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Tapered klonopin - walked off on September 6th 2018


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I was supposed to be a short term user of klonopin.  I was prescribed both klonopin and nortriptyline to help with horrible discontinuation symptoms following one month's use of olanzapine.  Two weeks after my last olanzapine dose (an anti-psychotic that I was prescribed for chronic migraines), I went down to 1.5-2 hours of sleep a night, tremors, chills/sweating, neuropathy, high levels of anxiety, tinnitus and I'm sure a few other things that I can't remember.  Having never gone through a "withdrawal" I relied on what my doctor gave me to help.  Around six weeks later, I started recovering some and the doctor said to stop klonopin.  Because I was on between .5 to 1mg per night she said that I could just stop.  Because of my recent experience, I thought "No Way" was I just stopping.  I found benzo buddies and started a quick taper based on my short term use.  It didn't work for me.  Before going down to zero, I realized that it wasn't working so I updosed.  You can read the details from my signature.

 

It was a challenge to figure out which med to taper first.  I really think that the nortriptyline was contributing to my continuing tinnitus and anxiety.  I also had the added side effect of depression.  It got to the point where I thought of going into a detox or meet with a psychiatrist.  I made so many phone calls trying to be seen by a psychiatrist but unless I was an immediate threat to myself, no one would see me.  Looking back I'm glad that I didn't go down that path.  Every change I tried to make caused high side effects, whether it was panic attacks, rapid heart beat, neuropathy in my arms, hands, chest and face.  I'd lost hope.  My husband was trying to be supportive but was getting frustrated.

 

I had a lot of traveling to do in within the United States during the spring and summer for my kids' sports schedules along with planned vacations so I decided to do a long hold.  It was the best decision that I made.  I truly believe that my CNS was extremely sensitive and needed time to recover and heal from the olanzapine C/T in December 2017.  I had a number of driving trips along with some flights and the anxiety was definitely high.  I was in at least 6 differents states including a trip from Pennsylvania to Hawaii.  In some ways, I think that being out of the house helped me to focus on other things  instead of myself.  While on our 2 week vacation to Hawaii, I was able to start tapering nortriptyline.  I got down from 35mg to 10mg and have held there.  I did so much better than my previous attempts.  I still had some symptoms, but they weren't as severe and didn't last as long.  Instead of having neuropathy/burning skin for months, it would last for a few days.  The same for a number of other symptoms.  I was also able to sleep in the day again.  It took 6 months to be able to nap, but it was heaven.

 

Towards the end of the summer I decided to tackle the last .25mg of klonopin.  I did a dry cut down to .125mg at a relatively fast rate and again felt withdrawal symptoms that were less severe and shorter in duration than earlier in the year.  For the last .125mg I did a DLMT using vodka and water.  I had tried whole milk earlier in the year and it just didn't work for me.  The vodka/water liquid titration was so easy to do once I had Jim Hawk's template.  I printed it out and would cross of the days.  I went down by .004mg per day and walked off at .005mg.  The first couple of days of the DLMT I did have my symptoms rev up but decided to push forward to see if things would stabilize and they did.  I'm now 22 days out from my last dose.  I still have tinnitus (including sound sensitivity) and some anxiety along with skin sensitivity.  I also had a 20 minute episode with light headedness/clammy skin/almost passing out two days ago.  Ironically I almost forget to mention the brain fog that I have :)

I have three engineering degrees and had an almost photographic memory.  Now I will leave my kitchen to go to the pantry in my basement and can't remember what I went there for.  There are other things like forgetting friends' names.  I've adopted acceptance and patience and try not to get too upset.  I've noticed some slight improvement there over the past two weeks.

Hopefully things continue to get better, but I'm being realistic in knowing that there may be some setbacks. 

 

I did try to decrease nortriptyline because my goal is to be free of that as well.  I do believe it's still contributing to the tinnitus and anxiety.  I switched from a capsule to liquid and tried to go from 10mg to 9.5mg.  That night I had interrupted sleep, horrible nightmares, irregular heart rhythms and panic/anxiety.  So, again I'm going to do a long(ish) hold and let my CNS recover before I attempt another taper.  I also wonder if the liquid may be more concentrated than the capsule even though it shouldn't be.

 

In summary, I was on klonopin for nine months.  Based on my experience I would definitely recommend holding to try to stablize.  It took me a four months after trying the first taper to make any additional changes.  I would also recommend a DLMT.  I know that it doesn't work for everyone.  Setting it up was daunting at first especially when not feeling well emotionally, physically or mentally, but once I had the "system" set up it was just as easy as taking a pill and I didn't have to weigh or cut my pills.  I don't really drink alcohol (my migraines and any type of alcohol really don't mix) so even the small amount added to water along with the klonopin wasn't really palatable for me.  I couldn't imagine using DLMT for a large dose just due to the taste, but starting from .125mg worked well for me and was small enough that I could just drink some water after.  I didn't use any supplements during the second taper.  I was using melatonin and magnesium early on in the winter/spring, but I don't think that they helped or hindered.  One additional thing that definitely worked in my favor is that I had saved enough of my pills that I was able to use the same manufacturer and didn't have to go through the nightmare that others have/are with switching manufacturers one or more times.

 

Good luck to everyone - you can do this!  I was on the bb early on when I had high symptoms and then took a break in the spring/summer for a couple of reasons.  My schedule was so busy with kids/work and I also wanted to just focus on making it through one day at a time doing all that I can to distract myself from my symptoms.  But having such supportive people who understand what you are going through is so wonderful and important.

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Congrats on being free of your benzo.  I’m so happy you found holding to be beneificial and that you also found a way to taper off that worked for you!

 

I too am off Valium and looking to taper my 3.75 mg’s of Remeron but I know it’s too soon as I’m really symptomatic from my benzo taper.

 

Here’s to being completely free!!

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Your story is a clear account of how difficult it is to discontinue psychotropic drugs. You found your way off in a safe way...congratulations! Because benzo dependency and withdrawal syndrome is often unrecognized in the medical community we have to do it ourselves. It is a tribute to our strength and determination. I'm happy for you and all of us who have found our way to drug freedom. May you use your strength to full healing.

 

With compassion,

Carita :smitten:

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