Tapering From Klonopin

Hello,
I've been taking 2 mg of Clonzepam for about 5 yrs. If I go longer than four days without it, I can't function. While I do have panic disorder, I'm fairly certain the feelings/actions are withdrawl. In the past month I've been able to taper down to 1.5, and I want to continue until I'm no longer dependent on the drug. I need a realistic schedule on tapering/detox, and do I just fight through the withdrawls (i.e. fingers, arms, hands curling, numbness, anxiety, etc)
My Dr doesn't get it...I'm in the process of finding another, but some help in the interim would be great.

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To the person who was taapering off clonazapam. I hope you are doing it slow enough. I take 5mg down from 6 and drop half a pill once a month per Doctors orders. I have had no side effects from this. I plan on tapering down to 3mg a day which will take over 4 months. The slower the better.

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See the dr. 1st and see if he gives you something else. I am on 1mg klonopin. and may do that. I was told not to stop cold turkey. I have rls.

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Hammer, you were informed correctly, it is not safe to just stop a benzodiazepine cold turkey, because doing so can create the risk of experiencing dangerous seizures, along with rebound anxiety, and depression.

A slow taper, under the guidance of a physician is the best way to stop taking one.

Josh, how are things going? Did you ever find another doctor?

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First, you're not alone and the difficulty of withdrawing is made worse about the agitation and fears of reductions in dose. Consider how you used to use clonazapam, and perhaps you'll agree even just swallowing your dose begins to alleviate some worry knowing your symptoms will be reduced. Many psychiatrists discuss this in professional associations- patient says they find xanax relief immediately, so what portion of the therapeutic effect is the expectation of an anxiolytics effect and the effect itself? In withdrawal this is a piece of relief in rationalities only because benzo withdrawal can be any range of things from imperceptible to torture. Tapering is recommended as by far the standard in patients using standard doses longer than 1-4 weeks, and even then discomfort may still be present.

The latest US clinical trial used a taper dose at 0.5mg clonazapam every two weeks and then .25mg per week as doses neared cessation. With this model, in the study cohort averaging 2.7mg/day +/-1.2mg/day (1.5mg to 3.9mg daily for a very large middle percentile. I think dose matters but this is where you are more or less.). All patients were 3 years or more of use and 1 year of syndrome they defined as essentially patients who tried to stop but symptoms made WD too difficult and resumed doses.

Every two weeks 0.5mg were reduced until 1mg daily was reached, at which time.25mg per week was used. 69% of patients needed 4 months and 19% took additional 3 months to cease. 4-7 months is roughly what you can expect for this, but Ill point out 1/2 of even long term users dont experience discontinuation syndromes. I wouldn't judge you if it took a 16 months. The less symptomatic the withdrawal symptoms during tapering, the less symptomatic will be the longer term effects and you may not notice them at all, some people need years to repair GABAa and lots of this has to do with neuroendocrine hormones, especially progesterone and its metabolite allopregnenolone. One much under utilized took are these and other positive allosteric modulators of the GABAa receptor protein.

This is to while benzodiazepines are PAM in a sense, the receptors also reduce the density of binding sites in response to repeated administration of these drugs, and the negative symptoms experienced for months or more after stopping these drugs are related to how quickly the GABAa receptor protein is triggered to code for GABAa receptor density levels to return. Genes play a role, so does chronic inflammation, sex and age and other metabolic influences from food, drugs, bacteria, and stressful states including insomnia. Because these factors are so specific to the individual, it is a remarkable failure of medical doctors responsible for monitoring a patients use of benzodiazepines in the first place, but relevant to us here in that we can use some generally applicable factors to speed up the rate of recovery within your brains GABA inhibitory system. Even some application of GABAb receptor drugs may augment recovery by easing WD symptoms. To be less theoretical and more practical, lets mention things you can do: regular sleep and don't practice poor sleep hygiene if you cant escape the insomnia, exercise at least 20 mins per day, ideally with resistance training and some cardio, but simply try and break a sweat and get your heart rate up so you're breathing heavy; other factors you can use are to eat healthy food or just add more vegetables to your diet, quit smoking if you are able to do so during your taper but its okay to separate these two important health goals, oh, and if your want to get real quick fix solution here, but a lemon balm for use as a tea. Powdered lemon balm will dissolve well and tastes surprisingly okay with just boiling water, or dump it in your coffee with some omega 3 fatty acids if you are able. Capsules are fine too, just be sure to take enough and find a reasonable company to ensure you aren't consuming a product that has none of what it says it has. Other advisories from UK, Canada, and Australia advise taper to occur in 3-4 months, suggest 1 scheduled dose per day, and permit some small amount of clonazapam to be substituted for longer acting diazepam towards the end of the taper or at night if sleep is an issue. There is complex method developed privately by an expert on withdrawing patients from all different benzodiazepines, and many people and doctors who look this up and try it out say it is the easiest way to avoid WD effects while tapering. Its not officially endorsed nor has any significant study, and is just a prettier painting of the long term 3-7 month taper duration the rest of the world guidelines recommend (since they differ, those are the shorter snd longest of the time frames;

