Good morning. I has received a "warning" paper from the Dr that was prescribing my meds. I also did research on my own- mainly from the U.K./Australia. I am sure you could do the same. If not, I will take a pic of the side effects on the warning paper and upload it for you & others!!!
I agree. It's the proper informed consent piece that was missing all those years ago when many of us were promised a safe and effective answer to our insomnia, anxiety, etc. No mention that one will become dependent on them if taken more than a couple of weeks nightly. No mention of risks, only benefits. No mention of a withdrawal so hard and so long it will bring you to your knees and make you wonder how you will make it through another day. Quality of life? Benzos took that from me. If you have your eyes wide open to risks, and there are many, and you are taking them as they were intended, very occasionally to address an acute episode, they may afford you increased quality of life. For many of us, benzos have annihalated our quality of life, permanently. I wish you continued therapeutic value from these drugs, be careful with them.
I thought it one didn’t take them 3xtimes a day it would be okay , and they did really help me sometimes , but getting set backs and experiencing trauma ,can really make you need them and next thing you know you are reliant on them because it does help nerve issue. We don’t get papers with ours and I was even nervous to take them , sometimes waiting hours before I would take one , sometimes panic /anxiety just happens but goes away , other times it just won’t . The dependency is so serious , it’s like a plague ! I do believe it is , more people need informed , it can be so hard for people to help themselves even once they realize what is going on if they even do, it’s not their fault though. I’m very glad you take it serious don’t ever stop !
@sears, and all...Thanks for the continued hugs and thoughts.
My so is somewhat better at this point, March 2023. He'll never recover from the hell he experienced when abruptly taken off Klonopin. He was a brilliant man, since he was very young I knew I had my hands full caring for a fun, happy, delightful, handsome and very bright child. I did. He became a very good immigration atty with his own successful practice.
Since 35, he's 100%disabled with dystonia, in constant varying degrees of acute pain, chronic pain, movement limitations and jerking.
Since taken abruptly off klonopin by a large medical group, after spending several days in hospital with heart issues, seizures, rages, depression and many more symptoms and months of horrible withdrawal symptoms, he had a total meltdown and was in hospital again for a week.
All that said, he's not recovered. He's getting the first dedicated help from folks who actually understand his situation. It took me 20 years to get him help.
He visits with a cervical pain PT specialist who works so quietly, calm and gently focused, to slowly help him find pain relief.
He sees a Dr. Of neuro-psychology w/specialty in pain, and will visit the movement disorder clinic at the U. of Florida, Gainesville, later this week. All these resources came from my deep research, calling and using every contact to find help. God guided me at this last moment to the help he needed.
He'll never recover.. perhaps reduce pain? Reduce rages and mental issues from sudden klonopin withdrawal. Cognitive ability is diminishing. Going. There's so much he'll never improve, but we're hoping to get him established with ongoing care for rest of his life. I'm 76 and have multiple health issues. After I'm gone, he's alone. No one to talk with, share, etc. No legal help as he was disabled, hadost his ability to earn, etc so no money losses to recover. Just near death, horrible pain, brain I nurses, losses, etc. But, no legal recourse.
So, work hard to be your best with what you have. Be in control. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.
Be blessed.elizabeth
I was on benzodiazepines 35 years ago for having major panic attacks. I was gradually taken off them ( Xanax) and the process took a year. After I took my last Xanax six days went by and I felt fine. On day number seven when I went to bed I started having what I now know to be “rebounding.” I had nearly every night horrific nightmares, waking up screaming, covered with perspiration. My brain felt like it was literally banging up against my skull. This went on almost every night for six months. I never thought about suing the pharmacology/makers of Xanax ( Upjohn Pharmaceuticals) but I certainly questioned my psychiatrist for not informing me about “ rebounding”.
I have been taking clonazepam for well since 19 94 and it's always help me I couldn't sleep I couldn't concentrate I had to stop driving and now I can I can drive since they have put me on the medication back in 94 I got my driver's license back I haven't heard any problems my wife used to take Xanax and they changed her to clonazepam or Klonopin as it's called I haven't heard of any problems like the ones that I've read about on here and I hope that I don't have any like that I just pray to God and trust him I know that I don't know I would have been a basket case all these years without it I wasn't able to do hardly anything but sitting Rock they were they diagnosed me as having depression even to the point of giving me shock treatments so I thank God for it I've seen the hospital about 4 or 5 times before the doctor gave me Ativan and then they changed it to klonopin about a month later and then I was able to go get my driver's license back after I passed the physical with a physical doctor I thank God for it and I I'm so sorry to hear people are having these problems and I just pray that they will find the answers they need I pray for them
@sears, and all...Thanks for the continued hugs and thoughts.
