Needing Help To Get Off Of Klonopin - Advice Please!

[Marymickaela]

I've been on 3mg Klonopin for years and desperately want to get off of this horrible drug. This past month I was taking 4mg and one day last week after a big argument with my 30yo daughter which triggered my PTSD I self-medicated by taking Klonopin all day. It was a one day thing and luckily I saw my therapist the next day and told her. The thing is I don't even feel it does anything for me and except for that bad day I only take it at bedtime.


My d and I made up and had a very long talk about me getting off of it. She is a nurse and was crying as she talked to me. She tells me all the time I can't remember anything and I remind her of Alzheimer patients she used to care for. The lowest I've gotten down to is 2.5mg, but something will happen and I'll have to up the dose again. My 3 adult daughters treat me like a child and my H jokes that I need a 24/7 care taker to follow me around as I'm constantly losing things. Still I am productive and have lots of hobbies. However, I tell my H it takes me 10x’s longer to do what others can do in 1.

I'm very motivated and have gotten my dose back down to 3mg again, but am fighting some depression and anxiety. I see my psych doc on Monday and am going to discuss the situation, but know he will just tell me to start cutting the dose every couple weeks. It's not that easy. Its hell, but I've got to do it.

This is my goal. Stay on the 3mg until July, than decrease my dose by .25mg every month. I know the sites say to do it slower, but also know I’ll never get off by doing that. I told my daughter it’s going to be hell.

I have a fantastic therapist who treats me for my Complex PTSD and we do EMDR, although it seems the last 6 weeks we’ve done talk therapy. I’m hoping maybe EMDR will help with the withdrawals. As I said I see my psych doc on Monday and right now we’ve been focusing on new ADHD meds, but I’m bringing up the Klonopin again.

Will take any advice gratefully.

Thanks,
Mary

 

[Changing4Best]

I was on 0.5 mgs and had to taper off of it, by cutting the pills in half then in quarters. It is slow going, but can be done. I was off of it for a year, taking Elavil instead. Later I was put back on it by a Dr. in the hospital, so I am staying on it. I take 1mg a day at bedtime and a half a one if needed or as needed during the day. I rarely take the half mg. but sometimes do need to. Life happens. Stuff happens. Things come up.

However, you seem determined to do this, and that usually means that you WILL succeed. But only if you are doing it for YOU, and not for someone else. If you are doing it for someone other than yourself, it won't happen. Only you can decide that.

 

[Marymickaela]

I'm doing it for me as I can't function and don't want to function this way, but the hurt I've caused my family is also a big motivator.

 

[joeylittle]

@Marymickaela, make sure your doctor knows how much of it you've really been taking. If you need to, write it down; they should be able to put you on the right schedule to come off of it, but if you under-report how often you've been using it, they will give you the wrong info.

There's a certain amount of medical risk that goes along with withdrawing from any benzo. So, I strongly recommend you do this whole process in close consult with your doctor. Don't do an accelerated decrease schedule because you think it will be ultimately easier (as in, ripping the bandaid off quicker makes it over sooner).

It's a very tough thing, but you will ultimately be glad you got off of them.

 

[EveHarrington]

A slow taper is designed to minimize withdrawals.

Faster isn't better with benzodiazepines necessarily.

 

[Marymickaela]

Saw my psych doctor yesterday and discussed getting off the Klonopin. His advice. Do it quickly. It's going to be hell but it's when you get down to the lower doses when it gets really difficult. I'm on 3mg and he wants me to cut down to 2.5mg. He said in his experience he's never had any patients being successful drawing out the detox over a very long period. I told him I knew I was addicted and he immediately corrected me and said I was not addicted, but was dependent on the Klonopin. He also said it was going to be hell to get off of it so that was encouraging (ha ha!).

Here's an excerpt from Stevie Nicks about her Klonopin experience I want to share:

Link Removed AlterNet, June 1, 2011.

[Klonopin] turned me into a zombie,” she told US Weekly in 2001, according to the website benzo.org.uk, one of many patient-run sites on the Internet offering information about benzodiazepine addiction, withdrawal and recovery. Nicks has described the drug as a "horrible, dangerous drug," and said that her eventual 45-day hospital detox and rehab from the drug felt like "somebody opened up a door and pushed me into hell." Others have described Klonopin's effects as beginning with an energized sense of euphoria but ending up with horrifying sense of anxiety and paralysis, akin to sticking your tongue into an electric outlet, or suddenly feeling that your brain is on fire.

So this is probably what I have to look forward to and really don't have a lot of support from my family, esp. my husband.

 

[Silver.]

