Lorazepam to klonopin

I am new to the forum.  I have been on lorazapam for 7 years and recently became aware of how sick it has made me.  Apparently I have been in tolerance/wiithdrawl for quite sometime.  Most recently bouts with anxiety, loss of weight to name a few.  Did some research and have tapered down to . 5 mg daily .25 at 3 pm and .25 around midnight.  Have held there since 8/19.  Had an appointment today with doc and they want to cross over to klonopin at .5 mg 2x a day, morning and night for 3 weeks.  Then start a taper from there.  My concern is the .5 of klonopin 2x a day seems to be updosing from the .5 lorazapam a day.  By some estimations that is an increase of 4 times the amount of lorazepam in equivalency.  I understand the switch to a longer lasting to avoid interdose withdrawals, but why switch to a more potent drug?  I took one dose of the klonopin .25 (.5 dry cut in half) which I felt was equal to the .5 lorazepam.  I have read about kindling and don't want to updose.  Asked about switching to Valium instead of klonopin, citing Ashton, but she was insistent with klonopin.  Is it safe to proceed with klonopin and taper it?  Any help would be great.  Thanks.

I totally agree that it sounds like a substantial up-dose.  I took 1mg klonopin for several years then was switched to 2mg lorazepam which was a decent equivalent dose for me.  If you're at 0.5mg lorazepam, I don't think you'd want to take more than 0.25mg klonopin once a day.

 

Klonopin will probably be better for sleep than valium.