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Clonazepam taper help


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Hi Buddies. I’m currently down to a daily dose of .218 Clonazepam divided into a morning dose (one full .125 ODT) and 3/4 of a .125 at night. I’ve been dry cutting these pills down to quarters and the cuts are getting harder and larger by percentage. I just bought a weight scale and am interested in learning how to measure my cuts by ten percent of my daily total. I just can’t figure out how to do that with two doses. I suppose that I can just weigh my daily dose together and subtract 10 percent from that number? One .125 ODT weigh s in at 0.10 grams and I’m using the Smart Weigh digital scale. I’m also wondering if these ODT pills are accurate enough  when divided so small or if I should just switch to a liquid compound instead. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Hi 1hopeful,

 

I will be happy to help with the math but first a note concerning your question on liquid compound.

 

To me, the decision to go liquid vs dry cutting is more a matter of convenience instead of effectiveness.

 

Liquids are less difficult on the brain to compute tapers (in particular, if you have a liquid compound from a drug store).  But liquid tapering is more of a mess each day.

 

Dry tapering has a bit more math due to the scale, but you can make your pills ahead of time by putting them into an empty gel capsule (I would make a whole months supply at a time).  It is better for traveling too.

 

So first, two questions:

(!) Do you still want to do dry tapering

(2) If you do want to do dry tapering, we need to decide how to taper since you take two doses per day.  If your major symptoms are insomnia, then I suggest you taper off the morning dose first.  If your major symptoms are panic, then I suggest you taper off both doses slowly at the same time.

 

Let me know the answer to questions 1 and 2 and we can continue.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Bob7. I really appreciate you chiming in to help me. I myself prefer the dry cut method but the only reason for suggesting liquid compound was more about the consistency of the ODT pills being cut. If the pills are consistent enough to cut this small for an accurate amount of Clonazepam each cut then I’ll chose to stick with dry cutting.

 

My main symptoms are panic and nerve pain so probably tapering both doses daily would work best....even though it would be more cutting.

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Hi 1hopeful,

 

My opinion, the ODT will be consistent enough for cutting.  I remember liking them. 

 

I understand you want to reduce by 10% of your daily total and since your main issue is panic and pain, it makes sense to reduce the same amount from morning and evening doses.

 

Since you are currently at 0.125mg AM and 0.09375mg PM, is it ok if we move some of the evening dose to the morning so they are equal?  (e.g.  0.109mg AM and 0.109mg PM)?

 

I recommend you make a 10% reduction, then wait 10 days or until your symptoms are tolerable (whichever is longer), then do the next cut. 

 

I also recommend you journal each day your dose and your symptoms.  You will find this information very helpful as you taper and symptoms wax and wane.

 

If I have all your wishes correct, let me know and I will compute the math for 10% cuts all the way to zero.

 

Note,

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Thank you Bob7. All of that makes perfect sense to me. I’m all in on leveling out my morning and evening doses as well as cutting every 10-14 days or as symptoms subside or are tolerable.
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I would like to offer you some advice.

 

You need to agree to take it or "not take it" before I do any math.

 

An example will illustrate.

 

Your current total dose is 0.218mg which will weigh 0.174 grams (g) on your scale.  You have two choices to create your morning and evening dose.

 

(A) You weigh 0.174 grams on the scale and then separate "by eyeballing" into two piles. 

(B) You need to weight 0.0872 grams to get the morning dose and then do it again for the evening dose.

 

In all cases, I recommend getting empty gel capsules to make your pills ahead of time.

 

I recommend option A because these scales struggle at lighter weights.  Granted, your morning and evening doses will not be perfectly equal but the total dose for the day will be more accurate with option A.

 

Which option do you want me to make a taper schedule?

 

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I believe that I may have misunderstood you. As for leveling out the two doses: I thought we would just start taking more away from the morning dose so it gets close to the evening dose. I’m not sure if it makes sense to increase the evening dose up...even a little due to mild kindling (if that’s even possible).

 

In regards to tapering: I assumed that I would be cutting. Are you suggesting crushing the tablets into fine powder then putting them into capsules after measuring?

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To answer your question, you can cut, file, or crush into little bits or powder.  You will need to do a variety of things to get the right amount on the scale for each dose.  This is why I recommended you only weigh one dose and separate into two piles.  It takes time to get the little bits to match the weight you need.

 

But if you want to make two measurements each day (AM and PM), then I can create your taper schedule as follows:

    -Start your taper with 0.125mg in AM and 0.09375mg in the PM

    -Remove 5% from the AM and 5% from the PM for a total of 10% reduction each time you reduce

 

So are you ok with making two measurements per day?

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Yes I am ok with making two measurements a day. As you said, I can just prep a whole month in advance to save time.
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ok, here are the weights for your first 5 reductions of 10% (each reduction is 10% of the prior one).

 

I only generated 5 reductions because I believe you might want to change things after you do this for a while.

 

So start here and remember to journal.

 

Also, after each reduction, wait at least 10 days or until the symptoms are tolerable.

 

Reduction AM grams PM grams

1 0.100 0.075

2 0.095 0.071

3 0.090 0.068

4 0.086 0.064

5 0.081 0.061

 

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Ok I’ll give it a try starting this Sunday and let you know how things go. Thanks again Bob7. I really appreciate your help with this.
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