unstuck: Just Checking In

[unstuck]

Hello, I'm new and just wanted to introduce myself here. Im having difficulty tapering off of clonazepam. The withdrawals are vicious and unpredictable.Hopefully I'll meet some good folks facing similar challenges. Thanks!

[tgirl]

Hello Unstuck,

Just wanted to welcome you here!

Best wishes,

Tgirl

[unstuck]

thanks!

[Brandy]

Welcome, unstuck!

 

I saw your thread in the benzo section and was glad to see you started a thread here. This thread will serve as your overall ongoing thread about your recovery from the various meds. (You can still ask specific questions about your benzo withdrawal in the benzo section.)

 

A little more information would be important before we give advice.

 

How long were you on prozac, and how did you taper it. (What was your taper schedule in terms of size and frequency of drops in dose?)

 

And please also post the same taper schedule information about how you tapered from 3 to 1.5 on the clonazepam.

 

Also, were you put on gabapentin to address withdrawal symptoms from either of these meds, or were you on it prior to being on either the clonazepam or the prozac?

[unstuck]

hello brandy. well, I was on gabapentin concurrently with the klonopin and prozac, so it was not intended to ease withdrawal, although it has taken on that role now. When I moved out west, I stopped the prozac cold turkey.

 

I tapered the clonazepam from 3mg to 1.25 within a 3 week period. my nd was unwilling to continue my script for valid reasons, so I just did the best with what I had.

 

Ideally I would have gone to a hospital, but then id have lost my job, and my partner would have been homeless in an unfamiliar new city.

 

so I bit my lip and entered hell.

 

I went in for a checkup. one panic attack swallowing the tail of the last, my resting heart rate was at 120bpm. so she wrote a script that brought me back up to 1.5 mg. this was 2 months ago.

 

im still in hell, but its improving. enough that I can reach out for help. my nd ideally wants me tapered at .25 every month. she is willing to hold, thankfully. so that's what im doing, im just holding on.

 

THANKS, I hope this answers your questions

[Brandy]

That helps a lot!

 

NDs unfortunately know as little as doctors about how to taper off these meds safely. And a hospital would have either tapered you too fast or cold-turkeyed you off and given you sedatives briefly that would not have covered you through the healing process that "withdrawal" from these meds actually is.

 

These meds alter our nervous systems physically, and those changes can be reversed, but it takes time. Tapering slowly in small drops with proper intervals between drops is not just for immediate comfort. It actually supports and, for most people, ultimately shortens that recovery process that cannot be rushed and which causes the horrible "withdrawal symptoms" most people get when dropping too much too fast.

 

There are a number of excellent fact sheet posts on this site about this. When the mods come on duty they can give you links that will explain better than I can.

 

Please do not do any more drops in dose until you get more information here. Others with more knowledge and experience in giving tapering advice will help you soon.