Hi buddies!

Hi my fellow benzo buddies,

I am joining this group to get support on my benzodiazepine tapering journey. I have been taking psychotropic medications since 2005. In the past three years, I have tapered and come off of pristiq, Prozac, seroquel, and ambien. I have also been coming off of 200mg lamictal and am currently taking 62.5mg. I have been taking clonazepam since 2015, and my highest dosage was somewhere between 3-5mg/day back in February 2019. In April 2019, I decided to come off of the clonazepam as my anxiety was still rampant and the medication wasn’t taking any of the edge off anymore. I think I tapered over a few weeks, but I may have just stopped completely. End of April 2019 through August 2019 were some of the darkest and hardest months ever. I was in withdrawal but did not know it. I sought out a second opinion from a new psychiatrist in august who informed me I hadn’t been properly tapered off of the clonazepam and brought me back up to 2mg/day over the next few months. Since then, I’ve tapered down to 0.625mg (my current dose).

I hope that this space provides a sense of community for me that I haven’t been able to get during this process, and that I can support others as well.

Hello Likeaphoenixfromashes, welcome to BenzoBuddies,

My goodness, you've certainly been busy, congratulations on eliminating and reducing so many of your medications.  I'm sorry you had to go through that misery with the Clonazepam but it sounds like you made the right call to reinstate and taper.

We're glad you've joined us for the last of your journey, have you noticed the symptoms getting more intense the lower you get in dose, many members have mentioned this so they slow their taper down to minimize the symptoms.

I'll provide some links to get you started but please let us know how we can help you.

Pamster

Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidelines

Planning Your Withdrawal (Taper)

Withdrawal Support (during your taper)

The Ashton Manual