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need recommendation for a crossover


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Dr. prescribed diazepam to crossover from lorazapam. Not sure how to do the crossover.  Iam on .125 lorazapam  in the morning and .125 lorazapam in the evening. Yesterday I took .125 lorazapam in the morning and 1mg of diazapam in the evening and I felt okay. This morning I took 1mg diazapam and I feel horrible, bad withdrawals. I think I made the mistake of taking the diazapam this morning instead of the lorazapam. Right now I am waiting til this evening to take .125 of lorazapam, hopefully I will feel better... My question is how should I proceed from here. I was thinking of taking .125 of lorazapam in the mornings and 1mg of diazapam in the evenings. Can I do it this way for the entire crossover or do I need to mix it up a bit ?  Thank You!!
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Hi Pam, Not sure yet? Going back to Drs. this  Thursday to see if she is going to  increase the dosage of the diazapam because the dose she wants me to take is too low. Right now I am back on the  lorazapam.  Hopefully I will know what the heck I am doing come Thursday!!  I am getting so frustrated with these Drs. I  feel like I am in  constant  limbo wasting time...
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Hi, Just got back from my Drs. appt. and she has now prescribed me clonazepam  since she was not willing to go up in the Diazapam dosage to the correct conversion that I needed.  Not sure if I am getting myself into more trouble with converting to clonazepam.  If anyone has any advice on how to crossover  it would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone has converted to clonazapam and successfully tapered off I would sure appreciate some advice and encouragement.

Thank  You!!

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Well, I think since you're having such dreadful interdose wd, Clonazepam is probably the next best option. What dose Clonazepam did she prescribe and what is the size of the pills?
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Hi Jelly, She prescribed the lowest dose .5mg pills. She told me to take what I think is best. which I believe .125 lorazapam is equal to .0625 clonazepam.  Not sure how long I need to cross over for? 
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Hi gray cloud

 

Yes, I believe the Ashton equivalency is approximately half of clonazepam for your Lorazepam dose. I think before we start looking at a crossover we need to think about how we're going to get lower than a 0.5mg pill. Have you thought of a method you'd feel comfortable with to get to your dose low enough?

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Hi Jelly, Yes I have been cutting the lorazapam and weighing the cuts. I am going to do the same with the Clonazepam.  .125mg of clonazepam is          1/4 and .0625    is 1/8th of the pill.  So I will take .125 lorazapam in morning and take .0625 of clonazepam in the evening.  Then once off the lorazepam I will take .125 of clonazepam once a day.  I am hoping that this will work.
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Hi Pam, Well she wouldn't go up in the dose of diazapam but she did give me clonazepam. She told me to take it the way I think is best as far as the conversion goes. She was very nice about it, which surprised me.    I had told her about the ashton manual last time I was there and she told me that she had read it... I was very surpirsed by that, but she still would not up the dose of the diazapam, so I figured I might as well try the clonazepam. I just hope I am not making matters worse  by switching over to clonazepam. I am hoping it will be easier to taper than the lorazepam which I think is a horrible drug. I know all benzos are horrible but I think lorazepam takes the cake!! Thank you for all of your support with this!!! :smitten:
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Okay, if you take a quarter Clonazepam and split that in half for your doses, it sounds like you have a solid plan.  :thumbsup:

 

I have been reading threads on here to see how most people have done this type of crossover and it seems like they've done it the way you describe - first replace the evening dose and then the other dose. I'm not too sure how long you need to hold the evening dose before crossing over the next dose. I know Clonazepam does not take as long as Valium to build up. I'll keep reading and see what I come up with. But it seems you are on the right track. At least you have a starting point now and a method you are comfortable with.

 

I'm sure you'll feel a lot better on K, hopefully getting rid of the interdose wd. I'm really proud of you for pushing to get another benzo. I know it's not the Valium you wanted, but I still think this will make your journey much easier.  :smitten:

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So, I've read what feels like a gazillion threads and from my understanding, there's not a single direction for this type of crossover like the Ashton manual. I think you'll probably feel uncomfortable for a while because the Clonazepam is still building up. I'm tempted to suggest to do the crossover also in one week intervals as per the Ashton manual's suggestion for Valium to give you enough time to adjust. My cautious side says rather do this slowly than rush the process.

 

I see some people who have made this crossover, split their K doses even more to compensate for withdrawal during this process, but you are on such a low dose, I'm not sure if splitting this low dose out over multiple times per day would have the desired effect. That would probably also mean you first need to split your Lorazepam doses and stabilize on those doses first. (I'm just sharing with you what I've read).

 

It seems to me your suggestion for managing the crossover is the best for your circumstances. What do you feel is the best way forward? 

