New Here and in deed of advice

Hi,

 

I have been on clonazepam 0.250 mg in the morning at 10:00 am and 0.250 mg at 16:00 pm for the past 3 weeks and am now in my 4th week beginning after trying to cut one of the doses at the advice of my doctor unsuccessfully.

 

I need advice with my tapering - my doctor is suggesting to start by cutting the 0.250 mg in half to 0.125 mg but I feel this may be extreme, as he first suggested to cut my afternoon dose after 21 days of taking clonazepam and I had horrible withrdrawal symptoms, so had to go back to taking my afternoon dose.

 

Would be grateful for any advice.

 

Thanks so much!

Many docs are not benzo wise and typically advice to do a half cut over several days and then another half cut etc until gone.

On BB we advise a much slower taper...only 10% every two weeks. This is far kinder to the body/brain. People may experience some symptoms doing so, but the goal is to stabilize with each cut.

 

Here is a link for you:

Planning Your Withdrawal (Taper Plans)

 

Maybe you can talk to your doctor and explain how you're feeling and that you are considering a slower taper. Hopefully he/she responds supportively.

Thanks so much for this. I also heard about compound pharmacies that with a prescription from the prescribing physician can cut the pills professionally. Is this something that is better to consider rather than cutting the pill yourself?

 

Would appreciate any advice on this.

You can ask your Dr for a prescription for liquid Clonazepam to take to a compounding pharmacy, it's much easier to make reductions and the accuracy is assured.

 

Hello,

there is a forum on here posted awhile back ago when I was tapering and I had issues with the plans doctors wanted me on, so funny Doctors have direct access to this one site (about to share with you) yet not many doctors use it and some will even roll their eyes at you, but it's good to try, you might find a good doctor willing to read up on this and help you taper the right way... only Doctors have full access to this site so copy and save the link and share with your doctor it's a very informative site for them to learn from... here is the forum thread on here> http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=92559.msg1185913#msg1185913

And then here is the Link for your doctor to do his research and gain knowledge on the slow taper and the why's to it all… I hope it helps you as it did me, Don't give up there is a doctor out there that will be willing keep looking for that one I had to go through many of them at first till I found one and many people have so don't give up!! ...

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/benzodiazepine-poisoning-and-withdrawal

 

Oh! One more thing, If your insurance don't pay for the compound or the liquid as mine did not, try the dissolvable ones, I did that at the near end of the dry taper, Good luck wish you well on your journey to freedom!! 

Oh! One more thing, If your insurance don't pay for the compound or the liquid as mine did not, try the dissolvable ones, I did that at the near end of the dry taper, Good luck wish you well on your journey to freedom!! 

 

@darsey - Question. I just asked Riteaid what the lowest dose of clonazapam comes in and the pharmacist told me that in the regular pill form the lowest is .5mg but that there’s a dissolvable that is .25mg but she advised that the dissolvable or “odt” (orally disintegrating tablet) is hard to keep splitting. Is the .25mg what you were referring to? If so, were you able to break it into lower doses? Thanks