Is it okay to skip a dose when tapering? (Klonopin)

Hello buddies,

There are some days when I am feeling so good that I want to skip my AM .5mg dose of klonopin and take the full daily dose of 1mg in the evening or even just take the .5mg evening dose and not combine with the AM dose.  Is this okay or will it affect the success of my taper.

I have been on 1mg. (.5mg 2x/day) for 7 weeks and will soon be making my first cut of 10% from the AM dose. 

History: Used klonopin for 12 years.  Went to detox and they did a taper that was way too fast: 3mg/day to .125mg/day in 7 weeks. They upped the dose to 1mg/day and sent me home to do a much longer taper.  I found some good advice here on how to properly taper at the rate of a 10% reduction every 10 days.

Hi Forwardartist,

It's great that you are sometimes feeling so good!! I'm happy to hear that.

Here are my thoughts (I have no medical background or anything - this is just what I thought when I read your post):

If you feel good and normal during your taper, then that is fantastic! I think that means you are pacing yourself well. I wouldn't do anything that is a drastic change or do anything to put the feeling good in jeopardy. I don't know the half-life of klonopin, but I think if you start skipping the morning dose all together, you may have stronger between dose withdrawal symptoms. I also definitely would not combine the PM dose with the AM dose if you do decide to skip. That might throw your nervous system way off (if it's used to and comfortable getting 0.5 in AM and PM and suddenly it doesn't have anything in the AM and more in the PM, that might lead to stronger withdrawal symptoms between dosing).

Keep in mind that you are still early in your taper, and sometimes people don't feel the withdrawal effects until later in the process. By going slowly now, I hope that it would minimize any symptoms!

I think if you are feeling good, you should keep doing what you are doing!

Your taper is yours to adjust and amend as you see fit, bottom line is your brain thrives on consistency, it will serve you well to make whatever changes you make gradually so as not to upset the balance your brain is trying to achieve through the taper process.

Just be kind to yourself so you won't experience whiplash effects of sudden increases or decreases.