Beyond ready to be off of klonopin

Hi, I'm a grad student that started having panic attacks about a year into my program. I started taking klonopin daily, only I didn't know how addictive it is. When I stopped taking it a couple of months later, it was too late. I was all messed up for about a month and doctors were throwing all kinds of antidepressants at me for my "anxiety" before I realized it was benzo withdrawal. I started off on 1.25mg/day and have successfully tapered down to about 1/6 of 0.5mg tablet twice, with the help of gapapentin, only to be back up to an entire 0.5mg tablet now because I started having adverse effects from my gabapentin and needed to stop it abruptly. I was not on a very high dose, but it still came with withdrawal symptoms which resulted in a huge setback with my knlonpin. I have been in this taper battle for 2 years now and boy, am I tired. It sucks. I just want to be normal again.

Hello, Readytobefree88 — welcome to BenzoBuddies!

 

That’s a shame, I had trouble with gabapentin too – it made my feet swell up so much that I couldn’t get my shoes on.

 

Don’t worry, once you stabilize on the current dose of Klonopin, you’ll be able to figure out a comfortable taper plan, and go down from there. You’ve come to the right place to do that – members here will be happy to help you.

 

I'm glad that you decided to join the forum. Our members have gone through benzodiazepine use and withdrawal themselves, so you'll find plenty of information and support here.

 

Here are a few links to boards that may be a good starting place for you:

 

  General Taper Plans

  Titration Taper Plans

  Withdrawal Support

  Other Medications

 

Please take a moment to Create a Signature — you can enter your pertinent drug and taper history in the box at the bottom. This will allow members to see where you are in the process, so that they can better support you.

 

Looking forward to seeing you on the forum!

Leslie 

 

 

The Ashton Manual provides information that can be useful during any stage of withdrawal and recovery, and includes a list of common symptoms with helpful explanations.

 

For those who are currently tapering, a starting guideline is that the dosage not be reduced faster than by 5-10% every 10-14 days, although some taper even more slowly than that. One exception: very short-term users of a few weeks or less may be able to taper somewhat faster.