Rapid withdrawal/cold turkey from clonazepam after 5 weeks?

Hi all,

I am ready to get off clonazepam as I feel like it's made me feel all sorts of things these last few weeks, possibly even developing depression symptoms and I want to be free of it to see if I can get my health back in order without it.

I started taking it January 20 at the recommendation of my doctor as I mentioned I sometimes struggled with sleeping only 3-5 hours due to restless legs. The first week I took .25 once at night, but quickly it seemed to stop working for sleeping through the night and I took the full dose of .5mg each night for about 4 weeks since, trying to take less here and there, but usually ending up taking the full dose after not getting to sleep.

Last week I asked my doctor about stopping it (now a psychiatrist) and he seemed to think I could just go off of it.

I also started Zoloft February 15th, and my whole family was sick with stomach flu for 5 days so it took me about a week to realize that it was giving me ridiculous insomnia to the point that even the clonazepam wasn't allowing me to sleep more than 2-3 hours. The doctor offered ambien on the 22nd, that night I took 5mg of Ambien and then another 5 when it didn't work and was up the entire night. After that I decided to just stop the clonazepam cold turkey and spent almost 2 nights in a row with almost no sleep.

So I didn't take clonazepam the 22-24th and then took .5mg on Saturday night and slept 6 broken hours, stopped taking Zoloft sunday, then 3/4 of .5mg of Clonazepam the following night as I wanted to at least heal a little from over a week of no sleep and slept maybe 4-5 broken hours.

I honestly don't know what to do now. I feel like I'm experiencing some withdrawal symptoms and last night took a time released melatonin and slept maybe 3 broken hours and realized I forgot to take it. I had done a workout and must've managed to pass out for the first time without it in weeks. I have a 5-month old baby and a 4-year old son and while my husband has been a huge help, I really want to get my sleep and anxiety in order ASAP and I've even put my graduate program on hold, starting for 2 months to see if the break allows me to heal. I also am fortunate to have a therapist weekly for 5 more weeks who can help me through this.

If cold turkey would allow me to end this within a week or 2 I feel like I'd be game for it, but also fear withdrawal meaning no sleep for days again similar to when I was on Zoloft. What would you do? If I taper, I need to get more as I only have 2 .5mg pills left at this point and will see my psychiatrist again tomorrow. Thank you so much in advance for any advice!

Hey Anxiousin2023

As Brighterday mentioned in her intro, 5 weeks is more than enough time to develop dependency, but because you have no prior use of these medications, you have a good chance of tapering off the medication without too much difficulty, although we never really know until we enter the taper process. We would never entertain cold turkey as an option unless certain circumstances left no other option.

General recommendations are a 5-10% reduction in dose every 10-14 days (see Colorado consortium benzodiazepine deprescribing guidelines) where you would recalculate that 5-10% again from each new dose as you taper, just so the reduction percentage doesn’t increase as your remaining dose lowers.

Are your tablets 0.5mg? If so, do you know if lower strength tablets are available on prescription where you live…  0.25mg?

If you’re not sure, Libertas may be able to provide information on what is available to you in your area a little later.

0.5mg may seem like a low dose, but Clonazepam is actually one of the most powerful benzo’s available and that 0.5mg is the equivalent of about 7.5mg Valium. I think at this point, tapering from 0.25mg strength tablets would be your best option (if available), as this would at least allow you to split tablets into quarters and reduce by 0.0625 every couple of weeks. It’s possible that you may even tolerate breaking your 0.5mg tabs into quarters and reducing by 0.125 every couple of weeks, but it’s really a “suck and see” situation, and you may have to alter your reduction size based on how you handle that first reduction over 2 weeks. Any questions?

Thank you for your response!

So, it takes months to get off of clonazepam after using them for 5 weeks?

I was thinking like a 2-3 week taper for this level of use, so wasn't expecting this...

I'll talk to my doctor tomorrow and see what he says, it's possible he just wasn't aware that I've been taking it this long.

Hi Anxiousin2023

Absolutely check with your doctor, but please be aware that most doctors have been misled by pharmaceutical companies and have very little belief or understanding of benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. But it is real, and it can be terribly painful and debilitating, both mentally and physically. Many arrive here on the forum after harmfully being c/t’d or fast tapered by their doctors, doctors who have no understanding of the devastating affects these medications can potentially have on the patients day to day life and ability to function. There really is no small dose or short course, as dependency can develop within two weeks. Not everyone has trouble coming off these medications, but until you taper, you really won’t know. The problem with c/t’ing or fast tapering is that if you are one of the group who have problems coming off these medications, and you eventually have to reinstate to stabilise your central nervous system, then it can actually complicate and intensify symptoms through the taper process the second time around. This is why we are here, to help those suffering after being mistreated by an ill informed medical community.

Thank you for your response!

 

So, it takes months to get off of clonazepam after using them for 5 weeks?

 

I was thinking like a 2-3 week taper for this level of use, so wasn't expecting this...

I'll talk to my doctor tomorrow and see what he says, it's possible he just wasn't aware that I've been taking it this long.

You need to see what you can tolerate. You may be able to come off sooner, but you may be like many of us and need to come off much slower to avoid shocking your nervous system and to keep your withdrawal symptoms manageable. I only took clonazepam daily for six weeks before I started having wd symptoms while taking it as prescribed. I had no choice but to slow taper. Even on a slow taper, it has been insanely tough. I'm hopeful you won't have to go as slowly as many of us to get off safely and successfully, but you won't know until you try. Just be careful you don't cut more than you can handle starting out. Be a bit conservative, and if you tolerate it well, you can speed up a bit.

What Winters sun said is all very good and wise.

Thank you for your response!

 

So, it takes months to get off of clonazepam after using them for 5 weeks?

 

I was thinking like a 2-3 week taper for this level of use, so wasn't expecting this...

I'll talk to my doctor tomorrow and see what he says, it's possible he just wasn't aware that I've been taking it this long.

 

You need to see what you can tolerate. You may be able to come off sooner, but you may be like many of us and need to come off much slower to avoid shocking your nervous system and to keep your withdrawal symptoms manageable. I only took clonazepam daily for six weeks before I started having wd symptoms while taking it as prescribed. I had no choice but to slow taper. Even on a slow taper, it has been insanely tough. I'm hopeful you won't have to go as slowly as many of us to get off safely and successfully, but you won't know until you try. Just be careful you don't cut more than you can handle starting out. Be a bit conservative, and if you tolerate it well, you can speed up a bit.

 

What Winters sun said is all very good and wise.

Thank you for joining in, hereforhelp. I was hoping someone would. Anxiousin2023 did post on the Cold Turkey, Detox and Rapid Taper Board, but I moved it to Planning Your Withdrawal (Taper) Board. I should have left it where it was so other members could give Anxious some feedback based on their personal experiences, so Anxious wasn’t just relying on my own personal opinion, and then we could’ve moved on to the Planning Board depending on what Anxious had decided. You’re right… we’re not saying the potential isn’t there for Anxious to taper off reasonably easy, we just want Anxious to use caution when moving forward to avoid any potential unnecessary complications or suffering where it could be avoided. One can always increase reductions if things pan out well after the initial smaller reduction.

Again, thanks for adding your thoughts.