America does not have any official guidelines doctors must follow like in the UK but we use a standard of care that generally incorporates values principles in the patients well-being as well as the generally excepted methods in the field. Below are more considerations for yourself, but overall lets get you cognitive behavioral therapy 20 mins of slowed breathing exercises with a therapist or before bed if you're the only one of us who follows these practices at home on their own lol. Be sure to sleep enough to feel rested but get up! Sleeping excessively is one of many maladaptive behaviors that prolong and worsen WD. Others are experiencing agoraphobia or other phobias and acting to avoid going outside or relenting to the phobic desire. You'll just strengthen these phobias, reinforce insomnia if you permit yourself to lay awake stressing, and goal is really to ensure the reinforcement of anxious states does not occur such that suddenly you're associating bedroom with sleepless nights instead of the joy it is. Have lots of lemon balm to promote those GABAa proteins so they'll encode dense receptor sites your natural GABA can bind to and calm you down.

This is not something you'll feel necessarily, it isn't binding to the site and acting to inhibit your brain like benzodiazepines, but think of it like weightlifting for your receptors after clonazapam has been time spent ill in the hospital. You're able to take benefit from some psychological modality, by quite a bit. So pick one you find helps relieve WD symptoms. Use self care techniques to interrupt the symptoms as they overtake you - favorite book or hobby? Walk around the block? Stargazing? Making lemon balm tea? Massage chair? It matters not whether it helps much, what matters is your activism in the onset of symptoms because it can be empowering, 10 minutes of relief talking about this on a emotional support phone line lets the feeling come and go, and if it comes again at least now you have that extra bit of your day with less difficult symptoms, your extra few minutes of quality sleep, and these may feel not enough and why bother? But if you're in this for a year or more; though you are not likely one of those types of severe cases, even the 16 weeks that you were tapering plus whatever time afterwards that you're just not quite feeling 100% of yourself its going to add up to be a long time of your life and its the small things overtime that were really going to help you stick to tapering stay on the plan believe in yourself and accelerate this process. Of those types of severe cases, even the 16 weeks that you're tapering plus whatever time afterwards that you're just not quite feeling 100% of yourself is going to add up to be a long time of your life and its the small things overtime that are really going to help you stick to tapering stay on the plan believe in yourself and accelerate this process.

In this way, let us say you reduce according to your tolerance for the symptoms, with your preference for shorter yet more intense period versus a protracted commitment to moderate symptoms, and for clonazapam specifically Id not change to Valium and taper that but trying it wont hurt - but there's no going back up on dosage if you're splitting this up or already into your taper. Many people have a life event that may justify going back up in dose. If your goal is to quit you pick a time that will be least stressful as far as you can predict and stick to it. If you need to take more time tapering then go ahead. I did this after a year or so on 10mg Klonopin illicitly purchased and no knowledge about tapering. Its horrendous, I had seizures, I never told a doctor, I didn't stick to consistent schedule of dose and reduction, and by the end I had my last 1mg pill I broke it in four pieces and would take several licks of a piece in the afternoon then lay down. I did it all wrong, but I was happy I did (and had no real money for drugs or a source for it because I quit work and moved out of town to stay with my mother. I'm certain I would have been unsuccessful with access to the drug. But avoid my mistakes and be vocal about your experience to a doctor. You're not asking for more drugs; just more time or more thoughtfulness out into your individual experience getting off them. He wants to treat your WD like the average among thousands in studies that don't even agree. Let him play with a calculator if you're just a number to him/her. And don't make it sound like a threat; but remind him you will appeal his decisions through your hospitals grievance process and likely be sending the file to the state medical board to verify his dismissive plan his what a good doctor does. You'll get nowhere with it but doctors pay attention to patients with legal or advocates with them; and those who make them spend a Saturday before a medical review board.

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Check out the Ashton Manual or google the benzodiazipine information coalition (BIC) for more information. They provide information for tapering regiments using Valium instead of Klonopin. Klonopin is so much more potent and it's very difficult to titrate using the standard pills provided by regular pharmacies. You may need to use a compounding pharmacy to provide you with a liquid solution to slowly taper your dosages down by fractions of a milligram per each taper.

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Re: Sean (# 4)

Who downvoted me? I put a lot of time and effort to help add something not yet presented. The posted below me has good advice too. I am not upset, just wondering what I did wrong lol.

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Read read read and then stop. Or you can continue.

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