You’re right about prescriptions getting harder to get. As you know they have done the same with opioids. The docs seemed to have replaced pain meds for even post surgical patients with Tylenol. The government wants to control all the medications now . Google the Ashton Manual. It’s the best benzo tapering method there is right now. Doctors are just very anxious to unprescribe even to those that truly need their medication. It’s inhumane.

You have to find a psychiatrist who will help you taper off. I’ve been taking clonazepam for 30 years. We recently moved from Vermont to Pittsburgh. For 22 years in Vermont my PCP kept renewing my prescription. Now suddenly I’m in a system that insists that I have to get off it. I’m 73 years old and I have CFS along with many other health issues. I’m on a quest to find a psychiatrist who will let me keep taking it. At my age it would be sheer hell for years. I refuse to go through that. You can’t do it yourself.

I suggest you talk to your pharmacist, who I have found knows much more about such things than my PCP.

I am 71 years old. Every comment says my experience, too. Been on benzos for years, cannot find any kind of doctor or health care giver to renew my prescription. I moved to a different state and am looking for healthcare to continue. I paid $1.80 a month for Valium. Every healthcare person I have gone to here is willing to give me Dayc__ (sp) for sleep, which I tried, it does nothing for my anxiety and it knocks me out thus no quality sleep. Also, it is very expensive & addictive, just as addicting as any benzo! The truth is, healthcare everywhere is horrible, if one can even find a doctor.

1 mg is a very low dose. I was taking 8 mg a day, which was low also, and after 5 years, my doctor was actually being pressured by the clinic he worked for, for 20 years, to get his patients off and to prescribe expensive, addictive, new medications instead. So he went according to Ashton's Manual and switched me to Valium. Valium is shorter acting and does not stay in your system as long. The dosage is different and if I remember correctly, I went from 8 mg to 3 mg of the Valium with the same result. After a year, I am down to 1 mg Valium in the evening, but I will be taking this dose for months as I am 71 years old, been on benzos for years, and my body needs to adjust. Then it will be 1/2 mg for months and then nothing. I have ben cautioned not to taper too quickly. In the meantime, I must substitute holistic methods of dealing with insomnia and anxiety. Which is difficult here as there isn't any group activities, so I got Roku on my TV and do yoga and meditation using the programs on TV. Also, when I wake early, like 2 or 3:00 AM, I get up and do something for about 2 hours and then I go back to bed. And I pray a lot.

I struggle with depression and irrational fear (anxiety). Am on lexapro (10mg) and klonopin (.5mg). Tried to taper off lexapro and it seemed aggressive and I was not in a healthy place when it started and was worse off when the taper ended. Ended up going back on lexapro. Would really like to taper off of klonopin and am scared/worried and am also just tired of these drugs. Anyone have any suggestions or a doctor to work with? I am in the Chicago area. Do you have to be in a good place to start a taper mentally? Or can a taper start whenever? Just a struggle to make a decision right now and am curious what others have experienced.

I can only speak of my own experience and encourage you to seek out a psychiatrist who will support what you want to do. It is hard if you are being forced off it and easier if it comes from your own desire. Either way you need to go slowly and safely and you will succeed. I had a very young psychiatrist tell me I had to be off of it by age 65 because it came with risks to seniors. This he says to a Nana who plays bass drum in a band, does kick-boxing and Dances regularly! But it has to do with cognitive decline and increased risk of falls. I reluctantly agreed and found the first part of the taper very easy - every 6-8 wks I had a small reduction. Starting with 1mg Klonopin, I went to .75, then to .5, then .375mg. At the taper to .25, I really began to feel the effects in my sleep and that has continued. I now have some 0.125mg tablets that I take occasionally and have started a low dose of Remeron (7.5mg). It has been 9 months and I'm not completely done, but almost. The Ashton manual is a good guide although my doctor had his own method. I have been using sleep meditations as well. Good luck!

If I were your age I would just stay on the Klonopin. I wouldn’t put myself through the tapering process. God bless.

I am 73 and tapering off of Clonazepam. I have been on this medication for well over 20 years.
I was taking 1mg twice daily for a long time and in the past several years have reduced the dose to .5mg a day over time.
Soon I will be taking .25 daily and then will taper off more, just takes a long time to get it out of ones system.
I will win the game and be off of the medication over the next year.
I have had no withdrawal symptoms. I hope this helps anyone who is tapering off and it can be done slowly.

Hi there

I can relate to your post…I’ve been on klonopin for years..small dose for GAD…I don’t feel like I’m addicted to it…doesn’t really act the same on me as say, Xanax or Valium. It’s a longer acting med very good for general anxiety as well as some OCD…I take a .5 nightly.. it seems to really help…