Being forced to taper after 21 years of use - advice and support?

[[lu...]]

So the thing is I moved from Texas to Portland. I worked at a resort in Idaho over the summer, and just figured I'd get to Portland by the skin of my teeth. The entire system is different here. I was down to my last 7 or so when I had to go to urgent care for something else medical. I asked them about it, and even though they somehow pulled up ALLL my prescriptions from the past decade or so, they still looked at me sideways when I told them I obviously needed them. 

After a lot of calling, emailing, and referrals, I finally went somewhere that at least listened to me. I was prescribed 1mg 2 times a day. My "current" bottle was supposed to be up on 9/20/23, and today I only had 1.5 left. They prescribed me 21, "three weeks worth," he said. I'm in Oregon, from Texas, I REALLY want to get off this stuff, and I'm wondering if this is my shot?

Every time I look into this, I hear horror stories. I even tried looking around here before posting, but I was getting way too discouraged. I'm 45/F, and I've been on this since 2002, so I feel even more hopeless. Any advice/encouragement would be awesome. Does ketamine work for anyone? I'm also open to questions. Thanks in advance.

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[lu...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,I need to ask a few questions to understand your situation better.

• What was your dose before you ran into trouble getting the medication?
• What is the medication?
• Have you missed any days and if so, how are you feeling?
• Have you ever tried to stop this medication before?

What I’m trying to ascertain is if your situation will require you to seek emergency relief in order to gain access to your medication. 

We can help you figure this out, we know how scary the stories are but everyone’s experience is different.

Pamster

[[lu...]]

• My dose has pretty much always been 1mg Klonopin, twice daily
• I've missed days throughout my life, because I didn't want to become addicted to it. In October 2015 I lost my bottle and had a seizure. Since I didn't want to become addicted, I just took it when I had anxiety. Meaning, sometimes I'd go 3 days without taking it, and sometimes I'd take 3 in one day. So in 2017 I had another seizure because I wasn't keeping up with them. 
• I'm calling around to doctors they referred me to tomorrow.

All that being said, I obviously do not trust (basically) any medical doctor to properly taper me off of this stuff. I waited so long because I wanted to be in a stable place when I did it. I just moved to a city 2,000 miles away from basically everything I've ever known and staying on a friend's couch. I've been working seasonally at a resort, and only planned to come here on my way to work in Tahoe. Then, a couple days before I left the last resort I worked at, I discovered I had a lump by my throat. I have an ultrasound for that on 11/7 and after that I'll most likely get a job/room/psychiatrist here.

It's really hard to say how I feel when I'm not on it. I'm fine as long as everything else is ok, until I have a seizure or get a headache. I'm a former gymnast so I wake up with headaches every day, and have since 1990. My baseline isn't really comfortable, but I do it. When I have headaches that don't go away, they turn into migraines. Considering I'm currently floating between someone's guest room, and another person's couch, it's not the ideal scenario for me to have a migraine, much less just fully withdraw from benzos. Might not have a choice tho. It's been a stressful weekend.

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[lu...], thanks for providing more information, I’m concerned about your seizures, did you let the last doctor who prescribed the 21 tablets know?  

I hope you can find a psychiatrist sooner rather than later to prescribe you enough Klonopin to keep you from seizing and perhaps come up with a taper plan for you.  We typically suggest reducing your dose by about 5-10% every couple of weeks but a patient led symptom based taper seems to work the best.  If you could just find a prescriber, we can help you with a taper plan.

I can see your living arrangements aren’t the most conducive to starting a taper, but I do hope you can find someone to prescribe so you can function.  Please let us know what the ultrasound reveals, I’ve had a couple of surgeries on my neck so I’m interested to hear what you find out.

 

[[Ne...]]

Ketamine is great, but it would not work unless  you have been off all Benzos for two weeks.  The Benzos block the gaba receptors and block the ketamine.  I tried to get ketamine and that is what they told me.  Other places may offer it to you, but you would be wasting your money until you are off the Benzos.