To All: Just curious why everyone wants to withdraw from Klonopin? Thank you.

Hey@lisalucier. I started with a new psychiatrist and she was not very excited about some of the ideas the intern I was seeing wanted made. I was down to 2.5, but she did not see a cut and dried reason for me to be off benzos, even though the theory my medical student had learned was correct. The new person aspires to treat the patient and not some predetermined pill number or FDA warning and I would love to take that "radical" idea and transplant it into my Pain Management doc's head. I switched to Ativan and it takes 1mg of A to be equivalent to .5 mg of K, but I had terrible withdrawals trying to do a 1 for 1 swap and ended up needing about 6 per day to alleviate that. I am currently at 5Ativan a day and am attempting to get to "as needed" because that is the best way to dose benzos.

Hello @ayankeeinnm. I was seeing a medical student/resident while waiting to see the Psych I really wanted to work with and her "theory" said that you don't prescribe Benzodiazipines with opiates and that is where I was and had been for many years. My new psych said that in theory you would prefer not to combine the two, but she was more concerned about treating me than what theory teaches. Of course she cautioned me to not take above prescribed dosage and switched my to Ativan, which is a benzo with a much shorter half-life. The shorter half-life would make it easier to kick if I ever noticed any signs of cognitive impairment as benzos will almost always make the memory worse. Do you take klonopin? If so, have you ever tried to cut back or stop taking it? It is a more difficult withdrawal than I have ever experienced with opiates.

oh my gosh. switching to a benzo with a shorter half life does not make it easier to withdraw from. many people switch from klonopin to valium as valium has an even longer half life and you can go down in smaller increments than klonopin.
After 20 years I am tapering myself off of klonopin as benzos do impair your cognitive ability and those on benzos are more likely to experience dementia.
I am down from 1mg for 20 years to .5 mg at bedtime. It was extremely hard. Took me three months at least. But I am at a place where I am very comfortable now. I did start a regimen of nootropics and adaptins which has helped a lot with anxiety, cognition and sleeping.
Whatever you do, please be kind and gentle to yourself. I look at it that I have been on klonopin for 20 years. If it takes me even a or more to get off of it, the time it takes is okay. I cannot take the time away from my family to go into the hospital and do a fast withdrawal that will be hell. Some people can go faster and it takes some more time. I know that .25mg decrease is awful for me. I have read that once you get to a very low dose, that going down is even harder. I did try to go down to .25mg and it was so horrible. I had to go back up to .5mg for my sanity.