I have been on Clonazepam for 5 years (.5 mg.) and all of a sudden I have terrible tingling in three of my toes. I have quit taking it several times but then I hear music when I stop, so then I go back on it. Does anyone have this problem! @yvie
Never heard music, for me it was mostly central nervous system issues which cause tingling, tremors, vibrations so I can understand your toes acting up. I just think getting off through appropriate tapering is best for anyone on these meds, but that's just my opinion from my experience.
I am on .5 mg clonazepam and have been for about 20 years. I take it at bedtime. I can't say I have any negative stuff going on, but my Dr retired and my new one doesn't want to continue it. I started it for panic and, oftentimes, wonder if I even need it anymore, so I'm open to stopping. I see a psychiatrist that my new dr set me up with next week. I'm hoping she will make a plan for a slow tapering, but am anxious at the idea of all of it and hearing horror stories about how hard it is to come off. To think, 6 months ago, I was living life large the way I always have, feeling great and now I've been thrust into all of these unknowns and fears. Panic is what I started the meds for and now I'm panicking at the thought of horrible withdrawal.
I am on .5 mg clonazepam and have been for about 20 years. I take it at bedtime. I can't say I have any negative stuff going on, but my Dr retired and my new one doesn't want to continue it. I started it for panic and, oftentimes, wonder if I even need it anymore, so I'm open to stopping. I see a psychiatrist that my new dr set me up with next week. I'm hoping she will make a plan for a slow tapering, but am anxious at the idea of all of it and hearing horror stories about how hard it is to come off. To think, 6 months ago, I was living life large the way I always have, feeling great and now I've been thrust into all of these unknowns and fears. Panic is what I started the meds for and now I'm panicking at the thought of horrible withdrawal.
I so get your panic. My prior psychiatrist prescribed me .5 clonazepam and 5 mg ambien for 6 years. Now I have to get off these drugs. My new doctor is giving me trazadone and slowly tapering me off ambien first. I am sure the new MD will make you a plan but go slowly. I have also read that at an older age, I am 71, it might just be ok to not mess with .5 as it is hard to titrate off this. What will replace the clonazepam for sleep?
Best of luck. I have develpoed dry eyes and need to come off these drugs.
.5 mg is low. That’s what I take in the morning. And 1 mg at 4:00. Don’t ask me why 4:00 pm.
Is there anything under .05 available? When I was inpatient at a hospital for internal bleeding due to Coumadin poisoning they didn’t give me the .5 or the 1mg at 4:00. For 2 months I laid there bleeding to death and never received a Klonopin but I sure as hell missed it. It was a nightmare. You can’t quit cold turkey! Dumb doctor.
I am on .5 mg clonazepam and have been for about 20 years. I take it at bedtime. I can't say I have any negative stuff going on, but my Dr retired and my new one doesn't want to continue it. I started it for panic and, oftentimes, wonder if I even need it anymore, so I'm open to stopping. I see a psychiatrist that my new dr set me up with next week. I'm hoping she will make a plan for a slow tapering, but am anxious at the idea of all of it and hearing horror stories about how hard it is to come off. To think, 6 months ago, I was living life large the way I always have, feeling great and now I've been thrust into all of these unknowns and fears. Panic is what I started the meds for and now I'm panicking at the thought of horrible withdrawal.
This happened to me as well. My primary care doc stopped prescribing it and referred me to a young psychiatrist who was very against any benzos, especially taken for a long time (almost 20 years for me) and in the elderly (I am a young, active 64 year old). I took it only for sleep and nocturnal panic attacks and it worked like a charm. Never increased the dose - 1 mg at night with occasional half if I woke at 2:00 or 3am. I am down to .25mg and we have tapered very slowly. The first few tapers were fairly uneventful but when I went from .5 to .25, it has been really hard. I have felt more daytime anxiety and irritability, night sweats, insomnia about one night a week. I'm determined to see this through and I do think I will be better in the long run and allow my CNS to heal from years of dependence on Klonopin. But I will miss it. I have been tapering for 7 months and have about another month to go. The doctor thinks that at this low of a dose, I could just quit. But I think I need to cut my 1/2 pill into a 1/4pill for the final taper. They do make a .0125 dissolvable tablet but I'm told it is hard to find. Good luck - I don't think it has to be horrible for you if taken very slowly.
