Please help klonopin taper plan

Fourth time coming off klonopin.

 

First time cold turkeyed .5 mg klonopin and horrific so reinstated for 6 months then microtapered for 6 months.

 

Second time took .5 mg for 6 days then stopped for 10 reinstated for 6 more days after having bad reaction to anaesthesia for endoscopy while off the klonopin for 10 days. Suffered massive withdrawl.

 

Reinstated .5 mg 11 months later for 6 days then off a week then took 3 more days.

 

Took Xanax .5 mg for 10 days 4 months later.

 

3 months later now on .75 klonopin for 21 days. Tried Cymbalta 3 times , then amitriptyline three times, then Prozac once and all made me worse.

 

How can I daily mirotaper from .75 klonopin? I do have a compounding pharmacy that can prepare a liquid for me but I would need to tell them my rate of taper and amounts. That is what I’m not sure of. When I micro daily liquid tapered from .5 mg I dissolved in 2 ml vodka then filled graduated cylinder to 100 ml and decreased by 1 ml a day. But now I’m in a withdrawl tolerance kindling State with BAD symptoms that are beyond uncomfortable and torturous. How long should I take to taper? My brain is fried and I can’t even work out the numbers. Please help.

Hi JoJo2

 

How can I daily mirotaper from .75 klonopin? I do have a compounding pharmacy that can prepare a liquid for me but I would need to tell them my rate of taper and amounts. That is what I’m not sure of. When I micro daily liquid tapered from .5 mg I dissolved in 2 ml vodka then filled graduated cylinder to 100 ml and decreased by 1 ml a day. But now I’m in a withdrawal tolerance kindling State with BAD symptoms that are beyond uncomfortable and torturous. How long should I take to taper?

My feeling is that the frequent stop/start during your several tapers have somehow contributed to those unsettling symptoms. During those periods where benzo is absent, your central nervous system tried to recover to the state where it was before benzo stepped in. Those symptoms mean that it tried hard to heal itself. As the symptoms were unbearable, you ingested again benzo making the healing job more difficult.

But why withdrawal symptoms while one continues to regularly take the daily dose? Evidence suggests that benzos are no longer effective after a few weeks or months of regular use. They lose much of their efficacy because of the development of tolerance. When tolerance develops, "withdrawal" symptoms can appear even though you continue to take the drug. Thus the symptoms suffered by many long-term users are a mixture of adverse effects of the drugs and "withdrawal" effects due to tolerance.

The difficult decision is whether to start to taper while you badly feel symptoms or updose/hold until you find again a certain stability where symptoms are manageable, then start to taper? One thing is certain, if you feel uncomfortable before the taper then you won't feel better during the taper as the benzo quantity continues to decrease in your plasma.

 

But here is a tentative plan to lower very slowly your daily .75 mg of Klonopin.

- Go here and select Liquid Taper

- Read the Help section

- When no more questions unanswered, enter following parameters

based on a conservative taper rate of 5%/14 days

- Submit to generate the report. It will take you 275 days to micro taper off.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Jim but holy cow 275 days to taper off when I already feel withdrawl symptoms seems like a living hell. I don’t know how I can make it that long feeling like this. I was thinking I could be done tapering in maybe 75 days by dissolving .75 mg in 100 ml and decreasing by 1 ml each day. Should I try to get stable?  Could I ever feel stable? Is this my new stable? Should I stay at this dose or try to updose to feel more stable and stay there for a few months then start to microtaper? I hate these drugs it has ruined my digestive system, brain, immune system, thyroid, adrenals, heart rate and blood pressure and nerves. I don’t even sweat anymore. I don’t even produce oil anywhere on my body anymore. I’m so dry everywhere and my skin burns and itches and is super sensitive. I think I have every disease in the book and doctors think I’m crazy. I’m driving myself mad and destroying my marriage. I feel do hopeless and in despair I want to give up and die. :'(

Hi JoJo2 ,

 

You broke my heart with the sufferings you are going through . I'm sorry to read all that.

