Feedback on Clonazepam Taper Plan

I'm new, gave a little background on what got me here in my intro post.

 

First thing is, I'm a heavy drinker. I take my K first thing in the morning in a single dose and 4-5 nights a week I drink 6-8 glasses of wine after dinner. I know its a problem and not recommended to drink while coming off, but I feel like I need to tackle the benzo first. If anyone here has experience and thinks its better to tackle the drinking first I'm open to suggestions, but the only way I can see handling both at once is quitting my job and finding a rehab that is willing to take a medical detox like benzo, and even then I'm afraid I can do better with a home taper than a forced detox.

 

With that out of the way I've been on Clonazepam at least 7 years. I started on a very high 4mg per day, and over the years tapered it down to 1 mg per day where I have been for the last few years. At the end of June I decided it was time to get off this stuff, the health related anxiety driving the panic attacks that got me on it are gone, it doesn't help with my day to day stress and anxiety anymore, and lately I actually feel its making it worse. I got .5 mg tabs and its also important to note that the doctor thinks I'm taking a little more than I am. I've always been afraid of what would happen if we have a natural disaster and I have only what I need, and have been guilty of taking some of the extra med on bad days. I am no longer doing that especially now that I'm tapering, and the extra doses stopped helping on bad days anyways.

 

So I went to my Dr, and while not as crazy as some of the plans here what I got back was to drop half a tablet every two weeks until I was off in ten weeks. Meaning that at the end I would be dropping 50%. I've been through withdrawals many times but never after seven years on and that sounded rough. Doctor is fairly reasonable and when I let them know that was faster than I was comfortable with they agreed to dropping half a tab each month.

 

So rather than handing the Dr the Ashton Manual and asking to be switched to valium (afraid Ill tweak them off and put on rapid detox) I need to come up with a plan.

 

I started on my own about three weeks ago, dropping half a tablet for the first taper every other day for a week and then finally maintaining the lower dose for two weeks until fully stable. It wasn't fun but I have been functional enough to maintain my job, workout twice a week and generally doing ok.

 

What I don't have a solid plan for is where I go from here. This week I cut out another 1/4 tablet so I am now at .625 mg. This week has been rougher than the first drop, blurry vision, IBS, occasional ringing in the ears. Not severe like going cold turkey but I am pretty worried about what happens when I get to the lower doses. I've unfortunately put myself through this several times in life but never after 7 years, and was always young and now I'm middle aged, sole income and have a family that depends on me.

 

I am prepared to ask for a lower dose tablet but when I read the Ashton manual it said .5 mg is the lowest dose K in the USA? Does anyone know if that is outdated? If I could drop to .25 tablets and cut them into 1/4 seems the last couple drops would be a heck of a lot easier.

 

 

 

 

Some people can get .25 tablets in US; others seem not to have access.

 

I would suggest either buying a scale so you can weigh pills and make smaller dosages by cutting them up or looking into liquid titration. There is a lot of information on these boards on these methods; personally, I use a scale and a razor blade to cut my pills. There is a lot of information on these boards about these methods.

 

I feel your doctor's plan is very aggressive. Hopefully you can slow it down so that you can feel as well as you are able to.

Thank you for the feedback. I agree my Dr is too aggressive, although i was able to talk him up from a 10 week taper to 20. Hopefully I can get .25 tabs to make the last few drops easier. I'm feeling better today at .625, although posting this made me realize I dropped almost 40% in a month and i'm planning on holding for several weeks at least before making another drop.

Buy a scale from Amazon. I bought a jeweler's scale from Amazon and did dry cuts. My biggest mistake was going from .5 mg klonopin to .25 mg. This first cut was brutal! I had been on klonopin 8 years. Not a huge dose but big enough to have horrible withdrawals. About 4 weeks after that cut I developed tinnitus. I have been off klonopin completely since June 2nd. I have been ok with the exception of the tinnitus as well as cog fog, occasional intrusive thoughts and vertigo. I jumped from .06 mg. After the huge jump from .5 to .25, I stabilized as much as possible for a month and then cut 10% every 5 days. This worked well for me. I jumped at .06 because the dose was literally crumbs so I don't think it was possible to cut any more. Good luck!

Hi i was a heavy drinker everyday taking 1mg of klonopin the last seven years. I am currently weening off the alcohol while maintaining my klonopin. I am in the same situation but i feel getting rid of the alcohol problem first will work for me. I plan on dry cutting the klonopin once stable off the alcohol. You have me rethinking things should i have cut the benzo first. I guess its a guessing game everybody is different. I wish you the best.

You have me rethinking things should i have cut the benzo first. I guess its a guessing game everybody is different. I wish you the best.

 

Please don't rethink your plan to quit drinking first on my account. General consensus from the community here seems to be to stop drinking first. A lot of people even report alcohol making their withdrawal symptoms worse which isn't the case for me but who knows how each of us will react.

 

Both are obviously an issue, I decided to get rid of benzo first because I hit tolerance withdrawal and feel like I pretty much have to live in perpetual w/d or get off, and if I don't take it I go into a meltdown physically and mentally. Drinking is bad for my health and I am at severe risk of going from heavy drinker to alcoholic but I regularly go days without drinking without issues, there isn't any risk of the doctor cutting me off, etc. so I have decided to go against the grain and get stable a few months off benzo before drying up.

