Klonopin taper - short term user (ok not so short term in the end)

So my neuro prescribed Klonopin twice per day (0.5mg each) for anxiety.  I had been having bizarre neuro symptoms, over a period of months, I had been diagnosed with spine issues, but they were checking for MS and ALS had been discussed.  I really needed help with the panic I was having.  I knew that I should see a psychiatrist, and I tried that route.. using various referrals I got turned down by 4 different places b/c they wouldn't take me as a new patient.. I gave in and started taking the benzo, figuring I'd sort out the psy doc soon.

 

Fast forward to now.. I still don't really know what's wrong with me, but it's not ALS or MS..  so I'm stressed and quality of life is down, but at least I'm not dying, right?

 

Other meds I'm taking:  Gabapentin 600mg at night (just 300mg 1 week, then 600mg last 2 weeks) and Tizanadine 4mg at night (last 2 weeks).  These are for leg pain, twitching, spasticity.

 

I took the Klonopin as prescribed for 7.5 weeks.  At this time I spoke with a new doctor that I'm seeing about getting off the drug.  She advised to just cut from twice per day to once per day until I ran out of pills.  That gave me roughly 1 week on 0.5mg per day.  I didn't over think it, didn't Google doctor it..  that's gotten me into so much stress over the past months.

 

Experience during week with just 1 tablet:

Day 1-2:  Normal

Day 3:  Hands start burning;  feet start sweating;  legs very twitchy (none of this was novel in my context, but it's remarkable in hindsight)

Day 4-5:  Increased foot/hand sweating; feet and hands burning

Day 6:  By now I've ordered running socks that wick away sweat b/c feet were so swampy.  Bottoms of feet tender, made note that they felt like I came in from playing in the snow and jumped into a hot bath.  This was my last day taking Klonopin.  I'm out of pills.

 

Experience with no pills:

Day 1:  Add painful temp sensitivity on arms/legs.  Add new muscle tightness in various places.  My tinnitus is louder than usual, but I have a cold and lots of congestion so that's the obvious explanation.

Day 2:  Everything keeps turning up..  now it's painful wearing soft sweat pants, more muscle tightness.  Even my high thread count sheets are painful to my legs.

Day 3:  My tinnitus adds a new sound in my right ear.  Now it's infrequently making a low pitched buzzing sound like electricity, or a bug in my ear.  Again, I'm blaming my cold b/c the affected ear is totally closed and likely has fluid in middle ear.

Day 4-5:  Peripheral sensations improving, less sweating.  Everything else unchanged.

Day 6:  Sweating resolved;  burning sensations resolved.  Tinnitus still buzzing..  Muscle cramps so bad that I couldn't fix dinner or anything.  Legs were just useless after about 6PM.

Day 7:  More muscle issues and tinnitus;  walking helped muscles a lot.  Realization that my "flare up" was likely Benzo withdrawl b/c symptoms got way out of whack with baseline.  Refilled Klonopin.

 

This is where I'm at now.  I'm scared to death of the Tinnitus b/c this electric sound isn't masked by anything.  I decided to take 0.25mg at bedtime and woke at 6AM by the damn buzzing.  Took another 0.25mg.  It's relatively quiet now, but did buzz once just to let me know it's still there.

 

My objective is to kick this ASAP, and I feel that it shouldn't be horrible given the short time of usage and low(ish) dosage.  Still, I NEED to get rid of this ear noise or I'll go crazy.  My prescribing doctor isn't going to help.. I have no psychiatrist..  my newer doctor might be useful, but she's the one that told me to do half dosage for a week then quit.  I'd also like to get off the Gabapentin b/c I don't think it's helped and honestly I'm at a point where I want to see what baseline feels like.  That's secondary to the benzo though.

 

I hope I didn't make a horrible mistake taking the drug again, as most side effects had waned.  I was just scared of the Tinnitus noise, and my thinking was to resolve that if possible, then taper more slowly.  I will also see my ENT Tuesday, and hopefully they can clear up my ear.  I'm guessing the combo of a screwed up ear and the Benzo cut back caused my brain to pick up on something out of the ordinary there.  It's not generally present, just gives me the occasional zap or three, or five to let me know it's there.  Naturally I have a fear response to this, which I know is a bad thing.  If not for the ear business, I would have been done and normal soon, I think.