I so get your panic. My prior psychiatrist prescribed me .5 clonazepam and 5 mg ambien for 6 years. Now I have to get off these drugs. My new doctor is giving me trazadone and slowly tapering me off ambien first. I am sure the new MD will make you a plan but go slowly. I have also read that at an older age, I am 71, it might just be ok to not mess with .5 as it is hard to titrate off this. What will replace the clonazepam for sleep?
Best of luck. I have develpoed dry eyes and need to come off these drugs.
I am currently tapering off Klonopin after almost 20 years. I took Ambien before that but it did nothing for my night panic attacks. I would wake up drenching in sweat and shaking. It worked like a charm but my psychiatrist (a new young doc) convinced me it was a bad drug, especially in the elderly, and so I am coming off. It has not been horrible, but this last taper from .5-.25 was the hardest. As for sleep, it has been rough during the taper but I am trying meditation and supplements of magnesium, zinc and L-theanine as well as an occasional antihistamine or .5 melatonin. They are not as effective as the Klonopin was. It seemed like the perfect drug for me, until I was told it wasn't. He suggested Remeron for sleep but it is tricyclic antidepressant that has to be taken every night and there are nights I sleep well so we are holding off for now. I'm hoping to develop a better relationship with sleep so I don't depend on a drug. But sleep is important and if the insomnia gets worse than just once a week bad night, I can deal.
This happened to me as well. My primary care doc stopped prescribing it and referred me to a young psychiatrist who was very against any benzos, especially taken for a long time (almost 20 years for me) and in the elderly (I am a young, active 64 year old). I took it only for sleep and nocturnal panic attacks and it worked like a charm. Never increased the dose - 1 mg at night with occasional half if I woke at 2:00 or 3am. I am down to .25mg and we have tapered very slowly. The first few tapers were fairly uneventful but when I went from .5 to .25, it has been really hard. I have felt more daytime anxiety and irritability, night sweats, insomnia about one night a week. I'm determined to see this through and I do think I will be better in the long run and allow my CNS to heal from years of dependence on Klonopin. But I will miss it. I have been tapering for 7 months and have about another month to go. The doctor thinks that at this low of a dose, I could just quit. But I think I need to cut my 1/2 pill into a 1/4pill for the final taper. They do make a .0125 dissolvable tablet but I'm told it is hard to find. Good luck - I don't think it has to be horrible for you if taken very slowly.
Thank you so much for your reply. I know everyone is different, but it sure helps to hear a story of someone who has been on it as long as I have. It seems that a lot of people who have been on it for less time have really struggled. I really would like to let it go. I just am afraid of going back into a constant panic, especially if I start having horrible symptoms. Again thank you. I needed someone to relate to. I hope the best for you going forward.
I so get your panic. My prior psychiatrist prescribed me .5 clonazepam and 5 mg ambien for 6 years. Now I have to get off these drugs. My new doctor is giving me trazadone and slowly tapering me off ambien first. I am sure the new MD will make you a plan but go slowly. I have also read that at an older age, I am 71, it might just be ok to not mess with .5 as it is hard to titrate off this. What will replace the clonazepam for sleep?
Best of luck. I have develpoed dry eyes and need to come off these drugs.
Thank you. I'd like to be off of it, but I honestly never felt that way before. 8 months ago I walked into my Dr's office and walked back out with my script like I had for 20 years and then he abruptly retired leaving my head spinning. I should have been looking for it since he was 77. I wasn't though. I just need some time to wrap my head around all of it. I wish the best for you too.
This happened to me as well. My primary care doc stopped prescribing it and referred me to a young psychiatrist who was very against any benzos, especially taken for a long time (almost 20 years for me) and in the elderly (I am a young, active 64 year old). I took it only for sleep and nocturnal panic attacks and it worked like a charm. Never increased the dose - 1 mg at night with occasional half if I woke at 2:00 or 3am. I am down to .25mg and we have tapered very slowly. The first few tapers were fairly uneventful but when I went from .5 to .25, it has been really hard. I have felt more daytime anxiety and irritability, night sweats, insomnia about one night a week. I'm determined to see this through and I do think I will be better in the long run and allow my CNS to heal from years of dependence on Klonopin. But I will miss it. I have been tapering for 7 months and have about another month to go. The doctor thinks that at this low of a dose, I could just quit. But I think I need to cut my 1/2 pill into a 1/4pill for the final taper. They do make a .0125 dissolvable tablet but I'm told it is hard to find. Good luck - I don't think it has to be horrible for you if taken very slowly.
