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Taper Lunesta or Klonopin


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I'm 51 and on 1mg of Klonopin for 8 years and Lunesta 3mg for 10+ years. My doctor is going to make me take one or the other and CT me on one of them. He'd taper me from the K, but CT me from Lunesta. I've read 3mg of Lunesta is equal to 10mg of Valium, which is about .5 of Klonopin. What should I do? I live alone and have to work and am disabled. I have 75+ symptoms. Plus, this rental I am in has black mold. I feel like I want to die daily. I want the old me back, but I read that it can take upwards of 4 years to taper and you are never the same. I went to the doctor originally for tinnitus, not anxiety or depression. Now I have both. I have lost almost everything and have nobody. Ideas?
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  • 2 weeks later...
I haven't been on this site for a few years now but I hope my experience will help you. After a lengthy 2.5 years of tapering with Diazepam liquid (after switching from Clonazepam), with many failed attempts to jump off, I finally made the jump in Nov. of 2016. At the time I was still taking Ambien (same family as Lunesta). My year from hell started in January of 2017, 2 months after stopping Diazepam at .1 mg. The body aches and extreme mood swings and anxiety persisted that whole year and I began relying on alcohol to give me some relief during the late afternoon hours. I realize now that I should have tapered off the Ambien first as it was contributing to my misery with interdose withdrawal. By Jan 2018 I could not tolerate the protracted withdrawal anymore and had a breakdown and asked my doctor to put me back on a benzo. She reluctantly put me on Clonazepam again believing that I could withdraw from it again. I am now 58 years old and having gone through  menopause and getting older I have gotten so much worse with physical and mental issues. The Clonazepam helped for a few months but now I am in tolerance withdrawal again. I'm just beginning my taper, but I first tapered the Ambien by 1 mg every 2 days and increasing the Clonazepam (.5 mg 3x/day) to compensate. I have also been using Seroquel at night which has helped tremendously with keeping me asleep through the night. A compounding pharmacy was able to make a liquid preparation of the Clonazepam of which I will try a micro daily taper. Hang in there and keep going forward, no matter how many times you step back.
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