Did I screw up my taper?

As some of you know, I've been taking 2mg of klonopin and 1 mg xanax a day for decades, so 3mg of equiv. high potency benzodiazepine.  I have almost completely removed the xanax.  I'm down to a little over 1/4 mg of that.  I dose the klonopin at 9 am and 9 pm and the xanax at 1pm.  Today I was sweating and having delusions, and the headache was worse than usual.  I freaked out and took a whole mg of xanax.  Did I screw up my taper? 

 

EDIT: I'm doing 9% every 14 days liquid taper.  Also, I need to change my signature.

As some of you know, I've been taking 2mg of klonopin and 1 mg xanax a day for decades, so 3mg of equiv. high potency benzodiazepine.  I have almost completely removed the xanax.  I'm down to a little over 1/4 mg of that.  I dose the klonopin at 9 am and 9 pm and the xanax at 1pm.  Today I was sweating and having delusions, and the headache was worse than usual.  I freaked out and took a whole mg of xanax.  Did I screw up my taper? 

 

EDIT: I'm doing 9% every 14 days liquid taper.  Also, I need to change my signature.

 

Pretty aggressive!  Why don't you hold for a week or so, then lower your cut rate a little.

I would, but I only have enough xanax now to finish the taper I'm on.  When I get to the Klonopin, I plan on doing 5% every 14 days.  I'm just hoping I didn't reset the dependency to a higher dose.

My understanding is you won’t have ruined your gaba system with one extra dose.

I hope you can cope with such a rapid taper as Builder pointed out and are not too uncomfortable.

Best wishes,

Dick

I have used alcohol in discomfort and regretted it of course.

Thanks.  That makes me feel a little bit better.  I took yesterday's planned dose today and so far so good.  I was pacing earlier with anxiety, but that has subsided.  No sweating today so far.  I would love to slow down, the problem is, if I slow down by even 1%, I'll run out before I'm on the K only.  I don't have a xanax prescription anymore.  He just stopped it.  Said it wasn't necessary to be on two benzo's, which I agree, but...

 

I still have the klonopin prescription and I imagine it will be smoother once I'm tapering from that at a much slower rate.

I think Builder was trying to overcome your issue of rapid withdrawal.

If I ran out of my strong meds I would be glad of the slower acting Klon to ease the discomfort. And you have that as you pointed out.

You may be pleasantly suprised with your resilience.

Either way the forum is here to listen -))

Dick

 

Thank you.  I know I kind of disappeared for a while but I'm back.  I successfully made it down to the 2 mg of Klonopin a day and have been holding at that dose since then.  I just started tapering again and am on day 8 of a .125 mg dry cut. I feel depressed, feelings of sadness etc, but it's nothing like coming off the Xanax.  I have blurry vision and difficulty concentrating, but strangely, no headache or sweating at all.  I'm going to hold this for the remaining of 14 days, so another 6 days and then maybe go back to a liquid taper. After the hell of the Xanax withdrawal, I got spooked, and decided to stop the taper, but I've got my guts up again, and thankfully so far, it hasn't been all that bad.

 

 

Hi Visions

 

Sounds like you are back on track.

 

There are hard times in taper and withdrawal.  Especially, the last doses of a benzo taper can be the hardest.  So, you got off the Xanax.  Congrats!

 

Now work on the Klonopin.  Take your time.  It's longer acting so can be easier at the start. 

 

 

And no, your taper isn't screwed up by one day of different dosing.  It's not an automatic re-set. 

Thanks.  About to take my evening dose.  I should feel better for a little while.  I hate the roller coaster, but this so far hasn't been nearly as up and down as the xanax.