I've been on a number of drugs for anxiety for over 20 years. I'm a healthy 64yo woman. First it was Celexa from my GYN around 2001. In 2008 I started to see a psychiatrist and marital counselor. She added Wellbutrin and Adderal, I was working 60+ hours a week. My GYN added 1 mg Clonazepam to the mix somewhere around the same time. I have since retired, remarried and no longer take Adderal. But I've been taking C for 10+ years at bedtime only, sometimes less.
However, at night, I would smoke some cannabis and drink probably 1/2 bottle of wine, THEN got sleep with .5 mg C.
I live on the east coast and have a dr at Mayo in Jax and I also live in the southwest and have a concierge dr here, who I had while waiting to get into Mayo program.
I went to my concierge dr in NM bc I was starting to worry about my memory. Recall during the day was suddenly awful. This dr reevaluated me and we did brain testing, all was fine. But he knew some things about ADD and said not everyone benefits from drugs like Adderal. There is a drug for high blood pressure, called Guanfacine. It is now being used for those with ADD/ADHD. It worked like a charm!
However, in evaluating my daily RX, I felt like I was taking WAY TOO MANY drugs that effected my brain and wanted to taper off. I had tried tapering off Celexa twice in the past and I would just have such a short fuse with ppl, I said forget that. I think I could taper off Wellbutrin and my goal is to taper off C.
So I tried to taper off C myself. My dr knew this but never mentioned how I should do it. So I started cutting back to .5mg, then .25 mg every other day. Some nights none. About 2 weeks later, we went on vacation to EU and while there, I bought a tincture in AMS to help me sleep. (NOTE: Cannabis in AMS is not regulated, God only knows what was in that tincture.) Then I started having terrible stomach pains so I thought it must be the guanfacine and I stopped taking that cold turkey. It was a driving trip. On the last day, i got in the car and could not think. I mean I could not figure out how to set the GPS, how to use the GPS on my phone, how to follow the map, nothing. I freaked out and thought I better take the guanfacine, but one should take it at night bc it can make you sleepy. Duh, I was so panicked and confused I forgot that. The rest of the day was a disaster of getting lost, missing ferries, missing lunch plans with others. So we finally just drove to the hotel. The next day we headed home.
When I got home, I threw away all my cannabis products away and have had none since, over 2 months. (It is legal here.) The easiest thing I ever did. But I kept trying the Clonazepam taper. I started feeling so weird. Night sweats, nightmares like crazy (one in which I was trying to not breath bc I was hiding from something) I woke up and my heart was raising, I felt like I was suffocating. I spent the next two days in bed researching HOW TO TAPER OFF CLONAZEPAM. I had no idea it would be so hard. Apparently there are two phases of withdrawal. The initial phase is not as difficult as the one that comes a few weeks later as described above. So I called my Mayo dr and have an appointment coming up next week with a psychiatrist to evaluate all these drugs and try to eliminate most. I just went back to .5mg until then.
Online, it says one should only take C for 9 weeks. How is it that so many of us on this thread have taken it for decades?! I've never abused C, unless one considers I should not have been having as much alcohol as I was and still taking it to sleep.
Alcohol is the other thing. Since I dropped the cannabis, I have been drinking alot more wine. Like most nights almost a bottle myself. I've started an app to help me cut back and it helps. I really want to cut way back or stop. This is the last phase of my life and I would like to go back to reading and exercising and doing things I love to do, cooking, gardening. And I have a grandchild now.
I also have a husband who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. He is in a very early stage but I am his caregiver and it is a 24/7 job. So all the more reason to be at my best physically and mentally.
Anyway, this has been my journey with Clonazepam and all the other ways I have tried to cope since I was in my 40's. I'm ok, I just want to be better without so many pills and so much wine. I wish those of you wo are in a similar place the best.