My so is somewhat better at this point, March 2023. He'll never recover from the hell he experienced when abruptly taken off Klonopin. He was a brilliant man, since he was very young I knew I had my hands full caring for a fun, happy, delightful, handsome and very bright child. I did. He became a very good immigration atty with his own successful practice.
Since 35, he's 100%disabled with dystonia, in constant varying degrees of acute pain, chronic pain, movement limitations and jerking.
Since taken abruptly off klonopin by a large medical group, after spending several days in hospital with heart issues, seizures, rages, depression and many more symptoms and months of horrible withdrawal symptoms, he had a total meltdown and was in hospital again for a week.
All that said, he's not recovered. He's getting the first dedicated help from folks who actually understand his situation. It took me 20 years to get him help.
He visits with a cervical pain PT specialist who works so quietly, calm and gently focused, to slowly help him find pain relief.
He sees a Dr. Of neuro-psychology w/specialty in pain, and will visit the movement disorder clinic at the U. of Florida, Gainesville, later this week. All these resources came from my deep research, calling and using every contact to find help. God guided me at this last moment to the help he needed.
He'll never recover.. perhaps reduce pain? Reduce rages and mental issues from sudden klonopin withdrawal. Cognitive ability is diminishing. Going. There's so much he'll never improve, but we're hoping to get him established with ongoing care for rest of his life. I'm 76 and have multiple health issues. After I'm gone, he's alone. No one to talk with, share, etc. No legal help as he was disabled, hadost his ability to earn, etc so no money losses to recover. Just near death, horrible pain, brain I nurses, losses, etc. But, no legal recourse.
So, work hard to be your best with what you have. Be in control. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.
Be blessed.elizabeth
I'm so sorry for what your son (and you) have experienced. If you don't mind saying, why was he put on Klonopin, and for how long and was it daily? It really is criminal to 1) inappropriately prescribe this drug for daily long term use, but once that is done 2) cold turkey the patient.
All literature, medication inserts, every possible thing you can find says patients must not be taken abruptly off this med, because it can cause specifically what your son has experienced. A large medical group - I don't really know what that is - has no excuse not to know this. Why would they do that? I'm not a litigious individual, but curious as to why no legal recourse. This is malpractice. Have the doctors who have treated him since linked abruptly stopping benzos to his symptoms? Your son has my thoughts and very best wishes.
I agree. It's the proper informed consent piece that was missing all those years ago when many of us were promised a safe and effective answer to our insomnia, anxiety, etc. No mention that one will become dependent on them if taken more than a couple of weeks nightly. No mention of risks, only benefits. No mention of a withdrawal so hard and so long it will bring you to your knees and make you wonder how you will make it through another day. Quality of life? Benzos took that from me. If you have your eyes wide open to risks, and there are many, and you are taking them as they were intended, very occasionally to address an acute episode, they may afford you increased quality of life. For many of us, benzos have annihalated our quality of life, permanently. I wish you continued therapeutic value from these drugs, be careful with them.
How have benzos permanently affected my life? Let me count the ways. I was a professional at the height of my career in 2005, always a light sleeper with episodic sleep trouble, but I hit a really tough spot during the end of life process and death of my father. I now recognize this as sleep anxiety that grew from some nights with little or no sleep, for concern for my father. It grew into a full blown sleep disorder.
I was prescribed the magic sleep elixir, Clonazepam, no informed consent, no warning of risk for tolerance, dependence, cognitive or any other problems - take this pill and sleep will return. It did. I had NO IDEA what this pill was doing in my brain, was prescribed over and over again, no questions asked, by a revolving door of docs who came and went. It wasn't until I had been on it nightly for 10 years and was experiencing terrible sleep that my new PCP told me about benzos and dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. I was mortified. I tapered 1/3 of the dose slowly, and at great cost to my sleep and well being.
My sleep has worsened over time, reducing my quality of life, I have anxiety I never had before, I have a very depressed mood I never had before. I was tough as nails, now I cry all the time, I can't handle any stress, I can't calm myself, I have withdrawn from friends and family, I isolate, I have intense headaches, burning mouth, taste distortion, nausea, GI distress, significant not healthy weight loss, the list is long. In 2019, one week into my retirement, a new PCP told me I needed to stop taking clonazepam, at which point I began another slow taper. This one lasted two years, I stopped sleeping completely and was slammed with withdrawal. At the end of two years, I was still tapering, not close to the end of the taper but close to the end of my rope, I couldn't continue this way. A new PCP and my prescribing doc decided with me that the withdrawal process has permanently damaged/dysregulated my central nervous system, and now recommend continuing to take the drug as a "palliative" measure.
