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View Full Version : Tapering off Klonopin - Help!


kelzie7119
09-07-2007, 07:32 AM
OK here's a complex story. I have chronic insomnia and a REM disorder. In 2005 I was taking AMBIEN (only that!) to get to sleep. I woke up bloody, scraped up, and unable to walk. My husband found a window punched out on the 2nd story and the screen also removed. Apparently I had been out on the roof while sleepwalking and fell off the roof! (Previous sleepwalking episodes, but not on the roof.) Turns out I had fractured & compressed my L1 vertabrae. 6 weeks in a brace and it healed. Major back spasms for which I was prescribed VALIUM. No more AMBIEN at night, but instead VALIUM to supress REM until we could figure out what was needed to prevent a reoccurrence. That meant VALIUM around the clock. I managed to stop the heavy doses of VALIUM w/out major significant problems. Was switched to only 2 mg KLONOPIN at night (as back spasms had stopped) for sleepwalking. Now I am trying to taper off KLONOPIN and am now down to 1.5 mgs per night. I have bad insomnia for several days when I go down .25 mgs and, worse, the back spasms come back!.....So, I'm wanting to switch to VALIUM and taper off that instead. How much VALIUM does 1.5 mg of KLONOPIN (actually CLONAZAPEM) = what dose??? I hope this makes sense.

Rozia
09-07-2007, 07:36 AM
Please please call your Drs off and get help doing that , tappering off. You should never do it on your own.

tic chick
09-08-2007, 10:10 PM
hey kelzie!

gotcha.

you can't really translate how much of one drug equals another. they all have different chemical properties and you should really ask your doctor how to taper off and/or switch to valium.

klonopin is a drug that has muscle relaxant qualities in addition to it's sedative qualities. that is probably why your back spasms came back when you lowered your klonopin dosage.

have you ever tried flexiril the muscle relaxant? it doesn't have any sedating qualities and if you used a small combination of valium for your sleepwalking and flexiril for your muscle spasms, that might be what you could use instead of the klonopin.

however, you have to talk to your doctor to taper off the klonopin and go back to the valium and find out about flexeril. klonopin stays in your body a long time, so it builds up in your bloodstream and takes a LONG while to wean off.

take care of yourself,
jeannie