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Never heard music, for me it was mostly central nervous system issues which cause tingling, tremors, vibrations so I can understand your toes acting up. I just think getting off through appropriate tapering is best for anyone on these meds, but that's just my opinion from my experience.
I am on .5 mg clonazepam and have been for about 20 years. I take it at bedtime. I can't say I have any negative stuff going on, but my Dr retired and my new one doesn't want to continue it. I started it for panic and, oftentimes, wonder if I even need it anymore, so I'm open to stopping. I see a psychiatrist that my new dr set me up with next week. I'm hoping she will make a plan for a slow tapering, but am anxious at the idea of all of it and hearing horror stories about how hard it is to come off. To think, 6 months ago, I was living life large the way I always have, feeling great and now I've been thrust into all of these unknowns and fears. Panic is what I started the meds for and now I'm panicking at the thought of horrible withdrawal.
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2 ReactionsI so get your panic. My prior psychiatrist prescribed me .5 clonazepam and 5 mg ambien for 6 years. Now I have to get off these drugs. My new doctor is giving me trazadone and slowly tapering me off ambien first. I am sure the new MD will make you a plan but go slowly. I have also read that at an older age, I am 71, it might just be ok to not mess with .5 as it is hard to titrate off this. What will replace the clonazepam for sleep?
Best of luck. I have develpoed dry eyes and need to come off these drugs.
.5 mg is low. That’s what I take in the morning. And 1 mg at 4:00. Don’t ask me why 4:00 pm.
Is there anything under .05 available? When I was inpatient at a hospital for internal bleeding due to Coumadin poisoning they didn’t give me the .5 or the 1mg at 4:00. For 2 months I laid there bleeding to death and never received a Klonopin but I sure as hell missed it. It was a nightmare. You can’t quit cold turkey! Dumb doctor.
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1 ReactionThis happened to me as well. My primary care doc stopped prescribing it and referred me to a young psychiatrist who was very against any benzos, especially taken for a long time (almost 20 years for me) and in the elderly (I am a young, active 64 year old). I took it only for sleep and nocturnal panic attacks and it worked like a charm. Never increased the dose - 1 mg at night with occasional half if I woke at 2:00 or 3am. I am down to .25mg and we have tapered very slowly. The first few tapers were fairly uneventful but when I went from .5 to .25, it has been really hard. I have felt more daytime anxiety and irritability, night sweats, insomnia about one night a week. I'm determined to see this through and I do think I will be better in the long run and allow my CNS to heal from years of dependence on Klonopin. But I will miss it. I have been tapering for 7 months and have about another month to go. The doctor thinks that at this low of a dose, I could just quit. But I think I need to cut my 1/2 pill into a 1/4pill for the final taper. They do make a .0125 dissolvable tablet but I'm told it is hard to find. Good luck - I don't think it has to be horrible for you if taken very slowly.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
1 ReactionI am currently tapering off Klonopin after almost 20 years. I took Ambien before that but it did nothing for my night panic attacks. I would wake up drenching in sweat and shaking. It worked like a charm but my psychiatrist (a new young doc) convinced me it was a bad drug, especially in the elderly, and so I am coming off. It has not been horrible, but this last taper from .5-.25 was the hardest. As for sleep, it has been rough during the taper but I am trying meditation and supplements of magnesium, zinc and L-theanine as well as an occasional antihistamine or .5 melatonin. They are not as effective as the Klonopin was. It seemed like the perfect drug for me, until I was told it wasn't. He suggested Remeron for sleep but it is tricyclic antidepressant that has to be taken every night and there are nights I sleep well so we are holding off for now. I'm hoping to develop a better relationship with sleep so I don't depend on a drug. But sleep is important and if the insomnia gets worse than just once a week bad night, I can deal.
Thank you so much for your reply. I know everyone is different, but it sure helps to hear a story of someone who has been on it as long as I have. It seems that a lot of people who have been on it for less time have really struggled. I really would like to let it go. I just am afraid of going back into a constant panic, especially if I start having horrible symptoms. Again thank you. I needed someone to relate to. I hope the best for you going forward.