I was on klonopin for 12 years. I took 2mgs at bedtime for the night terrors/sleep walking and chronic insomnia. I took a half mg during the day for panic and social anxiety. I chose to start self weaning on my own in February of this year. As people have said (and I am sure you have read) you are supposed to drop .15mgs at a time, every two weeks. It's very hard to cut your pills to that size, so I was weaning approx .20-.25mgs every 10-15 days depending on how I was doing in the process. I don't recommend huge jumps at all. I experienced side effects that have never applied to me before. Paranoia, agoraphobia, multiple muscle spasms in my back, it was hell. It took me about 6 weeks total to get off it. My social anxiety was still really bad after I was off it and the agoraphobia lingered as well. I still have days where I don't want/can't leave the house. I still have problems sleeping and go days without sleeping even with a sleeping pill (rozerem).
Despite all of this, going off klonopin was the best decision I ever made for myself. It was a very scary process even at my weaning doses. I wish you luck, be safe x

 

[Ocean5]

Be careful. You could end up with seizures, and in hospital, if you go too fast. I am getting off Klonopin, and p-doc put me on Liquid Klonopin with an eye dropper so I can reduce at a "steady" rate in small amounts. I reduce by one drop every 10 days.

 

[Doggylover]

Saw my psych doctor yesterday and discussed getting off the Klonopin. His advice. Do it quickly....

I was taken off it in four days while I was inpatient on a short term psych ward. I had horrible extrapyramidal effects that lasted at least a year. The psychiatrist was a sadist. I asked him why he was taking it off me so quickly. He said "because I don't want you to be in the hospital forever." It was not a question of insurance. Once I was discharged, my psychiatrist told me -- she's now retired, but my current psychiatrist at a reputable university hospital--both said that it should be tapered over at least two and a half weeks. Wait, maybe two and a half months. I believe the latter. I'd been taking 4 mg a day for 10 years.

 

[IamLordKinbote]

I'd been taking 3 mg (1 mg 3x a day) for years (initially I had been prescribed 1 mg a day and my psychiatrist kept upping the dosage and there was never a conversation about long-term use) and was having horrendous memory/concentration/confusion problems, so I decided to taper. It took me a little over a year and a half to taper from 3 mg to 1 mg (.25 mg 4x a day), which I'm at now. I paused my taper there because it got harder and harder as I went down, and then I was moving so I didn't want to be in taper hell while I was adjusting to a new situation. Eventually I want to get off of it completely and finish my taper but I'm not doing so well right now. Unfortunately because I stopped tapering a while ago, my body is already tolerant of this low dose again.

the Klon was really helpful in the beginning, but honestly I wish I'd never gone on it. Try to be kind to yourself during your taper process. It's hard but it isn't your fault, it's your brain being dependent on it. I think being aware of that was helpful for me. Go as slow as you have to.

 

[Marymickaela]

I just came back to this site after being gone for a long time and looked up my posts. This is the 1st that popped up so had to update.

August 5, 2016 I was on 2.5 to 3mg Klonopin and proposed to my psych doc (Pdoc) that he help me taper using the Ashton detox method, which is using a Valium equivalent to get off the Klonopin. 1mg of Klonopin is equal to 20mg of Valium, but he wouldn't let me use more then 15mg Valium. Well it's almost 5 months later and I'm almost off the Klonopin. Really! Down to .188mg and will make my next to last cut using a gram scale to .66mg at the end of the week. Hold on that for 1 week and I'm done. It hasn't been easy, and after that I have to deal with getting off the Valium, but never could have done this without the Valium crossover. Valium has a much longer half-life (something like 72 to 200 hours) compared to 18 to 32 hours with the Klonopin so it's much soomther detox.

I've gained 10lbs since I started, but think that's my own doing I believe and not the drug. I can't believe I'm almost done and could probably just stop now, but am going to continue with my taper plan until the end. I'll now have to go back and see how Ashton recommends getting off the Valium as I go back to my Pdoc a week after I discontinue the Klonopin. I think I have a much better chance off staying off of it this way, but time will only tell. I have a large bottle of my 2mg, which I should probably flush, have never reached for more Klonopin when having an anxiety attack so think it's ok. I have reached for more Valium so that may be a bigger problem.

I also used a liquid taper during part of this process back in October as I wasn't doing well and had increased my Valium up to 25mg, which you would think would make me incoherent, but it's true that our bodies build up a tolerance. Well when I did the liquid taper it was on the Valium to get it back down to the 15mg. I gave Amazon lots of buisiness buying ml vessels to use. I'd use 150ml of milk, throw a 5ml Valium in overnight, toss a little bit in the morning and divide the remaining into small containers to drink thru-out the day. Once I got back down to the 15mg on the Valium I purchased a gram scale, which I've been using since to get accurate cuts with the Klonopin and/am cutting 1/8th every week. Like I said 1 1/2 more weeks and I'll be Klonopin free.

 

[lymphomamama]

I just came back to this site after being gone for a long time and looked up my posts. This is th...

Really glad you are nearing the end of this particular struggle. Sounds like its been a long road. Reading this thread makes me feel better about my own use.

I was rx klonopin two years ago ( originally .5mg x2 & later raised to 1mg). Although its directed 2x I seldom take it. As a retired nurse I have great fear of dependency and its ugly attributes. If things are extremely heinous, like a panic attack not controlled with skills or mmj, I take one. Its not a concern for me because I dont take them daily and never more than rx. I find more immediate relief with less side effects with mmj.