How can I safely get off of klonopin?

[klonopingrl]

I am a 28 y/o female who has been on klonopin (.5 mg twice a day). I would very much like to stop taking the medication all together, or at least not be addicted to it. I asked my psychiatrist for help a couple years ago how safe it would be to get myself off of this drug, and he told me that if I walked into his office that day and told him I was pregnant, he would tell me to stop taking the drug immediately. From then, I started tapering off the drug rather quickly, and within days, found myself in the ER.
I realize that having been on the drug for nearly a decade, it will be hard to wean myself off of this drug. I am also under the impression that 1mg of klonopin is a relatively low dose.
What I would like to know is what is a safe way of getting off of this drug? I am always exhausted. I usually sleep all weekend and find it difficult to get up in the morning. Please help me safely get off of this drug. I get different answers from different specialists. I just want to feel safe and normal again.

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

Yes, your dose is rather small.  Even though you have taken it for a long time, I would be surprised if you had seizures from stopping such a low dose, especially of Klonopin, which tends to taper itself from having a long half-life.  For many people it helps to have a trusted family member controlling the medication;   a reasonable taper could be either slow or fast depending on your anxiety level.  You could reduce the dose each week, or every 2-3 days;  in either case you could reduce by a quarter mg each time. so your dosing would go 0.5- 0.5 at first, then 0.25- 0.5, then 0.25- 0.25, then 0.0- 0.25, then 0- 0.  again, changing each three days would take 9 days;  changing every week, say for people who have a great deal of anxiety, would take 3 weeks.  Either way should be completely safe from dangerous effects-- unless a person has an untreated seizure disorder or has had repeated bouts of severe withdrawal, which after awhile leave memory traces behind for future episodes of withdrawal.

[gina24405]

A related discussion, Would like to ween offf of Klonopin was started.

[mikesonmeth]

i am addicted to a different drug but i have have some bouts with xanax withdrawls b 4. i was only taking a couple of 10 mgs a day for a short time but when i stopped i went through hell for about 2 weeks. my doctor put me on klonopin to get off the xanax. i could not even feel them. i cant beleive u r having that much trouble? i guess everyones different huh. i would try to just slowly taper off which is what im doing with my drug of choice. i really wish u the best.