Major crash while tapering, what is going on?

My wife has spent the last couple of months tapering from Clonazepam. We have experienced a certain pattern when tapering time and again, where under Dr. instruction we would cut the pills, wait a week, cut again... etc... This is pretty much the textbook 6 week taper we all hear about, and in our ignorance went with it.

 

The first time was at the start of June I believe. Her original dose was 0.5mg 2x a day and we would effectively cut the pills in half ever 5 to 7 days, etc... until we were off. BIG MISTAKE, she crashed and she crashed bad and we found ourselves being bumped up in dose to 1.0mg 2x a day. Eventually we reduced back down to her original dose and went looking for another doctor. We then found one and in late summer we were advised to take it a little slower and to reduce the cuts by smaller doses, maybe wait a little longer..... and still my wife crashed and we got bumped up to 1.0mg 2x a day. WELL, we trust this Dr. he is our family GP and he is very willing to work with us. We waited at this dose, and went with another plan. He said, to go as slow as you feel comfortable and to only reduce the dose for example, cut the morning dose a little first wait til you feel ok, and then cut the evening dose. this method was slower and was not always easy, but my wife was able to reduce to her original dose of 0.5mg 2x a day. NOW, when we tried to cut below that dose, and in doing so cut the morning pill down to 0.25mg and kept the evening dose at 0.5mg she did struggle more than others. 2 weeks out and she was feeling rotten, and then at the start of the third week out she crashed hard again. Now, once again, we went to the Dr. and he upped her back to 1.0mg 2x a day....

 

The problem is, she has been at this dose now again for just over 4 days but she is not improving. There is no turn around and she is still in really rough shape. I'm trying to understand why she would not be improving like she has the other 2 crashes, or perhaps this is just taking longer this time? I'm looking for some advice and some insight as to what is going on and why nothing seems to help despite the dose increase.

 

Of course, this last week has brought us to becoming more informed about what is going on. I wish I was more informed before starting the last taper, then perhaps we would not be dealing with this.

Hi Care!

Your wife has a wonderful hubbie. In my opinion Your wife needs to hold at 2 mgs for longer, I would say 3 weeks at least. Then, she can taper off very slowly, I would say no more than 5 percent every two weeks. I am in the same benzo wd, clonazepam with different name, Rivotril. I made Big cuts at the begining, not a Good idea. Once she feels better she can do 5% cuts more ofen, like every 10 days.

 

All the best.

Thanks! Any advice on why she is not getting better yet? Is it more along the lines of tolerance and dependence?

If you don't get any replies here.

 

I wanted to suggest that you try posting in the KK thread, it can be found under Support Groups.  They have other's who are tapering off the same medication your wife is on and may be able to offer you more insight.

 

I know how hard this journey is, stay strong.  Things will get better.

 

 

TRY

 

Caretaker,

 

What are her symptoms?

If you don't get any replies here.

 

I wanted to suggest that you try posting in the KK thread, it can be found under Support Groups.  They have other's who are tapering off the same medication your wife is on and may be able to offer you more insight.

 

I know how hard this journey is, stay strong.  Things will get better.

 

 

TRY

 

I think your wife's sxs are due to the previous unsuccessful cuts. It is wd from those cuts. Half life of clonazepam in her body has been down, up, down, up...it can be tolerance as well. Do not worry much, she is going to stabilize soon.

Thanks again everyone. Her sxs are more physical than anything else, but that tends to bleed into everything too.

 

Right now, she has a racing feeling in her body like everything is "ramping up", the elephant on the chest feeling when it comes to breathing, she has bowel problems ... which is already a huge source of anxiety with her given other medical conditions.

 

Mentally, she says she is fine, but I have noticed that she tends to get into fits of despair and hysteria combined with fear about losing her job or having to quit, never ever having another kid, all the long term hopes essentially being dashed because of this moment. She has moments where externally she is calm and not freaking out, crying, or yelling, but I think you can tell that she is working hard to maintain. Yesterday she made it a point to go out and watch our daughter's dance recital, and though it was hard, she was able to do it. I think that meant a lot to her but it took most of the day to put herself together to finally make it. So nothing is easy, and she is so desperate to stabilize so life can keep moving forward and then hopefully get on a slow taper plan that works.

 

And in case anyone asks, I have already read the "what's happening in your brain" post that explains in great detail what is going on inside.

A nice summary of everything. I think it gives some perspective, but I still am just trying to sort out why we are where we are now and how long it could take to stabilize.

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=66397.0

 

Thanks again everyone, new member here, but this forum has already proved to be a God send.

