Went down .5mg and feel awful!

I have been tapering from Klonopin since January. I was on 2Mg twice a day for fifteen years. My taper schedule from 1/1/19 - until now was taking 25% decrease (.50) every 30 days. I did hold a decrease last month per doctor and myself  because I was feeling icky. Now back to my next taper as of Monday of .50. now taking .5 three times daily. The lasttaper of .5 in a.m. and mid dose and my 1 mg night dose was working better than this adjustment. I'm almost gonna gonna go back to my last doseage schedule and take a break because this is not working. Maybe I'm doing it too fast? Definitely need to reach out to my doctor..... any suggestions?

Yes-that is very fast. have you read the Ashton Manual? She advises 5-20% a month. I taper at 2% so I can run my business and have min. WD-it's very slow, but I tried the fast cutting and it was a nightmare I never want to return to....hopefully you will get some input from some of the more experienced folks on here...

I am down from 8 mg of Ativan to 6.4. I cit 10 percent until my body misses the next dose. That is when I know I am stable and can do another cut. I am struggling right now, and it will last a few week before I stabilize. I hate this whole process. It’s easier to take them for life then go off forever which I can’t see happening right now.

Dropping .5 is a LOT and especially as you go lower, because it becomes an ever higher percentage.

 

You may want to look at the tapering section for various ways to taper. I tried a couple and then began daily liquid micro taper DLMT. It sounded like science/math and rather intimidating but is actually very easy. I still have bad moments, but I feel a lot better than I did for a while with big cuts.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope things go well with as little pain as possible. Hang in there.

 

 

I agree that this is a bit fast and that you will likely fair better if you go slower.

 

The leading authority, Dr. Ashton, recommends cutting at between 5% and 10% every two weeks. Your 25% per month exceeds her max of 20% per month.

 

I started at 5% and was doing well so I tried to go at 10% and became ill. Even at 7% I wasn’t doing well. Now that I am at 5% again I am functioning nicely (although I still get waves here and there).

 

Also, I found daily microtapering better for me than cutting and holding, although everyone is different.

 

I recommend you check out www.benzo.alwaysdata.net. That is where I learned how to daily microtaper. I think you will find it very helpful.

 

Best of luck!

Yes-that is very fast. have you read the Ashton Manual? She advises 5-20% a month. I taper at 2% so I can run my business and have min. WD-it's very slow, but I tried the fast cutting and it was a nightmare I never want to return to....hopefully you will get some input from some of the more experienced folks on here...

 

Hi Dodgerguy, here you have the Ashton manual, this is the link to the taper schedule, My advice, read the whole manual. It's helpful.

Good luck.

 

https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm

Thank you! I have gone through  it in the past. My doctor won’t cross transfer me on to Diazapam. Does that make a difference or am I reading it incorrectly? I decided to go back to the dosage is been taken the last 70 days. This was day three of  the new dose  and boy it hit me. 🤛. Took a .5  ( what was missing from my body) and within the hour I felt better.

I’ll be connecting with my doctor. I think I need to take a break.

Dodgerguy, You are just going WAY too fast. It took me 8 months to dry cut taper from Klonopin last time (Yes, this is round 2 for me - ugh). My husband helped me by making an excel spreadsheet to determine 10% cuts. Initially, I cut 1/8 of a mg every 1-2 weeks but that got to be too much too fast so I dropped down to a 10% reduction every 1-2 weeks which I found to be doable. Once I got down to a few granules, I just jumped and was FINE! Slow and steady wins the benzo race. We all want off this stuff so bad but you have to take time to let your body/brain adjust and heal incrementally. My taper last time was not without some symptoms but, overall, I'd say it was very manageable.

K is extremely potent, in fact, more potent than xanax if you can believe that! It is the only benzo I have sworn I will never take again. I almost died in a detox center when they CT'd me off .5 mgs ok Klonopin that I had taken for almost 12 years. I was taking far less than you were also. It is not a benzo to be trifled with.

 

You need to slow way down with the K IMHO and try to cross over to V at some point. I found it literally impossible to direct taper klonopin.

Dodgerguy...I found out the hard way over the past year that going fast on my taper was not working as well and continued to flip upside down every time I tried cutting. Check out the DLMT posts and read through them when you get a chance. What I thought was a slow taper was actually considered very fast by most standards. With the liquid titration method you can make micro cuts down to 1/100th ml per day if needed which gives you complete control of your taper rate. I am dropping by about 2.5% per week, however, a critical thing to understand is the need to recalibrate the amount you taper on a regular basis by slowing way down as you get lower and lower on your dosage. It’s all about the percentage of current dose your dropping that dictates whether or not you get nailed with bad withdrawal symptoms.

 

Best of luck brother...your not alone in this fight. 

 

Thank you all for every response.

I stopped the taper and increased back to my last taper of 2mgs a day. I feel much better than I did. I needed to feel “normal” to make some decisions and get my but back to work for the time being.

I wouldn’t know how to taper like that. I know my doctor wouldn’t be on board. I live in Nevada, a really strict state. That’s even scarier. My doctor said its no longer about the patient.

What a terrible thing for your doctor to say.  Remind me to not go to Nevada. 

 

And I live in Australia, and would love to visit North America. 

 

The more I read of patient experiences the more my jaw drops.

 

All of the best to you. 

 

Dee

K is extremely potent, in fact, more potent than xanax if you can believe that! It is the only benzo I have sworn I will never take again. I almost died in a detox center when they CT'd me off .5 mgs ok Klonopin that I had taken for almost 12 years. I was taking far less than you were also. It is not a benzo to be trifled with.

 

You need to slow way down with the K IMHO and try to cross over to V at some point. I found it literally impossible to direct taper klonopin.

 

Antibenzo7... How come it was impossible to direct taper from K for you. Based on your sig, it looks like The Valium is making you sick too. What did you find the difference was? I'm curious because I'm tapering from K. My doc would not put me on Valium to taper (from Ativan) and all I could get was K. Nausea is the worst thing for me and I have to go sooooo slow. Had to get on Remeron to dull the nausea and sleep since taper is taking forever. Nausea still moderate, but I'm functioning cutting micro amounts twice a week. I'm only cutting around 5% of my original .5 dose per month.

Hi Fighterk--

Yes, they are all horrible but I just found the SX's I got from K the most bizarre and painful of them all. I was put on xanax initially, them klonopin, and lastly valium. I think the worst SX from the K for me IIRC was the underneath burning skin sensation. I am getting things from the valium now that I never got from the xanax or K. I just remember K being the most intense of them all.

 

I do not know if I will ever be completely free from these horrid drugs but I have cut way down from where I use to be....gotta keep trying no matter how many time I have failed in the past tho!