Please help me. I’m scared. What’s going on with my poor brain

[[Ja...]]

 

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OK people, I am in very bad shape. I don’t think I’m going to make it through this. As you know, I tapered off of the 1 mg of K over a 1.8 year period, and then when I was off two weeks ago on a Friday I was hit with symptoms like dipping my body and fire, and not being able to move my limbs. I couldn’t see my vision was awful. I had severe SI, that was nothing I could deal with. I went back on a few pieces of that powder like I told you guys, and it seem to help a little bit, but as I taper back up to approximately .25, I am in the most extreme pain I have ever been in. Heart racing, tingling, akathisia. My poor brain probably does not know what’s going on. I wish, At least when I was on 1 mg of K I was able to work, and have a life, even though I was anxious. I’m shaking so hard, no sleep. Severe DPDR.

id rather go back on forever. I’m 57. 
 

help

 

[[Ro...]]

28 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

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OK people, I am in very bad shape. I don’t think I’m going to make it through this. As you know, I tapered off of the 1 mg of K over a 1.8 year period, and then when I was off two weeks ago on a Friday I was hit with symptoms like dipping my body and fire, and not being able to move my limbs. I couldn’t see my vision was awful. I had severe SI, that was nothing I could deal with. I went back on a few pieces of that powder like I told you guys, and it seem to help a little bit, but as I taper back up to approximately .25, I am in the most extreme pain I have ever been in. Heart racing, tingling, akathisia. My poor brain probably does not know what’s going on. I wish, At least when I was on 1 mg of K I was able to work, and have a life, even though I was anxious. I’m shaking so hard, no sleep. Severe DPDR.

id rather go back on forever. I’m 57. 
 

help

Sounds like your in a really tough place.  I'm sorry to hear that.  At what dosage did you jump from, or did you taper to zero?

[[or...]]

Hi Jaimie,

I've been doing a taper off Clonazepam for 18 months, and I have taken the drug 35 years.  Do you mean you quit the drug in under 2 months?  I am awful with numbers, that's why I ask so I fully understand.

If your answer is yes, that extremely fast taper, even for those who have taken a benzo less time "sometimes" have pretty bad wd sxs, if they taper too fast.

This is just me now, and not sure what others think, but I was updosed twice by doctors, and I am glad for it.  One time was after being off a week, cold turkey, and the second was when I was tapered down to .25 mg, supposedly anyway since I was just breaking the tablet with my fingernails, or a cutter which crumbled my tablets.

Can you talk to your doctor about being prescribed again so you can taper off a better way? denise

Edited September 13 by [or...]

[[Ja...]]

3 hours ago, [[R...] said:

Sounds like your in a really tough place.  I'm sorry to hear that.  At what dosage did you jump from, or did you taper to zero?

I tapered over 1.8 years dry on a scale, I went very slow, and I stayed on the final dose of .025 mg for a few weeks and then I jumped. I thought I was in the clear I felt fantastic and then it day seven it felt like a Mack truck hit me in the face. I had such extreme symptoms, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I am mediately had very dark thoughts, and I knew that that was not sustainable. 

[[Ja...]]

3 hours ago, [[o...] said:

Hi Jaimie,

I've been doing a taper off Clonazepam for 18 months, and I have taken the drug 35 years.  Do you mean you quit the drug in under 2 months?  I am awful with numbers, that's why I ask so I fully understand.

If your answer is yes, that extremely fast taper, even for those who have taken a benzo less time "sometimes" have pretty bad wd sxs, if they taper too fast.

This is just me now, and not sure what others think, but I was updosed twice by doctors, and I am glad for it.  One time was after being off a week, cold turkey, and the second was when I was tapered down to .25 mg, supposedly anyway since I was just breaking the tablet with my fingernails, or a cutter which crumbled my tablets.

Can you talk to your doctor about being prescribed again so you can taper off a better way? denise

I tapered off over 1.8 years and got down to .025 mg, which weighs .004 on the scale. Then I jumped and I felt absolutely amazing for a week and that’s when everything went insane. So for the next two days, I took just a little bit of powder on my tongue, to see if that would help at all, and the first night it did, but after that, it did not. So I spoke with a Benzo, psychiatric physicians, assistant, and she told me to stabilize and go up to .25 at the very most, and wait for a month for your body to even out, but I don’t know if it ever will. I don’t know if I really kindled myself, probably slightly, but I was only off of it for eight days when I reinstated. They say that there is a time period of 14 days or less or you can reinstate without too many problems in your brain. 

[[je...]]