 

I do not want to discourage you but I just finished to read posts from the Support Groups called "New 6-12 month buddy group". It's about buddies who have completed their taper 6 to 12 months ago. Guess what? They continue to suffer waves! Actually when you get rid of your last benzo dose, it still means very little. It is indeed a huge psychological step but not as huge viewed from a physical/mental recovery angle. For long months/years we daily ingested benzo in a quantity that is more or less important. Our Central Nervous System in the absence of benzo now has free hands to fight its way back to normal. Can the havoc from these years be repaired all of a sudden? It can't. Time is needed.

 

In your case the fact that you feel sick with unbearable symptoms push you to desire a shorter taper time. It won't help you. In this story keep time as your ally and not something you want to shorten. What must dictate your taper approach is to reduce day by day a tiny amount of benzo, so tiny that it manages to trick your body to believe nothing has fallen short . You can of course speed up the process by cutting more than 5%, for instance 10%/14 days and your taper will last half the time. Ultimately it is your body that will tell you if it was a good decision.

 

I learnt that many buddies hold for a very long time with a same dose thus giving chance to the cns to heal. If you go to the support group you will find the LONG HOLD SUPPORT GROUP with more than 280'000 posts, one of the most visited places. When you have time, have a look. It might give you some ideas.

 

Hang in and start to fight to take back your health in your own hands. Do not add the error to give up to the one we all made when we swallowed our first benzo dose. There will be a time when all conditions are met and you will heal.

 

Thanks Jim for your kind words, help and advice. I will check out that support group and decide what to do with the klonopin. I feel like I had a heat stroke from my infrared sauna and then when I tried

.5 ml Prozac think I and some kind of aneurysm. I felt my blood dilate in my carotid artery and go into my left ear then right ear and left eye and now have constant ringing in both ears and pressure in my head and feel like a lack of oxygen to my brain. I’m short of breath, bloated and have pain in center of abdomen and lower abdomen and side of body and lower back and can barely eat I bowl over in pain. So I think I may have some kind of aortic abdominal aneurysm that I thought I had before but now it got bigger. I’m scared. I just want to crawl in a hole and die.

Hi JoJo2

 

How can I daily mirotaper from .75 klonopin? I do have a compounding pharmacy that can prepare a liquid for me but I would need to tell them my rate of taper and amounts. That is what I’m not sure of. When I micro daily liquid tapered from .5 mg I dissolved in 2 ml vodka then filled graduated cylinder to 100 ml and decreased by 1 ml a day. But now I’m in a withdrawal tolerance kindling State with BAD symptoms that are beyond uncomfortable and torturous. How long should I take to taper?

My feeling is that the frequent stop/start during your several tapers have somehow contributed to those unsettling symptoms. During those periods where benzo is absent, your central nervous system tried to recover to the state where it was before benzo stepped in. Those symptoms mean that it tried hard to heal itself. As the symptoms were unbearable, you ingested again benzo making the healing job more difficult.

But why withdrawal symptoms while one continues to regularly take the daily dose? Evidence suggests that benzos are no longer effective after a few weeks or months of regular use. They lose much of their efficacy because of the development of tolerance. When tolerance develops, "withdrawal" symptoms can appear even though you continue to take the drug. Thus the symptoms suffered by many long-term users are a mixture of adverse effects of the drugs and "withdrawal" effects due to tolerance.

The difficult decision is whether to start to taper while you badly feel symptoms or updose/hold until you find again a certain stability where symptoms are manageable, then start to taper? One thing is certain, if you feel uncomfortable before the taper then you won't feel better during the taper as the benzo quantity continues to decrease in your plasma.

 

But here is a tentative plan to lower very slowly your daily .75 mg of Klonopin.

- Go here and select Liquid Taper

- Read the Help section

- When no more questions unanswered, enter following parameters

based on a conservative taper rate of 5%/14 days

- Submit to generate the report. It will take you 275 days to micro taper off.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

Jim,

 

If I have the pharmacist prepare this for me, how many ml of it would I be taking each day? Would that amount decrease each day for 275 days? Like each day I would take less ml? Should I just try to make a liquid suspension myself? What combination would I use and how much to take each day?

Hi Jojo2 

 

Would that amount decrease each day for 275 days? Like each day I would take less ml?

Definitely YES!

 

What combination would I use?

Use the option Combine with tablets to minimize passing abruptly from only tablets to only liquid

 

how much to take each day?

