same schedule.  It's going to feel great to be done with this stuff.  I'm having to really fight myself not to rush the last few weeks of this.  But, like you said, we've been patient this far.  No sense in rushing it now.

 

At .275mg as of this morning.

I'm glad your math was correct, I don't know how you guys do that.  I'm no longer suffering from withdrawals, so I don't have any excuse to not "get" it.  Good job!

brand.  see you at the finish line,  I  will wait and cheer you on if I get there first,  if not send a cheer my way, cause I'll be right behind you.

I can't wait to join the benzo free crowd.

ST

Hi Brandi:)

I am fairly new on this board and lurking all the cracks and crannies:P

I am so excited to see you almost off this horrible drug and hope you continue to heal! I am on 1.25mg Klonopin and tapering .125mg every 2 weeks..cut .25mg a couple of times and regretted it but needed to learn a lesson I guess:P

Your story is very inspirational to those of us just now starting our taper journey and I hope you stay awhile after your off so that we can have your great advice and insight to follow:)

Congratulations on beating the benzo war! Yay!!

Well, I'm at 0.1mg as of today.  Still doing great.  In fact, one day last week I was half way to work when I realized I had forgotten to take my tiny dose of Clonazepam.  I decided I better go back home and take it so I wouldn't mess up my schedule, but it just goes to show that this medicine is barely in my thoughts anymore.  It's really just a formality that I am going to go a few more days before I step off.  My finish date is most likely going to be Thursday as I am going to spend 1 or 2 days at both 0.075mg and 0.050mg.  I'm not expecting to hit much of a bump, if any, but I don't want to regret changing my game plan at the very end by jumping off at 0.1mg. 

 

I even battled through an upper respiratory infection last week without much trouble.  I was a bit leary of taking an antibiotic while the Clonazepam is still in my system as I guess some people have had problems with this.  But, I decided to bite the bullet and just go ahead and get an antibiotic shot in order to get me well.  Thankfully, the antibiotic did not cause any problems at all. So, all is well.

 

I'll post again in a few days when I am done.  I will be so glad to not be a slave to this stuff anymore.

That's great news, Brandi!!  Just let us know on Thursday so we can start your celebration!! 

yea you go girl.  you are one of the lucky ones who has been able to taper at a fairly quick rate.  I think the forum needs as many success stories as it can get.  Can't encourage anyone enough to keep going and get off this poison.  Your gonna beat me to the finish line,  I'm jealous , but your not so far ahead of me that I can't see you in the distance lol.

ST.

Great news, Brandi. Do keep us informed.