Xanax and Klonopin to all Librium?

Hi All. Long time since I was last here. I now have no choice. I was so tolerant to the 4 mg xanax and 1 mg klonopin Dr. Death had me on, I had started to run short of my xanax early on a regular basis. i told him about it, his answer? Increase the daily dose of Klonopin to 2 mg a day and keep me on the 4 mg xanax as well. So, I tried that, came up short on the xanax 5 days early, called. The response? TOUGH. And no more for SEVEN DAYS now. That’ll teach me. I asked to be weaned off, Dr would only talk to me through his receptionist. The response from the Dr? “You will be on these for the rest of your life”. So. At that point, I decided that I was most definitely dealing with a drug dealer who had no intention on helping me or showing any compassion for the suffering I was beginning to experience. I suffered those 7 days with quartered Klonopin and Xanax. Got the script filled on that 7th day and fired Dr Death the same day, I spent the next couple of days calling around to other mental heath providers, explaining my situation and asking if they could help me wean off the drugs. I found one, had my appointment on Halloween and this is what came of that. I asked that the Ashton method be used, but she said she uses a different method (an Australian method?), using Librium instead of Valium. So she prescribed 300 mg of Librium per day and advised me to switch to that and stop taking the xanax and Klonopin immediately. Today is day two. Has anyone ever heard of this method as opposed to the Ashton way? I am unsure and distrustful of everything right now. I also take 80 mg prozac and 30 mg buspirone daily, which she made no change to. My head hurts. Any response is appreciated.

Hi and welcome!

 

I am a fan of librium. It was the first benzo. It is slower, and less volatile, than others, and enabled me to make cuts of 5 mg. I am very glad I did it. My Dr in New England does the L taper, and will not do valium or klonopin.

 

You should make a signature with your history so posters can know a little bit more.

 

300 Librium sounds like the equivalent of 90 mg of valium per day; or 6 mg klonopin per day. Does that sound right to you in terms of your current dosage?

Dear drad dog, Thank you so much for responding, and also giving me some peace of mind about what the new doctor is giving me. I had never heard of it and was so worried because there was no “slow crossover” like with Ashton’s Valium method. But it sounds like this might be comparatively okay and maybe even better? At any rate, your response gave me a sigh of relief after 2 days of worry. Thank you!  And To answer your question, I was taking 6-7 mg xanax daily and 2 Clonazepam. The new doctor was quite alarmed. She said 400 Librium was the proper conversion but the max she could prescribe was 300.

 

Thank you so so much!

Dear drad dog, Thank you so much for responding, and also giving me some peace of mind about what the new doctor is giving me. I had never heard of it and was so worried because there was no “slow crossover” like with Ashton’s Valium method. But it sounds like this might be comparatively okay and maybe even better? At any rate, your response gave me a sigh of relief after 2 days of worry. Thank you!  And To answer your question, I was taking 6-7 mg xanax daily and 2 Clonazepam. The new doctor was quite alarmed. She said 400 Librium was the proper conversion but the max she could prescribe was 300.

 

Thank you so so much!

 

You're very welcome, and good luck! Keep posting your experiences.

 

One thing I did which may or may not be useful to you, is that I went inpatient to reduce my dosage at the start of the taper. I reduced 40% of my baseline dose in 7 days basically. The cross over to L was concurrent with this. The L might have helped to make this possible, by being "kinder" if you get my meaning. Slower and more stable.

 

If your Dr won't precribe L to your equivalency level, this might be a way to address that issue, by going inpatient and telling them you are beginning a taper and need help to begin, and need to reduce to a level your Dr is comfortable with. Don't let them detox you or change your goal. Detox is bad, but reduction fast in the start can be effective.

 

Stay strong,

 

DD