 

I'd appreciate any guidance.  I am thinking I'll take 0.5mg once per day a while longer to see if my tinnitus resolves.  Then I'd taper by 1/4 tablet every week or so maybe?  If the tinnitus doesn't resolve with 1 tablet I'm not sure what to do.. do I then go back to the full dosage and start over?

I had tinnitus through the majority of my taper and for sometime after.  It went away for the most part about a week ago.  It definitely added to my anxiety thinking that it would never end and I'd be stuck with it forever.  I updosed at one point after a fast taper and held for a few months.  When I restarted tapering it went pretty smoothly from there (although tinnitus was a fairly constant symptom). 

Thank you for the response.

 

I went from a week of nothing back to half my dose, basically.  Unfortunately it didn't help the tinnitus, so maybe I should have just held strong.  Man, I can't believe I set a trap for myself with this. For years after my original T started (loud noise induced) I was so vigilant about this, but I got focused on other things after I no longer cared about it.

 

The doctor mentioned nothing about the dependency, or that I should take it for a short period of time.  When it was originally prescribed I even asked if it was for a short term band-aid, or something I'd keep taking.. he said something I'd keep taking.  It was dumb of me to not check, but I was so Google-doctored out by then.

 

I'm trying to figure out whether I should stick with half my original dose, since I'm a short term user and was mostly through my other symptoms already, or if I should bump back to full (or close to) dose and take the whole thing more slowly.

Hi Weevilone

 

I'm almost exactly in same situation as you. I quit quatipine (50mg nightly) 7,5 weeks ago. Oh boy, what an experience that was. Only last couple of weeks I've been totally symptom free from so many of withdrawal symptoms it caused.

 

Withdrawal anxiety was insane and I was prescribed 20x1mg Xanax for the first week. After that my doc changed it to klonopin. 0.5-2mg "as needed". First I took 0.5mg for couple of days and as my anxiety from quatipine withdrawal began to fade, I took klonopin only once or twice a week. However my doses were up to 1-2mg at the time as I started having withdrawals from benzos and 0.5mg just wasn't enough anymore.

 

Between my doses I had again some anxiety and as a new symptom paresthesias in my hands and back and especially ever increasing tinnitus. I have had mild tinnitus for 20 years, but now noticed new high pitch electric sound in my left ear.  However I'm absolutely sure it'll resolve once off this drug.

 

2 weeks ago after last 2mg dose I knew I had to get rid of this drug. I managed to survive to day 9 until my tinnitus and anxiety went through the roof. I felt I was dying. 2mg of K again.

 

Yesterday, which was 4th day after my last 2mg I decided that I'll do tapering to avoid any protracted withdrawal symptoms. Since my dosage varied over past two months and I had lots and lots of days without K, it's hard to determine what is my baseline where to start tapering. I decided I'll go with 0.5mg/day.

 

So last night took my first dose of 0.5mg. It seems to be right dose to start, as my tinnitus and anxiety are manageable right now, although present.

 

My plan is water titrating. 60ml of water and 0.5mg of klonopin in the mix. Every day I'll take 1ml off from the mixture. So today I'll take 59ml, tomorrow 58ml and so on.

 

This means 60 days of tapering and then completely off. I'm motivated and believe I can do this as short term user. What do you think, would this kind of tapering schedule be suitable for you too? If so, we can do this together.

 

 

I like the idea, but I need to learn some things. 

 

First off, I don’t know what baseline to use.  I took 0.5 twice per day for 7.5 weeks, 0.5 once per day for a week, nothing for a week. 

 

I have been back on 0.5 once per day for 2 days and it hasn’t put a dent in my tinnitus buzzing.  Most of my other symptoms had ended previously (except muscle cramps).  I am scared of the buzzing and don’t know if this means I need to start higher.

 

I also don’t know if I have access to enough pills to taper slowly.  The doc let me get hooked and now doesn’t want to refill.

 

Lastly I need to read about titration vs cutting.

I have read about T quite a bit over the last few weeks since the new sound. I doubt that increasing your dosage back to 1mg/day will do any good for your T. It might mask it for a start, but once you come down on K it'll just more than likely appear again. Upping your dose can make it worse also. It did for me after first days of relief higher doses gave.

