7-10 day detox advice

Hi,

I’ve been taking klonopin .17mg 2x a day for 7 months for GAD but the medication is causing depression and headaches so I have decided to go to a medical detox where they us barbiturates to wean and then will work on my anxiety and depression. Does anyone have any positive experiences with this type of detox?

Unfortunately, it usually takes long and gradual detox to wean off benzos. Your mileage may vary, but most people don’t do well with the rapid barbiturate approach to getting off benzos.

 

I’m almost off valium (I used to be on klonopin) with the support of a detox doc who recommends gradual taper and the use of supportive supplements NAC, theanine and NAD+.

Taking barbiturates to get off benzos is INSANE! Barbiturates are extremely addictive and have si many awful side effects. I would do this if you paid me to.

Most detox places are only designed to make money and not to help anyone. If you get into trouble in a detox they just ship you out to the local ER and THEY wont know how to treat you either.

 

I was forced by a doctor to go into a psych hospital. No beds available on the detox unit so they stuck me on the acute psych ward. The staff hadn't a clue what benzo wd can be like. I was there I think 4 days and never once did anyone ask my what my wd symptoms were! Not a single doctor, nurse, or other staff ever asked me and I know damn well why. I had been ther Assitent Nurse Manager on THAT unit and I KNEW that the staff had NO education or preparation to handle a benzo WD patient. In all truth, neither did I! My real education began once I had healed and that took a long time.I was lucky that my insurance refused too pay and I was botted out after 4 days. Hone in full blown insane withdrawal.

east

Eastcoast62- I found this article and several others that say it is a very safe and humane way to detox from benzos....

 

  People who have never been through it shouldn't give an opinion. I was slowly detoxed from 6mg daily of Klonopin and it was long and sucked. Then detoxed from outrageous doses of xanax and Valium using Klonopin. TOTALLY sucked and didn't work. I went right back to xanax when I got home. Took months to get through it and I had dreams about Xanax for 2 years. The next two times I was tapered off Klonopin Phenobarbital was used; it was painless and took only 5 weeks. 4 times a day for a week then 3 tmes for a week - 2 - 1. Completely clean with absolutely no problems during the detox. I kept going back because it was finally determined that my GABA was messed up and I needed to be on a high dose of Klonopin or Xanax XR for life. My point - Phenobarbital DOES work and should be used if you don't want to suffer

It was used before benzodiazepines for the same reasons but benzos are safer as far as overdose and interactions. Phenobarbital also has a half life of about 110 hours so the taper is not only safe but painless.

 

Detoxes using phenobarbitol, etc, have been discussed on this forum before, and none of these fast detox gimics have turned out to be magic bullets for our members.  Also, what happens after one goes home is what is important, and its almost always unrelenting severe symptoms in most cases.  Multiple detoxes and or c/ts may sensitize ones system and make things worse each time.

 

So, this is certainly something I wouldnt do.  Here is my own hospital detox experience:

 

In 2009, I went to a voluntary hospital detox, sent there by a well meaning but clueless doctor to get off a high dose of xanax.  It was only 4 days, but it was awful.  I don't recommend this to anyone.  Far from being an "easy" way to get off benzos, as some seem to think, it's literally going from the frying pan into the fire for most of us who've experienced it:

 

Nine years ago, I went to a major Seattle hospital for "detox" where the doctor was supposed to be a "benzo expert."  He wasn't, and I only saw him for a few minutes the whole time.  All they did was cold turkey me off a high dose of xanax, feed me, and monitor my blood pressure for 4 days.  I was the only benzo person on a floor full of alcoholics, and there was NO follow up treatment or counseling.  Price: $16,000 (2009).  Afterwards, I had hellish relentless symptoms that never stopped.  These were so bad that I reinstated 4 months later, only to taper off a few years later.  I'd kindled by then, and it took 2.5 years for me to heal.

 

So, don't assume detox will make your withdrawal easier and faster.  Most likely, it will have the opposite effect.

 

 

Eastcoast62- I found this article and several others that say it is a very safe and humane way to detox from benzos....

 

  People who have never been through it shouldn't give an opinion. I was slowly detoxed from 6mg daily of Klonopin and it was long and sucked. Then detoxed from outrageous doses of xanax and Valium using Klonopin. TOTALLY sucked and didn't work. I went right back to xanax when I got home. Took months to get through it and I had dreams about Xanax for 2 years. The next two times I was tapered off Klonopin Phenobarbital was used; it was painless and took only 5 weeks. 4 times a day for a week then 3 tmes for a week - 2 - 1. Completely clean with absolutely no problems during the detox. I kept going back because it was finally determined that my GABA was messed up and I needed to be on a high dose of Klonopin or Xanax XR for life. My point - Phenobarbital DOES work and should be used if you don't want to suffer

It was used before benzodiazepines for the same reasons but benzos are safer as far as overdose and interactions. Phenobarbital also has a half life of about 110 hours so the taper is not only safe but painless.