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Hi Jelly, Yes I agree I think I will try the .125 lorazapam in the morning and then .0625 clorazapam in the evening for a week and see how that goes. So far so good. I took the lorazapam this morning and this evening I took the .0625 clorazapam  and I'm feeling okay.. It even got rid of the internal vibrations I was constantly having. The one thing I noticed is that I am a little short of breath but I think that could be because I'm a little anxious about this crossover and I hope I am doing the right thing.  Thank you so much Jelly!! You have been a great help!!! :smitten:
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I'm so happy things seem to be going well!

 

I think you have prepared yourself well for this crossover. I would love to see the end of the taper smooth out for you!  :smitten:

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It sounds like you're ready to do this, even if it's not what you were hoping for its good to get the answer so you can get things moving, do you need help?
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Hi Pam, I am just worried about going to clonazepam from lorazepam. I don't know if it will make things worse or not. I took the Clonazepam last night .0625 and I seemed okay so this morning I took another .0625 and I  seem okay I just have a little bit of uneasiness, and a little bit of anxiety.  I think tonight I will take .125 of lorazepam.  I just hope I am not prolonging this whole taper and making things worse..  :-\
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I know you're concerned about prolonging your taper but please for now just concentrate on getting the right dose of Clonazepam so you can get stable.  Tapers are marathons and accepting them as a part of your life is as important as reducing.

 

A taper is the tool we use to live our lives while we reduce the drug and when I say live your life I mean actually living your life, not your life revolving around the drug or the taper.  This taper will just be a part of your day, not your total focus so accepting this situation and using the drug to mitigate your symptoms while you reduce is the way to look at this.

 

People are in a hurry and it's understandable but once you're off the drug you won't have it to mitigate your symptoms because I'm sure you're aware there is much healing to be done once the drug has finally been removed.

 

I know this isn't typical but another member posted something remarkable today and my wish and my hope is that the same will be true for you.

 

Thoughts on my taper…

 

I’ve found that my personal taper, 1mg weight removed every 7 to 10 days (.0025 strength), has virtually zero negative affects. Since adopting this taper strategy I have felt a positive affect. The first two to three days after taper I have intermittent sparks of happy thoughts, (on the edge of exhilarating), from my past that seemed impossible to feel before. Then as I progress through to the next taper I come back down from my happy cloud to normal. My gut feeling is that dopamine levels are continuing to perk back up and work normally.

 

I used to not look forward to tapering…now I do

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Hope someone here can help me... My Dr. has switched me from lorazepam to clonazepam. At the moment I am taking .0625 clonazepam and .125 lorazepam. Yesterday I took .125mg lorazepam in the morning and .0625mg clonazepam in the evening. I felt okay. Today I took .0625  clonazepam in the morning and was feeling very anxious and uneasy all day. I took .125 lorazepam this evening and still not feeling so good.

Does it take a while for the clonazepam to build up? Or is it just my body trying to adjust to the clonazepam?  And will things get better? Not sure how to proceed from here. Any help would be appreciated..... :-\

 

Hi gray cloud

 

Yes, Clonazepam does take time to build up in your system. It might not take as long as Valium but it's not instant.

 

Let's just take a step back and look at your situation.

 

1) You have been waiting for your doctor's appointment so you could get a long-acting benzo.

2) During this time your taper was on hold

3) You finally get to your doctor but the Valium dose is too low

4) You have to make yet another appointment and then you get K

5) You plan a gradual crossover schedule

6) You start your crossover, the first night of the crossover seems good and you go full out on the crossover

 

I'm doing this stepwise so you can see you are probably rushing the crossover but also so you can see the rushing part is logical. Gosh, your taper has been on hold for such a long time and then the first night of the crossover went well. It makes sense that with everything happening you would attempt to go faster. So I hope you won't beat yourself up over this.  :smitten:

 

What I think you need to remember is that a crossover would inevitably have withdrawal/uncomfortableness with it. I mentioned it earlier in this thread. I did not expect you to go through this crossover not having any symptoms at all (it would've happened if you crossed to V as well).

 

If it were me, I would go back to the original crossover schedule. I suggest tomorrow you start with your Lorazepam dose in the morning again and then continue with K in the evening and we continue with that for a week. Please remember, no expect there will be symptoms present as you crossover. I don't want you to get anxious about these as it will likely increase the intensity of your symptoms.

 

Also, I don't want you to get upset about rushing and changing the schedule. It happened. I want you to think about this crossover as something that you have chosen and therefore you can manage and face the symptoms. You are in control, not the benzo, not the symptoms. Because you have chosen this path. When we start thinking about our symptoms in an empowering way instead of fearing it, we become mentally more resilient to face it and push through.

 

Soon this crossover will be in your past and you'll be tapering your way down to zero! You can absolutely do this!  :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

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Your are so right Jelly!!  I am trying to rush the crossover and I guess I am expecting too much!!  I just thought that since they say clonazepam is so much stronger I might get away without symptoms, not a chance!! LOL!! Thanks for the pep talk and advice!!  I will stick to the original plan!!

I am just so tired of feeling like crap everyday, its so exhausting!!!  Thanks so much Jelly!!! :smitten:

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