Bad withdrawal from klonopin

I am going to rehab for binge drinking and marijuana soon, and my doctor said they would have me off klonopin in 1 week which freaked me out. She tried to wean me before, but I literally COULD NOT do it as the panic attacks were so ridiculous.

I have had chronic lyme disease for 6 years, which is what I feel causes the anxiety and panic attacks and insomnia. My crazy way too stressful ridiculous job exacerbates the symptoms. Prior to Klonopin, I was having SEVERE (to the point of going to the ER 3 times thinking I was having a heart attack) panic attacks every day for roughly 3-4 hours a day. Not to mention I would go months at a time without ANY sleep.

My doc first tried Zoloft and cognitive behavioral therapy. The $100 a visit fee for the therapy made it hard to continue - why the f*** doesn't blue shield pay for f@#$^&* therapy anyway? Those f@#$^&* douchebags!

But I digress... Anyway, it didn't help. My anxiety is very physical, I have a GABA deficiency in my brain, which I feel is caused by the lyme disease (anxiety is a primary symptom of lyme disease).

So, I'm an addict and have been bad. Usually I only take my prescribed 2mg a day. But the last two days I've been out of pot, up late at night, drunk, and just not high enough. So two days ago I took 4mg, yesterday 3mg... Then ran out of klonopin. I also was trading it to get pot, since I can't find it and buying it off the street is too dangerous and I can't afford the medical marijuana prescription at the moment.

So I called my doc to get more klonopin, and she halves my dosage as mentioned above.

I tried it. I was feeling REAL weird and bad at breakfast. On the way back, I started shaking really bad, had sudden outburts of screaming/crying, and my arms and legs were "kicking" uncontrollably every few seconds.

I had some xanax which I was going to take, but it had been sitting in my glucometer (my diabetes monitoring kit) for 4 months and looked nasty, so I didn't take it. So I took 1 mg klonopin under my tongue in hopes it would make me feel better.

Oh, I called my doctor too but haven't heard back from her.

After about half an hour, the shaking stopped and I'm starting to feel more normal now, thank GOD.

Just wanted to share my experience - best wishes all.

hey i was taking klonopin for about 8months and i was having the worst symptoms that lasting longer than a herion withdrawl and i ben there dont that..but this drug was no joke..i went to my doctor told him and he put me on this drug called phenobarbitial and it was the best thing that i possibly could have dont..i rarley since thne have had ne side affects and it has helped me stay the heck away from that sick drug and helped pretty much everything..keep in mind though there arwe side effects from that drug to but if tooken for a short period of time it will work and will save you..people please ask your doctor bout it and see what he says..omg thanks god my doctor gave that to ..

I have been taking klonopin for about 3 months - .5-1mg as needed (usually once every couple days) due to chronic pelvic pain. Nothing has ever helped as much as taking Klonopin and it has helped me with the pain enough to start doing Hatha Yoga which has reduced the pain even more. Anyway, the last time I took it was two days ago when I was in a lot of pain and haven't had it since. I felt like crap last night and had a terrible migraine like headache (I have never had migraines) and thought that it may be related to some kind of Klonopin withdrawal- hence coming to this site.

After reading the posts and seeing how people are tapering off of the medication I thought it might help to consider Klonopin, a powerful benzo, in light of how it compares to Valium, a less powerful benzo. .5mg of Klonopin = 10 mg of Valium. If you drop from .5 Klonopin to .25, you are making a huge drop (valium 10mg to 5mg). Were you taking Valium, you might go from 10mg to 7.5mg which would be the Klonopin equivalent of .5mg to .375mg. It would seem to me that in that light, the safest way to taper down is to decrease Klonopin use by .125 mg or less at a time. I think we all think something like "I'll just taper down by decreasing my dosage in half" but because Klonopin is such a powerful drug it doesn't work that way. I think the severity of withdrawal symptoms are also likely due to Klonopin's shorter half-life in the body (18-50 hours) vs. Valium's (100-200 hours) which makes the body crave Klonopin that much more quickly. So we've all been using a drug that is more powerful and craved more quickly than the other benzos.

Just a thought.

wow! i am so very glad that i found this! I am taking Klonopin for a seizure disorder. I have been taking 6 mgs since about 1990. It worked to control my seizures. The neurologist that i has when i was 19 told me he didn't like me talking it, so he dc'd it cold turkey. I was MISERABLE! I had a grand Mal seizure, which i had never had in the past! I couldn't eat or sleep, I was so grouchy. My poor mom, I still feel sorry for her. I am 33 now, and have been happily married for a year and we would like to start a family of our own. Klonopin is not a medication you want to be taking while you are pregnant. I have dropped down from 6 mgs to .50 daily, which is GREAT! However, i just dropped my last .50 mgs, and I can't sleep, I'm nauseated, I thought I was having a heart attack lost night, but it was a panic attack. I don't know how I am going to do this! I can't keep taking the medication, it's just not going to be good for a baby. I can't not take my medication because I need to work and if I work, I need to sleep, etc... I don't have an easy job either, I work with adults and children that have mental illnesses. They have problems of their own, and they don't need to hear about mine. To make the news even worse, my current neurologist doesn't even think I have epilepsy! ARRGGGHHH!! I am just so frustrated! Any advise is welcome and it is sounding like we all need to start our own support group!

This is an older forum but it came up first on google. Yes I have withdrawn from both low dose Xanax and low dose Klonopin- the first given to me for 7 years for panic disorder, and second I've been on about 5 years for same. I took 2mg am and pm for years then cut to 1mg am and 1am pm- not really noticing the difference.

