Clonzepam for 10 years (REAL introduction)

[[an...]]

Hello,

I have been taking clonazepam for 10 years daily.  Most of which was a 1mg dose.  I am down to .5 mg and am hoping to talk to people on this forum about their experiences coming off the drug and would also like advice on my situation.

[Guest [Le...]]

Hello, anotherOutlier — welcome to BenzoBuddies!

 

I'm glad that you decided to join the forum. Our members have gone through benzodiazepine use and withdrawal themselves, so you'll find plenty of information and support here.

 

Here are a few links that may be a good starting place for you:

 

  General Taper Plans

  Titration Taper Plans

  Withdrawal Support

 

Please take a moment to Create a Signature — you can enter your pertinent drug and taper history in the box at the bottom. This will allow members to see where you are in the process, so that they can better support you.

 

Looking forward to seeing you on the forum!

Leslie 

 

 

The Ashton Manual provides information that can be useful during any stage of withdrawal and recovery, and includes a list of common symptoms with helpful explanations.

 

For those who are currently tapering, a starting guideline is that the dosage not be reduced faster than by 5-10% every 10-14 days, although some taper even more slowly than that. One exception: very short-term users of a few weeks or less may be able to taper somewhat faster.

[[an...]]

Hey guys,

 

Sorry I didn't know my short message I sent to the admin was going to be posted here for my introduction.  Here is my real introduction...

 

Hello,

 

I started taking Clonazepam (Klonopin) when I was 19 years old.  I was in college and I had trouble interacting with my roommates.  I am an awkward person.  I already had a psychiatrist since I got committed to a depression ward about a year earlier for saying some stupid, suicidal stuff to my mom after my girlfriend broke up with me.  My mom talked to my doctor and he agreed to put me on a daily .5 mg dose of Clonazepam along with an SSRI.

 

This went on for about half a year and I slowly became more able to speak to my roommates and overall felt like my life changed completely.  I was no longer shy.  I was motivated.  I felt sharper.  Klonopin made me feel like for the first time in a long time, I felt like a normal person.  Klonopin put me in the mood to go outside and meet people.  I had never felt like that before in my life and I felt like it truly helped me meet new friends and kept me motivated as I made my way through college.  By the end of it I was taking 1mg daily doses along with no antidepressants as they affected my sexual libido and I did not want to deal with that.

 

I’ll fast forward 10 years.  I have been on daily 1mg doses of Clonazepam and Wellbutrin (this was the only antidepressant I could take without bad side effects).  I found a beautiful girlfriend, I got a decent paying job.  Everything in my life seems to be going well, but I have begun to realize that I can’t keep taking this drug forever.  I mean I’m 10 years in.  I quit cold turkey in 2015 for a year and while I didn’t have severe withdrawal symptoms, I did feel very anti-social and felt more anxious than I was before I started taking the drug.  I went back to my doctor and he put me back on the Clonazepam, which I have been taking daily since then.

 

Last July, I tried to quit cold turkey for a month.  I did it in 2015 why can’t I do it now?  When I quit, I started noticing that I couldn’t form sentences.  I had what I wanted to say when I interacted with people in my head, but when I tried to say it I just sounded dyslexic.  I would just blabber nonsense and I honestly felt like my IQ had lowered being without the drug.  My appetite went away completely.  I would get super hungry but by the time I started eating something, I could only take one or two bites and I was full.  Another side effect I noticed that really bothered me was that I could not look anyone in the eye.  Whenever someone would talk to me I would just concentrate on not being weird or awkward and just look at the ground or ANYWHERE other than the persons eyes.  It made me feel as though I looked weak or sketchy. 

 

So, I went back to taking my daily 1mg dose along with the Wellbutrin in August.  I started taking .5 mg doses per day.  I talked to my doctor and told him I was having these symptoms when I tried to quit.  He agreed that the .5 mg a day dose was a good idea and that I could taper off that way.  He suggested that since it was around winter time that it would be a bad idea to quit then, and that in the spring I could try to come off it all together.

 

I spoke with my doctor yesterday and it was as if I had never brought up wanting to quit taking Clonazepam.  At the end of the phone call he asked if I had concerns and I told him that I was still wanting to come off the drug.  He said yea the idea was to put me on it long enough until the medicine (SSRIs) started working and then come off it…. I HAVE BEEN ON IT FOR 10 YEARS

I just started a new job this month and my girlfriend who I live with just lost hers.  So I am a little on the anxious side of things when it comes to my life right now and I think coming off the Klonopin would be a bad idea.  I wanted to come here and talk to some people who have/are going through exactly what I am going through.  It seems like my doctor doesn’t quiet understand my situation and every other doctor I go to wants to take me off the medication completely and doesn’t seem to care how I feel without it.

I look forward to talking with you guys and hope that you guys can help me along this path.  Klonopin makes me feel like myself and I want to feel like myself without it.  I want to be able to look people in the eyes, or strike up small talk conversations with random strangers without having to take the drug to do it.  I will be reading your stories and I hope you read mine. 

 

Cheers,

 

anotherOutlier