How Do I Know These Withdrawal Symptoms Won't Last 4Ever?

[[ge...]]

Hello:

 

I've been reading Internet stories of people's withdrawal symptoms lasting two years and this scares me. I'm on Day 8 of a -12.5% Klonopin withdrawal (I've been on 1mg/nightly for 10+ years). Nightmares, anxiety, depression, panic, sleeplessness, etc. I've taken time off work to do this taper but I can't quite manage the idea of this lasting for months and months! How do you get through the anxiety around this? One day at a time, I guess, but this doesn't quite work in the midst of night-time panic 

[[An...]]

My response might not help much because I ask myself this question quite often. That being said, I don't think it will last forever. I have had quite a few windows and I try to trust those. If I can feel good for several hours at a time then why can't it last a whole day, then a whole week etc. I believe it can and will. Also during my taper I have seen improvement. There are some symptoms I no longer have anymore so that means I am healing which leads me to believe if ONE symptom can disappear then they all can. As far as the people who are 2 years out and not healed, well maybe it is just taking them longer to heal. I have to think they will heal eventually. Also you don't know what other issues they may be dealing with causing their healing to take longer. Try not to focus on the length of time it takes because honestly there is nothing any of us can do about it. All we can do is take ONE DAY AT A TIME and keep hoping and praying these symptoms leave. If not, my fall back is accupunture and hypnotism.

[[po...]]

Hello:

 

I've been reading Internet stories of people's withdrawal symptoms lasting two years and this scares me. I'm on Day 8 of a -12.5% Klonopin withdrawal (I've been on 1mg/nightly for 10+ years). Nightmares, anxiety, depression, panic, sleeplessness, etc. I've taken time off work to do this taper but I can't quite manage the idea of this lasting for months and months! How do you get through the anxiety around this? One day at a time, I guess, but this doesn't quite work in the midst of night-time panic 

 

thanks for post, I feel the EXACT same way.  I am in week 12 of dry cut tapering 3 mg K now to 1 mg K.  Way too many sxs to list. But when I first joined BB after beginning voluntary w/d I had to quit reading all the horror stories of people taking months to years to heal completely or to w/d completely.  I don't have a time frame schedule of tapering, but I hope I am not going to be years (rather than months) getting off K.

 

you are not alone . . . I am frightened by the time frame some share on BB, too

 

hang in there, one minute, one hour, one day at a time.  so very, very difficult to do for me

[[Ni...]]

Hello:

 

I've been reading Internet stories of people's withdrawal symptoms lasting two years and this scares me. I'm on Day 8 of a -12.5% Klonopin withdrawal (I've been on 1mg/nightly for 10+ years). Nightmares, anxiety, depression, panic, sleeplessness, etc. I've taken time off work to do this taper but I can't quite manage the idea of this lasting for months and months! How do you get through the anxiety around this? One day at a time, I guess, but this doesn't quite work in the midst of night-time panic 

 

It's an easy mistake to think that your symptoms (as you feel them now) will continue at their current frequency and intensity indefinitely - they won't. How you're feeling in a month's time, three month's time and further on will be quite different at each stage, with a lowering in intensity and frequency and with some symptoms fading out and disappearing.

 

All of them diminish - albeit non-linearly - and some, believe it or not, will disappear totally without your noticing that they are gone until something randomly reminds you that: "I don't feel that anymore"!

 

(I made the same mistake way back, thinking I'd be at the same level of angst and all of it for the entire duration - most people fall for that; it's not true - relax ).

 

People at my stage and later are, by and large, in a very much better place with a few remaining symptoms but still "not quite there yet" - sufficient not to declare that we are "free of it" and very picky about calling it.

 

Healing is taking place every day you move away from your last dose. It might not always feel like it - but it is happening all the same (no matter what you think!) and you will notice it better on a hindsight review back over a month or two than on a day-to-day basis. People rarely, if ever, feel that they are getting better on a day-to-day basis; changes can be very slow.

 

You got this!

 

All the best