From the generated report, see blue column for the solution part (1) + tablets part (2)

 

 

 

This reduction type is called Fixed Quantity reduction and it has Pros and Cons. If you have time take a look here: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=202618.0 you can then take an informed decision.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Thanks Jim but holy cow 275 days to taper off when I already feel withdrawl symptoms seems like a living hell. I don’t know how I can make it that long feeling like this. I was thinking I could be done tapering in maybe 75 days by dissolving .75 mg in 100 ml and decreasing by 1 ml each day. Should I try to get stable?  Could I ever feel stable? Is this my new stable? Should I stay at this dose or try to updose to feel more stable and stay there for a few months then start to microtaper? I hate these drugs it has ruined my digestive system, brain, immune system, thyroid, adrenals, heart rate and blood pressure and nerves. I don’t even sweat anymore. I don’t even produce oil anywhere on my body anymore. I’m so dry everywhere and my skin burns and itches and is super sensitive. I think I have every disease in the book and doctors think I’m crazy. I’m driving myself mad and destroying my marriage. I feel do hopeless and in despair I want to give up and die. :'(

 

JoJo, 

 

Just so you know. It's going to take me around 350 days total to finish my Clonazepam from start to finish and I started with 0.5 mg's. I had tolerance for years refusing to take a higher dose. I've felt so bad for so Long that I decided I couldn't feel any worse so I'm going to do this taper... no matter how Long it takes.  Since I've taken "C" for almost fourteen years I felt like another 8-12 months was really nothing and I'm anticipating good things from the discontinuation of a drug that was doing me more harm then good. Regarding the symptoms you are having and thinking your having an aneurism... you need to get that checked out by a Dr. ASAP. That is nothing to mess around with.  Please take care of yourself. I'm so sorry that you are suffering.  :'(

Thanks Jim but holy cow 275 days to taper off when I already feel withdrawl symptoms seems like a living hell. I don’t know how I can make it that long feeling like this. I was thinking I could be done tapering in maybe 75 days by dissolving .75 mg in 100 ml and decreasing by 1 ml each day. Should I try to get stable?  Could I ever feel stable? Is this my new stable? Should I stay at this dose or try to updose to feel more stable and stay there for a few months then start to microtaper? I hate these drugs it has ruined my digestive system, brain, immune system, thyroid, adrenals, heart rate and blood pressure and nerves. I don’t even sweat anymore. I don’t even produce oil anywhere on my body anymore. I’m so dry everywhere and my skin burns and itches and is super sensitive. I think I have every disease in the book and doctors think I’m crazy. I’m driving myself mad and destroying my marriage. I feel do hopeless and in despair I want to give up and die. :'(

 

JoJo, 

 

Just so you know. It's going to take me around 350 days total to finish my Clonazepam from start to finish and I started with 0.5 mg's. I had tolerance for years refusing to take a higher dose. I've felt so bad for so Long that I decided I couldn't feel any worse so I'm going to do this taper... no matter how Long it takes.  Since I've taken "C" for almost fourteen years I felt like another 8-12 months was really nothing and I'm anticipating good things from the discontinuation of a drug that was doing me more harm then good. Regarding the symptoms you are having and thinking your having an aneurism... you need to get that checked out by a Dr. ASAP. That is nothing to mess around with.  Please take care of yourself. I'm so sorry that you are suffering.  :'(

 

Hi Jojo2-

 

I have been following your story...I think this is good advice due to the time frame you have been on benzo & the symptoms you have described in previous posts. Maybe a good idea to have a thorough examination to determine or rule out other causes of these symptoms.

 

Another possibility is that you are extremely sensitive to benzo. If this is the case, it would be advantageous for you to taper at a tolerable rate & get off benzo as soon as a tolerable taper will allow.

 

I did a schedule for you on another thread where you asked for advice/help. Here is that other thread

Hi Jojo2 

 

Would that amount decrease each day for 275 days? Like each day I would take less ml?

Definitely YES!

 

What combination would I use?

Use the option Combine with tablets to minimize passing abruptly from only tablets to only liquid

 

how much to take each day?

From the generated report, see blue column for the solution part (1) + tablets part (2)

 

 

 

This reduction type is called Fixed Quantity reduction and it has Pros and Cons. If you have time take a look here: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=202618.0 you can then take an informed decision.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

Hi Jim,

 

I’m not understanding how to combine tablets and liquid. If I am starting at .75 mg, do I take .5 mg tablet then dissolve half a .5 mg tablet in whole milk and take out a certain amount each time until I get to .5 then switch to All liquid by dissolving .5 mg tablets?

