Back to Question by Nova

Nova posted before about a type of cycling, where a fairly decent day always seems to be followed by a horrendous day. I responded that I have the same thing and some other people did too. Yesterday afternoon and evening I felt quite normal and today I am suffering terribly. What I am wondering is why does this happen and especially, does it come to an end? I’m about one third off of a slow taper of 1.5 mg clonazepam, which I started Jan 20. At this rate, it will take me about another year. I don’t know how I can stand it. Thank you for any responses.

Hi Perserverence,

 

I understand you are tapering Clonazepam. Are you familiar with the Ashton Manual? If not, I hope you read it.

 

A quote from Ashton:

 

Some doctors in the US switch patients onto clonazepam (Klonopin, [Rivotril in Canada]), believing that it will be easier to withdraw from than say alprazolam (Xanax) or lorazepam (Ativan) because it is more slowly eliminated. However, Klonopin is far from ideal for this purpose. It is an extremely potent drug, is eliminated much faster than diazepam (See Table 1, Chapter I), and the smallest available tablet in the US is 0.5mg (equivalent to 10mg diazepam) and 0.25mg in Canada (equivalent to 5mg Valium). It is difficult with this drug to achieve a smooth, slow fall in blood concentration, and there is some evidence that withdrawal is particularly difficult from high potency benzodiazepines, including Klonopin. Some people, however, appear to have particular difficulty in switching from Klonopin to diazepam. In such cases it is possible to have special capsules made up containing small doses, e.g. an eighth or a sixteenth of a milligram or less, which can be used to make gradual dosage reductions straight from Klonopin. These capsules require a doctor's prescription and can be made up by hospital pharmacists and some chemists in the UK, and by compounding pharmacists in North America. A similar technique can be used for those on other benzodiazepines who find it hard to substitute diazepam. To locate a compounding pharmacist in the USA or Canada this web site may be useful: www.iacprx.org. Care must be taken to ensure that the compounding pharmacist can guarantee the same formula on each prescription renewal. It should be noted, however, that this approach to benzodiazepine withdrawal can be troublesome and is not recommended for general use.

 

https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha02.htm

 

The time to come off Benzos is different for everyone. I myself was gutted when I discovered that one month was not long enough to taper. I'm still tapering 8 months in and I still have months to go.

 

Best of luck,

Naf1983

 

Nova posted before about a type of cycling, where a fairly decent day always seems to be followed by a horrendous day. I responded that I have the same thing and some other people did too. Yesterday afternoon and evening I felt quite normal and today I am suffering terribly. What I am wondering is why does this happen and especially, does it come to an end? I’m about one third off of a slow taper of 1.5 mg clonazepam, which I started Jan 20. At this rate, it will take me about another year. I don’t know how I can stand it. Thank you for any responses.