Thank you. I'd like to be off of it, but I honestly never felt that way before. 8 months ago I walked into my Dr's office and walked back out with my script like I had for 20 years and then he abruptly retired leaving my head spinning. I should have been looking for it since he was 77. I wasn't though. I just need some time to wrap my head around all of it. I wish the best for you too.
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1 ReactionTotally agree with cutting in quarters. My pcp wanted a faster wean from Ativan, but I went more slowly. After 6 months, I’m benzo free!!
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2 ReactionsI've been on a number of drugs for anxiety for over 20 years. I'm a healthy 64yo woman. First it was Celexa from my GYN around 2001. In 2008 I started to see a psychiatrist and marital counselor. She added Wellbutrin and Adderal, I was working 60+ hours a week. My GYN added 1 mg Clonazepam to the mix somewhere around the same time. I have since retired, remarried and no longer take Adderal. But I've been taking C for 10+ years at bedtime only, sometimes less.
However, at night, I would smoke some cannabis and drink probably 1/2 bottle of wine, THEN got sleep with .5 mg C.
I live on the east coast and have a dr at Mayo in Jax and I also live in the southwest and have a concierge dr here, who I had while waiting to get into Mayo program.
I went to my concierge dr in NM bc I was starting to worry about my memory. Recall during the day was suddenly awful. This dr reevaluated me and we did brain testing, all was fine. But he knew some things about ADD and said not everyone benefits from drugs like Adderal. There is a drug for high blood pressure, called Guanfacine. It is now being used for those with ADD/ADHD. It worked like a charm!
However, in evaluating my daily RX, I felt like I was taking WAY TOO MANY drugs that effected my brain and wanted to taper off. I had tried tapering off Celexa twice in the past and I would just have such a short fuse with ppl, I said forget that. I think I could taper off Wellbutrin and my goal is to taper off C.
So I tried to taper off C myself. My dr knew this but never mentioned how I should do it. So I started cutting back to .5mg, then .25 mg every other day. Some nights none. About 2 weeks later, we went on vacation to EU and while there, I bought a tincture in AMS to help me sleep. (NOTE: Cannabis in AMS is not regulated, God only knows what was in that tincture.) Then I started having terrible stomach pains so I thought it must be the guanfacine and I stopped taking that cold turkey. It was a driving trip. On the last day, i got in the car and could not think. I mean I could not figure out how to set the GPS, how to use the GPS on my phone, how to follow the map, nothing. I freaked out and thought I better take the guanfacine, but one should take it at night bc it can make you sleepy. Duh, I was so panicked and confused I forgot that. The rest of the day was a disaster of getting lost, missing ferries, missing lunch plans with others. So we finally just drove to the hotel. The next day we headed home.
When I got home, I threw away all my cannabis products away and have had none since, over 2 months. (It is legal here.) The easiest thing I ever did. But I kept trying the Clonazepam taper. I started feeling so weird. Night sweats, nightmares like crazy (one in which I was trying to not breath bc I was hiding from something) I woke up and my heart was raising, I felt like I was suffocating. I spent the next two days in bed researching HOW TO TAPER OFF CLONAZEPAM. I had no idea it would be so hard. Apparently there are two phases of withdrawal. The initial phase is not as difficult as the one that comes a few weeks later as described above. So I called my Mayo dr and have an appointment coming up next week with a psychiatrist to evaluate all these drugs and try to eliminate most. I just went back to .5mg until then.
Online, it says one should only take C for 9 weeks. How is it that so many of us on this thread have taken it for decades?! I've never abused C, unless one considers I should not have been having as much alcohol as I was and still taking it to sleep.
Alcohol is the other thing. Since I dropped the cannabis, I have been drinking alot more wine. Like most nights almost a bottle myself. I've started an app to help me cut back and it helps. I really want to cut way back or stop. This is the last phase of my life and I would like to go back to reading and exercising and doing things I love to do, cooking, gardening. And I have a grandchild now.
I also have a husband who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. He is in a very early stage but I am his caregiver and it is a 24/7 job. So all the more reason to be at my best physically and mentally.
Anyway, this has been my journey with Clonazepam and all the other ways I have tried to cope since I was in my 40's. I'm ok, I just want to be better without so many pills and so much wine. I wish those of you wo are in a similar place the best.
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