Hi JoJo2

 

Let's separate the solution preparation from the daily dose. They do not need to be related. Prepare your solution is like to buy a bottle of cough syrup. You can drink then the dose you wish regardless of the size of the bottle.

 

1. You first prepare your solution by using:

- 1 tablet of .5 mg of Clonazepam

- 1 ml of vodka to dissolve

- 49 ml of water to dilute

to obtain 50 ml of solution of .01 mg/ml concentration.

 

2. Now let's take again the previous chart:

 

Day 1:

- With a 10ml and a 1ml syringe, you will draw up 12.24 ml of the above solution and drink it

- With a tablet splitter you cut the .5 mg tablet in 4 equal parts. If you can't, then do not worry. it doesn't matter much if they are not perfectly equal in size. Then you take 1 tablet + 1 over 4 of those parts (=1 1/4 like indicated in the chart) and drink them after the solution

You have taken your daily dose!

 

Day 2:

- With the same set of syringe, you will draw up 11.97 ml of the above solution and drink it

- Take 1 tablet + 1 over 4 of those parts (=1 1/4) and drink it after the solution

You have taken your daily dose.

....

After 4 days you have used nearly all your solution. Then repeat again point 1 to cover the next 4 days need for solution.

 

Cut again one tablet to 4 parts until when you see in the chart that you will need just 1 tablet. Going forward during the taper, you will be called to cut again to cover 3/4 of a tablet, 1/2 of a tablet or 1/4 of a tablet towards the end.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

Hi JoJo2

 

Let's separate the solution preparation from the daily dose. They do not need to be related. Prepare your solution is like to buy a bottle of cough syrup. You can drink then the dose you wish regardless of the size of the bottle.

 

1. You first prepare your solution by using:

- 1 tablet of .5 mg of Clonazepam

- 1 ml of vodka to dissolve

- 49 ml of water to dilute

to obtain 50 ml of solution of .01 mg/ml concentration.

 

2. Now let's take again the previous chart:

 

Day 1:

- With a 10ml and a 1ml syringe, you will draw up 12.24 ml of the above solution and drink it

- With a tablet splitter you cut the .5 mg tablet in 4 equal parts. If you can't, then do not worry. it doesn't matter much if they are not perfectly equal in size. Then you take 1 tablet + 1 over 4 of those parts (=1 1/4 like indicated in the chart) and drink them after the solution

You have taken your daily dose!

 

Day 2:

- With the same set of syringe, you will draw up 11.97 ml of the above solution and drink it

- Take 1 tablet + 1 over 4 of those parts (=1 1/4) and drink it after the solution

You have taken your daily dose.

....

After 4 days you have used nearly all your solution. Then repeat again point 1 to cover the next 4 days need for solution.

 

Cut again one tablet to 4 parts until when you see in the chart that you will need just 1 tablet. Going forward during the taper, you will be called to cut again to cover 3/4 of a tablet, 1/2 of a tablet or 1/4 of a tablet towards the end.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

Jim,

That helps thank you. Can you post the rest of that chart?

 

Thank you so much!

Hi Jojo2,

 

After generating the report by yourself by using this input:

 

go to the bottom and use the To PDF button to print out the report on PDF format or on a printer.

 

Hi Jojo2,

 

After generating the report by yourself by using this input:

 

go to the bottom and use the To PDF button to print out the report on PDF format or on a printer.

 

 

I thought I saw you posted a 97 day taper. I don’t see the amounts of tablets and solution amount to take for that amount of taper. Is that located anywhere?

Hi Jojo2,

 

For that information to appear you must first go to here. You will use the parameters communicated to you earlier (in the rectangle grey box) and fill in the required fields. Then press Submit. At the bottom of the report you will find the information you were looking for.

 

Hi Jojo2,

 

For that information to appear you must first go to here. You will use the parameters communicated to you earlier (in the rectangle grey box) and fill in the required fields. Then press Submit. At the bottom of the report you will find the information you were looking for.

 

 

I tried that but it is still showing 283 days to taper. I’m not sure what I’m entering wrong. I’m so sorry to keep pestering you Jim.

