Klonopin taper

Posted by dawgbone @dawgbone, Jul 31, 2017

I have been on some kind of benzo for almost 40 yrs. I am trying to taper from 1.5-2 mgs of klonopin daily . Began in mid may 2017 and my last cut was very small on 7-2-17 to get to 1mg. Honestly feels like i am dying. I also take trazodone 75 mgs and 4 drugs for high blood pressure. I have been researching gabapentin and seroquel to help with the withdrawal symptons. Please offer any suggestions or help. I am 69 yrs old and cant even leave my house to visit my kids and grands. Thank you for any help!

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@sears

Perhaps Benzos should only be prescribed to seizure patients? Or doctors should follow the two week recommendation?

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Exactly, The Doctors are in control and I think after a few weeks they should let their patients know that it is very addictive and an idea of what you may go through withdrawing from. The cure for me was definitely worse than the disease.

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@lindasmith1222

Marijuana is illegal. The FEDERAL government has NOT legalized it. Perhaps California has special privilege and does not have to follow federal laws. I told people exactly what happened to me and the doctor that did this does not have good standing in the community or with other doctors. She has since quit and moved to parts unknown. She is a nut case.

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In many states Marijuana is legal. Google "Doctors prescribing Benzodiazepines" and " Doctors getting money from prescribing Benzodiazepines". An eye opener.

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@mlmchem1

I had a similar experience after taking klonopin for 18 years. My doctor had me very slowly reduce the dose (0.5 mg every 3 weeks) but I had awful tremors, shaking and twitching movements anyway. At times the shaking was so violent that it made me fall out of bed. My husband would hold me down during the times when the shaking was at its worst. These shaking and jerky movements involved my entire body. Then I had my first, and only, panic attack. We were not prepared for any of this and felt lonely and very scared.. We went to the er one night but they heard about klonopin withdrawal, put me in bed in a hallway and ignored me. And no, they were not very busy. It was at 3a.m. and after 12 hours of these shaking and jerky movements and the panic attack I still have some tremors after 3 years and am on 2 meds to help control it. I had bad headaches and nausea too. I would still be taking the klonopin if I had known it would be like this. I'm sorry I took it at all. But for me, the outcome was not worth what resulted.

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I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I've been on Klonopin 2mg for 16 years and I want to get off of it. I recently went down to 1mg and would like to detox but I'm 53 and am in Menopause, have Chronic pain, and now suffering from severe Restless leg syndrome. Plus I'm going through a divorce. I know the longer one takes Benzos, the harder it is to get of them. When you got to .125 mg did you stop and how long were you at that strength? I know my psychiatrist won't taper me slowly with a compounding pharmacy. He's been a detox doctor and they detox with Phenobarbital and Clonidine and muscle relaxants. I've been in Rehab a few times and it's a course over a month.

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@mlmchem1

I had a similar experience after taking klonopin for 18 years. My doctor had me very slowly reduce the dose (0.5 mg every 3 weeks) but I had awful tremors, shaking and twitching movements anyway. At times the shaking was so violent that it made me fall out of bed. My husband would hold me down during the times when the shaking was at its worst. These shaking and jerky movements involved my entire body. Then I had my first, and only, panic attack. We were not prepared for any of this and felt lonely and very scared.. We went to the er one night but they heard about klonopin withdrawal, put me in bed in a hallway and ignored me. And no, they were not very busy. It was at 3a.m. and after 12 hours of these shaking and jerky movements and the panic attack I still have some tremors after 3 years and am on 2 meds to help control it. I had bad headaches and nausea too. I would still be taking the klonopin if I had known it would be like this. I'm sorry I took it at all. But for me, the outcome was not worth what resulted.

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I'm very sorry to hear about your horrible experience. can I ask you at what dose did you start at when you began your detox?

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@archermac15

I'm very sorry to hear about your horrible experience. can I ask you at what dose did you start at when you began your detox?

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After 18 years I was on 4-5mg per day. My doctor was not very happy about the fast detox but since I had just had 2 back surgeries in 5 weeks he knew I'd need pain meds for a couple of months. I had to get off the klonopin quickly.

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@jakedduck1

@laurine7
“wish there was something I could do to get them off the market.”
I don’t understand why people are insistent on taking drugs off the market because they had bad experiences with them which is more often than not the person's own fault.
Not everyone has withdrawal problems. I withdrew off Klonopin with no problems. Although the medication wasn't helpful in controlling my seizures it is very helpful for many. Is it fair to want to deprive those patients who have fewer or no seizures?

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I agree, although the Doctors are in control of prescribing these drugs, and if you find one that is not getting a kick back from Pharma you are lucky. My case, the Dr was treating me for restless leg syndrome and I guess he thought I was having Seizures. GP Doctors are not schooled in these drugs and you need a Psychiatrist to be prescribing your treatment. How old were you and how long had your Dr prescribed Klonopin? I was Prescribed Lorazepam for almost 15 years and he never asked how I was doing, Just made sure I came to see him every month. He never treated me for RLS in the beginning only Migraines and neck problems. I definitely am culpable for my stupidity in not researching the drug. I had RLS SINCE MY EARLY 20's and all I could think of was "this is a God Sent" I can sleep now. Maybe we should be taking the Doctors off the market? Were you being treated by a Psychiatrist? You are the first person I have read about that had 0 problems when stopping them. Definitely makes a difference if you were prescribed for short term, which is what it is supposed to be for. Unfortunately, we trust our Doctors (blindly) and don't always read the warning from the Pharmacy given with the drugs. I always do now and only trust what I have researched. My friend is taking me to dinner tonight to CELEBRATE OFF BENZODIAZEPINES after almost 10 months of tapering. I'm even going to have a glass of wine, haven't had any coffee or wine for a long time. Am anxious to know what you were being prescribed Klonopin for, your age, and how long you were taking it. Would help many who are struggling. My best to you and your opinion matters.

