Please Help! Did I taper too fast?

[[Na...]]

I have been on Clonazepam 0.5mg 2x/day (total 1.0mg a day) for about 13 years and started tapering at the very end of March 2016. By July I was under 0.5mg a day and thought I was going to die. It was horrible. This was over 50% less than my original dose. So I decided I needed to go back up some and for two weeks now I have been on 0.25mg 2x/day hoping to stabilize on this dose for awhile until I can taper (very slowly) again, but I am having a terrible time. I have terrible anxiety, nausea, and the worst thing is about every 4 days I have diarrhea with horrible nausea and feel like I am going to pass out and sometimes start shaking so bad and it can last for 10 minutes to hours. It's terrible and it makes it very hard to function. I want to get off this medicine so badly, but I feel like I am failing. Did I go too fast? Do I need to increase my dose more? Please help.

[[ho...]]

I am in a similar situation. The consensus is that I went too fast, but I want to tough through the hell and make forward progress.  I'm at 10/mg Valium per day and seeing my doc tomorrow.  You may have went too fast but If you are like me you don't want to go backwards.  I've been as bad as I ever have been with anxiety and I still do not want to updose.  I hope I'm doing the right thing.  I don't have the physical symptoms, just life crushing anxiety.  I will be interested to see what other members think.  We are here for you Natika

[[Na...]]

HopeForHealing,

Thanks for replying. I so don't want to go backwards. I already had to some when I upped my dose by 1/8th 2 weeks ago, but I can't handle feeling like I have a stomach bug. I already have terrible anxiety where I barely get out of the house, but I can't deal with anxiety and nausea/diarrhea. It's too much. I don't know if I just need to give my body more time to adjust after starting this taper at the very end of March or if I have to updose. I don't even know how much more to add. I'm so afraid that it won't be enough and all of these months will have been wasted, but at the same time I can't live like this. I am taking 50% less of my original dose since I started the taper March 29th. I was close to 75% less before going back to 50% about 2 weeks ago. I was really hoping I would stabilize at this dose and hold for awhile. My whole summer has been wasted with me hiding in the house because of withdrawal. I just don't know what to do. Do I wait it out or am I just torturing myself and need to updose some. And how much do I updose? This is just miserable. I may have to stop working.

[[Na...]]

I've decided to up my morning and night dose by 1/8th so I am adding a 0.125mg to my current 0.25 2x/day. I feel like the over 3 months of tapering was a total waste and I ended up just torturing myself and missing out on life. I'm just hoping that this increase is enough to stabilize so I don't have to go all the way back to my starting dose. This has been hell. A hell it feels like I went through for no reason. But I am going to win this in the end. I will get off this drug!! I so hope this increase is enough. I almost feel like just going back to the beginning and starting all over again, but tapering differently. I don't want to have to go back to the start. No matter what I need to do what's best for my body and my body is suffering so much right now. I just can't let this get me down too much. No matter how much I have to increase, I will keep trying and I will get off of Clonazepam.

[[ho...]]

Natika,

 

I so know how you feel about going "backward" but if you are uncomfortable and just upping your morning dose slightly, then maybe you are doing the right thing.  It is great that you are able to work, I myself am out of work and that is a huge part of my self loathing and anxiety.  I do know from personal experience that going all the way back to the original dose makes it harder each time you taper, the kindling effect.  Been there and done that.  I so want off this drug as well, I wouldn't wish this problem on my worst enemy.  I only wish the doctor who started me on it around year 2000 wouldn't have ever gotten me started. 

 

Hang in there and see if your dosage adjustment is appropriate.  I think you should give it a little time before you updose again.  You will be free some day!  Keep us posted.

 

 

 

[[ne...]]

Hi Natika,

 

I'm having a horrible time of tapering from clonazepam as well, though I took two big cuts as ordered by a "physician" (term used loosely even with quotation marks). My first cut was in April, and that cut's side effects were fairly mild (from a 33% cut), but my second, started on June 26th, was a cut from 1mg to .75mg which devastated me. I'm still nowhere near myself after two months. I have anxiety, dp/dr and depression at nearly intolerable levels. Diarrhea was a bad symptom of mine around the 1 month mark but has decreased significantly since then.

 

The amount to cut and taper seems to be a personal issue, but over and over I see *taper slowly*, as slow as possible! By your tapering schedule, nothing stuck out to me as a fairly drastic cut, but I'm a neophyte to tapering. Holding at .25mg x 2 seems like a good idea until you feel some stability/sanity. Updosing *is not* failure - nothing is failure so long as you're trying! In fact, updosing probably staved off having to reinstate at .5mg x 2 which would thus negate your progress in tapering altogether.

 

Are you doing a dry cut, or using liquid titration? Dry cuts use that "fixed" dosage method that can lead to bigger cuts, and bigger affectation, as you go lower in dosage. Did your side effects become worse as you down-dosed? The best advice (and the advice I'll follow once I get the go ahead from my pdoc) seems to be to reduce your dosage by 10% every two weeks which can only be practically done by liquid titration. Check out the taper forum to get more info on how to do that. There are very precise methods on how to achieve that 10% ratio every fortnight.

 

Good luck! Mr. Nemo 

[[Ky...]]

I feel the same. I tapered from 1 mg klonopin to .25 mg in 2 months and i am paying for it right now.  cannot get out the bed most of the day much less think of leaving the house. Terror, aches and pains, headaches, hot and cold sweats, trembling, full blown shaking, loss of appetite ( lost 5 lbs already ) nausea, it is horrible.

I can say this it started 8 days ago and it is better now than it was, not much but at least i am here talking to you. I am not going back up in dosage no matter what!!  I can now stay out of bed for like 30 mins. to an hour without having to go lay back down.

Hang in there you can do it.