My Klonopin Taper Schedule

I'm currently tapering down off of Klonopin after 20 plus years. In the last two years I've gone from 3-4mg, (1mg 3x day.. 1mg extra as needed) to .5mg, (.25mg morning, .125mg afternoon and .125mg night time). My goal is to be fully off this year, 2020. My current taper schedule is to get all my doses down to .125mg and then to start removing doses till I'm down to zero a day. I'm around 6 weeks at my current dose. My last reduction of dropping my afternoon dose from .25mg to .125mg really took a lot out of me and I have not bounced back yet.

 

0.125mg is the smallest US dose I can be prescribed. Its been a horrible journey, see my intro for more information on that. Now that I'm down to such small increments I find the .125mg reductions very challenging. I've tried multiple doctors and non have any education on cutting and weighing or titration. I was curious what others have done in these instances. Did you just have your doctor prescribe you a dose you can alter while you used online resources to manage micro doses via cutting or titration or where you able to find a doctor that could be your guide? I do think its possible for me to continue on my taper plan, it will just take a while as I need 1-2 months to recover from each of the reductions. It will be painfull, requiring my full dedication and it will encompass the entire year. A plan with less sever withdrawal syndrome would be helpful. Thank you!

Hi TheOne, I'm sorry I missed this post, have you found the answers you need or should we address them here?

Hi Pamster, I haven’t found answers yet.

One of your questions was, do people find doctors to help them taper, in my experience on the forum, most members use their doctors as prescribers.  Some won't even tell them they're tapering in fear they'll either cut them off or try to manage it. 

 

It looks to me like your reductions are too much for you, I'd suggest making them smaller because the purpose of a taper is to use the drug to mitigate symptoms as you rid yourself of it in the hopes of staying functional.

 

You have choices for making smaller doses, there is professionally compounded which your doctor can write a script for, there is as you mentioned, shaving your doses and eyeballing them, shaving and weighing your doses and then there is  the liquid you make out of your pills.  Does one method appeal to you more than another. Titration FAQ's

Hi Pamster,

 

Thank you for the reply. I like the idea of shaving and weighing as it seems to have the most precision. I’m not sure if the ODT tabs hold up well enough for shaving. I also don’t know how I would juggle the differences between a .25 ODT and a .125 ODT. At which weight would I switch from .25 to a .125 tablet. And this last reduction of going form .25 in the afternoon to .125 in the afternoon has not gone well. It’s been over 6 weeks and I’ve recovered very little. Would I switch that dose back to .25 and start filing? I’m just so overwhelmed and defeated. I’m not sure I have the energy to figure all this out. I really want to do whatever it takes to be off K this year and it’s almost April already. If we somehow figure this out, is being off in 9 months even possible? I see my doctor next week who is an addiction specialist and all for me getting of Klonopin. That said he doesn’t seem familiar with these other methods.

I understand you're overwhelmed, there is so much to learn when we're not at our best cognitively plus the fear and pain make this experiment on ourselves even more stressful.  We can help you do this, please look at this website one of our members put together to get an idea of what you'll need to do then I'll ask someone to drop by this thread to help you figure out your next step since I don't have experience with this.  Bob7 Benzo Dry Taper Method 

Dear TheOne,

 

Pamster asked me to stop by.

 

I can help you with dry cutting.  I made the link Pamster shared with you.

 

However, it is a great amount of work so I first recommend people try a liquid taper.  It is more exact and uniform, in particular if you are willing to use a few drops of Vodka to dissolve the benzo. 

 

Please watch this and see if you want to try it.  It will take you on a slow, precise, taper.  If you start with 300mL of water, then it is a 300 day taper.  But you can also start with 200 mL of water and be done in 200 days.  It is really simple.

 

 

Thank you Pamster and Thank you Bob7. I’ll look over the links and see what seems the most feasible. I’d like to also run these past my doctor and see if they have any helpful input. I should also see about stabilizing some before moving into a micro taper. I suppose I could always go back to .625mg and micro taper from there, but I’d probably need to be at the dose for a while to stabilize. My last two reductions where a little fast as I try to keep the pace up. I haven’t fully stabilized in over years, so it’s tricky to know what to do. All I know is I’m ready to be off regardless of how I feel and any further consequences. I just want to be off and to heal.

TheOne,

 

Try real hard not to updose.

 

If your symptoms are terrible, you might be able to maintain your current dose by addressing anxiety.  Try youtube videos to address anxiety.  Also, let me share my story where I prevented the need to updose.

 

I was on Klonopin for 13 years and during part of my taper, I went too fast and so I held for 8 weeks to get stable.  During those 8 weeks, I used buspar for about 3 of the weeks to take the edge off.  My symptoms were chest pains.  My doctor said my withdrawal caused increased anxiety, the anxiety kept my muscle tense all the time, after a while, the muscles get tired and hence, the pain.  The buspar reduced the anxiety and let me continue my taper.