I have had no desire to quit- because I went through HELL with the other withdrawals. Dr. said being on a low dose - I could quit cold turkey. b.s. I ended up in the Caron foundation ( a detox/drug rehab) for severe w/d including b/p 200/120. I started to feel numb in my face and arm and thought I would have a stroke. They shot me up with alot of phenobarbitol but although it lowered the bp and eased off the w/d for awhile- as soon as IT reached a low level in my system I was then withdrawing from both klonopin and phenobarbitol. I was sent home after a few days and told I would be fine. I wasn't- the w/d went on for a very long time and I did use alcohol at times to try to calm down. Even it did not work. I would be drunk from chugging a six pack, and my hands would still be cold/sweaty and shaking.

I'm back on the klonopin now. I am 56. I plan to remain on it permanently. If a doctor cuts me off- he or she will first have to put me iin a hospital.

Good luck to all.

Ive been taking klonopin about 10 years. I take 3 mg a day. I don't really like it but i have to take it. My anxiety is much better than when i started so now it just makes me tired. When I forget to take my klonopin i will become agitated and by around 12-24 hours off it have grand mal seizures. I dont know if I even wanna get off it, it doesn't seem feasible. It doesn't interfere with my life as long as I take it. I never crave it, I just take it on a schedule. It is inexpensive and has few side effects. before this, I never had a seizure. It's really scary and each time i have one i get head, neck and back injuries from collapsing. The hospital bills are expensive. Doesn't seem woth the risk to withdraw.

ok I have to google grand mal seizure bc I have no idea wtf that means.

I got off klonopin by switching to an old doc and doing an 18 librium taper. it has a longer half life than even klonopin. I'm on day 5 now and to be honest am having a panic attack.

but I feel about roughly the same as 6 months ago, before ever taking klonopin. based on the literature I've read, day 7 is the worst. Crossing my fingers and debating taking some gaba calm. Anyone know if this is dangerous w/ zoloft and after 5 days of being off librium and 23 days off klonopin?

bankergirl, I've had a touch of ringing in the ear, headaches, diarrhea, rebound anxiety, headaches, insomnia, the aura migraine - wow that one was WEIRD, muscle spasms (had many of these before from lyme disease but the tapering and kick did/are making these worse) ... but I've been drinking in hopes of making the kick easier. probably a bad idea but what the hell used it for years before and I know it works.

Want to talk to my doc and maybe naturopath about the safety of mega b-vitamins and pre-gaba amino acid supplements combined with zoloft. seemed safe based on a study I read earlier today.

PEOPLE. If you are disabled, humble yourself and get state disability. See a premiere neurologist/naturopath/md and get your neurotransmitter levels tested and fixed using (preferably) natural substances. Then go back to work when you feel better.

Guest wrote:

Has anyone had a real bad experience with withdrawals from klonopin? Like feeling like you cant breath, severe anxiety-almost like u are gonna jump out of your skin feeling, severely aggitated/irritated, chest pain, etc? What can you do to ease the symptoms? And how long does the withdrawal last?

I have been off of K-pin for 5 months. I took .05mg every night for roughly four years for a sleep disorder caused by PTSD.
The first week I didn't sleep well at all and I was quite irritable. As time progressed the symptoms gpt worse. The bad thing is that the symptoms I was experiencing I never related to K-pin withdrawals, I simply thought I was having heart problems and GERD. So, I now take Nexium for the GERD and I have been seeing a cardiologist and I have had the Nuclear Stress Testing done and an echo and I also wore the Holter Monitor for 24 hours. They could never figure out why I was having the chest pains and heart palpitations since all the tests came back normal.
So, I started doing my own research and I found several helpful links that lead me to believe that my years of K-pin usage and my quitting cold turkey ( I didn't know not to) has caused me to suffer from Protracted Symptom Disorder.
I still have the anxiety attacks although I have learned to "walk" them off, I still have the heart palpitations but I take Calan for it and it lessens the severity of them and I also still have the GERD which I treat with the Nexium.
I don't know how long these symptoms will last, some data suggests up to two years.
So, I deal with the symptoms now that I am fairly confident that they aren't 'life threating' and I hope that one day they will end.
In the interim I have spent numerous $$$$ dollars with cardiologists, emergency room visits, medications to treat the withdrawal symptoms, not to mention being scared to death in the beginning not knowing what was happening.

My best to all who are suffering with coming off this medication and it is one I formly believe where the risks way out weigh the good they can do and it should be removed from the market.

I'm Bipolar and began having panic attacks,so I decided to ask my doctor too let me try Klonopin for the attacks and + I couldn't sleep at night.I've been on them for about a year and a half now,only 1mg at bedtime a very low dose compared to other people.So I thought!!!!For two months now I've been trying to ween off them by breaking the pill into 4 pieces and only taking one piece at bedtime.Even at that low dose,I've been having severe insomnia,and I even wake up from sleep, it seems like clock work at 3am,sometimes I wake up feeling like I can't breathe,smothered,like I stopped breathing.I'm scared,but I'll continue too try to unleash the chanes that this poisen has grasped me with.I want to thank everyone who is going through this,your not alone and I'll take every tip too heart.I don't drink anymore and I'm going too start exercising to see how that helps.I'll get back to you.

I was put on Klonipan 8 years ago.I started drinking alot on top of it.I ran out before for taking to much I was prescribed 2mg twice a day.When I ran out after about 3 days I felt like I was going crazy I remember I was with my mom about a month ago I couldnt think straight, I felt like i was going to faint, it was terrible I went to the hospital to get more they wouldnt give me any so i walked out i was sweating than cold.My doc tried to tapper me off it didnt work.Its the most horrible feeling Ive ever had.I finally got moreI was put in a rehab and they took me off it for a week I would have done almost anything for one pill.I wish I was never put on it.I think klonipan helps my anxiety but by the time im 80 am I going to be on 20 mg a day because I just keep getting more immune to it,and I wont ever get off of it.