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Tapering off clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)
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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please tell me how to wean safely . Thank you
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1 Reaction@rogue - welcome to Connect. Since you posted a query about tapering off clonazepam, I've moved your post here so that you can connect with others discussing this same issue, like @artscaping @gettingbetter75 @jakedduck1 @doorman and others in this conversation. Hoping they can provide some support and input as you walk through this taper. Did your doctor have a tapering schedule he or she wanted you to follow, rogue?
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1 ReactionNo 1 psychiatrist said I should not come off it even tho i was never anxiety free. My other doctors freely admit they have no idea how to do it
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1 Reaction@rogue
I believe in the 5- 10% taper. Using a Compounding Pharmacy would be an ideal taper method depending on if you insurance would cover it. If not and you could afford it to private pay it would be money well spent.
My experience getting off Klonopin was uneventful. I believe the reason why is because I did it so slowly although at the very end I was literally chipping and taking small flakes. My taper was much slower than most but it was withdrawal free. I did it slowly mainly due to my low seizure threshold at that time. I had a high propensity for Status Seizures which virtually always required me being put into an induced coma for a week to months. I wasn’t about to take even the slightest risk since I knew what the probability of the seizures not ever stopping was and the chance of never coming out of coma was.
Wishing you an easy & uneventful taper.
Whatever you do don’t decrease your dose every 2, 3 or 4 weeks by a specific milligram. In the beginning you may be decreasing by a relatively small percentage but that percentage will increase and change as your dosage decreases. Some people are able to decrease by a higher percentage in the beginning but that doesn’t mean 50%. If you want off this med withdrawal free do it SLOW and when it comes to reducing this medication SLOW has a different definition than the regular meaning of slow. Here we’re talking SLOOOOOW, very SLOW, snail pace slow. Get the point? If you do it SLOW ITS VERY DOUBTFUL YOU WILL HAVE ANY PROBLEMS! Do you understand what I mean by slowly? Also, it depends on your dose and how long you have taken it. SLOW! Really SLOW!!!
Got it? Getting off this is no joke.
Jake
Also I’d like to mention something else;
There was a Psychiatrist in Europe who was depressed and had a drinking problem so he started taking Klonopin, unfortunately when it came time to stop he took his own advice and stopped it in 10 days. Needless to say he suffered greatly. He learned something from the experience though. Now he is an advocate of the 5-10% taper.
Wishing you well,
Jake
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2 ReactionsHI @rogue,
I think @jakedduck1 summarized it nicely. I also did the 10% taper method and got myself off a 20+ yr dependance of Clonazepam (2.0mg) over a 6-7 month period. I won't say it was easy. It absolutely requires some self-determination and motivation to finally free yourself from its grip. There are a lot of free resources online that helped me out, check out a channel called Benzo Brains. She's is very knowledgeable and has gone through the 10% taper herself. I'm pretty sure I watched all her videos during my taper.
Other things that helped me personally on this journey were meditation, nothing crazy, you don't need to move to Tibet, just try the HEADSPACE app or other meditation apps, just to help calm the mind. There are lots of free resources online as well but HEADSPACE is very good and provides guided meditation. Something that helped me take the edge off was CBD oil. I live in Canada so I have access to reliable supplies of CBD oil and capsules from licensed producers, these are, however, very expensive. Also, abstain from alcohol, sad but true, it will help your GABA receptors recover.
As I said, it's not easy but well worth it. Even though I've successfully tapered from clonazepam, my journey is not yet over as I now battle insomnia, which is most likely what the clonazepam was actually helping me with all these years. Long-term use of clonazepam will most likely make your anxiety worse which was absolutely the case with me.
Good luck!!
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1 Reactionis your doctor helping you with a plan to get off the klonopin? i would strongly advise against doing this on your own...cant be done in a weekend, which explains why you feel so anxious. please call your doctor if you havent already they can help you they do this all the time.
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2 ReactionsSo I’ve weaned off Klonoppin last weekend. I’ve been on a low dose ( .25 mg. 2-3times / day.) I’ve been on it off and on (mostly off) for the past year. I thought it would be relatively easy since my dose was so low. But I’m in anxiety overdrive since I stopped. I did not think this would happen. What is this all about? Help!
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2 ReactionsHi, @doorman - I wanted to let you know I've moved your post with an update here so that those you were talking with in this thread can see the latest on your clonazepam (Klonopin) taper.
Has your doctor weighed in on the anxiety symptoms you are having and how to proceed? You mentioned something previously about having no backup med. Does your doctor envision you moving to another medication instead?
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1 ReactionI see the Dr. Wednesday....I’ll update then.
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2 Reactions@doorman
A weekend? Are you having withdrawals? If your having stress you can’t control and it’s causing anxiety you will probably need something to help control it. Do you know what is causing your stress, anxiety?
Jake