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dawgbone,,,,,They had me on Gabapentin for 8 months, which was for tapering from Lorazepam and 3 other drugs. I tapered myself after asking my Doctor if it was ok, even tho she said it was safe, not to worry. I researched it and you have to taper from that as well, her reply, I was only taking 300MG. Three more drugs besides Klonopin and Gabapentin. I just read your message again and it is from 2017, I hope you are free from those horrible problems. They put me on Trazodone as well, thank God it made me feel terrible and I stopped it.

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@hazelblumberg

Hi, Abby. Yes, I'd been diagnosed as bipolar once, and I have no idea why. I have clinical depression, and I definitely don't have the manic highs. Sometimes doctors know nothing. One psychiatrist put me on lithium. He kept me on it for six months, even though I kept telling him it was doing NOTHING. He got really angry and started screaming at me during an appointment, so I got up, threw my bottle of lithium at him, and walked out. The end of him.

I've been on clonazepam for ages. It's helped the panic/anxiety disorder immensely. But then I started wondering if it was really helping anymore. My psychiatrist is wonderful, and I hope he never retires (he's about 70), and I talked to him about tapering off. He was skeptical and thought it WAS helping me, but he helped me figure out a tapering-off schedule. Unfortunately, as I tapered off, the panic/anxiety symptoms I'd known but hadn't experienced in ages started coming back. So, I'm back on it. I'm on a very low dosage--0.5 mg two to three times per day--but it does help.

I've been so severely depressed in the past that, seven years ago, my psychiatrist strongly suggested that I check into a psychiatric ward. I did, and I was there for 3 1/2 weeks. Amazingly enough, it was a GREAT experience. Everyone else on the ward had severe clinical depression as well, so we all totally understood what the other was feeling. If a medication wasn't working or was having adverse effects, the docs were right there and could take us off the meds or change them immediately. I'm still on the combination of meds that they found for me at the psych ward, and I'm doing well.

Please don't even consider suicide! Yes, I think we've all been there at one time or another. But trust me: It WILL get better. It will. If you feel that you need the help of a psych ward, don't hesitate to go to one. My time in one helped me immensely, changed my life, and got me the right meds. Take good care of yourself.

Hazel

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Hello Hazel, I too have been on Clonazepam for a long time due to anxiety, panic attacks, and PTSD. I too was abused horribly as a child and I still have the nightmares. It's been 16 years since I've been on Klonopin. I also suffer from severe depression and I'm 53 and going through menopause, have chronic pain in my neck and lumbar, chronic migraines, and now developed severe Restless leg Syndrome. I'm a mess right now, and am on a lot of medication. I think the Klonopin is making my depression worse, and my Psychiatrist wants to lower the dose to 1mg but hasn't because he knows that I'm going through a divorce, so I decided to just go ahead and lower down to 1mg. I do have extra Klonopin from when he used to give me 4mgs and I sometimes use them for when I get a migraine and I need to take Excedrin migraine and I usually will take 2 mg Klonopin with that. It makes me really nervous and a previous Doctor had told me that Klonopin works well with the Excedrin migraine. I felt like you do at one time. I felt like I should just stay on the Klonopin because after all, it is an anxiety medication and I have really bad anxiety, but I read that it causes dementia and memory loss and that's when I got worried and thought about detoxing. I don't think I can at this moment though unless I do it extremely slow, but I don't believe my Doctor would be willing to help me go really slow. Can I ask how long have you been taking it?

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@mlmchem1

After 18 years I was on 4-5mg per day. My doctor was not very happy about the fast detox but since I had just had 2 back surgeries in 5 weeks he knew I'd need pain meds for a couple of months. I had to get off the klonopin quickly.

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I'm so sorry. I know how awful Klonopin withdrawal can be and it's worse when you have been taking it for a long time. I've been on Klonopin for 16 years 2mg and my Doctor wants me to go down to 1mg but hasn't dropped me because he knows that I'm going through a divorce, so I cut back to 1mg awhile back. He has dropped me from 4mg down to 3mg on one visit, then down to 2mg on another visit because he found out I was on pain Management and didn't even consider detoxing me, but see I was really only taking 2mg anyway. I just occasionally used the extra 2mg when I needed to take Excedrin migraine. I want to taper slowly off Klonopin like some of these people do with their Doctors calling smaller doses into compound pharmacies, but I know my Doctor won't do that. I'm afraid. I was taking it for anxiety and panic disorder. I'm 53 and going through menopause and now developed restless leg Syndrome, so now is not a good time for me, but eventually I will have to go through with it.

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