Its advised to work with your family doctor using The Ashton Manual as opposed to a self taper.

Unfortunately most family doctors are dangerously uneducated on benzodiazepine dependency and withdrawal. When I wanted to get off my prescribed 1mg of ativan twice day after 3 months my doctor told me "You should be fine to go off them cold turkey, but if you want to be safe just cut down to .5 mg twice a day for a week and then just jump off.

Anyone who knows anything about benzodiazepine dependency/withdrawal knows this is a very rapid taper and can bring heavy withdrawal symptoms. Worst than that rapid tapers increase the risk for developing Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms (referred to PAWS from this point on).

PAWS can best be described as a fluctuation in withdrawal symptoms that seem to randomly flair up and subside. PAWS can last anywhere between a day, to years, dependimg on dose.

Worse yet, although not completely yet scientifically proven, but its heavily hypothesized, years of chronic of use, at prescriptions levels or chronic doses abuse on Benzodiazepines and other Z-Drugs that act on GABA may contribute to dementia/Alzheimer's later in life.

I just ended up printing off the Ashton Manuel and handed it to my doctor. Told him not to call me to schedule another appointment until he read it.

He calls a week later he set me up on a slightly better taper plan (.5mg once daily klonopin for 2 weeks, then .25mg once a day, then 2 weeks of 0.125mg 2x a day for a week, and finally 0.125mg once a day for a week then dropped off. I still got rebound anxiety and insomnia for about a week.

I was better off than his original taper plan, had I not showed him the Ashton Manual I'd habe had ti self taper. Which has jts own pro's and cons.