Tapering off of Clonazepam???

I'm now taking 0.5 mg Alprazolam after decades of taking 2 mg of Clonazepan with some Ambien often taken as well; note: had been living overseas and doc's were prescribing the stuff like candy. The 0.5 mg Alprazolam does pretty much nothing for me except for possibly acting as a placebo for my severe social anxiety. With the tremors I get from Parkinson's, it's often difficult for me to differentiate an anxiety attack from a bad PD day, and to top it off I need to be watchful of rapidly changing moods due to being Bipolar. Yeah, I'm a royal mess, overwhelmed by too many feelings and emotions bouncing around in my head and body. I came back to the states to file a claim for both Agent Orange exposure in VN and toxic drinking water from my time stationed at Camp Lejeune. At 73, I'm still working because the government took 10% out of my Social Security for each year that I didn't have Medicare Part B--useless for an expat who never expected to return to the US, and now I need to take care at work lest I be reported by my fellow fascist co-workers tell management that I'm 'unwell.' So, here I am trying to tytrate off Benzo's while wishing I could get my hands on a higher dose. At work, I'm getting paranoid and being reclusive, and by the time I get home, I'm too agitated to enjoy time with my wife. I don't even know where to begin. My main complaint is that healthcare in the US continues to worsen--more and more expensive, with fewer providers willing to take on new patients. Also, I live in CA where my wife is licensed to practice (burnt out on her job), yet the cost of living is getting way out of hand; we pay nearly $4 K/month for rent, are unable to save up enough to move, and have no plans beyond making it from day to day on survival mode. We both worked hard our entire lives and now have become redundant; I'm currently training interns (most of them working for free) what they'll need to learn in order to take over my job for half the pay. I was talking about getting myself off of Benzodiazepines, and now I wish I could get my hands on.... no, can't think of that; my wife would be devastated.

I am fed up with everyone gonna be a dope head. Doctors can monitor the meds. Pharmacies trace the meds. If they are abused do something about them. I dont abuse anything as I dont want a pill to control me. I have enough problems with insomnia controlling me. The effort should be spent of drug addicts, they are the problem for all of us.

Hi there

I can relate to your post…I’ve been on klonopin for years..small dose for GAD…I don’t feel like I’m addicted to it…doesn’t really act the same on me as say, Xanax or Valium. It’s a longer acting med very good for general anxiety as well as some OCD…I take a .5 nightly.. it seems to really help…

You go guy. I am on that same mission. I have been writing and emailing government and telling my young doctors that can write their own scripts what needs to happen (I am respectful). I went to a neurologist to see if I have dementia because I forget and cant cut my brain off. We did all kind of tests. He said to tell my psy. I am not crazy, dont have dementia. I have a problem with life being too much for the this person (me). Family, death, the worlds crazies, pain everywhere on my body, and more. He said I needed to tell the doctor that there are very good reasons to have insomnia and anxiety in my case and I do need some help.

I am so glad I saw your writing and I am not the only person raising hell. I am 70+ and the elderly definitly should have quality of their last 10 years of life.

1 mg is a very low dose. I was taking 8 mg a day, which was low also, and after 5 years, my doctor was actually being pressured by the clinic he worked for, for 20 years, to get his patients off and to prescribe expensive, addictive, new medications instead. So he went according to Ashton's Manual and switched me to Valium. Valium is shorter acting and does not stay in your system as long. The dosage is different and if I remember correctly, I went from 8 mg to 3 mg of the Valium with the same result. After a year, I am down to 1 mg Valium in the evening, but I will be taking this dose for months as I am 71 years old, been on benzos for years, and my body needs to adjust. Then it will be 1/2 mg for months and then nothing. I have ben cautioned not to taper too quickly. In the meantime, I must substitute holistic methods of dealing with insomnia and anxiety. Which is difficult here as there isn't any group activities, so I got Roku on my TV and do yoga and meditation using the programs on TV. Also, when I wake early, like 2 or 3:00 AM, I get up and do something for about 2 hours and then I go back to bed. And I pray a lot.

In my life as an international professional surf bum, all I can say is the U.S. has the worst healthcare of any country in the world, (including emerging nations.) When I got accute bronchitis while in Spain, I went to the main hospital in Barcelona, sat in the emergency room for about 20 minutes, and then was seen by two nurses and an MD. The cost of the hospital visit was free, and the medication I was prescribed was affordable compared to what it would have cost me in the U.S. which is rapidly becoming a third world nation. Now, at age 73, all I can say is that I hope to die quickly; so, if I get ill and end up in an American hospital, either my wife or I will make sure they know DNR will be my first order of the day. I recently read that when Medicare gets chopped by 25%, nursing homes will begin evicting their residents; great country that drafted me to lay my life on the line in order to make some huge corporations even wealthier. Thanks for the Parkinson's Disease, Uncle Sam. Here I am standing next to my fresh from China, broken e-trike which was supposed to be my transportation. I should have ordered it directly from China; couldn't have been a worse deal--took me two months to get a partial reimbursement from Lectric, an AZ based e-bike company who let me to believe they "make" good solid equipment. Can't trust anyone from ripping you off anymore. The VA told me that as soon as they make a determination on my PD, I will become eligible for power wheelchair--can hardly wait.

@lindasmith1222
Actually I take Clonazepam 1.5 mg daily and have taken it for 24 years, and I have also worked in a pharmacy for 13 years and 1mg is the required dose to take. It comes in 0.5mg, 1mg, and 2mg tablets. 2mg is considered to be a high dosage compared to the required 1mg dose, so I'm not sure where you got 8mg from but it's definitely not Klonopin/Clonazepam.