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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by greenwillow on April 15, 2004, at 23:12:33
Suffering severe Klonopin withdrawal symptoms. Here's what I did - is this too quick?
.5 mg. Klonopin for 6 months for insomnia. Stopped cold turkey - Xtreme withdrawal by day 6. Resumed Klonopin .25 mg. 1 wk.; reduced to .125 mg. the next week; then started dropping 1 daily dose/week. Tonight is my first time to drop the second dose this week. I have every withdrawal symptom ever dreamt up. My doctor cannot believe the severity of the symptoms considering a relatively small dose for a relatively short time. For those who have been thru this before: Is what I am doing considered a slow withdrawal? Or maybe I should drop one daily dose every 2 weeks? At this rate, tapering is going to take forever; am I just prolonging the pain? (I am really hypersensitive to chemicals.)
Posted by cubbybear on April 16, 2004, at 4:00:44
In reply to Help! Bad Klonopin withdrawal, posted by greenwillow on April 15, 2004, at 23:12:33
. For those who have been thru this before: Is what I am doing considered a slow withdrawal? Or maybe I should drop one daily dose every 2 weeks? At this rate, tapering is going to take forever; am I just prolonging the pain? (I am really hypersensitive to chemicals.)
Yes, it is quite slow, and as you said, you're very hypersensitive. But importantly, you have to get over the notion that someone's standing over your head pushing you to withdraw quickly. Since I assume you're not facing a genuine physical emergency (e.g. pregnancy), you can/should take it as slow as possible. Of course, this is going to take a while, but again, there's no rush, and being hypersenstive, you will need to go super-slow in order to avoid painful withdrawal.
As one who's "been there, done that", I can recommend two alternative courses of action, or you can combine both:1) Drop your dose by no more than .125 mg. every 10 days-2 weeks. Some people have suggested going on liquid klonopin, which makes infinitesimal decreases possible, but I never looked into availability of the liquid.
2) What worked for me was switching over to the equivalent dose of VALIUM at the .125 mark and splitting 2 mg, pills. I know that many people dislike this website since the people running the show are "benzophobic", however, you should try looking at www.benzo.uk and click until you get to the slow withdrawal schedules and it will show you how to make the decreases using Valium. I even added one more of my own, i.e. going to 1/2 mg. Valium for 1 week before quitting. For me, It all worked like a charm. Since Valium has nearly the same chemical structure as Klonopin,Xanax, Ativan, etc. your brain will interpret the Valium as it would for the other benzos and you can cross over in order to make the withdrawals. It should be much easier for you to do it this way. If, for whatever reason, your doctor refuses to make the switch, well, I think you know what you should do next...
Good luck. With perseverance and patience, you can do it!
Posted by gheld on April 16, 2004, at 19:15:05
In reply to Help! Bad Klonopin withdrawal, posted by greenwillow on April 15, 2004, at 23:12:33
Suggest you reduce by 0.125 mg for as long as it takes for you not to feel any residual tension, then do another 0.125 mg until the same thing happens. Don't forge that Klonopin has a realtively long half-life (24 - 60 hours) so it takes a long time to get all of that does out of your system.
With me, things were fine on the first drop until about 2 weeks after I reduced dosage. Then I had an eruption of symptoms which lasted about a week and tapered off. After that I could successfully reduce again and finally got rid of the last 0.125 (the hardest to do but the best feeling of accomplishemnt by far - worth the effort)
Posted by shadows721 on April 16, 2004, at 23:41:10
In reply to Help! Bad Klonopin withdrawal, posted by greenwillow on April 15, 2004, at 23:12:33
Don't believe your doc. Your not crazy. You have to adjust this stuff to your body. Cut it down as you can tolerate. This stuff is very chemically dependent in some. I know it was for me. Kick it up a notch if you feel withdrawal. Some folks switch to valium and titrate from there.
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