 

Once you develop T from drugs, most likely the only solution is getting completely off from the drug which caused it in first place. T is propably the last thing that'll go away what comes to the withdrawal symptoms benzos (or any other drug for that matter) can cause. And remember, Benzos are ototoxic. So faster you get off, faster you allow your brain and ears to start healing.

 

It'll fade eventually, as did my T when I first got it 20 years ago. I thought it was just killing me, but for last 18 years I hardly noticed it anymore until now.

Thanks for the intel. 

 

I first developed my T about 10 years ago, and it's been mostly left ear issues.  I too thought I was going to go crazy, and I had to get some counseling and meds to help me "not care" enough for it to fade into the background.  It's still there, but it doesn't matter and I don't notice.  My counselor was a previous T sufferer so he was well suited to help me.  Toward the end, he moved me to another counselor because working with me had put him back in T crisis.  For that reason, I know overthinking this is a bad, bad thing.

 

Oddly enough, this round affects primarily my right ear.  It's not known to have hearing loss as my left does.  It feels like my brain has cranked up the gain in that ear, and it's detected something that was previously below the threshold.  Now it's so startling when it happens that it grabs all my attention and that completes the feedback loop I need to break.

 

Right now I'm otherwise comfortable with 0.5 once per day, so I'm sticking there.  We'll see if I have withdrawl between doses.  If so, not sure what is the proper course of action.  Meanwhile I've reached out to 2 doctors (one psychiatrist from 10 years back, one current doctor) to ensure I have enough pills to taper properly.  All the planning in the world won't help without adequate meds.

 

I can't believe I didn't realize sooner that this was withdrawal.  The early symptoms so closely resembled my neurological problems of the past 6-8 months that it didn't click.  But when the ear fired up and previously unaffected muscles started to cramp up it became clear.  Sure could have saved myself some headaches.

Well, I wound up adding back 0.25 in the morning.

 

With just 0.5 at night I'm not doing terrible during the day, but after about 6PM I get worsening symptoms.  Last night I was too manic to eat dinner, so I wound up arguing with my wife (that is oddly non-sympathetic), then leaving to drive around aimlessly for hours until it was bedtime.  She's angry that I scared the kids by leaving, but I thought that was better than staying to argue.

 

It's strange that she's not sympathetic b/c she's bipolar and has seen rock bottom way worse than this over the decades.  Her "tapering" though, has always been to simply transition to a new med.  She's never tapered off anything completely with no substitute.  She thinks I'm just making a big deal out of nothing and that I'm "a pain in the ass".  I can't do anything right.. if I call the doctor every other day then I should have called them every day.  If I called them every day, then I should have called them twice per day, etc.

 

I don't know whether I will subtract all or part of the morning dosage from tonight's.  Meanwhile zero doctors will call me back, so I have no support.

 

Anecdotally, the morning dose has everything pretty calm and good right now, except for the random electrical buzzing in my right ear (which is the thing I'm most scared of).  It continues to be random and unaffected by extra meds.  I need to convince myself that'll be ok, but I'm not very convincing.

I wanted to close this off with an update since I used this forum for advice early on, then didn't look back b/c I was on a course that was slow but working.

 

In the end I didn't water titrate, but I did obtain a great pill cutter that let me cut my Clonazepam 0.5 tablets into 1/8 pieces somewhat reliably and surprisingly cleanly.

 

[nobbc]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U84Q8OK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/nobbc]

 

I used a split AM/PM dosage and initially would reduce by 1/4 tablet at a time.  I'd stabilize for a month or two depending on how I was feeling.  In the end I determined that I felt better if I shaved 1/8 off AM and 1/8 off PM evenly rather than winding up with an asymmetric dosage.  That caused me interdose withdrawal. 

 

Eventually I reached a point where I couldn't just drop that much at a time so I began to use a thumbnail to shave small bits off the 1/8's (as evenly as possible).  I'd shave off a bit more each day until I was left with a piece that was getting too small to handle.  I'd sit there for a few days, then jump off that 1/8 (as evenly as possible).  Rinse and repeat always keeping my AM and PM dosages as even as possible.

 

When I reached a daily 1/4 tablet dosage (again, spit to 1/8 AM and PM) I repeated the shaving routine, but this time I was more meticulous with it.  The past week or so I've really been down to crumbs.  Today is my jumping off point.  I'm not sure what the next days/weeks/months hold but I'm done regardless. 