So I am trapped on a drug that no longer helps me sleep, in fact has damaged my sleep, but without which I simply don't sleep at all. Every pill I take I know is doing further damage, but the extended suffering of withdrawal is not compatible with life. I sleep some, but have many nights each week where the quality/quantity of my sleep is insufficient, so I live in a state of nearly constant sleep deprivation, which has had drastic consequences for my health, quality of life, well being, state of mind.
I get so low when I realize that this - shitty existence - is what my life will look like for the remainder of my days.
Can't work, can't play, can't eat, can't sleep...I missed every holiday with family this season because I was too sleep deprived to be any good. Giant anxiety and irritability, I'm actually afraid of escalating and going off on an undeserving relative so I stay home after a bad night. I stay home and think about dying. My three decade domestic partnership fell apart, so I live alone, for the best because I don't wish myself on anyone. Plenty of me time.
I attribute every single one of the above issues to taking benzos for way too long that they have injured my brain, which doesn't function great with them and hardly functions at all without them. I see no future for myself that doesn't involve suffering. I retired relatively young so I could fully enjoy my life after a 30 year career. I had plans. Now I can't even leave the house several days per week. Travel? Forget it. Another job? Can't do it. New friendships? I've alienated all the old ones because I'm not a good reliable friend and they don't understand why, so no, there are no new friendships. My family tries very hard to be supportive, but they see me falling apart before their eyes, and I'm not always easy to get along with. A burden on those I care for the most.
Since 2005 and the beginning of Clonazepam, I can see it so clearly now, I have evolved into a completely different person, one I barely recognize and don't care for at all. I grieve the loss of my old self - happy, funny, silly, curious, intelligent, ambitious, active, friendly, confident, reliable - she's gone. I am now working with a therapist to try and find some sense of value, meaning, purpose in this "new life" I didn't ask for and don't want, which bears almost no resemblance to the life I had before benzos.
Glad you're having a successful taper, you're one of the lucky ones. Maybe you weren't taking them inappropriately, as in every daily over an extended period? Dropping half the dosage at once could send many to a very VERY bad place. Watch it with booze and benzos, very bad combo.
Oh, I was completely inappropriate! Every night, for years, for insomnia. Then I discovered I was electrosensitive. Following expert advice, I turned off all electricity at the fuse box and immediately started to sleep at night. The bliss of that, after 50 years of insomnia. But I was still hooked on lorezepam AND zolpidem!
Zolpidem is just hell to wean off of. Lorezepam is comparably easier. My newly unelectrified body probably doesn't need either to sleep, but addiction is addiction.
I wish more people understood the relationship between electromagnetic sensitivity and insomnia and other health issues -- tinnitus, for example. So much can be achieved, even by just making sure your cell phone, laptop, even lamps, are out of your bedroom while you sleep! Really suggest looking into this more deeply.
Best of luck!
@sears, and all...Thanks for the continued hugs and thoughts.
My so is somewhat better at this point, March 2023. He'll never recover from the hell he experienced when abruptly taken off Klonopin. He was a brilliant man, since he was very young I knew I had my hands full caring for a fun, happy, delightful, handsome and very bright child. I did. He became a very good immigration atty with his own successful practice.
Since 35, he's 100%disabled with dystonia, in constant varying degrees of acute pain, chronic pain, movement limitations and jerking.
Since taken abruptly off klonopin by a large medical group, after spending several days in hospital with heart issues, seizures, rages, depression and many more symptoms and months of horrible withdrawal symptoms, he had a total meltdown and was in hospital again for a week.
All that said, he's not recovered. He's getting the first dedicated help from folks who actually understand his situation. It took me 20 years to get him help.
He visits with a cervical pain PT specialist who works so quietly, calm and gently focused, to slowly help him find pain relief.
He sees a Dr. Of neuro-psychology w/specialty in pain, and will visit the movement disorder clinic at the U. of Florida, Gainesville, later this week. All these resources came from my deep research, calling and using every contact to find help. God guided me at this last moment to the help he needed.
He'll never recover.. perhaps reduce pain? Reduce rages and mental issues from sudden klonopin withdrawal. Cognitive ability is diminishing. Going. There's so much he'll never improve, but we're hoping to get him established with ongoing care for rest of his life. I'm 76 and have multiple health issues. After I'm gone, he's alone. No one to talk with, share, etc. No legal help as he was disabled, hadost his ability to earn, etc so no money losses to recover. Just near death, horrible pain, brain I nurses, losses, etc. But, no legal recourse.
