Author: Alex Thompson
How do you wean yourself off clonazepam?
At this rate I feel I will not suffer the horrendous ordeal I did at my first attempt. I am just not sure doing a dosing chart according to one oerson will work for every person. Now I’m super nervous which is elevating my heart rate as high as 120 at rest… Ive been doubling up on the Klonopin with little results… Now I feel like I’m immune to the Klonopin which kicks the panic up another notch… Appt.with doc this Thurs.to try and get my levels stable…
Hi, @harleneq – thanks for sharing your story with the clonazepam (Klonopin) taper. Sounds terribly difficult, especially the suicidal thoughts that led to a suicide attempt, and also the two heart attacks. The easiest way to lookup drug information, identify pills, check interactions and set up your own personal medication records. Available for Android and iOS devices.
Who Can Benefit From Tapering Their Benzo Intake
In other words, if you cut the pill in half, the active ingredient may be entirely on one half while the other half has little to no active ingredient. I have a prescription for 1mg Clonazepam to be taken at night with 10mg of Ambien for insomnia. I’m taking 2mg of Alprazolam daily as/when/if needed for social and OCD anxiety. Some people take their medication exactly, or almost exactly, as directed by their physician. Others acquire them illegally or intentionally take them more often or in larger doses than they should.
- If I could give any advice it would be to get your doctor involved and keep them involved for the duration of your taper.
- @elwooodsdad- Have you talked to your doctor about switching up medicines?
- If your Klonopin dosage is slowly tapered off, your symptoms are much more likely to be mild.
- B vitamins are really important and amino acids ( i take a lot fo them, and when I don’t take for a week, I feel a huge difference. This is a big deal.
- I take 7.5mg of Remeron at night as well.
If I could give any advice it would be to get your doctor involved and keep them involved for the duration of your taper. We talk about how I am feeling, do I need to slow the taper, or am I coping with the withdrawal symptoms fairly well. Your doctor is an excellent resource when it comes to helping you wean off benzos. They can design a taper schedule to decrease your benzo dose gradually over time.
How The Recovery Village Uses Klonopin Tapering
The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers. I responded to your question in another persons response.
Our bodies are very fine tuned machines. If you are missing certain vitamins or minerals, you can have big issues with mind and emotions. How on Earth do you cut them into 1/8?
I take .05 also and that is such a low dose. But if I can get off some of the other’s I might need it. Maybe you just want to take half as needed.If that don’t work in 30 to an hour take the other half that’s what I do.But you do what you feel is right. I see my psychiatrist today so I will see what happens.
It is never recommended that a person adjusts their dosage without first speaking with their doctor or a trained medical professional. I just completed a successful one year taper in May. I am about 3 months off clonazepam/klonopin. I did it using a jewelers scale, weighing my pill down until it was basically dust.
Can Tapering Your Benzodiazepines Intake Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms?
Hi Reelwater, im similar to you and hate the idea of taking medication in order to function in my daily life. I have GAD and PD, and i spent my life trying to ignore them, or come on and off of sertraline, etc (gambits of meds). They worked in the past and i did the wrong thing. When they worked i stopped taking them, multiple times i did throughout my teenage and adults years. As a replacement i found myself going to alcohol (never do this plz).
Why Benzodiazepines Withdrawal Symptoms Occur
Direct tapers are straightforward and common for long-acting benzodiazepines like Klonopin and diazepam (Valium). In a direct taper, the drug’s dose is slowly decreased over time until you are fully weaned off and can stop the drug. In a 3 month taper, it is recommended to reduce from 100 percent to 50 percent of baseline during the first 4 weeks, then reduce from 50 to 0 percent during the remaining 2 months. For a more rapid taper, a person should decrease their dose by 25 percent per week.
Divide it by however many times a day you wish to dose, and separate into pill containers. Take that amount you wrote down and reduce it by 10% every two weeks. Some find it easier to reduce every week, others every month. Whatever you do, beat of luck to you! I encourage you to join support groups of others who have tapered, but beware of negativity, or triggering symptom complaints. According to an article published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, when taking benzodiazepines like Klonopin, it can result in physical dependence and tolerance.
I kept trying to push through, and use benadryl and melatonin, listening to different “sleep inducing” sound waves, but nothing, and i mean NOTHING helped. I could not eat, sleep, or even function for TWELVE days. I have one helpful hint, if you do a drop .125 and you are feeling super uncomfortable, then give yourself the old dosage one night and then return to lower dose, the next day. Here is an example of how this might work. Let’s say that you are going to move from .500 to .375.
My tablets come in 0.5mg so I take away 1/4 of a tablet every 2 weeks. It is easy because my tablets are scored so they’re easy to break into quarter tablets. I take my Klonopin divided into three doses a day. So far it is working but with some increased anxiety and “brain zaps” both of which are hard to cope with but I am determined to get through this.
Flumazenil blocks the GABA receptors in the brain to which benzos bind. The drug is not typically recommended for benzo withdrawal because it can worsen withdrawal symptoms like seizures. Klonopin tapers are best conducted under the care of a physician, such as in an inpatient medical detox environment. They will be able to determine the safest taper schedule for you based on a variety of factors, including your medical history and any other substances that you may be taking. Licensed medical professionals review material we publish on our site. The material is not a substitute for qualified medical diagnoses, treatment, or advice.
I was lucky i lived, and both unlucky, i was sent home with a bottle of ativan 30/2mg nothing else after i refused in patient care. I consistently made the wrong choices. I ended up taking the whole bottle within 3 days, I cant remember any of it but i assume its because it worked and i got that same calming affect as the substance i abused before. Anyways i digress, I’m on 200mg sertraline, 1mg clonazepam and 7.5mg of zopiclone to sleep (alcohol free).