How to get off of Clonazepam Safely?

It’s going to benefit you that you haven’t been taking them for a long time, also your dosage is very low, it’s very positive that you’re in touch with your body and knowing that these drugs are very addictive. I have been taking them for many years and I don’t want to get off them, in your case you can find very viable options for withdrawing from them and not suffer awful side effects. I think you can talk with your doctor about your concerns and see what comes up, honestly no one should have to suffer with all the available information, best wishes.

Welcome to the group and i am no doctor but have been weaned off a few meds and it varies with the medication. some just take weeks some longer but ask your doctor before trying on your own, some can and will bite you pretty bad if done improperly when withdrawing from them. ill send a prayer for you------sent and have a blessed day and hope you find what your looking for.

I did get off it. Understand about the small size/dosage of pills.
What worked for me is once I got down to a practical splitting of pills, I then started taking that smallest dose and started to skip days.
Maybe I took 3 tiny doses 3 days in a row then went down to take it 2 days, off 1 day and gradually stretched the “no days taking” time out further/longer, does that make sense?
Hard to explain…I hope this helps you figure it out?

@wisco50 How small did you cut pills into? 1/4 size? How long did it take to do….days, weeks?

I personally found trying to cut in 1/4 difficult and the pill often crumbled, even with a sharp pill splitter.
I would say over a few weeks-a month.
Probably depends on the dose you are weaning off of, too.

You are astute to notice what's happening. Just DON'T let your doc try to talk you into upping your dose since the current level is no longer working. If he/she does, find a different provider, just my opinion. Your body is becoming dependent and it can be a vicious cycle. Trying to somehow ease off and then be off for good is best and hopefully finding a non benzo drug that helps with that anxiety issue or other possible alternatives. Best of luck but after 7 months this drug caused me all sorts of problems. And your central nervous system, any how sensitive it may be, dictates withdrawal symptoms as well, as to whether they are not so bad or not so good. Best of luck!

The biggest rule of all with taking yourself off this medication is to go very slowly to avoid relapse. If you want to find a plan that works, go online and look into the book called the Ashton manual program, it’s been proven to work well with minimal side effects because it’s a very simple and slow process and reputed to be very effective.

@meingan , My taper-off schedule took 8 weeks. I have tried tapering off with the direction of a Physician 3 or 4 different times, stopping many times due to outside interruptions. The first time was cold turkey, but from a very tiny dose; I think I was taking only quarters of my 0.5 mg tabs and ended up in the ER after a severe Grand Mal seizure. Doctors are undecided about whether such a low dose could have been the cause, but regardless, I was once again put back on my regular dose. My last attempt was successful and took 8 weeks of tapering. There is a 0.125 dose, a disintegrating tablet which helped me greatly, since manually cutting a 0.5 tablet was highly inaccurate.

@bruizersmom What was your actual procedure on your last successful attempt? I found some info that suggested removing 0.25mg once per week, so I calculated that it might take 9 weeks. Thanks for sharing.

Recommend you find a tapering coach using the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines if your doctor cannot support a slow taper.