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Hello,

I was on .125 - .25 mg of clonazapem for about 2 1/2 months. At first I took .25 every few days and then started taking .125 everyday for a month. I planned to taper for a couple weeks by going down to .125 every other day for 2 weeks, then every 3rd day for 2 weeks. However, during this time I also took two 5 mg of Valium. I ended up really only doing 2 weeks of .125 every other day and the Valium, essentially messing up any taper, and then just quit cold Turkey since it was such a small amount and just wanted to be done with it. It has now been 3 weeks since I have taken anything, and the entire time I have felt extreme withdrawal, but chalked it up to mainly being from severely traumatic life events. I am wondering how long an essentially cold Turkey withdrawal should last from this low dosage, if it has already been 3 weeks. Is it took late to restart the taper? Would that be worse then just waiting this out? Could a protracted withdrawal occur from this small dosage after just a few months? Sorry I am all over the place, cannot think straight at all.

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Hello Doggo1122, welcome to BenzoBuddies,

 

First, there is no small amount when it comes to benzodiazepines, they’re a powerful drug capable of altering how our brains function. 

 

I don’t believe that going back on the drug will help at this point, in my opinion, it would be better to wait this out.  Going back on and doing a proper taper is no guarantee you’ll feel better, oftentimes reinstating just prolongs the suffering.  However, if you’re not functional then this may be an option.

 

In my experience, there is no correlation between a rapid taper/cold turkey and prolonged withdrawal and recovery, we have no idea what causes this to happen but I suspect it has more to do with genetics rather than a taper.  We consider someone to be suffering from protracted withdrawal when they’re still suffering at 18-24 months

 

The good news is from my time here, I’ve seen short term users recover in terms of weeks and months rather than months and years so time is on your side.  I know what I’m saying is discouraging but the only way out is through and you’ve got 3 weeks under your belt so I hope you can keep going.

 

I’lol provide some links to help you get started but please let us know how we can hep you, we understand the cognitive difficulties this process puts us through.

 

Pamster

 

The Ashton Manual

 

Post-withdrawal Recovery Support

 

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Thank you Pamster. I knew I probably shouldn’t reinstate, I just feel so dumb because I had plenty of pills to do a very slow taper and just could not figure anything out due to the cognitive difficulties, not having a psychiatrist to consult, and due to my entire life blowing up. I felt terrible on the pills so I just wanted to be off. Not sure why I decided to cold Turkey benzos at the exact time when I lost my fiancée, job, apartment literally everything had to move back in with my mother. It is disappointing to say the least, that this has happened from one prescription, when I have never taken a prescription drug in my entire life. I only take natural things, I don’t even like to take Tylenol. The reason I took my first small amount of klonopin was actually because my mom had left me a small amount months ago in case I ever “needed help” sleeping. I took it one time and felt hooked right away. It was actually an “integrative” doctor who prescribed it to me after I asked him for a few for some difficulty sleeping due to chronic pain /Lyme disease. He didn’t explain the dangers to me and I didn’t plan on taking them more than a few times. I think I became dependent after a week to be honest because it stopped working but I kept taking it. I already had nervous system issues and am extremely

Sensitive to any sort of drug, have trouble detoxing, so I think I’m screwed unfortunately. I morphed into a completely different person and lost everything.  I guess I really have nobody to blame besides myself.

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Oh my, your timing wasn’t good was it, I’m sorry to hear you’ve lost so much.  Yes, these drugs are very addictive and the trouble is, you don’t have to have addiction issues to become dependent, I’ve seen it happen in as little as 10 days, so you’re not alone.

 

I hope you can take this time to be kind to yourself, stress is a huge contributor to increased symptom severity so staying as calm as you can is a good idea.  Also, distraction helps, anything to take your mind off of the symptoms even if only for a few minutes can be a relief.

 

Please don’t beat yourself up, this is a hallmark of this process, the intrusive thoughts that plague us are very negative so don’t let them lie to you, its the drug.

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  • 2 weeks later...
My mom put me in an inpatient program against my will unrelated to benzos and I ended up having a seizure in the shower falling on my head spent a week in icu. They say it was from low sodium but I know it was from the klonopin withdrawal. Apparently they gave me 1 mg of atvian in the icu. I was only taking .125-.25 of klonopin when I cold turkeyed and started having the severe withdrawals. It had been 4 weeks since I stopped, now I am worried about them reinstating 4 x the amount of a benzo that I was taking. Since it was one time do I need to be so worried about kindling? I am stuck in a nightmare and don’t know what to do have lost all autonomy nobody would even believe the pain I was in from falling on my head and seizing for 5 minutes on top of withdrawals because I was inpatient they just said I was anxious and it wasn’t real. Sorry I am all over the place and not very coherent. I guess I am just looking for a little reassurance since it was just one dose that they gave me, although it was much more then I have ever taken.
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I’m so sorry to hear about your hospital experience, that sounds awful!  We understand what you’re going through, but I know how terrible it feels to be dismissed by those who should know. 

 

According to this calculator, the Ativan they gave you wasn’t a huge dose and a one time dose won’t be a problem, most members who have had this happen don’t notice a downside. https://clincalc.com/Benzodiazepine/

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