Klonopin taper

Thanks for that info (I'm presently on 4 mg clonazepam!) and looking forward to a taper starting with my new Doctor in April. I've read that some people / most people need to do the tablets AND the clonazepam drops to get really exacting dosages, esp, near the end of the taper, as you discuss. I will ask about the drops so I can be exacting in my taper but stay flexible enough as per my withdrawal.

My experience with Ativan, which is the same family as Klonopin was similar in that the last .25mg was the most difficult to get off. I Reduced to 0.125 ( sharb blade needed to cut the tablets!) However, it is a sub therapeutic dose and as such I wonfered at the time if the withdrawal symptoms were psychological rather than physiological. Exercise and sunlight helps of course.

As an aside, your Dr has no right to get angry with you. You are paying his salary... by virtue of your membership in a health care insurance scheme. He can advise against weaning off and even refuse to give you a presciption for 0.5 mg but angry.....no! Uu

I am very interested in this discussion. I have been on 4 mg clonozapam for six years. It is very helpful for the pain I have from BMS, atypical trigeminal neuralgia and TMJ. What are your plans for replacing this med? Perhaps others in this situation can share information. Thanks!

I'm on 4 mg daily clonazepam for about 15 years!!! Too long! It's a short-term med ONLY! But when your insurance changes and you see new Doctors every couple of years, there's no continuity and so I start with a v good new Psychiatrist in April, her first opening, will stay with one Doctor, a great one, and I will insist we begin the taper off. I do not want any Benzo in my body. However long it takes to get safely off. I'm upset that they never told me benzos are 1) habituating (you need to keep taking more to get the same effect) and 2) it creates a wicked bad physical dependence that can cause seizures and death..

Hi @stressedmesseddepressed. I was wondering how your taper went/is going. If you have learned any hacks or things that make the w/d symptoms less painful, I would love to hear them. Like you, I never received either of those warnings and am tapering down from 6 mg/day and just getting to 2.5 has been hellish. While I have railed about my psych of the time not warning me and the next one upping my dosage despite my opioid use, I am the first one to say that every individual is responsible for being their own advocate and getting the correct information from the doc or researching enough on your own to understand what you are taking. At the time I started taking it, I would have likely signed off if I had been told it would take ten years off my life, because in the depths of depression you are only thinking about surviving the day and not years down the road. Anyway...if you or anyone else reading this has found anything to be helpful, please share.
Thank you, Gary

@gman007 I no longer take klonopin and I certainly was not informed as I believe I ought to have been about how addictive it is-no mention was even made of it being addictive as well as the antidepressants and antiphyschotics which were to enhance the antidepressants. I would like to believe they did not know and only had my best interest in mind. Not true at all. There were so many things I was not told and now it is too late to change the harm that has been done by well (?) educated doctors.
Now another 10 years off of my life because of 8 years of this poison. I may as well stop seeing doctors because so many of them are pill pushers. All of this uproar about opiates when there are things that are eagerly prescribed that are even more harmful.
Sick, sick, sick all of this and also scary realizing my days have been shortened even more!! I am death on a horse eating a cracker. How can anyone with depression or any other mental illness ever expect to get help? Knowledge is power and the truth will be the demise of many. Sad to think how many who are desperately seeking help are being made sicker.
Yes, the truth hurts.

they took me off benzo's and due to the anxiety, insomnia and shakes I turned to alcohol and tons of it. They finally put me back on kladapin. These drugs are here for a reason. I will never go off again, putting me on gaba pentin was an absolute joke.

Not trying to be too personal, but why do you say putting you on Gabapentin was a joke? I'm considering coming off. Have cut back. Were you on it for pain?

Gaba didn't do anthing for anxiety. I was in sweats, pure panic, insomnia when they switched. I have social anxiety and severe panic disorder. I felt so horrible on gaba I ended up drinking like crazy to get rid of the sweats and anxiety I don't ever want to go through that again. I am on 1mg/4 times a day and I can't cut back. That is as low as I can go.

I am wondering if anyone has had the unfortunate experience of withdrawing from klonopin/clonazepam and discovered any hacks? I have been tapering for about ten weeks and have about six weeks to go. Most of my reading suggests a timeline of 1/2 mg every two weeks and I have been following this, but am attempting to shorten the total time by doing 1/2 mg every week and I am currently at 2.5 mg. It will likely make me a horrible person to be around for 6 weeks, at least, but hopefully well short of the ten weeks if I only reduced every two weeks. So, if anyone has any tricks to make the process more bearable, I would love to hear them.
Gary