INTERNAL TREMORS - SENIOR - AFTER TAPERING CLONAZEPAM

[[Fr...]]

HELLO, SENIOR ABOUT 65 FEMALE, started tapering clonazepam 0.5 mg. (x2), that has been taken for the last 25 years.  Tapering lasted 4 months, then suddenly a panic attack lasted 24 hours, took medication which eased symptoms.  After 2 days severe headache one side left side only, eye twitching jaw, nose flutterring, neck, hand trembling, back, stomach, left leg, toe only but only left side only internal tremors and muscle twitching. Started in october 2023, still doing it but less.

Went to ER, blood work, ecg, CT scan. All NORMAL.

Making me anxious.

Back on meds 0.5 mg but still have these tremors, shaking inside .  can't take it anymore

given for GEDS.

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[Fr...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this but what you’re experiencing is normal for many of us who discontinue these medications.  You did a very rapid taper considering you’ve been on the drug for 25 years, we generally suggest reducing your dose by about 5-10% every few weeks but using your symptoms to guide you is what we’ve found words the best.

I’m not surprised the .5 is not providing you relief, will your doctor prescribe more to help you stabilize?  

May I ask why you decided to discontinue the Clonazepam in the first place, were you experiencing unpleasant symptoms?

What is your goal at the moment, do you want to stabilize and try to taper again or are you considering going back on the medication and staying on it? We can help you figure out a taper plan if you’re interested in trying again. 

[[Fr...]]

Hello, I will ask MD to increase dosage, I thought I was fine and decided to get off this, but I don't think it was a good idea.  I think I will stay on it until we come up with a plan, but this is very disturbing these constant tremors, vibrations, etc.  Thank you for your response.  Will update later.

I think next would be a neurologist and MRI, but I am sure they will not find anything.  So discouraging. Thanks!

[[ns...]]

15 minutes ago, [[F...] said:

Hello, I will ask MD to increase dosage, I thought I was fine and decided to get off this, but I don't think it was a good idea.  I think I will stay on it until we come up with a plan, but this is very disturbing these constant tremors, vibrations, etc.  Thank you for your response.  Will update later.

I think next would be a neurologist and MRI, but I am sure they will not find anything.  So discouraging. Thanks!

Hi Freesia777, sorry to hear about your tremors. I had these for a while they eventually settled down. Now I have nervey strange jumpy sensation in my upper belly. Wondering if u ever experienced this. I  know that my inner trembling was from my fast taper abd lasted just a couple months. It's uncomfortable to day the least.  I hope u can try to focus on something else to distract from this. Do u think it's withdrawal symptoms.  It sure sounds like it is. If you focus too much on the symptoms they will dig in and intensify and never go. I've learned to distract myself,  to change my mind, to turn my focus to something other than symptoms. When we symptoms focus, it causes intensity, which causes more stress which causes our nervous system to lite up and becomes a cycle of uncomfortable symptoms. I hope u can turn your focus from this and get some relief,  I'm really sorry, I know how uncomfortable it can be. 

Take care

Ns

[[Pi...]]

Hi Freesia777. No question it's withdrawal. I'm 68 and did a cold turkey. Had a lot of muscle stiffness early on. I'm a year and a half out. What you're describing actually started about month 11 for me. I was not on Xanax very long and only used it intermittently but I had used Ambien about 3 days a week for heart palpations for around 14 years until I had a cardiac ablation. The doc cold turkeyed me off the ambien.  I found the tremors to make sleeping tough. Took Melatonin at night and it would stop eventually and I could get 6+hours of sleep. Everyone's different but it got me through some tough times. All of the internal vibrations have 80% or so stopped after about a 3 month period. You may also get major skipped heart beats that will freak you out. Check with the doctor if concerned but probably harmless. By the way nsindy I've had the jumping stomach for a year. Don't even notice it anymore just part of life. The quad muscles in my legs also quiver under any sort of strain. That seems to be very slowly getting better.

[[Pa...]]

11 hours ago, [[F...] said:

I think next would be a neurologist and MRI, but I am sure they will not find anything.

I can’t be sure but I would expect your symptoms to settle significantly once you increase your dose.  It’s doubtful an MRI will show anything as you suspect, since what you’re most likely dealing with is an overly sensitized central nervous system due to your rapid taper.  

I hope the increase will help but something to know, once we go into severe withdrawal, it can take time and sometimes more of the medication to get back to our baseline.  It’s also been true that some can never go back to the medication, its like a switch is flipped and it no longer works for them. 

[[At...]]

14 hours ago, [[F...] said:

HELLO, SENIOR ABOUT 65 FEMALE, started tapering clonazepam 0.5 mg. (x2), that has been taken for the last 25 years.  Tapering lasted 4 months, then suddenly a panic attack lasted 24 hours, took medication which eased symptoms.  After 2 days severe headache one side left side only, eye twitching jaw, nose flutterring, neck, hand trembling, back, stomach, left leg, toe only but only left side only internal tremors and muscle twitching. Started in october 2023, still doing it but less.

Went to ER, blood work, ecg, CT scan. All NORMAL.

Making me anxious.

Back on meds 0.5 mg but still have these tremors, shaking inside .  can't take it anymore

given for GEDS.

Just a thought but your body is used to being doses twice a day. Have you thought of perhaps taking half of the 0.5mg tab twice a day? 

Just a thought.

[[At...]]

14 hours ago, [[P...] said:

Hello @[Fr...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this but what you’re experiencing is normal for many of us who discontinue these medications.  You did a very rapid taper considering you’ve been on the drug for 25 years, we generally suggest reducing your dose by about 5-10% every few weeks but using your symptoms to guide you is what we’ve found words the best.

