Protracted Withdrawal?

[[St...]]

Hi there, 
I have a 9 year history of using benzodiazapines quite irregularly. Early on I was a poly addict and used anything I could get my hands on to get high. This included valium, xanax, lorazapam and clonazapam. Fortunately I was able to sort my life out and stop recreational drug use. Over time I developed some severe anxiety issues and was prescribed valium PRN as I continued therapy. I used valium quite sporadically maybe once every week or two weeks during this time never noticing any withdrawl issues other than maybe a bit of anxiety for a day after use. I also developed other coping strategies like a dialy meditation practice, daily yoga practice and wim hoff breath work practices.  There was a period where I was sort of "stacking" these grounding practices as a way to speed up my healing (from childhood abuse). It was unknown to me that this is in general a pretty bad idea and that "slow and steady" does tend to win the race. I started to experience extreme emotional symtpoms that I didn't really have the skills or tools to deal with yet which caused some fairly intense burn out, self harm (head hitting) and auditory hallucinations. Around that time 1.5 years ago, my GP prescribed me PRN Clonazapam at a dosage of 1mg as needed. This got me out of trouble with the extremity of the emotions that were coming out of my system. On occasion I would take more than the prescribed 1mg due to severe emotional symtpoms to avoid self harm. I've since developed an EFT tapping practice that's really helping me to allow the emotions to flow on and I no longer need Clonazapam. However at the start of december last year I started to experience ringing in my ears, terror, internal rocking, itching under the skin, internal sensations of hot and cold, light and screen sensitivity and the most severe insomnia I've ever had in my life. I was effectively sleeping for 1-2 hours a night for about 4 months straight. I now believe that I have somehow managed to get protracted withdrawals from PRN Clonazapam use. I am currently taking a dosage of .125mg per day and my symptoms are there but very tolerable and I sleep well.

Does it sound like I have protracted withdrawals?

If my symptoms are tolerable but still there should I increase my .125mg dosage?

I'd really like to swap over to valium and I need a Drs assistance to do so. Does anybody know of physicians or psychiatrists that work with protracted withdrawals in Brisbane Australia? I'm confident my GP has no idea what he is talking about.

Does this sound like a safe way to proceed? My biggest concern is honoring my body and proceeding with a loving intention.

Thanks!

[[Cr...]]

 

Hello @[St...], glad you found BenzoBuddies.

You have quite the history with these drugs. I am glad that you have learned of the dangers of recreational use but, as you may also understand, even when taken as prescribed benzos can also cause long-lasting, unpleasant effects.

On this site we generally use the term 'Protracted Withdrawal' in reference to people that have been off of benzos for a minimum of 18 months. As you are still on .125 mg of clonazepam, that really isn't a term that applies.

Since your symptoms are tolerable and you can sleep OK, I don't see any reason to increase your dose. From what I gather, it seems your prn use was frequent enough to cause some dependence to the point where only a steady daily dose was able to stabilize you.

How often would you say you took your 1mg+ PRN dose a week? And how long have you been taking .125 mg daily?