# Clonazepam again - Scaremongering or the Truth?



## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Hi guys,

Need one of the med experts to help me out here. I reinstated on Benzos after 8 days of hellish withdrawal. I went on that 'Non-Benzodiazepine' website and posted there to ask for advice. They told me to reinstate and taper slowly. I think this was sound advice.

But they are seriously SUPER intense at that website - like people talking about 10 years of being off these drugs and still withdrawing, reducing your doses in the most ridiculous fractions ever using syringes to dilute them, etc.

I just need to know: are these people nuts or is this the reality with Benzos? My doctor seems to think they are nuts. She says that I withdrew too quickly but that if I do 3-4 week reductions of my 0.5mg pill by cutting off a 1/4 pill each time i'll be fine. I told the people at this board that and they said I am in a world of hell if I do that. Basically their advice has me in Benzo withdrawal longer than i'm on the drug itself.

What do you guys think?? I just freakin want off these drugs but I don't want to go through what happened the first time all over again.


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## egodeath (Oct 27, 2008)

Matt210 said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> Need one of the med experts to help me out here. I reinstated on Benzos after 8 days of hellish withdrawal. I went on that 'Non-Benzodiazepine' website and posted there to ask for advice. They told me to reinstate and taper slowly. I think this was sound advice.
> 
> ...


As you know, I'm not a doctor, but they sound insane. That sounds like something out of narcotics anonymous, like for people who were eating ten Xanax with their Percocet before eating quaaludes. I've taken a Klonopin a day for two weeks, then maybe one or two a week, then maybe none for a week. Maybe my experience is different, but I feel like the drugs that you build a quick tolerance for you can get off pretty quickly, even if it's not fun, and then get back on when you need to. If you start convulsing, hallucinating, experiencing delirium tremens kind of stuff you should be alright.


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Yeah, i think i'm just going to try my plan of tapering down 1/4 pill every 3-4 weeks. That will still take me nearly 3 months to get off these things (almost as long as i've been on them for) - i've got to think that this is being careful.

I can deal with the physical symptoms, I just can't handle the awful mental ones. I felt more nuts than usual last time, super anxious, and suicidal. Do NOT want that to happen again.


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## egodeath (Oct 27, 2008)

Yeah, absolutely not. Take it slow.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Hmm yeah I'm no doctor either but those guys sound a bit crazy. I've been on xanax and clonazepam back and forth for almost 2 years. I started at .25 mg or something and over time was subscribed up to 8 mg xanax/day. I also wanted to get off of them back in november '08 (somewhere around that time). I started tapering .5 every week until i was down to 2 mg which then i tapered off every 2-4 weeks until i was down to nothing at all. Nothing at all didn't work too well for me. It probably would have been better to switch over to a longer lasting benzo, i've been recommended clonazepam and valium because they have much longer half lives (whatever a half life is lol jinelle :lol: , inside joke sorry matt). So anyways....I believe that I could have gotten off but it wasn't worth dealing with on top of dp/dr for me. So now I take only on occasion which is what xanax is supposed to be used for anyways. Occasion for me is usually around 2 mg/ day give or take if it's a good vs. shitty day.

The longer you take the drug the more you're going to get use to it and want it. .5 mg is a really low dose. I wouldn't think it would be necessary to cut it down 1/4th at a time every 3-4 weeks, that just means you're going to be on it longer, but if that's what you're comfortable with it could be a good method. Truth is - yes of course benzo withdrawl is difficult and shitty but that's the price to pay if you wanna get off them. Good news is you haven't been on them for years and you are definitely capable of getting off them if that's what you want to do. There's no way in hell that you will withdrawal for 10 years from the dosage and amount of time you've been on clonazzepam. Maybe someone whose been on them for 100 years would withdrawal that long, but even then that seems irrational.

I would guess if you stick it out you might have a difficult time for a month, 2 months max. It differs from person to person so I'm just making a guess. Another thing that will help you is keeping busy. The more you stay busy the less time you have to think about the drug which helps a lot with psychological dependence. I believe a lot of it is mind over matter.