 

It takes a while for clonazepam to build back up in the body so it could take a few weeks to stabilize and also like another post said she has been going up and down etc.  It could also be kindling.  The body doesn't like to go up and down like that so just hold for now and she should stabilize soon.

So what is the deal with this kindling thing I have seen a bit about? Could that be the reason why she is not stabilizing like we had thought she would? The last couple of times she was calming down and starting to feel better within a couple of days and now it is taking much longer than norm and not looking better at least now at day 4.

 

Thanks,

 

 

The kindling effect is where multiple withdrawals, putting the body into withdrawal and out of withdrawal multiple times can cause a hypersensitisation of the receptor systems and thus causing the nervous system to be hypersensitised which can lead people to not being able to stabalise on their benzos as well as they used to and as well as to feeling toxic on the drugs and as well as finding that each withdrawal is worse than the previous. In simple laymans terms it is often but not always harder the 2nd time around and even harder the 3rd time around at withdrawal, in people who have completely withdrawn and then went back on. This does not seem to be the case for people who have partially tapered down their dosage and then upped dose. It seems only the case for those who have completely withdrawn for more than a couple of weeks and then went back on multiple times.

Please let your wife know everything you described is exactly what a lot of us are going through too.  That she is not alone in this difficult process, many here can relate (myself included).  It's good that she got to go to the recital.  It may have been a challenge, but she accomplished it. 

 

Try to stay at one dose until things settle down with her sxs.  When she is able to move forward in her taper you may want to consider getting a scale and weighing her pills.  Breaking them in half is not an accurate way of reducing the dosage.  Since each pill can vary in the amount of filler versus the actual medication.

Thanks again everyone, this is her 3rd tapering attempt and I have a feeling that it just keeps getting worse. I'm hoping that this does not complicate things as we move to eventually taper in a much more sustainable fashion after she stabilizes. Your encouragement is invaluable, thanks so much. I keep telling her that she will come around in time, but she refuses to believe it. That 4 days should be more than enough, etc... We are supposed to meet her Dr. tomorrow to talk about what happened again this last week. I am leery of her increasing her intake of clonazepam if she can stabilize eventually as in all reality, we really want off this stuff.

I have found that the taper I'm on now at once every month is working well for me. My doctor says it's slow and once a month gives my brain and body a rest in between drops. It's been pretty easy so far. Still able  to function normally.. she might try once a month. It may take longer but we'll worth the lack of sever sx. I feel it for about 7 days and then my body levels out. Hope this helps.

 

Cliudef

My wife has spent the last couple of months tapering from Clonazepam. We have experienced a certain pattern when tapering time and again, where under Dr. instruction we would cut the pills, wait a week, cut again... etc... This is pretty much the textbook 6 week taper we all hear about, and in our ignorance went with it.

 

The first time was at the start of June I believe. Her original dose was 0.5mg 2x a day and we would effectively cut the pills in half ever 5 to 7 days, etc... until we were off. BIG MISTAKE, she crashed and she crashed bad and we found ourselves being bumped up in dose to 1.0mg 2x a day. Eventually we reduced back down to her original dose and went looking for another doctor. We then found one and in late summer we were advised to take it a little slower and to reduce the cuts by smaller doses, maybe wait a little longer..... and still my wife crashed and we got bumped up to 1.0mg 2x a day. WELL, we trust this Dr. he is our family GP and he is very willing to work with us. We waited at this dose, and went with another plan. He said, to go as slow as you feel comfortable and to only reduce the dose for example, cut the morning dose a little first wait til you feel ok, and then cut the evening dose. this method was slower and was not always easy, but my wife was able to reduce to her original dose of 0.5mg 2x a day. NOW, when we tried to cut below that dose, and in doing so cut the morning pill down to 0.25mg and kept the evening dose at 0.5mg she did struggle more than others. 2 weeks out and she was feeling rotten, and then at the start of the third week out she crashed hard again. Now, once again, we went to the Dr. and he upped her back to 1.0mg 2x a day....

 

The problem is, she has been at this dose now again for just over 4 days but she is not improving. There is no turn around and she is still in really rough shape. I'm trying to understand why she would not be improving like she has the other 2 crashes, or perhaps this is just taking longer this time? I'm looking for some advice and some insight as to what is going on and why nothing seems to help despite the dose increase.

 

Of course, this last week has brought us to becoming more informed about what is going on. I wish I was more informed before starting the last taper, then perhaps we would not be dealing with this.

 

 

Setbacks in withdrawal are absolutely NORMAL, there is nothing wrong, its how healing goes. Please read the post I did about recovery I hope  it will explain what's happening it to you more clearly  Benzodiazepine Recovery Tips http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=146020.msg1965070#msg1965070

 

 

Love Nova xxx  :smitten: