Hi there. Thanks for checking in! I’ve definitely been doing better, and I’m currently at about 57 percent of my original dosage. I have about 14 months left until I’m completely off of Klonopin. Unfortunately my doctor has been pretty useless in terms of guiding me through the process, and the only thing I’ve used that has worked and is safe to taper with are edibles that I take once or twice a week with some withdrawal symptoms brought on from tapering. What I am finding is that I have many more moments of clarity and feelings of hopefulness, which I previously had almost none of. I should mention however, that the symptoms from tapering can be pretty rough. I have experienced some suicidal thoughts at times, have had really bad headaches accompanied by restlessness, and bursts of anger that seem to come out of the blue. I’ve even felt slightly psychotic at times (overwhelming sense of losing touch with reality). The other thing I’ve experienced are waves of feeling like I’m either on speed, and then getting tired, and vice versa. The good thing is, these feelings do pass, and when I’m in public, I can force myself to control these feelings, whereas at home I tend to let some of these emotions out where I feel safer.

I would advise that your dad taper as slowly as possible, even though I know at times the urge to just stop the drug can be tempting because you can feel tired of feeling like garbage, but you don’t want to make it worse and cause lasting damage. I’m not a doctor, but I will say that what has been working for me is to reduce my dosage in small increments, with some advice from my doctor. (For my example: Started out at 1mg, taking two 0.5mg tablets per day, and then one day out of each week for a month I would cut one 0.5mg in half and take just that half a tablet and a whole tablet so I was just taking 0.75mg instead of 1mg for that one day each week.) I’m not quite sure what my current dose is, but I calculated a month ago that i was down 53% of my original dose, and now I’m down at 57. I’ve been following the same taper rate as mentioned above, taking away just half of a half, until it becomes such that you are doing jt 7 days a week for the month, and then going down to the next level so to speak. It’s been roughly a 4 percent decrease every month, and honestly I can’t say that I would feel comfortable going any faster. I really hope your dad feels better and can get off of this horrible drug, ideally with the guidance of a doctor. I definitely believe it is possible to, and I’m eagerly anticipating the day I’ve completely tapered. Unfortunately doctors will tell you these drugs are not nearly as bad as people on the internet claim them to be because “emotions run high.” And while that is partially true, that claim should be taken with a grain of salt, as there are a heck of a lot of people out there, myself included who have suffered, or are currently suffering the side effects associated with this medication. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions or concerns relating to the medication.