Clonazepam .5 -> .25 = anxiety + palpitations?

[[Ci...]]

Hi everyone, I’m sorry if this already in some post somewhere here. I have been using clonazepam for about a year now. Psychiatrist prescribed it to treat anxiety that came during my bout with long covid. Initially (and at its highest) I was taking .25 mg 2-3 times during the day and 2 mg at night to help me sleep; insomnia being another problem brought on by long covid. Through the months I have been slowly getting better and have needed less and less clonazepam. I now don’t take it during the day and was at 0.5 mg at night. Then about 4 days ago I brought down the dosage at night from the 0.5 to 0.25 mg. But now the last 3 days, I have been dealing with anxiety that starts about mid afternoon and does not abate until I take the 0.25 mg at night. On top of that during this time of anxiety, I’m getting a good number of heart palpitations; each time leaving me with a “quivering” feeling in my chest, like it’s about to throw another palpitation. Sorry for the long explanation. I just would love to hear from other people and find out if this is normal and to be expected —to feel anxious and get heart palpitations by going from 0.5 to 0.25 mg. Should I do something different? Should I try to eyeball a 1/3 decrement from the 0.5 mg? Or, should I stay the course and stay at 0.25 mg and hope the symptoms will subside? The other thing I wonder is if the anxiety is not due to the bringing down the clonazepam dosage and instead, it’s a relapse of long covid coming on?…..

Thank you for any useful words or advice you can offer!

Edited July 27 by [Ci...]

[[Le...]]

its the K. can you give a better timeline for your reductions?

[[Ci...]]

Hi Lee1978a, first off, I misinformed on my dosages in my post. I keep forgetting that the pill is a 2 mg pill, and not 1 mg. As far as timeline is concerned I admit I did not keep very good track of the reductions. At the time I was not aware of the withdrawal problem with benzos. The closer we get to the present, the more accurate my information is.

Daytime Anxiety

For anxiety during the day I was using a quarter of a pill (0.5 mg) 2-3 times a day. I don’t do this anymore and have not done so for the last 4-5 months. I might have taken a quarter every now and then within the last 4 months, maybe 5 times in total when I occasionally felt anxiety coming on. Elimination of clonazepam for anxiety during the day, it really was a very natural and gradual process. I never consciously set out to reduce my intake of the clonazepam; it really was I think, that I started to get better in my overall long covid situation and with that, anxiety started going away.

Insomnia

To help me sleep, I started with half a pill (1 mg) about 12 months ago. I did this for about 3 months. Then I am not sure if I became resistant to it or the insomnia from long covid got worse, but I had to up the dose and started taking the whole pill (2 mg). I did this for about the next 6 months. The last three months I brought it back down to half a pill (1 mg). This is the timeframe when I became aware about the dangers of these drugs and side effects. Last, in the last 4, maybe 5 days, I brought it down to a quarter of a pill (0.5 mg). This last reduction was also because, my new doctor strongly objected to the use of clonazepam (side note: I am currently taking hyperbaric oxygen treatments with this new doctor, and she said that as my oxygen treatments accumulate, that I was going to start cutting down on clonazepam, and hence my bringing it down to a quarter of a pill). Anyway,  this timeframe of the last few days coincides with the start of the anxiety and heart palpitations I describe in my post.

I am sorry, I am long-winded. I hope this information does give you a better idea of my journey with clonazepam.

Many thanks.

[[Le...]]

you are experiencing few problems compared to many people considering what you have used. 

the full effect of reductions is often not felt for weeks or more. 

your situation is complicated and it is difficult to be certain what to do. 

personally i would give it a little time staying at the current dose to see if things worsen at all and if not start reducing again. 

if what you are currently dealing with is as bad as it gets i wouldnt recommend a really slow taper as some need to do. there is a common issue though where at low doses the effect of reductions are more extreme. 

it is important to get off this stuff but be cautious. 

give it 3 weeks then make a decision. ask your doc for lower dose pills so they are easier to divide later. if things get harder you may have to consider a slow taper. people here will help if that happens. 

[[He...]]

Too big of a cut.

Stabilize .5 and try .45 if possible. If not switch over to ODT .125 mg 

[[Tr...]]

Hello @[Ci...], am very sorry that you feel like this. I have the same problem with heart palpitations after reducing my Klonopin dose from 0.5 to 0.375 mg within 2 weeks. 
 

May I ask how you feel now? Did the palpitations subside? Are you still on 0.25 mg or did you reinstate to 0.5 mg?

Thanks in advance for your reply! I hope that you feel better!

Edited August 7 by [Tr...]