My first titration - Please help with Klonopin withdrawal plan

Hi,

I have been on 1.5mg of Klonopin for about 7 months.  Last summer I was on 1.0 for 2 months and just quit cold turkey - no withdrawal symptoms.  I did not know about tapering at that time. I am taking 3 .5mg tablets once a day.

I stared the klonopin in Feb 1016 and in June tapered from 1.5 to .5 within 3 weeks - again, no symptoms - again, not being to up on what tapering even was because of my experience before.  Things became very challenging in my life so I upped the dose back to 1.5 after the three weeks.

Last month, I tried to taper .125mg every 7 days, with terrible withdrawal symptoms happening.  It was too much so I went back up to the 1.5mg for a while to stabilize.  Last week, my intention was to drop .125mg and hold for two weeks, or until stable - but the terrible side effects came back - intense anxiety in the body, dryness in lungs and throat, making it hard to breath - nausea, as well as incredible restlessness. 

I am going to go back up to the 1.5 mgs till I balance again.  I am very scared and so bummed this is happening.  It looks like my body is kindling.  I am wondering if titrating .5mgs every 10 days to two weeks would be the way to go. Or do I try doing a .01mg titrate each day?  I am unsure where to go from here  I may take me a few years to get off of these pills, but it seems to be the kindest thing for my body.  Does anyone have experience with this. 

Thank you so much for your support.

Tim

Hi,

I'm following because I'm new and in a similar boat.

Because you have had so many problems with the larger cuts, a micro-taper sounds like it would be ideal for you. Rather than set up a schedule now, I would let your body tell you how fast it can handle the taper. Try making a .01 mg. cut, hold for a couple days and see how that feels. Once you have an idea how you handle that cut, you'll know better how fast to go, but you will probably want to slow up towards the end.

Don't get too discouraged, a micro-taper would probably be much easier to handle. And you may even be able to taper down a bit faster than if you were making larger cuts, as your body adjusts more easily and naturally to the smaller cuts.