Sorry, but you kinda lost me.. Your expecting the 6th(??) time to be a "charm"..?? -Which bit isnt working for you..??

 

Eastcoast62- I found this article and several others that say it is a very safe and humane way to detox from benzos....

 

  People who have never been through it shouldn't give an opinion. I was slowly detoxed from 6mg daily of Klonopin and it was long and sucked. Then detoxed from outrageous doses of xanax and Valium using Klonopin. TOTALLY sucked and didn't work. I went right back to xanax when I got home. Took months to get through it and I had dreams about Xanax for 2 years. The next two times I was tapered off Klonopin Phenobarbital was used; it was painless and took only 5 weeks. 4 times a day for a week then 3 tmes for a week - 2 - 1. Completely clean with absolutely no problems during the detox. I kept going back because it was finally determined that my GABA was messed up and I needed to be on a high dose of Klonopin or Xanax XR for life. My point - Phenobarbital DOES work and should be used if you don't want to suffer

It was used before benzodiazepines for the same reasons but benzos are safer as far as overdose and interactions. Phenobarbital also has a half life of about 110 hours so the taper is not only safe but painless.

Sorry, but you kinda lost me.. Your expecting the 6th(??) time to be a "charm"..?? -Which bit isnt working for you..??

 

Right?! I an super confused by this. It sounds like you are the poster child for detox not working, but you stand up for it? I will own up to the fact that I have no personal experience with detox. But here is why. When the doctor who prescribed my klonopin suggested it, I called and spoke with multiple nurses who worked at the detox place and all of them told me not to come. Since then I have spoken with doctors in a multitude of specialties and the medical concensus is that not only does rapid detox not work for benzos, it is inhumane! If you look online for people or websites or doctors recommending it, you literally can't find anyone recommending it who doesn't stand to gain, financially, from you taking that advice. Every website you can find will have a 1-800 number somewhere on it, with someone at the other end of the line waiting to "place" you.

 

My advice? Seek an opinion from someone who isn't buying yachts off your illness, someone who actually has an interest in you getting off and staying off, NOT someone who can benefit from repeat customers.

I went to  rehab thinking i would get help.....the clowns there do not have a clue of what this poison does to a person.......i was taken off in 5days and i was on a low dose of 1mg a day for  6months,,,,i am almost 20 months off all and still have one foot in the grave ,,,,,its been hell and doesn't seem to get better as the poison has damaged my CNS ,,,,not to say slow taper would of helped but there is more proof  of people healing with slow tapers....sorry to say but most doctors and rehabs etc  do not have a clue how this poison works as we can see from all the stories on benzo buddies ,  as most of the people are here from believing and trusting the ones  that should be helping us,,,,,,,,,good luck on your journey........

I didn’t think you guys understand. First of all this would be my first time at detox and I’m taking .17 mg of klonopin 2x per day 12 hrs between doses for a total of .34mg. This detox center just doesn’t detox you and send you home they will work with me to get me stable and setup on other meds after detox. It will not be cold turkey, i will be switched over to barbiturates and then slowly weaned off of them at a pace I feel comfortable with.

I will stand by what I said. Perhaps I did not explain it that well.

For SOME people, only a few, going cold turkey MAY be their only option to get off benzos. IF they will feel "safer" in a detox place, well, then, go to one.

However, I do not think that barbiturates and a safe way to get off benzos no matter what you might read.

 

One of the most difficult learning we benzo people must do in order to be healthy - is that taking a pill WILL NOT help us, unless that pills is for something medical like hypertension or diabetes or heart disease. Even some of those pills have awful side effects, but may be worth risking to prevent OTHER problems like strokes or heart attacks. Over time, we start to believe that if something does not feel right, we need to pop a pill. Over time all those pills build up and may end up causing you so much grief. Just as benzos have.

 

The OP here will do what he/she thinks is right for him and nothing we will say can change that, I guess. Most of us BB people do tend to be a bit "soap boxey" because of how much benzos messed us up. I am more than willing to CONSIDER different ways of getting off benzos! But taking barbs??? Have to say I truly doubt this will help. Barbs will just numb you up like benzos did and then you will have to get off

the darn barbs. When I was a young hippie type, I took barbiturates for sleep. Dangerous practice and stupid. I knew they were addictive. Thank GOD I didn't take a lot of them.

LOL! Barbs didn't even give this old hippie chick a good high. Ya do gotta laugh at some of this stuff.

east