Tapering Too Fast

[[Ma...]]

I was taking 6mg of clonazepam a day. The psychiatrist and I seemingly decided together to start me tapering off as I am starting to have recall problems after having been on this wonder pill for at least 15 years.

 

Now she's a lumberjack on crack, hacking away and speeding up my taper. Now I'm on 2mg a day. This has only been over the course of a couple/few months. I have no one to turn to and am rendered powerless in this situation. This alone increases my panic attacks, which in turn triggers my cataplexy (I have narcolepsy).

 

They won't help me. Her nurse called just to say my taper is slow by their standards. She got off the phone so fast it was obvious she didn't care. That triggered me. Triggering in one way leads to being triggered in other ways, and on it cascades down.

 

I don't know what to do but turn here, and though I'm not very active here, because who does forums anymore online, am I right? But I need this community or something right now. There aren't many other options for me regarding other docs.

 

This is horrible!

 

I called and told them so.

[[Fr...]]

I was taking 6mg of clonazepam a day. The psychiatrist and I seemingly decided together to start me tapering off as I am starting to have recall problems after having been on this wonder pill for at least 15 years.

 

Now she's a lumberjack on crack, hacking away and speeding up my taper. Now I'm on 2mg a day. This has only been over the course of a couple/few months. I have no one to turn to and am rendered powerless in this situation. This alone increases my panic attacks, which in turn triggers my cataplexy (I have narcolepsy).

 

They won't help me. Her nurse called just to say my taper is slow by their standards. She got off the phone so fast it was obvious she didn't care. That triggered me. Triggering in one way leads to being triggered in other ways, and on it cascades down.

 

I don't know what to do but turn here, and though I'm not very active here, because who does forums anymore online, am I right? But I need this community or something right now. There aren't many other options for me regarding other docs.

 

This is horrible!

 

I called and told them so.

 

Our stories kind of sound similar.

I was at my personal highest dose of K (5mg daily). My old shrinks solution "Increase to 6mg". I said "NO, I want off". I got a new shrink and luckily he is willing to take my case. He said himself, most shrinks would have said no to my scenario and put me in detox. With that being said my new shrink dropped me pretty fast 2mg in the course of 2 months. I'm now at 3mg a day and he is allowing me to "hold" for a 3 months (my next taper will be July 19).

 

Some days I feel okay but I am noticing very strange withdraw symptoms even though I am still getting a good amount of K in my system still. The first 10 days after a cut are the worst. I notice symptoms of Palps, rebound anxiety, sweating, vivid dreams, GI problems, nerve sensations on my face (like pins and needles) fatigue, muscle weakness.

I'm very worried about stepping down again in my dose. Worse, I don't know my doctors plan. Hopefully he doesn't drop me another full 1mg. I have told him I need him to slow down in the "cut".

 

This is my second attempt to get off K. I was completely off several years back but I wasn't aware that this med could cause such horrible withdraw symptoms which lead me to the 5mg daily dose. 

 

If you can get you doctor to just let you hold at 2mg for a couple months, I think you can do this (Your body just needs to heal a little before you cut again). And then communicate with your doc your fears of dropping at such high doses. Really convey you need to slow down and hopefully she has a sympathetic ear.

 

Best of luck

[[Re...]]

Hi, I was on 1 and 1/2 mg lorazepam and have gotten down to 1 and 1/8 of a pill in 2 month. I know it's not as big of a cut as you did but I had withdrawal symptoms right after a cut. The worst was my heart skipping beats forva week straight. My heart would beat 1 or 2 beats and skip. It was awful. I also had nausea head pressure and feelings like I'm not really here.(depersonalization). I have decided to wait a month before taking another cut. Yes, give your body time to heal before another cut

 

[[Ma...]]

MArinus are you near any metropolitan areas? There are lists of Benzo qwse doctors

[[hy...]]

Hey Marinus, Freshstart & Retzlaffdk07. Sorry and sad that we find ourselves in this position. I really feel let down by someone I trusted. 20+ years on clonazepam. Didn’t have any idea how serious this was for the longest time (years)!!  Now I have committed to tapering since July 2018 when Teva pulled the plug on clonazepam and I got whacked with I would guess rapid withdrawal symptoms from the Mylan generic. Did not realize or think that it would be such a difference between brands. I was on 1 mg. Of Teva for years. Then cut myself to .5 slowly with no problem till the Teva fiasco. Thought I had something seriously wrong with me till I realized about three weeks into the Mylan generic that it was not working like the Teva so I went back to 1 mg. of Activas. CVS kept switching generics every time I would get a refill. It was then after 4 or 5 different generics that whacked me around that I decided I wanted out. So in January I began a a taper. I am now down to .125 afternoon and .25 evening. Wish I had switched to Valium because now I am beginning to see how hard it will be to cut slowly enough to avoid major symptoms. So now that I am on .375 daily does anybody have any idea if it is too late to crossover to V. How would I go about it. I am a bit frozen as the last cut of 14% got my attention and I have felt like crap and am definitely afraid of this whole thing as as it seems nobody has any set rules and this seems like playing Russian Roulette. So I would appreciate any advice of maybe stay the course and cut the clonazepam with a scale or crossover to V. Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening and hang in there guys. I have been through a tough 5 months and would just like to make the best decision to beat this without inflicting more pain on myself than necessary to be free. Best to you guys and my one advice is that we have to be our own advocates no matter what. Stand your ground and if one doc won’t help keep searching till you find a compassionate one who gets it. This is the fight of our lives and we need to approach it like it is a monster trying to kill us and either someone is there to help or they are part of the problem and need to go. Thanks for listening and I sincerely wish you all the best. We can do this together!!!!

[[Ma...]]

MArinus are you near any metropolitan areas? There are lists of Benzo qwse doctors

 

I wish. I'm in a town of about 27K people two hours from anywhere with a population to speak of.

[[Fr...]]

MArinus are you near any metropolitan areas? There are lists of Benzo qwse doctors

 

I wish. I'm in a town of about 27K people two hours from anywhere with a population to speak of.

 

I get that. When I switched doctors it was incredibly hard and I live in a huge city. Pdocs were not accepting, even private pay ones. I lucked out earlier this year with a Pdoc but he is private pay. I figure It's worth the money for a couple of years and then I won't need him anymore.

 

[[Ma...]]

MArinus are you near any metropolitan areas? There are lists of Benzo qwse doctors

 

I wish. I'm in a town of about 27K people two hours from anywhere with a population to speak of.

 

I get that. When I switched doctors it was incredibly hard and I live in a huge city. Pdocs were not accepting, even private pay ones. I lucked out earlier this year with a Pdoc but he is private pay. I figure It's worth the money for a couple of years and then I won't need him anymore.

 

Thank goodness you're able to afford that! Things could be worse.