xanax withdrawal

I need help tapering off xanax. I was on 3mg of xanax/day for about 7-10 months. I tapered down to .5 mg over a 5 month period. After being at .5 mg per night for about 2 wks I started to have insomnia due to a compulsion to move and a "creepy crawley" feeling mostly in my legs. Some nights I have to bump up the dosage to 1 -1.5mg to get to sleep. Also this morning I woke up because it wore off and I couldn't get back to sleep even after taking another .5 mg. It took me 6wks to figure out it was xanax withdrawal, I thought I was losing my mind. Especially since I told my primary physician and chiropractor that I was tapering off it and neither of them mentioned the possibility of withdrawal. Any advice on how to go from here to klonipin (klonopin) to hopefully nothing for awhile (or as needed) would be really helpful. I'm not sure if my doctor understands xanax withdrawal, any advice you give I could present to her so she can monitor the process.
Thanks in advance for your help!
J

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

The reason people change to clonazepam is because it is broken down very slowly in the body, and so it tends to taper itself.  The exact dose conversion isn't important, but in general people replace it about mg for mg.  Once on clonazepam, people will take it two or three times per day, and reduce one of the doses every week or so, until you have tapered off.  The nice thing about clonazepam is that from the doses you are now on, most people would avoid seizures if they stopped abruptly.  They might get the 'heebie jeebie legs' at night, but they probably won't have anything dangerous happen.  That is a 'probably'.... it is safest to taper the dose slowly, over weeks.