Hi JoJo2,

 

I had a doubt and read again our previous exchanges. The 75 days you've fixed for your taper seem to be way too fast in my opinion. I personally was with .5 mg of Clonazepam and it took me 9 months (270 days) to reach the jump dose. If you read posts from different boards, you will learn that many buddies need even longer time with long hold between cuts. You seem to be very symptomatic and to quickly taper will not play in your favor. High is the risk that you will continue to have rough symptoms long after the last dose. What you think you will gain in time you will pay in suffering later.

 

Should you insist, and I definitely discourage you to do so, you can play on the quantity to reduce, for instance .1 mg/10 days.

 

Hi JoJo2,

 

I had a doubt and read again our previous exchanges. The 75 days you've fixed for your taper seem to be way too fast in my opinion. I personally was with .5 mg of Clonazepam and it took me 9 months (270 days) to reach the jump dose. If you read posts from different boards, you will learn that many buddies need even longer time with long hold between cuts. You seem to be very symptomatic and to quickly taper will not play in your favor. High is the risk that you will continue to have rough symptoms long after the last dose. What you think you will gain in time you will pay in suffering later.

 

Should you insist, and I definitely discourage you to do so, you can play on the quantity to reduce, for instance .1 mg/10 days.

 

 

So you think I still need 283 days to taper off if I’ve only been on it for 1.5 months?

 

I’m having such bad symptoms especially since I just had a car accident and had to have 6 X Rays as part of the hospital car accident protocol. Now my symptoms are way worse and I have such burning skin, lips, mouth, tongue and scalp and I’ve already had super sensitive dry skin with permanent goosebumps which may have been caused from going on and off klonopin but that all began after 2 CT scans in Dec 2016 when I had reinstated klonopin after being off it for a year. I don’t know what is happening to my skin and body but I just want to die and give up. I feel like I have a constant sun burn and that my insides are burned. I’m all dry and red and super sensitive but burning too. I can’t go on like this. I feel like the Klonopin has exacerbated all my reactions to things.

Hi JoJo2,

 

Have a look to this recent post: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=202844.0

 

It is about a buddie who took Clonazepam for 10-12 days for insomnia...

 

Hi JoJo2,

 

Have a look to this recent post: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=202844.0

 

It is about a buddie who took Clonazepam for 10-12 days for insomnia...

 

 

I did read it. That is awful. I’m in withdrawl like him and was instantly I took it. But my problem is I’m not stable and haven’t taken a consistent dose and am not sure what to do. I was up and down from 1-.625 for the past week. Before that I was at .75. I’ve been in withdrawl since I started with .5 mg March 20th. It’s been a downward spiral ever since. I think it is so bad because I took Xanax in January for 10 days and then stopped and I felt awful the whole time taking that.

 

What do I do? Do I try to get stable? I have such bad symptoms and burning skin and migraine and brain fog are killing me. My heart races so bad and I can barely eat food and now these X rays seems to have made it all worse. I have burning mouth and tongue and lips and scalp as welll as skin. I just want to die. I don’t think I’m going to make it this time. I’ve lost all hope of being normal ever again. I had a great life and the best husband ever. I’m so ashamed and sickened to death.

 

I’m not even sure what dose or take or taper from? What do I do? I just want to not be alive.

Hi JoJo2

 

The only way I can think of when you have tried everything and nothing works is to surrender and let nature step in and do its healing work without barring its way with our remedy interventions.

 

Seems that the first Homo sapiens appeared on earth only 200,000 years ago. But before that multi-cellular life have evolved over a billion years. Those have developed then to the kind of life forms we are familiar with nowadays. They were successful amongst inimaginable life environment conditions. They could not have survived and evolved without having an extremely smart self healing capability against adverse factors. This perfect mechanism built during millions of years allowed human to heal by natural process from many injuries, sicknesses. Human kind may have otherwise extinguished long time ago.

 

In your case, I think the way you have stopped abruptly and (re)started benzo so many times could be the source of all this. Your body is disoriented and unable to cope with the frequent changes and it shouts loud to let you know. The only thing I can think of now is to let time do its healing work with minimum interference from outside. Just choose a dose and stick with it for as long as it is needed. And all that amongst ups and downs. Hope the first window will open.