 

I took a long time to get off my 1mg/day dosage that's small compared to some.  The symptoms played hell with my nephropathy so I took it slow, from October 2018 until April 2020.  I've gone through three different prescribing doctors.. 1 quack that initially prescribed, 1 GP that wanted me to get off way to quickly.. then retired, and finally his partner that I had to practically beg to get my last couple bottles. 

 

My last comments on this..  I realize this won't work for everyone and I'm sure it's imperfect.  It's just what worked for me.  My last bit of advice is to keep a diary of your journey.  When you're feeling the pain from this it's always helpful to read back to see that you've felt this pain before and it'll pass.  The proof is right there in your own documented experiences.

 

Edit:  One other tip.  Fit the taper into your life.. don't try to fit your life into the taper.  Take your time and don't be afraid to sit tight at a dosage when you need to be comfortable for a work event, family vacation, whatever.  In the end it's just that you get to the finish line that matters.

 

 

Edit: Deactivated commercial link.

Hi weevilone,

 

Thanks for sharing your journey and the great pill cutter, that looks like a good one.  I like how you edited your post to include the tip about fitting the taper into your life, great advice.

 

Pamster

I have to add an update.  Smells..

 

About 8-10 days after my last dose I began to have the most incredibly sensitive nose on the planet.  This is not something I noticed during my taper and I feel like I took it really slowly at the end.  It's just so odd.  It feels like my nasal passages are wide open .. nearly raw.  Things like foods are fine, taste is fine.  But smells like the -very- tiny odor from my space heater blow me away with a chemical smell.  I've always been on the sensitive side so it's not unusual for me to smell things that others can't but now I'm driving them crazy for fear it's something real that needs to be corrected (with my house).

 

Other than that:

-Mildly tight muscles

-Insomnia

-Burning legs/feet (but I have small fiber nephropathy so expected)

-Agitation (sorry fam)

-Louder than usual tinnitus

-Poor concentration

 

All of these will fade and all were typical for me other than the smells. 

 

On a positive note I'm looking forward to someday enjoying a couple of amazing beers.  I've abstained since I started the meds and went over a year with zero.  When I tried 1-2 for a special occasion after that, it worked out to be a really bad idea.  I'll give it a couple of months and hopefully get back to enjoying a few per week someday.

 

 

Yeah, give your body plenty of time to heal from your benzo experience because alcohol is called liquid benzo's because they affect the same part of the brain.  This is why benzo's are given to patients in detox coming off alcohol.

 

Your issue of your super smeller reminded me of my own experience, it was the same.  I had the gas company come out to my neighbors house because I was sure I could smell gas coming from their meter, nope.  I remember apologizing to another neighbor because of my lawn clippings in a corner of my yard, I thought it was so offensive, they just looked at me like I was crazy. 

Are there guidelines for alcohol and how long to wait?

 

My days of tying one on are in the distant past but I'd like to have 1-2 with the wife on weekends.

 

 

Regarding my super smeller, I had your exact same "gas leak" experience in December... but with a twist.  It was real!  My family couldn't smell it but after a couple days I ordered a tester and found a leak.  The gas company came out and wound up having to dig up my lawn to fix a leak that was causing it to seep into my basement wall and floor.  They were at my home for about 24 hours before declaring it safe.  It's possible that I was enhanced at that time.

You are very new off benzos, I wouldn't chance a set back by drinking now.  I didn't have any adult beverages until after well after one year off.  Some people can tolerate them earlier but I didn't want  to derail what was already a lengthy recovery.

 

Try not to be impatient, I know we all want to return to what was our 'normal' as soon as possible but it's best to wait until you've been recovered for a while before testing the waters.

 

pianogirl 

Are there guidelines for alcohol and how long to wait?

 

My days of tying one on are in the distant past but I'd like to have 1-2 with the wife on weekends.

 

 

Regarding my super smeller, I had your exact same "gas leak" experience in December... but with a twist.  It was real!  My family couldn't smell it but after a couple days I ordered a tester and found a leak.  The gas company came out and wound up having to dig up my lawn to fix a leak that was causing it to seep into my basement wall and floor.  They were at my home for about 24 hours before declaring it safe. It's possible that I was enhanced at that time.

 

The only good thing I've ever read on BenzoBuddies about benzo withdrawal, I'm glad your super smeller paid off.