1. < Depression & Anxiety

Tapering off clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

Posted by mmussak @mmussak, Dec 19, 2018

Hi my name is Mary and I am a first time user of ever using a discussion blog online but have felt in my heart I need some advice and help with an issue I am having. My dr I have seen for many years moved out of state and referred me to another phychiatrist within his office. At the time of his moving away he had me weaning off clorazapam slowly and doing it as slow to not make it not so difficult as you all know , and I was doing well at it until I was having extreme chest pain and they put me in the hospital for 2 days to check to make sure it wasn't my heart, with all this happening I knew it was the weaning off the meds that was causing it so i went back up in dosage and it all went away again, and I was almost off it...My old dr started me on this med 27 years ago and I had no idea what it was but my body anxiety was shutting down my body and it helped it all go away so i didnt question it, well not until I went to school for nursing did I find out what it was all about. He put me on .5 mg three times a day and that stayed that way for 27 years not knowing what It does later in years, so I asked my dr to help me with the weaning off it, so our weaning process was as follows: Take .5 in a.m. ,25 afternoon and ,5 evening dose for 2 weeks then cut morning dose to .25 afternoon to .25 and evening .5 for 2 weeks then finally .25 three times a day for 6 weeks and then starting the last of the wean at this point the same as we did the first .25 till i was off. My new dr went from .50 3 times daily to .25 two times a day starting right away to get off it, that is over 1.0 mg a day off it all in one day and forward , I am already sad and crying because I dont know what to do, I have been there and I know how hard it was just to get off the way my old dr did slowly.....anyone out there that can help me with what to do I am so scared and I don't think she knows how extremely hard it is to get off this stupid stuff or that I really do want to do it, but please make it as painless as possible if there is such a thing with these meds. At 56 I didnt think I would have to go through menapause and this hell(sorry about the word but so true) all at once...at times I think it would be easier to just get cancer or something and die. Sorry but its true if you have been there you will understand. PLease help me!!!

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doorman | @doorman | Sep 11, 2019
In reply to @gettingbetter75 "Most people do best by cutting their taper schedules by 10% or the nearest 1/4 tablet..." + (show)
@gettingbetter75

Most people do best by cutting their taper schedules by 10% or the nearest 1/4 tablet increment. I followed this schedule to get myself off of 2.0mg Rx for the last 20+ years. I also used CBD to help with side effects. I've been completely off since mid-June. My doctor also wanted me off Benzos. In retrospect, I'm glad I broke the dependence. Now I only need to deal with these sleep issues which I hope is only part of the process. I'm taking gabapentin 2 x 200mg + 1/2 tab of UNISOM + 5mg melatonin to help combat insomnia, it seems to be working to some effect.

Jump to this post

How were the withdrawals? Tolerable?

REPLY
doorman | @doorman | Sep 11, 2019
In reply to @gettingbetter75 "Most people do best by cutting their taper schedules by 10% or the nearest 1/4 tablet..." + (show)
@gettingbetter75

Most people do best by cutting their taper schedules by 10% or the nearest 1/4 tablet increment. I followed this schedule to get myself off of 2.0mg Rx for the last 20+ years. I also used CBD to help with side effects. I've been completely off since mid-June. My doctor also wanted me off Benzos. In retrospect, I'm glad I broke the dependence. Now I only need to deal with these sleep issues which I hope is only part of the process. I'm taking gabapentin 2 x 200mg + 1/2 tab of UNISOM + 5mg melatonin to help combat insomnia, it seems to be working to some effect.

Jump to this post

Was withdrawal tolerable? How long did it take you?

REPLY
Leonard | @jakedduck1 | Sep 11, 2019
In reply to @doorman "Can you remember any details? How long did it take?" + (show)
@doorman

Can you remember any details? How long did it take?

Jump to this post

@doorman
I don’t remember for sure how long my taper took. It was a long time ago that I took it. It probably was between 12 -18 months. That isn’t all that long for some people while others think it’s to long. However my taper was uneventful. I also can stop a medication relatively quickly. Also when tapering it’s important to keep in mind the length of time your on the medicine and also the strength. I was on a very high dose, 18mg. When I was ready to finally stop altogether I still needed to take a very small dose, chips actually until I could completely quit.
Good luck,
Jake

REPLY
1 reply
Leonard | @jakedduck1 | Sep 11, 2019
In reply to @jakedduck1 "@doorman I don’t remember for sure how long my taper took. It was a long time..." + (show)
@jakedduck1

@doorman
I don’t remember for sure how long my taper took. It was a long time ago that I took it. It probably was between 12 -18 months. That isn’t all that long for some people while others think it’s to long. However my taper was uneventful. I also can stop a medication relatively quickly. Also when tapering it’s important to keep in mind the length of time your on the medicine and also the strength. I was on a very high dose, 18mg. When I was ready to finally stop altogether I still needed to take a very small dose, chips actually until I could completely quit.
Good luck,
Jake

Jump to this post

Deleted

REPLY
gettingbetter75 | @gettingbetter75 | Sep 12, 2019

It took me about 6 months to end a 20year relationship at 2.0mg every night. I think that was a bit fast in retrospect but my doctor really wanted me off this stuff. I think you really need to gauge it for yourself and your withdrawal symptoms. CBD certainly did help with those.

REPLY
1 reply
Leonard | @jakedduck1 | Sep 12, 2019
In reply to @gettingbetter75 "It took me about 6 months to end a 20year relationship at 2.0mg every night. I..." + (show)
@gettingbetter75

It took me about 6 months to end a 20year relationship at 2.0mg every night. I think that was a bit fast in retrospect but my doctor really wanted me off this stuff. I think you really need to gauge it for yourself and your withdrawal symptoms. CBD certainly did help with those.

