Withdrawal Side-effects From Klonopin

Hello all,
Ive been taking klonopin for a few days now since ive had some anxiety attacks in the past few years. Im planning on stopping in a week or two because I dont want to constantly be on it unless i have to (i didnt realize it was dangerous to take/be on it). If Ive only been taking it for less than a week, should i slowly ween myself off for a week, or is it alright if i stop cold turkey? Ive been taking anywhere from 1mg when i wake up and .5-1mg at night. If withdrawl is the only bad side effect of stopping completely, I think I can handle it if its around a week long. I dont want to do anything that could endanger my life either like seizures or convulsing. Am I safe from that sort of thing if Im not prone to seizures? Also, I had an EKG recently and my heart is in excellent condition. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

PS- I can tolerate the panic attacks, i realized they wont kill you and my heart is great, so if that is gonna happen alot with the withdrawal i can tough it out. I also smoke marijuana to help with withdrawls and anxiety so that usually gets me through it all. Plus Ill be moving in the next week so ill be doing plenty of exercise which should help with withdrawls if i have any. Also, I have some hydrocodone which ive taken on and off for years, so if my withdrawls from the klonopin, such as muscle aches, are bad ill take some hydrocodone.(dont worry, ive never gotten addicted to these)

Hi
I see you have all been dealing with the devil aswell. Today marks my first forward step back into reality, and my final attempt at coming clean. I have been addicted to oxycontin/hydrocodone/morphine for a couple months (something i've dealt with in the past) so I am withdrawing from those aswell as klonopin today.

I've tried to taper klonopin in the past, and I just couldn't do it. This time I'm determined. If you haven't ever taken klonopin in your life, good for you. Don't ever take it.

I've been taking 1mg/day for about a year for anxiety and panic. .5mg to 1mg a day for about 2-3 years. I tapered to three halves of a .5mg pill today. I'll continue to do so until I feel alright. Then two halves. Then two quarters. (then?)
Good luck to any and all of you who are coming off of klonopin or any other benzodiazepine. We can all be free if we set our minds to it.

After a failed attempt at withdrawing from 3.5 mg/day I am now trying to withdraw from 1 mg/day. I am now at .25 at night and .25 in the morning. I started having withdrawal symptoms after 4 days of lowering to this dose. They were quite bad for 2 days and now seem to be a bit better. My doctor has me scheduled to go down every 2 weeks by .25. That means next Monday I will drop again. I am very concerned about what side effects I might encounter during this next step and the one after that. Part of my concern is that my doctor seems to think there are no side effects from withdrawing from Klonopin. She thinks our taper is set up to make things be just fine. They are not just fine and I will be interested to see what she says about how I am feeling at this point. I felt like I had the flu really bad for 2 days and now I feel like someone is sitting on my chest. My muscles twitch and my lips, arms, hands, legs and feet start to tingle and feel cold.

I have found this site and the one that came before it very helpful in making me feel like I am not alone in this withdrawal process. Thanks to all who have written before me.

Here I am on my 8th month of tapering off Clonazepam. My doses are so low, I have to titrate it in water now. I started off by dissolving a .5 mg tablet in 20 oz of water. Shook it real good, and then stored it in the refrigerator. I took 4 oz a day; 2 in the morning and 2 in the night. This would make my dose .1 mg a day. The bottle lasts about 5 days. The withdrawals are still there. Even tapering of so slowly, but they are not as bad as the initial tapering. I've been on the medicine for 10 years so it's not going to be a picnic. Every 5 days I then refill the bottle for the next doses, I throw away 2 oz, and then 4 oz, then 6 oz, replace that with regular water. This keeps the daily measuring doses consistent with the 20 oz bottle. My schedule so far is like this;
8-18-2009 = .050 mg day
8-23-2009 = .040 mg day
8-28-2009 = .030 mg day
9-2-2009 = .020 mg day
9-7-2009 = .010 mg day
9-12-2009 = .005 mg day
9-17-2009 = No more after 10 years.

For those who are cutting pills now should really convert to water titrates. I was cutting pills in the beginning, and some pieces were bigger and some smaller. That makes titrating inconsistent. I was having good days and withdrawals the next. The medicine is very hard to come off, and especially in low doses. Being almost off of it, I noticed a healthy feeling I had not felt in years. I actually feel like a normal person again. I no longer have a “fake” sense of well being. Now that I realize the withdrawal symptoms, I no longer rush to the ER thinking I am going to die. The pain could be relentless, but you have to stay strong as long you want to quit this drug

Hi Everyone, My name is Tim and I've been free of Klonopin for 4 months. I was on 2mg 3x daily for amost 16 years. I'm currently 37 and I feel like I regained my life. The hardest thing I ever did was leave the safety net of klonopin behind. The pain which you have all wrote about is horrific. I've been addicted to heroin, cocaine, and klonopin. Klonopin is very very very addictive and one of the hardest chemicals to get off. I don't even know where to begin this whole story. I want to be an inspiration to those needing to see it can be done. YOU CAN GET YOUR LIFE BACK! Klonopin will take away all feelings. Thats why you're not anxious when you take it. You don't feel! Quite a trade off. Life is for feeling.
There are some awesome things that happen during withdrawl. Perception, thoughts, memories, motivation, and in my case an erection all return. IN SPADES!
I've been lucky to have good people to support me. I could'nt have done it without dedicating almost a year to just getting off Klonopin. That takes money and my family didn't understand but they supported me.
I started running. Remove all the extra energy.
I went back to school, I have class in 5 min.
Do you want to know what my experience was? Please ask me anything. I'd like to help.

