having to go off klonopin back onto ativan(please anyone)

[hazyworld]

tried goingon klonopin for a month after being on ativan,woke up this morning so deprssed.klonopin has done this to  me before,called on call dr and he said stop theklonopin and go back on ativan.i was on about 2 mg of klonopin and willnow be on 2mg ativan............im worried i may have withdrawls from the klonopin if imnot on enough ativan......i read where  .5 mg klonopin equals 1 mg ativan,,,,,,so im on less ativan.........does anyone know?

[hazyworld]

so its been a week since going off the klonopin other than im taking 1/2 mg in the am and pm along with 1 mg ativan 4 times a day...........will be seeing new dr on the 14th..could i cut out a 1/2 mg of klonopin now as it is still making me feel so down i was not this way when i was just on ativan before i treid the klonopin in dec...

[hazyworld]

this kinda how the pharmisit told me he said take a klonopin in between my morning and noon dose then anotehr one between my night and evening dose.......i thought u alwasy said u shouldnt take the two at the same time,,,,,,i see a counsler tommorow,i have already had 2mg of ativan today and a .5 klonopin....mylife is a wreck and i dont want to overdose on these meds.......they think the withdrawal is all in my head?

[hazyworld]

okit was sunday when i stopped the klonopin............im freaking im having chills cant sleeep feel like im losing it,,,,,,,im on the 1 mg of ativan now,,,,,,,,but no relief pharmaist sadi tot ake 1/2 a klnopin

[hazyworld]

the oncalldr told me i might have to increase the ativan when i spoke to my dr she saidnothing other than i would be fine on the ativan stopping the klonopin..so im taking on calls advice for a few days...originally i had been on 3 mg ativan......and tapered down and the went on the awful klonopin......i will be right

[hazyworld]

So will i be having withdrawls still even taking the 1 mg of ativan? And i tood a 1/2klonopoin yesteday along wiwth 4 1/2 of ativan...but this mornign after reading your post i toon 1 mg ativan,,i must stop stressing about all this im making myself worse off,i dont see my dr till the 14th

[hazyworld]

Hi well today is my third day i never understood the taper plan off klonopin till this morning and i only took a 1/4 of a .5 klonopin yesterday im feeling anxious,,,,,i took the 1/2 mg ativan 4 times yesterday.......i guess its to late to do your taper now...my dr told me i would be fine with no taper but imscared now...........the oncall dr that changed me told me i might have to take more ativan.....would that work? I have had two pahrmaists and a dr tell me i need no taper off theklonopin oops make that 2 drs the oncall dr and my dr.......

[hazyworld]

my dr i talked to today said i don not need a taper off the klonopin just go right on to the ativan.......im praying she is right as i still dont understand this formala

[nursegirl6572]

Mg to mg, Klonopin is roughly twice as strong as Ativan, however, being that the half-life greatly differs, it isn't always as easy as simply replacing one for another.  What Ryan is saying is that since you only were on the Klonopin for a breif period of time, you shouldn't have too many issues transitioning back to the Ativan.  He also suggested that instead of throwing in the towel on the Klonopin, you could try a lower dose to help with the depression.  

If you would rather just go back on the Ativan, he is saying to decrease your Klonopin dose by  0.25-0.5 mg every 3 days while at the same time, gradually increasing the Ativan by 0.5-1.0 mg increments every three days (again, at the same time you are slowly decreasing the Klonopin dose) until you are done with the Klonopin and back on the Ativan at your prior dose.

To try to give you an example....If you are starting at 2 mg Klonopin, the first day, decrease your (daily) dose to 1.5 or 1.75 mg (1.75 being a smaller drop in dose) while starting 0.5 or 1.0 mg of Ativan.  Then, three days later, decrease the Klonopin to 1.0-1.5 mg while increasing the Ativan to 1.0-1.5 mg, as tolerated, until you are DONE with the Klonopin, and on the correct dose of Ativan.

Ryan will certainly correct me if I misinterpreted his formula, but I believe that is the recommendation, which would make sense.  Obviously, those are DAILY dose amounts, so you would have to further break down the adjustments per dose if you are taking the meds more than once per day.

Good luck.

[hazyworld]

DO U MEAN JUST TAKE A 1/4 OF A KLONOPIN A DAY ALONG WITH MY SCHEDULED AMOUNT OF ATIVAN

[hazyworld]

so u are saying i need to taper of the klonopin as imgoing on the ativan.......was taking 1/2mg of klonopin 1 1/2 to 2 pills a day,now dr says to take ativan .5 4 times a day i was on the ativan before going on the klonopin in dec...im unsure of what u are saying

[Paxiled]

Ryan has posted some equivalents if you check the archives, but I think Chrissy is right, drugs really don't necessarily substitute the way shrinks say they do.

[Chrissy1972]

You would be wise to taper off the klonopin. You could have withdrawl symptoms. The Drs think just bc you switch from one benzo to another all will be ok but that is not true.
Look into  cutting the dose by .50 each week for the next month while starting the Ativan. Mind you I am not a Dr but I have takenm benzo;s and have never just stopped i have always tappered off.

Best of luck