Jump to this post

@gettingbetter75
Yep, I’d agree a bit quick. Did you have any side effects getting off?
Jake

REPLY
gettingbetter75 | @gettingbetter75 | Sep 13, 2019

@jakedduck1, Yes, rebound insomnia for me. I was only sleeping 45min - 90min a night for about a 4 week period. It was awful.

I tried several medications at the beginning with the support of my GP. I tried mirtazapine which worked for about a week then the insomnia came back full force. The brain fog on this medication was also substantial for me. I then tried Trazadone, which worked for about a week then nothing, back to insomnia. Doxepin was the next thing we tried and it didn't work at all, it might as well been a placebo. The last thing we tried was gabapentin and thankfully, it worked for me!! Important to note that the above medications do work for some people, just not for me. Gabapentine works decently for me with very few side-effects and NO brain fog.

I'm lucky to have a sleep clinic where I live. I had my first consultation yesterday and I think I'm in good hands. He wants me to continue with gabapentin, he feels that is a good medication for insomnia as it helps to bring on sleep as well as induce deep sleep. For now, he has increased my gabapentin from 600mg to 900mg with the goal of restoring sleep fully. He would like me to get off antihistamines (UNISOM), I take half a tablet currently. Once I learn and get a handle on sleeping techniques like CBT-I, we could then consider reducing the medication. First and foremost is to restore the sleep, no more "white-knuckling". My follow up is at the end of October. He shared that since I was taking clonazepam for the last 20 years, it could take up to 18 months to let the brain rewire itself so I need to be patient. I think this is going to be part 2 of this journey I'm on.

To summarize, I glad I'm off clonazepam, there was an absolute blunting effect that is not entirely perceptible to the person taking the medication and once it is out of your system, it's like having a veil lifted. Pretty remarkable!

Just want to stress these are my experiences only.

REPLY
1 reply
Mentor
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Sep 13, 2019
In reply to @gettingbetter75 "@jakedduck1, Yes, rebound insomnia for me. I was only sleeping 45min - 90min a night for..." + (show)
@gettingbetter75

@jakedduck1, Yes, rebound insomnia for me. I was only sleeping 45min - 90min a night for about a 4 week period. It was awful.

I tried several medications at the beginning with the support of my GP. I tried mirtazapine which worked for about a week then the insomnia came back full force. The brain fog on this medication was also substantial for me. I then tried Trazadone, which worked for about a week then nothing, back to insomnia. Doxepin was the next thing we tried and it didn't work at all, it might as well been a placebo. The last thing we tried was gabapentin and thankfully, it worked for me!! Important to note that the above medications do work for some people, just not for me. Gabapentine works decently for me with very few side-effects and NO brain fog.

I'm lucky to have a sleep clinic where I live. I had my first consultation yesterday and I think I'm in good hands. He wants me to continue with gabapentin, he feels that is a good medication for insomnia as it helps to bring on sleep as well as induce deep sleep. For now, he has increased my gabapentin from 600mg to 900mg with the goal of restoring sleep fully. He would like me to get off antihistamines (UNISOM), I take half a tablet currently. Once I learn and get a handle on sleeping techniques like CBT-I, we could then consider reducing the medication. First and foremost is to restore the sleep, no more "white-knuckling". My follow up is at the end of October. He shared that since I was taking clonazepam for the last 20 years, it could take up to 18 months to let the brain rewire itself so I need to be patient. I think this is going to be part 2 of this journey I'm on.

To summarize, I glad I'm off clonazepam, there was an absolute blunting effect that is not entirely perceptible to the person taking the medication and once it is out of your system, it's like having a veil lifted. Pretty remarkable!

Just want to stress these are my experiences only.

Jump to this post

@gettingbetter75, Thank you for describing your journey with new medications. It is important that we know more possible outcomes and so that we can evaluate our steps along this path which appear to be unique for every individual.

We all take different medications for often different reasons, are different ages with different symptoms. Hats off to our physicians who try very hard to hit the nail on the head with regularity.

I do have a question. Would you please expand on your statement about "brain rewire". How do you calculate the unwiring time to let go of one medication and then the rewiring time for the new medication? Grab some joy today. Chris

REPLY
gettingbetter75 | @gettingbetter75 | Sep 13, 2019

Hi @artscaping, this was a passing comment from my sleep specialist yesterday during my consultation. When I asked him to expand on that comment he said that I basically have to retrain/rewire my brain to sleep after being dependant on Clonazepam for such a long time. Now that I'm off this drug and experiencing these symptoms, it would be difficult to argue with him. Again, this is my subjective experience with Clonazepam. He has clinical experience with this drug and he's the sleep expert so I'll be relying on him for this next chapter and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm in good capable hands.

REPLY
1 reply
Mentor
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Sep 13, 2019
In reply to @gettingbetter75 "Hi @artscaping, this was a passing comment from my sleep specialist yesterday during my consultation. When..." + (show)
@gettingbetter75

Hi @artscaping, this was a passing comment from my sleep specialist yesterday during my consultation. When I asked him to expand on that comment he said that I basically have to retrain/rewire my brain to sleep after being dependant on Clonazepam for such a long time. Now that I'm off this drug and experiencing these symptoms, it would be difficult to argue with him. Again, this is my subjective experience with Clonazepam. He has clinical experience with this drug and he's the sleep expert so I'll be relying on him for this next chapter and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm in good capable hands.

Jump to this post

@gettingbetter75, That’s important.....good capable hands. Let me know if you learn more about rewiring. This was a great example. I wonder how It works with pain? Be free and protected today. Chris

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