Should I stay on Benzodiazipines for life time

[[Ma...]]

Hi iam a 26 year old men I used klonopin 1 mg initially for Generalized Anxiety disorder for 2 years and tapered and stopped no significant withdrawal i experienced after one and half an year my Dr gives me klonopin again for insomnia and anxiety and continued 1 mg for 1 and half an year then I told my doctor I want to come off this drug he takes me out of the drug in a 3 months time this time it was a real mess i experienced protracted withdrawal severe akathisia and dissociated and suicidal ideation all those contributed to reinstating klonopin 1 mg again my concerns are I want to stop klonopin but scared of akathisia did the akathisia go away with time. Or continue taking Klonopin for long period is that a bad idea what should happen if I continue klonopin for long periods please give me a guidance I am confused to stop or go on with this drug my main concern is akathisia what should I do if this occurs after I stop benzo 

[[je...]]

Hi @[Ma...]

whether or not to stay on benzo’s is a personal decision. I decided to taper off and I will share my reasons my with you which I think are generally the major reasons people do taper off. 

Doctors are getting increasingly more hesitant to prescribe which means more people find themselves in situations where they are being cut off and forced into rapid tapers or cold turkeys. By tapering while you still have a prescriber you are able to somewhat control your symptoms and minimise the effects of withdrawal. 

The other problem is tolerance withdrawal. This means the drug stops working and you experience withdrawal symptoms even though you are still taking the prescribed dosage. If you start experiencing tolerance withdrawal then the only option you really have is tapering but then tapering can be very difficult because of the tolerance symptoms you’re experiencing. Not everyone will experience tolerance withdrawal and there is no way to determine who is at risk of this. But I’ve read so many horror stories of tolerance withdrawal on here that for me it just wasn’t worth the risk to remain on benzo’s. 

I hope this somewhat answers your question. Ultimately you need to weigh up the benefits and risks and then decide whether those benefits are worth the risks to you. 

[[PE...]]

8 hours ago, [[M...] said:

Hi iam a 26 year old men I used klonopin 1 mg initially for Generalized Anxiety disorder for 2 years and tapered and stopped no significant withdrawal i experienced after one and half an year my Dr gives me klonopin again for insomnia and anxiety and continued 1 mg for 1 and half an year then I told my doctor I want to come off this drug he takes me out of the drug in a 3 months time this time it was a real mess i experienced protracted withdrawal severe akathisia and dissociated and suicidal ideation all those contributed to reinstating klonopin 1 mg again my concerns are I want to stop klonopin but scared of akathisia did the akathisia go away with time. Or continue taking Klonopin for long period is that a bad idea what should happen if I continue klonopin for long periods please give me a guidance I am confused to stop or go on with this drug my main concern is akathisia what should I do if this occurs after I stop benzo 

Yes akathisia stops! I had it for the first two months 24/7 and it slowly subsided. 

And you are only 26. Living in a benzo bubble for 50-? Years!??

Taking the symptoms over some time is totally worth it to be able to live life to it's fullest.

 

[[...]]

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

Yes akathisia stops! I had it for the first two months 24/7 and it slowly subsided. 

And you are only 26. Living in a benzo bubble for 50-? Years!??

Taking the symptoms over some time is totally worth it to be able to live life to it's fullest.

@peppe, when the akathesia started for you, did your doctors offer any medication to help treat it? How did you handle the situation? Did you know it would subside with time?

[[PE...]]

[[...]]

39 minutes ago, [[P...] said:

Now I didn't know what it was. I didn't have any contact to any doctors either.

I had no other medication back then. I got quetiapine a couple of months later and I think that helped with every symptom but not entirely. 

Was it a psychiatrist who prescribed the quetipine?

[[Ma...]]

Thank you jelly ☺️

[[Ma...]]

You are only 26 and were tapered off pretty quickly (3 months) from a medium sized dose.  There are a number of reasons to come off these meds and I can’t say yes or no to your specific situation - but age is definitely a factor, and most young people should not be on these meds long term in my opinion.  If you were a little 85 year old lady with no tolerance issues but other medical problems who had been taking, say, 2 mg of Valium for 50 years with no issues, I’d say you’d probably need a pretty good reason to go through a taper and come off because the risk is probably greater than the benefit.  I myself was somewhere in between these two extremes, 50 yo, on the same 1mg dose of Clonazepam for 9 years.  I really struggled with this question because I was doing fine on it and only wanted to get off for the reason @[je...] mentioned above, I didn’t want to get cut off.  Ultimately I decided last year to taper off and I will never, ever touch one of these awful drugs once I have finished.  It will have taken me over a year to get off but I feel it will have been worth it to be free of a pill I don’t need.  

[[PE...]]