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Hello I'm new here. I'm having a heart procedure at Mayo sometime in April. Really grateful to their devoted staff for helping me out. Read some of the comments on Klonopin. Been on it for years. Down to taking 1 or 2mg. per day. I don't think it helps at all. I'd drop it completely, but I'm afraid of any withdrawal effects. Had a doctor mess with a script for Lyrica for pain.. I was off Lyrica for five days and had terrible withdrawal. I have sciatica pain, and it's about the only pain killer I can tolerate due to stomach/IBS problems. I can't take most anti-depressants either because of terrible stomach problems. Ugh! I once heard a group of doctors say that anti-depressants didn't work. I think they're right frankly. Been on Klonopin for more than 20 years. Noone mentioned addiction then. So here I am now so I have cut down consumption. Memory problems have been a problem for a few years, and Klonopin doesn't help any. I can tell a difference between taking 1 or 2 MG. Hard to believe it makes a difference, but it does. All these addictive meds are a pain (literally).
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Hello @mkdb
I finally got out of "self" and wanted to tell you that I can't agree more on the slow-taper that I think it was @reese1 or someone mentioned about heart issues. I have a 3rd degree AV Node block since 97, on my 3rd pacemaker now so it's crucial I stay aware of that as I am tapering.
I don't know if my TIA (mentioned in my other replies on this thread) was brought on by me tapering too fast so I went back to my full dose of 1 mg per day. The more I think about it the more I think it was the tapering too fast. So this time has to be slower 🙂
I've been on clonazapam since 1988. I tried cold-turkey once in 2010 and talk about wandering around like a zombie, almost literally fighting my way out of all the people in walmart, it was bad. I truly don't know how I survived it but I got in to see my doctor, and asked if I could go back on it. Amazingly, he wrote me out a new prescription, thank God. I was back to "normal" almost immediately.
I hope you continue to visit here as I plan to also as I have no one around me offline that can understand and sort of be there for me. Let us know how you are doing, Denise
Hello mkdb: I also meant to give you this link from The Ashton Manuel: https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/
I used a titration method that I found on YouTube which did help me with my taper. I couldn't read The Ashton Manuel, at that time, due to the withdrawals which gave me lousy focus. Anyway, the link above is a very good one. Dr. Heather Ashton spent decades helping people with Benzo withdrawal. I think she passed away a couple of years ago. Anyway, the link above is from her. Again, I hope that you let your doctor know that you are tapering before you have the heart procedure. He/she may prefer that you wait until your heart heals. Take Care.
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I would definitely ask my doctor when I should start to taper after my heart procedure. He may not want a taper to begin for a whole year. Your heart has to heal. I did have some fluttering in my chest going on while I was tapering. It is gone now but I went through w/d for 2.5 years. Be very careful.