Short time on K- long time coming off?

Hello,

Been on K for about 3 months now. Cut from .5 mg to .25 over a few weeks without any problems. When I cut to .125 the troubles began. My anxiety plus the shaky/edgy feeling was too much for me.  I lost sleep and sleepless nights cause much bigger issues for me. I went back up and over my original amount in order to sleep. I quickly came back to slightly under .5 a day later. That's where I am now. I have been reading about the very long tapers and found some comfort in the thought of that method. It seems illogical to me (but what do I know?), but I think I would rather have a very long more comfortable taper than a slower more intense one- even a after just 3 months on this stuff.

Hi placid sea

I personally prioritize functionality over the speed of the taper. As you have experienced, you did a taper (not sure how quick), it didn't work out, then you had to updose and you lost all the progress you made. BTW, there's nothing wrong with updosing, I did it twice after two disastrous cuts I made, when I had no idea about benzos and those updoses saved my sanity. I think you absolutely did the right thing by updosing. Since I've been tapering within the 5-10% guideline I've been functional.

It also depends on how you define "a long time". It took me approximately 3 months to reduce 0.5mg of K at an average of 9% reduction. That said, some people say when you get to lower doses it becomes more difficult, so I might need to go slower. But with your short term use, you might find the lower doses easier?

I began trying to taper off of 1.5mg/day of clonazepam after two weeks of use. A four day taper schedule that I made up didn't work. I was told to stay on for three months and I ended up on 2mg/day; after two months, I discussed a taper rate with my doctor and he suggested 1mg/week for two weeks. I began a two month long taper schedule at 0.25mg/week, and made it to week two before having debilitating symptoms.

So after only two weeks of effective headache medication, I have now accepted a two year long tapering process. The math of this baffled and infuriated me initially; I was never informed about the gamble I was taking in using this medication or how potent each milligram was (my script was literally 0.25-2mg, 3x per day; so I could have taken up to 6mg/day on day one!).

However, my long-term taper has been increasingly manageable and even comfortable. I reduce by 6%/14 days, but I take my reductions daily via a liquid/tablet hybrid DMT. Aside from a generally sensitivity to stress, I wouldn't know I was tapering at this point. I've been cutting for ~5 months and I'm at half my starting dose. In ~5 more, I will likely be at half of my current dose. And so on. It's slow, but it's giving me all the freedom and functionality that I prioritize. Plus I'm able to spend time working on skill-building, such as therapy and meditation, and physical health goals, that are supporting me in functioning without this medication in the future.

Slow tapering seems to be all about accurate and easy reductions, which can be a big learning curve at first. My personal tapering notes describe roughly what I'm doing, and are linked in my signature. I hope this helps you!