So, work hard to be your best with what you have. Be in control. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.
Be blessed.elizabeth
May the God of All Comfort be with you and your son. I pray for you, I don't understand there's so much that I don't understand that God does, about things going on in my wife's life and my life and the life of my daughter who lost her young son, our grandson September 2020. There's so much grieving in my wife life these last few years, every day. I believe that it's harming her a lot. she also hasn't been out of the house since covid started since she had a reaction to a flu shot about 2 years before 20/20 we have several children that are in their 50s but they don't seem to understand or unable to help...
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1 ReactionI thought it one didn’t take them 3xtimes a day it would be okay , and they did really help me sometimes , but getting set backs and experiencing trauma ,can really make you need them and next thing you know you are reliant on them because it does help nerve issue. We don’t get papers with ours and I was even nervous to take them , sometimes waiting hours before I would take one , sometimes panic /anxiety just happens but goes away , other times it just won’t . The dependency is so serious , it’s like a plague ! I do believe it is , more people need informed , it can be so hard for people to help themselves even once they realize what is going on if they even do, it’s not their fault though. I’m very glad you take it serious don’t ever stop !
@sears, and all...Thanks for the continued hugs and thoughts.
My so is somewhat better at this point, March 2023. He'll never recover from the hell he experienced when abruptly taken off Klonopin. He was a brilliant man, since he was very young I knew I had my hands full caring for a fun, happy, delightful, handsome and very bright child. I did. He became a very good immigration atty with his own successful practice.
Since 35, he's 100%disabled with dystonia, in constant varying degrees of acute pain, chronic pain, movement limitations and jerking.
Since taken abruptly off klonopin by a large medical group, after spending several days in hospital with heart issues, seizures, rages, depression and many more symptoms and months of horrible withdrawal symptoms, he had a total meltdown and was in hospital again for a week.
All that said, he's not recovered. He's getting the first dedicated help from folks who actually understand his situation. It took me 20 years to get him help.
He visits with a cervical pain PT specialist who works so quietly, calm and gently focused, to slowly help him find pain relief.
He sees a Dr. Of neuro-psychology w/specialty in pain, and will visit the movement disorder clinic at the U. of Florida, Gainesville, later this week. All these resources came from my deep research, calling and using every contact to find help. God guided me at this last moment to the help he needed.
He'll never recover.. perhaps reduce pain? Reduce rages and mental issues from sudden klonopin withdrawal. Cognitive ability is diminishing. Going. There's so much he'll never improve, but we're hoping to get him established with ongoing care for rest of his life. I'm 76 and have multiple health issues. After I'm gone, he's alone. No one to talk with, share, etc. No legal help as he was disabled, hadost his ability to earn, etc so no money losses to recover. Just near death, horrible pain, brain I nurses, losses, etc. But, no legal recourse.
So, work hard to be your best with what you have. Be in control. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.
Be blessed.elizabeth
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2 ReactionsI have been taking clonazepam for well since 19 94 and it's always help me I couldn't sleep I couldn't concentrate I had to stop driving and now I can I can drive since they have put me on the medication back in 94 I got my driver's license back I haven't heard any problems my wife used to take Xanax and they changed her to clonazepam or Klonopin as it's called I haven't heard of any problems like the ones that I've read about on here and I hope that I don't have any like that I just pray to God and trust him I know that I don't know I would have been a basket case all these years without it I wasn't able to do hardly anything but sitting Rock they were they diagnosed me as having depression even to the point of giving me shock treatments so I thank God for it I've seen the hospital about 4 or 5 times before the doctor gave me Ativan and then they changed it to klonopin about a month later and then I was able to go get my driver's license back after I passed the physical with a physical doctor I thank God for it and I I'm so sorry to hear people are having these problems and I just pray that they will find the answers they need I pray for them
I'm so sorry for what your son (and you) have experienced. If you don't mind saying, why was he put on Klonopin, and for how long and was it daily? It really is criminal to 1) inappropriately prescribe this drug for daily long term use, but once that is done 2) cold turkey the patient.
All literature, medication inserts, every possible thing you can find says patients must not be taken abruptly off this med, because it can cause specifically what your son has experienced. A large medical group - I don't really know what that is - has no excuse not to know this. Why would they do that? I'm not a litigious individual, but curious as to why no legal recourse. This is malpractice. Have the doctors who have treated him since linked abruptly stopping benzos to his symptoms? Your son has my thoughts and very best wishes.
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1 ReactionHow do you feel Benzos have permanently affected your life?
