Taper .5 Klonopin

Hello everyone.  I suffered a severe, adverse reaction to an antibiotic in October 2017 which left me with sudden, debilitating anxiety, chronic insomnia and a host of neurological and physical symptoms.  The drug is know to damage the CNS.  I was placed on Remeron as an appetite stimulate and sleep aide.  The Remeron did not help with sleep so after trying many sleep meds, I was placed on Klonopin in Feb. '17.  I was in perfect health and in the best shape of my life at 50 when this all happened.  I have no prior history of any use of medications or any history of mental illness.  I have been out of work and sick since this happened.  I slowly took myself off the Remeron and have been off 4 weeks (this was a hell all it's own and I believe I am still in withdrawal with debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, overall malaise, etc).  I only sleep about 5 hours max on the Klonopin and have decided the risk outweighs the benefit.  I want off.  Any comments/suggestions are welcome and appreciated!  I am hoping to find the support I need here.  I commend all of you!!!!

Hello H20Peace,

 

Welcome to Benzo Buddies! I'm sorry you had such severe effects from taking an antibiotic. You must have taken a floroquinolone  such as cipro or levaquin. They are known for causing all sorts of neurological symptoms. I was put on levaquin at one time but had such a bad reaction after just one dose I discontinued it.

 

I think you are making a good decision to come off klonopin.  Drugs like klonopin work... until they don't.  Tolerance can be reached where an increase in dose is required to maintain the original effect. Additionally, benzos are really designed for short term use only, say two to three weeks. After this a physical dependency can develop.

 

You may very well still be feeling the withdrawal from remeron.  You may wish to wait and stabilize before starting the klonopin taper.

 

A slow taper will help to minimize withdrawal symptoms. Generally, a reduction of no more than 5-10% every 10-14 days is suggested. I'll give you a link to the General Taper Plans for additional information.

 

I'll also give you a link to the Ashton Manual. It is an excellent resource about these types of drugs and how to withdraw. The manual was written by Dr. Heather Ashton, an expert in the field.

 

We'll be happy to support and encourage you through the withdrawal process. It can be challenging but with a sensible taper plan it is doable and worthwhile. Please do ask questions, we're here to help.

 

General Taper Plans 

 

The Ashton Manual

 

pianogirl 

Thank you!! I do plan to taper very slowly as my CNS is very sensitive.  I plan to start with 5%.  I am still not recovered from my reaction OR my Remeron taper but I want to be headed in that direction slow and steady.  It's horrible how these docs throw you on this stuff with no regard for the aftermath.  My heart goes out to everyone dealing with this.  I am pretty well-versed on Remeron if anyone has any questions or needs support. 

 

I actually had an adverse reaction to FLAGYL but the results are very similar to CIPRO so everyone be very careful taking this drug!  It turned my world upside down overnight.

 

I look forward to receiving support and giving some as well!

 

 

I do have a question...

 

I believe some of my recent, severe anxiety may be from developing tolerance.  If so, how is this best handled?  I am at .5 at night. 

If your anxiety has INCREASED on Klonopin then no doubt you are approaching tolerance so now is the time to get OFF the medication doing that slow taper.  Managing anxiety when it comes from something real is difficult enough, but when it comes from tolerance withdrawal (not situational) then just knowing this will help you get through it.  Just say to yourself; this is anxiety induced by Klonopin and I am going to get off this medication soon.  And not to take it too far but maybe you can look at it like practice as rebound anxiety is often the worst at around 10 days off the final dose (can be diminished with that slow taper) and you will get through this after dealing with tolerance anxiety without as much fear.  Anxiety and fear are different.  Anxiety is fear of fear.

Thank you.  My anxiety is extreme when I don't sleep.  I have slept less than 3 hours in the last 2 days.  I was having a meltdown this morning, anxiety, severe agitation, restlessness.... I usually only take the Klonopin at night for sleep but clearly it has not been working.  I'm not sure how to handle getting off this med on top of the 9 months of insomnia (I have not slept more than 5 hours in a night all this time).  The only thing that the "attacks" respond to is Klonopin so do I maybe split my dose between evening an morning.  I have no idea how to manage this and my doctor just keeps wanting to prescribe more pills.  I just don't know how to get out of this cycle.

 

Your support means so much.  The doctor just tells me to up the dose or add Gabapentin.

 

I would NEVER recommend that anyone puts anything into their system but I do want to share that when I was tapering, I did take melatonin to sleep and I think it helped.  The problem is that after I was done my taper and came home (I was at a different house); I tried to take a different brand and it did NOT help.  I wish I had more information for you but that is all I have on how I got through the worst of the insomnia.  I still don't sleep more than 5 hours a night (used to sleep like 10-12!) but the sleep that I do get is so much better than when I was on benzos.  You will love it!  Just know that is a healing process for your brain to learn to sleep again.

Thank you.  I think you may be right that I need to stabilize from stopping my Remeron first.  I will try to remain at my current dose and taper once I feel like my anxiety is under control.  The uptick in anxiety occurred as soon as I stopped the Remeron so I'm not sure what is causing what.  Did you crossover to Valium to taper?  My doc is OK with that but he said it can make it more difficult for some people.  I have looked up the Ashton method and there is no gradual cross over from .5 Klonopin.  Any input if I should do .25 Klonopin and 5 mg valium (equivalent to .25 klon) for a bit first before I just go completely to Valium?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide. 

Sorry I have no input on the crossing over as I did not do that ...  Just learn that a rapid detox can end up damaging you more (temporarily I hope?) then the actual damage from the meds.  Good that you are doing this research.  Maybe someone else can answer.