If i may weigh in please. Just a quick heads up that alcohol will have adverse effects when you are off the K ie it will exaserbate the K wd......big time. GabaA needs to be left alone to heal without booze affecting it.  I would still kick the K first and then you will learn thru experience that "hey-i cant drink now that im completely out of K"-Good luck. Its a crazy ride!

I didn't put it in my original post, mentioned in another thread I was on suboxone for over 6 years. If you aren't familiar its a powerful opiate that has major impact on GABA receptors. I was able to heal just fine from that drug and 2.5 years later despite the K and drinking working on my receptors. I'm a hot mess but after spending half my life fighting addictions I'm no stranger to what this stuff does to our brains and bodies.

 

So I guess we will see when I finish my taper and either quit or start taking additional nights off drinking but I'm not sure I understand the logic about GABA, given that I have zero post acute suboxone wd that works the same receptors.

 

I appreciate that a lot of people suffer increased symptoms by drinking, but my symptoms are no worse or less on days after I drink or don't.

 

Anyways I recognize nothing good will ever come of my drinking, wouldn't recommend it to anyone else but insomuch as this is anonymous on the internet I'm just being completely tranparent. I decided to quit the drug that throws me into a meltdown if I don't have it first. And I appreciate any feedback even its not what I wanted to hear but I'm also not going to psych myself out over bad experiences other people have had such as protracted withdrawal, food sensitive, unable to exercise etc. that so far just don't apply to me.

Ive been on buprenorphene for 12 years and im not sure why you state that it majorly affects gaba because that simply isnt true-whereas alcohol specifically targets gabaA just as benzos do,  so when you drink while withdrawling from benzos it can ramp up your wd symptoms big time-after your taper is over and you are ingesting zero benzos. I drank thru out my half ass taper with no problem but it became a major problem after my taper was over. Opiates and benzo affect entirely different systems and their withdrawals are entirely different. Good luck whatever you decide. Its a rough road no matter how you choose to proceed. Also-i am curious how you kicked the bupe and how severe the wds were. Thanks!

Also-i am curious how you kicked the bupe and how severe the wds were. Thanks!

 

2.5 years ago I was on the wambo combo of all three, bup, benzo booze. I decided to quit bup/suboxone first and did a reasonable taper, cutting down 2mg film by 1/8th pieces 2-3 weeks at a time until off. Symptoms were unpleasant but having experience c/t withdrawal it sucked but was tolerable. Looking at your signature you know what I am talking about. I was tired, had the crapps and cramps, ached all over like the cold but but like the cold and not the flu. I could barely walk up a hill without crapping my pants and now I do intense kickboxing 3x per week. The only reason I'm on Clonazepam is the Narcan in suboxone gave me heart murmurs which is a rare but serious side effect. My heart was beating out of my chest and I thought I was dying inducing panic attacks.

 

So it was unpleasant but makes me feel stronger in my ability to survive benzo, and alcohol for that matter too. My heart goes out to all the sick and suffering here but simply I am an addict and not infirm. Not a victim of  doctors or really anyone but myself.

Im on subutex which doesnt have narcan. Wow. Close call for you! When my taper was over oddly enough i was able to drink (beer) for a couple months but then i stopped. I tried a few beers at like the six month mark and it really ramped up my benzo wd symptoms. You may have better luck but most people report serious adverse affects from drinking during benzo wd. All you can do is see how it affects you to know if you need to abstain. Benzos have been much harder to kick then any opiates ive ever done (all of them) because it lasts so friggen long not to mention the horrid symptoms. Yet youve been down to 1mg for a couple years so im sure you wont have it as rough. Whatever you do dont reinstate. The last thing you want is to be on the benzo merry go run and suffer for life. Get it over with now because you are on a good trajectory. Good luck!

I quit benzos 2nd time around Dec 2016 and drunk through my taper.  It ended up making my withdrawals worse when the alcohol wore off.  I ended swapping one addiction for another and became alcoholic.  Luckily I was detoxed off it in hospital.  So I will say be careful with the alcohol.

Both are obviously an issue, I decided to get rid of benzo first because I hit tolerance withdrawal and feel like I pretty much have to live in perpetual w/d or get off, and if I don't take it I go into a meltdown physically and mentally. Drinking is bad for my health and I am at severe risk of going from heavy drinker to alcoholic but I regularly go days without drinking without issues, there isn't any risk of the doctor cutting me off, etc. so I have decided to go against the grain and get stable a few months off benzo before drying up.

 

you've done a remarkable job tapering down to 0.5 mg from 4 mg. whatever you are doing, it seems to be the right thing for you because the end result is positive. if i were you i would carry on tapering while drinking till i found further tapering unbearable -- at which point i would pause to reconsider. if you can quit the benzo while drinking, that would be great. yes, you might have, by that way, postponed your benzo withdrawals to the time when you are off alcohol but since you say you feel normal on days you don't drink, it is not necessary that this will happen.

 

the downside about quitting alcohol first and then your benzo is that as soon as you quit alcohol, your tolerance withdrawal may intensify and that might make tapering your benzo even harder (happened to me and i had to start an SSRI to stabilize). alcohol also works as an antidepressant.