I’m not surprised the .5 is not providing you relief, will your doctor prescribe more to help you stabilize?  

May I ask why you decided to discontinue the Clonazepam in the first place, were you experiencing unpleasant symptoms?

What is your goal at the moment, do you want to stabilize and try to taper again or are you considering going back on the medication and staying on it? We can help you figure out a taper plan if you’re interested in trying again. 

I like this reply but I wonder if there was pressure to come of of clonazepam? I'm in Canada and A LOT of doctors are being warned to take ppl off of Clonazepam (Klonopin) once they turn 60. That's what happened to me. Well it influenced my choice to come off when I did ( started 4 months ago and still coming off of.

Fortunately I had been downdosing myself for a couple of years so I have enough extras to do a slow taper. I must say that the doctor pressure has made it all much harder emotionally. 

I just don't understand why doctors aren't better educated on this topic? I have read a couple of research papers that, after their study, found that a minimum of 4 months taper produced the greatest long term ( 1 year) success.  The greatest success rate I THINK was at around 6 months with a few subjects taking a year and a few coming off at around 10 weeks ( 3,  I think out of around 60 subjects).  If I found 2, there must be a few more studies out there to be able to show a doctor say, 5 studies. Having been trained in proper research methods at Uni, these studies weren't amateur at all but scientic.  Since few doctors will take time to read these, a short summary of each might be put together. It may at least create a chink of light in their doubting minds and result in better support. 

I didn't really have many troublesome side effects with clonazepam but still I was pressured! 

[[Fr...]]

Hi yes Canada it's now a controlled substance.  But my psych said it's like a diabetes person who needs the drugs and so do I.  But I dont see that psych annymore.  So frustrating.  Thanks for your help.

And yes I'll try different dosage am and pm.  I tried one full this pm to sleep but still have this vibration while sleeping.  Not looking forward to growing older .

[[Cb...]]

2 hours ago, [[F...] said:

Hi yes Canada it's now a controlled substance.  But my psych said it's like a diabetes person who needs the drugs and so do I.  But I dont see that psych annymore.  So frustrating.  Thanks for your help.

And yes I'll try different dosage am and pm.  I tried one full this pm to sleep but still have this vibration while sleeping.  Not looking forward to growing older .

 

[[Cb...]]

I just wanted to say if I had a dollar every time a doctor or nurse has said that benzos are like insulin for a diabetic and that we NEED them I would be very rich. That is a bunch of crap.  I too am a senior and I have been on them for over 35 years, tapering for six and having a heck of a time getting off the last half milligram.  I did ok from 2.5 mg save for horrific burning in legs and feet.  That is better now though not 100 percent.  But I swear my body is so addicted to this crap I cannot get off that last half milligram.  I have tried for over a year. What is going on?  I am so annoyed with this.  Also have any other women found their bladder leaking when they got way down in the dose?  Please tell me what to do.  It's over a year trying to get off this last bit.  

[[ns...]]

1 hour ago, [[C...] said:

I just wanted to say if I had a dollar every time a doctor or nurse has said that benzos are like insulin for a diabetic and that we NEED them I would be very rich. That is a bunch of crap.  I too am a senior and I have been on them for over 35 years, tapering for six and having a heck of a time getting off the last half milligram.  I did ok from 2.5 mg save for horrific burning in legs and feet.  That is better now though not 100 percent.  But I swear my body is so addicted to this crap I cannot get off that last half milligram.  I have tried for over a year. What is going on?  I am so annoyed with this.  Also have any other women found their bladder leaking when they got way down in the dose?  Please tell me what to do.  It's over a year trying to get off this last bit.  

Cberg, hi, sorry your having such a difficult time. I'm having the same problem I guess. Can't seem to get past this 3/4mg. I'm stuck! What are you tapering off of? 

I'm tapering lorazepam. I'm either allergic to it or had a paradoxical reaction to it which is the reverse of its intended use. So taking makes me have symptoms. 

I'm not one for ideas on tapering but someone will probably chime in that can maybe see if there's another way to go about lowering your dose to the next level. 

i know benzos are a chemically addictive drug, not like a typical addiction. You may want to visit the ashton manual to help you understand the effects of these drugs on our nervous system and body. Its a great wealth of information about benzos,  withdrawal, tapering etc there is some information on the tab on the right top corner of your page.

Maybe browsing through the site to see what others are doing might give u some inside on how others deal with withdrawal etc.

I'll ck back later to see how it's going 

Take care

Ns

[[Pi...]]

Hi Cberg: Im not sure there is an easy way to take that last step. I did a CT and I'm not saying that was wise. That being said I jumped from a way lower usage history maybe 40 pills over 2 1/2 years. I was probably at a level close to where you are now as far as the amount I needed to stay stable. It's been really tough and symptoms keep changing. But I made the jump and survived 19 months now with plenty of setbacks but no pills. You need to pick the time and people who are going to help you through the tough times and just bite the bullet. Maybe take your dose every other day then every third. At some level it has to become wrong to keep feeding the poison to avoid pain. Just my opinion you do what works for you and we're all different. If it becomes unbearable you can always reinstate just don't wait too long to make that decision. Oh and by the way yes the doctors are completely full of crap most of the time. That's why this site exists.

[[Pa...]]

On 02/02/2024 at 14:42, [[F...] said:

Hi yes Canada it's now a controlled substance.  But my psych said it's like a diabetes person who needs the drugs and so do I.  But I dont see that psych annymore.  So frustrating.  Thanks for your help.

And yes I'll try different dosage am and pm.  I tried one full this pm to sleep but still have this vibration while sleeping.  Not looking forward to growing older .

Hi @[Fr...], let us know how dosing more often works for you.  I hope things settle for you soon.