Need help with Clonazepam taper ASAP PLEASE

  Hi all, I should be able to do the math myself however do to 5 years ago a doctor putting me in cold turkey benzo withdrawal after almost 30 years of use I have suffered chronic issues and I'm no longer able to put numbers in sequential order or recall any of the algebra that I used on a daily basis when I was a critical care nurse for 36 years. Due to the cold turkey withdrawal, I had to be placed on disability. The cold turkey cause me to develop not only cardiac issues but p o t s dysautonomia. It is taking me over a year to wean myself off of a half a milligram of clonazepam I had started at 2 mg a day. Anyone who can help me with this math I would greatly appreciate. I am using a gram scale to weigh my pill but I need to speed up the wean process due POTS Dysautonomia.

    My 1mg pillls weigh 0.174 Grams (on average). I want to reduce by 5% every 2 weeks.

  Essentially:  If  0.174 = 100% then X = 4% (0.04)

Sadly,  I cannot solve this.  If someone could solve AND show me the math equation and step by step method to solve,  I think my sister could take over from there to do my math continue the paper and hopefully be able to increase the percentage rate.

                    THANK YOU IMMENSELY and MAY WE ALL HEAL !!!

If you want to reduce 5% every two weeks from the total, then you would reduce 0.0087 grams from your 0.174gram pill each time.  After 40 weeks, your will have gone from 0.174 grams to zero.

However, if you want to reduce 5% every two weeks, but each time the 5% reduces the most recent dose, then you must follow this table and it will take longer (you never reach zero but you get close to call it zero).

grams

0.174

0.165

0.157

0.149

0.142

0.135

0.128

0.122

0.115

0.110

0.104

0.099

0.094

0.089

0.085

0.081

0.077

0.073

0.069

0.066

0.062

0.059

0.056

0.053

0.051

0.048

0.046

0.044

0.041

0.039

0.037

0.035

0.034

0.032

0.030

0.029

0.027

0.026

0.025

0.024

0.022

0.021

0.020

0.019

0.018

0.017

0.016

0.016

0.015

0.014

0.013

0.013

0.012

0.011

0.011

0.010

It is taking me over a year to wean myself off of a half a milligram of clonazepam I had started at 2 mg a day.

 

My 1mg pillls weigh 0.174 Grams (on average). I want to reduce by 5% every 2 weeks.

 

If someone could solve AND show me the math equation and step by step method to solve,  I think my sister could take over from there to do my math continue the paper and hopefully be able to increase the percentage rate.

Hello Mellowplease,

I am happy to help. It sounds like from the statements quoted above that you are currently at 1.5mg/day of clonazepam, and you are using 1mg tablets that each weigh 0.174mg avg. I think Bob7 may have missed the detail about your dose quantity (or I may have misunderstood you). Hopefully together we can help you.

First of all, I'll show you how to get your daily pill weight.

Calculate Current Pill Weight

(current dosage in mg) * (weight of 1mg tablet in mg) = (current dose in pill weight in mg)

ex. 1.5mg * 174mg = 261mg per day

Secondly, as Bob7 mentioned, you have the option to reduce by 5% of your dose now as a quantity which is 13.05mg, and simply repeat this reduction quantity every time you reduce; this is called a linear reduction and is not what is generally meant by a % reduction.

I'm going to assume that you want to do a percent-based reduction (Bob7's second example), taking a 5% reduction calculated based on your current dose at the time of reducing. Here's the math. I'm going to make it into three steps so your sister or yourself can adjust the percent rate as desired.

1] Convert % Reduction to % Remaining

100 - (desired % reduction) = (desired % remaining)

ex. 100 - 5 = 95

2] Convert % to Decimal

(desired % remaining) / 100 = (decimal form of % remaining)

ex. 95 / 100 = 0.95

3] Calculate Remaining Pill Weight

(current daily pill weight) * (decimal form of % remaining) = (new daily pill weight)

ex. 261mg * 0.95 = 248mg

This is the math for a cut-and-hold with percent-based reductions every 2-weeks. The math for a percent-based daily micro taper (DMT) is a little more involved, but in my personal experience I've found a clonazepam DMT to be far less symptomatic than bi-weekly cut-and-holds. Since you're adjusting the weight of your pills every day anyways, you might want to consider a DMT.

To do a DMT, I suggest using Jim Hawk's online generator; this way you won't have to do ANY math. The generator creates a schedule you can print out, and every day you either cut, hold, or throw out the schedule and print a new one at a different rate!

There is a glitch that occurs for many people, which is why I wrote this instructional:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=254653.5#post_generator

And here is the DMT schedule generator for dry tapering:

http://benzo.alwaysdata.net/direct/directForm.php

Don't worry if the DMT generator is too overwhelming for you at this time!

I understand you're struggling and I hope I've shown you the math steps you were looking for.

Let us know if I missed anything, or if you need more help. 

Slownsteady,

It seems like your jumps as tapering were quite large at the end...how did you do with this kind of tapering?  Were the w/d symptoms horrible, or just bad for a few days, and then improved?

Lisa

Slownsteady,

 

It seems like your jumps as tapering were quite large at the end...how did you do with this kind of tapering?  Were the w/d symptoms horrible, or just bad for a few days, and then improved?

 

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

This is an interesting place to ask! My individual reductions are not in my signature; I've simply listed the milestone dates and doses.

I took 6-8%/2-week cut-and-hold reductions a few times at first, then I switched to a DMT and I currently taper at 6%/2-weeks, holding occasionally based on symptoms. I have had very minimal withdrawal symptoms since I began the DMT; currently they increase in severity very slowly and then I hold for a day or two and stabilize. I may continue to taper at 5%/2-weeks in the future, but for now I'm managing with 6%.

My taper is ongoing. I just passed 0.9mg/day a few days ago, and held there for two days.

I hope this helps clarify things. 

thank you for explaining. I'm new to the site, and i assumed the dosages of Klonapin and the dates at the end of your posts were the jumps you were taking with the meds as a taper. I'm sorry...i didn't understand otherwise.

Thank you again for explaining

Lisa