Oneee more thing, I don't know if you have checked this out or tried any natural products for anxiety but that can do wonders for people too, and without addiction/side effects. There is a supplement called Nevaton (i think that's how you spell it) that is good for anxiety, Standard Process is the company that makes it. Also I don't know if you're a tea drinker but there's some good stuff out there as far as tea goes. I picked up a pack of....i forgot the name but it promotes relaxing and it puts me out every night after I drink a cup.  yay for tea!

hang in there matt and let us know what you decide to do.


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Thanks Kenny. I'm going to take it slow only because of how scary it was with round 1 of withdrawal. But what you say makes a lot of sense and is something I thought of as well. The people on that site recommend taking months and months to get off - I just thought: Won't that make it worse?

I'm going to take the advice of people on this site and my doctor and take the middle ground - 3 weeks for each transition and cut a 1/4 pill each time. My dose is ridiculously low already so in no time i'll be down there.

Then i'm going to look into some alternatives to Benzos - something less addictive.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

sounds good


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

egodeath: i am sorry to be the one to tell you this but ludes don't exist anymore. Yes i know it is a sad thing and even though im not old enough to have ever tried them i almost cry about it too. If anyone thinks benzo withdrawal is bad could you imagine being addicted to ludes or old school barbiturates like nembutal or seconal? Jeez.

As for the people on that site yes they are abit nuts. I have heard of people tapering off benzos by putting valium in a solution and dropping down slowly like that. But these are people who have been on them for years at high doses. Ive also knows people to count the damn beads out of their last capsule of effexor after being on the stuff for only a year. So ya for every drug there is a horror story.

As for tapering you can't use short acting benzos it won't work or will be to damn painful and if your on a high dose dangerous. Taper by no more then .25mg's of clonazepam every 10 days. Id say less of a dose every 10 days if you feel the withdrawal symptoms or maybe switch to valium and taper using that. The slower you go the less withdrawal effects you will get and the less post withdrawal symptoms you will have. I have learned this goes for opiates as well sadly enough. Well ive learned that about 20 times :? .


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

comfortably numb said:


> egodeath: i am sorry to be the one to tell you this but ludes don't exist anymore. Yes i know it is a sad thing and even though im not old enough to have ever tried them i almost cry about it too. If anyone thinks benzo withdrawal is bad could you imagine being addicted to ludes or old school barbiturates like nembutal or seconal? Jeez.
> 
> As for the people on that site yes they are abit nuts. I have heard of people tapering off benzos by putting valium in a solution and dropping down slowly like that. But these are people who have been on them for years at high doses. Ive also knows people to count the damn beads out of their last capsule of effexor after being on the stuff for only a year. So ya for every drug there is a horror story.
> 
> As for tapering you can't use short acting benzos it won't work or will be to damn painful and if your on a high dose dangerous. Taper by no more then .25mg's of clonazepam every 10 days. Id say less of a dose every 10 days if you feel the withdrawal symptoms or maybe switch to valium and taper using that. The slower you go the less withdrawal effects you will get and the less post withdrawal symptoms you will have. I have learned this goes for opiates as well sadly enough. Well ive learned that about 20 times :? .


Thanks so much for the advice. Going to be super safe and cut by even less - 1/4 pill (or 0.125) every 3 weeks. Need to get a decent pill cutter though or i'm going to be all over the map with my doses.

Lucky me, being sensitive to Benzos.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

I don't have much to contribute to this thread, as the consensus is that your doctor's advice is sound, but I would like to offer a small piece of advice. When you are following your guideline, listen to your body and allow for variation. If for some reason you feel you need a "regular" or larger dose than what is in your schedule, for instance if you have a stressful day, then allow yourself to take the amount you need. Stressing about taking more than what you should take will add to your worry and hamper your taper process.

In any case, I wish you the best of luck.


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## Conjurus (Oct 25, 2008)

> quaaludes.


What is that?


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

Conjurus said:


> > quaaludes.
> 
> 
> What is that?


http://tinyurl.com/dyfn9g


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