How have benzos permanently affected my life? Let me count the ways. I was a professional at the height of my career in 2005, always a light sleeper with episodic sleep trouble, but I hit a really tough spot during the end of life process and death of my father. I now recognize this as sleep anxiety that grew from some nights with little or no sleep, for concern for my father. It grew into a full blown sleep disorder.
I was prescribed the magic sleep elixir, Clonazepam, no informed consent, no warning of risk for tolerance, dependence, cognitive or any other problems - take this pill and sleep will return. It did. I had NO IDEA what this pill was doing in my brain, was prescribed over and over again, no questions asked, by a revolving door of docs who came and went. It wasn't until I had been on it nightly for 10 years and was experiencing terrible sleep that my new PCP told me about benzos and dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. I was mortified. I tapered 1/3 of the dose slowly, and at great cost to my sleep and well being.
My sleep has worsened over time, reducing my quality of life, I have anxiety I never had before, I have a very depressed mood I never had before. I was tough as nails, now I cry all the time, I can't handle any stress, I can't calm myself, I have withdrawn from friends and family, I isolate, I have intense headaches, burning mouth, taste distortion, nausea, GI distress, significant not healthy weight loss, the list is long. In 2019, one week into my retirement, a new PCP told me I needed to stop taking clonazepam, at which point I began another slow taper. This one lasted two years, I stopped sleeping completely and was slammed with withdrawal. At the end of two years, I was still tapering, not close to the end of the taper but close to the end of my rope, I couldn't continue this way. A new PCP and my prescribing doc decided with me that the withdrawal process has permanently damaged/dysregulated my central nervous system, and now recommend continuing to take the drug as a "palliative" measure.
So I am trapped on a drug that no longer helps me sleep, in fact has damaged my sleep, but without which I simply don't sleep at all. Every pill I take I know is doing further damage, but the extended suffering of withdrawal is not compatible with life. I sleep some, but have many nights each week where the quality/quantity of my sleep is insufficient, so I live in a state of nearly constant sleep deprivation, which has had drastic consequences for my health, quality of life, well being, state of mind.
I get so low when I realize that this - shitty existence - is what my life will look like for the remainder of my days.
Can't work, can't play, can't eat, can't sleep...I missed every holiday with family this season because I was too sleep deprived to be any good. Giant anxiety and irritability, I'm actually afraid of escalating and going off on an undeserving relative so I stay home after a bad night. I stay home and think about dying. My three decade domestic partnership fell apart, so I live alone, for the best because I don't wish myself on anyone. Plenty of me time.
I attribute every single one of the above issues to taking benzos for way too long that they have injured my brain, which doesn't function great with them and hardly functions at all without them. I see no future for myself that doesn't involve suffering. I retired relatively young so I could fully enjoy my life after a 30 year career. I had plans. Now I can't even leave the house several days per week. Travel? Forget it. Another job? Can't do it. New friendships? I've alienated all the old ones because I'm not a good reliable friend and they don't understand why, so no, there are no new friendships. My family tries very hard to be supportive, but they see me falling apart before their eyes, and I'm not always easy to get along with. A burden on those I care for the most.
Since 2005 and the beginning of Clonazepam, I can see it so clearly now, I have evolved into a completely different person, one I barely recognize and don't care for at all. I grieve the loss of my old self - happy, funny, silly, curious, intelligent, ambitious, active, friendly, confident, reliable - she's gone. I am now working with a therapist to try and find some sense of value, meaning, purpose in this "new life" I didn't ask for and don't want, which bears almost no resemblance to the life I had before benzos.
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5 ReactionsOh, I was completely inappropriate! Every night, for years, for insomnia. Then I discovered I was electrosensitive. Following expert advice, I turned off all electricity at the fuse box and immediately started to sleep at night. The bliss of that, after 50 years of insomnia. But I was still hooked on lorezepam AND zolpidem!
Zolpidem is just hell to wean off of. Lorezepam is comparably easier. My newly unelectrified body probably doesn't need either to sleep, but addiction is addiction.
I wish more people understood the relationship between electromagnetic sensitivity and insomnia and other health issues -- tinnitus, for example. So much can be achieved, even by just making sure your cell phone, laptop, even lamps, are out of your bedroom while you sleep! Really suggest looking into this more deeply.
Best of luck!
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4 ReactionsMay the God of All Comfort be with you and your son. I pray for you, I don't understand there's so much that I don't understand that God does, about things going on in my wife's life and my life and the life of my daughter who lost her young son, our grandson September 2020. There's so much grieving in my wife life these last few years, every day. I believe that it's harming her a lot. she also hasn't been out of the house since covid started since she had a reaction to a flu shot about 2 years before 20/20 we have several children that are in their 50s but they don't seem to understand or unable to help...
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4 Reactions