I’m so deeply sorry you are in this position. I cannot imagine how you must be feeling. For some people reinstatement works and for some it doesn’t even if you do it within the short time frame. It could also be that you need to give it more time to see if your body will adjust. I’m not exactly sure how long you’ve been back on 0.25mg? 

[[Sw...]]

Hi there I am sorry for what you’re experiencing. It’s awful I understand and I sympathize. I CTd last summer then reinstated 14 days later. I then slowly tapered down. But it seems you already tapered to such a low dose. I’m sorry it is so hard for you. How are you feeling since reinstating?

[[Fa...]]

@[Ja...]  I'm so sorry you are going through this after a safe-paced taper.  No one knows why some who have tapered slowly and safely get hit hard after their jump, and some suffer terribly throughout their taper and recover with relative ease after their jump...and, all that lies in between.  I'm not sure how your taper was for you...if it was fairly uneventful or difficult?  Perhaps you can tell us.  But, it is clear that you were thrown into acute after your jump which is not uncommon.  If you had a manageable taper only to be greeted by this it would be very difficult to cope with.  It's difficult to cope with on the heels of a difficult taper, but perhaps not as surprising and shocking.

It sounds to me as though you did everything 'right', and you tapered down to the recommended jump point.  There is nothing more you could have done than what you did, but we know that does not guarantee us an easy landing, unfortunately.  This is the way your body is moving through the healing and it hurts.  I know how scary such intense symptoms are, and I realize it doesn't feel like much consolation to say that it's because of healing, but it is.  It would be the last stage of it.

In terms of the reinstatement, it can feel really bad initially for some.  It may not feel like relief...it can feel like the drug is working against you and not for you.  But, if you intend on staying on .25mg, it may take a while until it feels as though it is aiding you rather than hindering.  I suppose my thoughts on this are that you may need to acclimate to this discomfort until your body begins to calm.  And, as far as tapering down, the only other route for you would be to taper to 0mg, and then face the music.  Next time, you will be more prepared in the event symptoms were to be really intense again.  As I say, if you had not experienced severe symptoms during your taper period, it would be a shock to move into acute if you were not prepared for it.  It looks as though you are new to the site, so perhaps you were not prepared at all.  Just know that what you are experiencing is not uncommon, and many have gone through it.

Warmly,

F

[[jo...]]

21 hours ago, [[J...] said:

I tapered off over 1.8 years and got down to .025 mg, which weighs .004 on the scale. Then I jumped and I felt absolutely amazing for a week and that’s when everything went insane. So for the next two days, I took just a little bit of powder on my tongue, to see if that would help at all, and the first night it did, but after that, it did not. So I spoke with a Benzo, psychiatric physicians, assistant, and she told me to stabilize and go up to .25 at the very most, and wait for a month for your body to even out, but I don’t know if it ever will. I don’t know if I really kindled myself, probably slightly, but I was only off of it for eight days when I reinstated. They say that there is a time period of 14 days or less or you can reinstate without too many problems in your brain. 

Hi,
How long ago was it that you used 0.25 mg? I Guess more than 14 days because you did a slow taper. So the argument that you reinstated in a period of 14 days after 0.25 mg does not hold.

I wonder why you did not reinstate to your last dose, which is 0.025 mg or maybe your taper dose before this.
Unfortunately for some of us 0.025 mg clonazepam still has quite an effect.

With a liquid taper you could go lower.

 

[[Ja...]]

On 13/09/2024 at 13:52, [[j...] said:

I’m so deeply sorry you are in this position. I cannot imagine how you must be feeling. For some people reinstatement works and for some it doesn’t even if you do it within the short time frame. It could also be that you need to give it more time to see if your body will adjust. I’m not exactly sure how long you’ve been back on 0.25mg? 

I’m at 30 percent back on and not stabilizing 

[[je...]]

I meant how long have been taking 0,25mg - as in how many weeks?

[[Re...]]

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

I’m at 30 percent back on and not stabilizing 

I’m truly sorry you're going through this—it breaks my heart to hear it. While I didn’t have the exact tapering experience, I did endure severe symptoms, so I completely understand your desperation. I tried a number of approaches (though not reinstatement), and unfortunately, they all made things worse. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what was happening to me; if I had, I would have stayed off everything and avoided trying to "treat" the withdrawal. My concern with reinstating was the possibility of quickly reaching tolerance again and being stuck on a drug that no longer worked. In my case, I had already hit that point. Some people do stabilize right away, while others don’t—it really can be unpredictable. Be aware that if you go to a hospital, you could end up polydrugged in a situation like this and misdiagnosed. These symptoms you have might not last long. That is a possibility.