Cold turkey after 3mg daily for a month

[[Co...]]

Hello @[Kr...]. Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

[[...]]

On 15/12/2023 at 02:10, [[C...] said:

I had gone through a few cycles of very rapid withdrawal from clonazepam prior to my final withdrawal. We are talking about a taper from 4.5mg to zero over a period of about six weeks (I'd drop by 0.5mg every 4-5 days). This was under the direction of my neurologist and is standard protocol as far as I know.

The first time I did this, a few days after my final dose, I woke up one morning completely numb down the whole of my left side. Down the left side of my face, the left side of my torso, the whole of my left arm and left leg, everywhere! I was so totally cognitively messed up from the withdrawal, I was not really that concerned by what I thought might have been a stroke. It was only through the insistence of a friend that I called my GP (the GP would not call out to see me - I was advised to call an ambulance). Remaining rather unconcerned, I instead called the hospital and somehow managed to talk with a neurologist. He advised me to immediately reinstate a small dose, which I did. Within a day (or maybe some hours) the numbness more or less disappeared. I was still in very bad shape of course, but I stuck at 0.5mg for a couple of weeks before gradually reinstating over a month or so.

The reason for the withdrawal was because I had become tolerant of clonazepam (to treat myoclonus). It was the only viable treatment, and the only viable alternative to a 'reset' withdrawal was to instead increase my dose. But since I was highly likely to become tolerant of the new dose (necessitating further increases), and because I was already on a very high dose, this did not strike me as a sensible option.

The reset was only partially successful. Clonazepam worked better, but not as well as did originally. And for a shorter period of time too. So, about once a year, I'd taper off (but down to 0.5mg, not totally off) over about 6 weeks, stabilise for two weeks, and then gradually increase my daily dose back up to 4.5mg. I'd lose about three months out of twelve doing this, and for limited gain. Eventually, I decided I was going taper off once and for all, but more gradually - over a period of six months.

@[aa...]