Is it necessary to taper .5 Klonopin for a relatively short-term user?

Now, before I get dog piled I KNOW .5 is still a significant dose and I know Ashton is the standard so I’m not recommending anyone do what I’m considering. During my PRN usage when I would have concerns about dependency I would stop for several days and then resume. Never experienced anything I would consider withdrawal. In fact, during my last 2 week abstinence period in October I felt joy like I had never felt in my life (likely due to meeting someone special but that’s beside the point) and then due to a monster panic attack brought on by extreme life stressors, resumed PRN usage that has morphed into the heaviest of my life. Not massive by many standards but daily for too long, which is too much.

 

If I skip days and feel fine, back down to .5 from what was often 2mg, can I MAYBE assume I’m lucky enough to have avoided dependency this time? I haven’t had an abstinence day in about 2 weeks because I became terrified of seizures.

 

But if I can make it several days with no pill in the absence of other symptoms since dropping this month’s daily high dose, can I potentially be out of the woods?

 

For those of you who have experienced seizures due to K withdrawal, were they in the absence of other symptoms or part of a larger withdrawal?

 

What I fear is being normal for days or weeks maybe and then out of the blue, something severe occurring. I fear dragging out a taper if I’m not truly dependent and then CREATING a dependency through the taper process, if that makes sense.

 

Regardless, even if I manage to escape this relatively unscathed, what I have learned has changed the way I view benzos forever.

Oh my Lilium00, I sure hope no one piles on you for posting your question, if they do, then shame on them.  We're here to help, not judge and to tell you the truth, if you're one of the lucky ones who won't experience this nightmare, then I'm happy for you!

 

This is your body, your choice and if you want to see how things go, then that's exactly what you should do.  If you run into problems, then you know where to come for help and support, we want what's best for you.

 

My feeling is, if you make it days and weeks without experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms, then you may be out of the woods.  I certainly understand not wanting to stay on the drug any longer than you have to, but I'm happy to know you've come to understand the power of these drugs.  If we can prevent even one person from going through what we have, we'll be happy.

Oh my Lilium00, I sure hope no one piles on you for posting your question, if they do, then shame on them.  We're here to help, not judge and to tell you the truth, if you're one of the lucky ones who won't experience this nightmare, then I'm happy for you!

 

This is your body, your choice and if you want to see how things go, then that's exactly what you should do.  If you run into problems, then you know where to come for help and support, we want what's best for you.

 

My feeling is, if you make it days and weeks without experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms, then you may be out of the woods.  I certainly understand not wanting to stay on the drug any longer than you have to, but I'm happy to know you've come to understand the power of these drugs.  If we can prevent even one person from going through what we have, we'll be happy.

Thank you very much. I’m sorry for what you have gone through but thank you for being here and sharing your story. I thought I knew about what benzos could do and to some extent, I did, but I didn’t TRULY understand until recently. I appreciate all of you.

Two weeks is the general timeline for all symptoms to emerge with a long-acting benzodiazepine ... in your situation I might cut the dose in half at this point instead of seeing what happens with a cold turkey.  The reason for this would be that it’s hard to correct mistakes with long-acting benzodiazepines. The more prudent course is to cut and see how that goes, IMO.

 

I took .5 mg of K on and off (sometimes off for months) for years with no issues stopping. Now I cannot get off after a doctor said to take 1 mg every day, it would be fine. (NOT!). So it may be fine to just stop. But avoid using daily to avoid dependence in the future.