Ashton Manual 1.5mg klonopin protocol w/ Valium

Hi,

 

I've been reading and I'm planning my taper.  I do NOT have a supportive doctor and it's not easy to find a decent one where I am.  It took me forever to find this one when I moved to my current location, so please keep that in mind.  When I discussed microtapering, she was dismissive as that was "protocol" and that I may need to go to an addiction center.  Yes, I'm physically dependent,  but I am not an addict.

 

I tried a search and didn't see this in the forum.  Apologies if this is a duplicate.

 

Ok!  Now onto it!

 

I'm debating if I should or not follow the Ashton Protocol for tapering off 1.5 mg of klonopin daily, using Valium sunstitution. 

 

I'd like to hear from people who have tried it  (or not) and the results. 

 

The good news is I'm going to Mexico and can get Valium OTC there, should I decide to try that.

 

1.  Did you try the Valium substitute?  What were your results?

2.  Did you just try to microtapering off klonopin instead?

 

Currently,  I'm on klonopin 0.5mg tab in the am and 1 and half 0.5mg tab in pm (.75mg). 

 

Thanks!

Did you ever get any advice on this?

You can microtaper on your own. The valium crossover I think is not needed. A member named Builder can give you suggestions on how to do this. Good luck. The microtaper is a good idea in my opinion.

Hi,

 

I never did any responses, so thank you!  I'm doing a dry microtaper, cut and hold. My first 2 cuts were too fast, it was a week apart.  Then I did a cut after 2 weeks.  I found a benzo wise dr who wants me to do it even slower.

 

I just started, so....very glad I found this dr.

I just saw your post.  I switched from Klonopin to Valium.

 

I was on 1 mg of Klonopin a day, taking .5 mg taken twice a day.  My doctor switched me over from xanax to klonopin because because I was getting interdose withdrawals on xanax and Klonopin is longer lasting.  I was fine on the Klonopin for two years until late 2017.  I sometimes found myself getting nervous for no reason.  Finally in Feb 2018 I started having the same type of panic attacks that I had before.  Obviously I had developed a tolerance for the Klonopin or something was going on.

 

Luckily I was familiar with the Ashton system from this board.  I presented it to my doctor and immediately switched to two 10 mg Valiums per day.

 

My big clue was when I was switching over I took one 10 mg of valium in the morning and one .5 mg Klonopin at night.  Within 2 hours of taking the Klonopin at night I started to feel extreme anxiety.  It was like the medicine went from tolerable to problematic in a few days.  From that point I switched to two 10 mg Valiums per day and was much better for it.  This is much faster than the Ashton Manual's suggested switching, but it worked for me.  Once I saw the switch to two 10mg Valiums a day corrected the panic attacks, I was incredibly relieved.  That was in mid Feb of 2018. 

 

From there I dry tapered by about 1 mg every two weeks until I hit got down to 10 mg, then I started cutting 2 mg Valium pills in quarters.  It got more difficult once I got down to about 7.5 mg a day and I slowed down my taper, and I finally switched to a combo of liquid Valium and pills at 6 mg a day, and proceeded from there to do a daily liquid micro taper.  I am now down to 2.44 mg a day.