Quiting this particular Rx cold turkey is really playing Russian roulette with your life if you've been taking it for any amount of (extended) time. Above and beyond any of the withdrawl symptoms, it can be fatal and cause you to have seizures even if that wasn't the original reason you were taking it in the first place. In looking over some of the earlier posts seems that many don't realize there's a dosage of 0.5 mg, this drug is really potent being that so little is all that can be needed (with some people). The previous post detailing water titration is really clever, to really taper it off you almost need to start grinding them up en masse and measuring them out with a more fine measuring tool/system to start getting really small doses (less than 0.25mg).

I've run out before (refill wasn't filled by the end of week and gone w/o for a few days till the Dr. came back the next week) and it makes life awful. From past experiences be sure that you are able to control your enviromental surroundings, these can severly exasterbate some physical problems. The body can become very hypersensitive to any weather one direction or the other - if its hot outside make sure that you can cool yourself off (i.e. AC) or warm yourself if its cold as the withdrawl seems to magnify anything out of (whatever your) average temperate surroundings are.

Recently I got extremely sick and ran out as I was unable to do anything (very nasty treatment resistent infection :$ ). Was looking around to see if anyone had come with anything new (recently found a great way to help get rid of Canker sores fast looking through here) that helps. There is one type of medication that can help relieve the symptoms, though unless you're already taking it, no Dr. would ever give it to you for that reason since its (potentially) more addictive than Klonopin - Vicodin/Norco. I've got severe chronic pain problems from cartiledge between certain bones in my body having deteriorated or being non-existant, at times I can be immobilized from pain for days if not treated; or go a few months without having to even take a Tylenol.

While the body reacts to its most severe pain first, I can only say that there have been times when my (body) pain has been so bad that I've forgotten to take the Klonopin for a few days till the pain goes down. In those instances I wouldn't start to feel the pains specific to Klonopin withdrawl for up to a week if I'd been (having to) take pain killers for the other problem. What is really scary is that I can stop taking pain killers suddenly (even if its for a prolonged period of a couple of weeks) and not get any opiate withdrawls, but my body goes crazy after missing a dosage of Klonopin for a day.

I'm an insomniac so I took Klonopin to sleep mainly - I did have a little bit of anxiety also though when I had it prescribed. I withdrew a year ago for several days (I ran out) from taking 1 mg a day over about 5 years and don't remember having any HUGE symptoms. If I had some they were pretty minor. I took the over the counter sleeping pills though during that time (Sominex) otherwise I would have never been able to sleep. I did have horrible withdrawl symptoms after going off of a few antidepressants (Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa), however.

Not everyone will have horrible symptoms from going off of Klonopin. I guess. Or maybe the Sominex helped.

What does help your peace of mind is knowing that it's just withdrawl symptoms and NOT that you're having some type of breakdown or something. When I withdrew from Zoloft - my Dr. didn't warn me about the side effects and I thought I was going off the deep end. She should have warned me and perhaps given me something to help with the withdrawl symptoms. I did call her on the carpet about it later....

had a panic attack in the middle of November. Went to ER and ended up with Klonopin. 0.25 mg in the morning and 0.25 in the evening.
After about a three weeks my doctor told me that I can reduce the dose to half for about 3 or four days (I was actually on the half dose for the whole week) and then on half again for 4 days. Then I run out of the pills and thought that I should be just fine.
I feel horrible. Pain in my back, my arms, neck, blurry vision, tingling and electric like sensations, cannot eat and simply function at all. I had a panic attack last night again....wasn't able to breath while falling asleep and once again I thought that I'm going to die.
Went to see another doctor today (a psychiatrist) who told me that is impossible that I'm having a withdrawal after such a small dose (a candy, he said).
He then said that he can put me back on the same dose for about a month to reduce the stress and then slowly taper. I wasn't sure what to do, because I really don't want to go back and also trusted him, when he was saying that this is not a withdrawal. Now, I'm not sure what to do, I feel really bad and as soon as I try to lie down, the heart starts to speed.
I think that I'm going thru this because the pill and I probably went down too quickly. Shall I go back on it? Smaller dose and then taper really slowly?

Hi Tim, I'd like to hear more about your story. After about 16 years use of Clonazepam I tapered slowly in 2008, only to be struck by some kind of illness at the very end of my taper. Now after using clonazepam on an d off this past whole year again, I recently dropped my dose and have gone into horrific symptoms that I can't seem to stabilize on. It has been brought to my attention that maybe the illness I got after tapering was in fact severe benzo w/d? Anyway, interested to talk to anyone with long term use and severe gut issues, hyperventilating, whole body tingling and tremors and symptoms especially after eating foods.
Thanks - Tina

I've posted several times in this thread and like to come back every now and then to read the posts.

It's been almost 12mths since I took my last Klonopin. It's been wonderful being able to stay off and I've been able to keep my anxiety at a manageable level without meds!

It was a long road and was the hardest thing I've ever done. I contemplate what I went through almost daily. It was torture and it changed me.

If anyone has any questions, or if I can help in any way, please post a reply.

Hello all. I need advice... I had been taking Klonopin at a small dose .25 - .375 per night for the past 7 months to help me sleep. I decided to come off the medication since my sleep had improved. The cut down to .125 wasn't too bad... About a week of minor discomfort and that was it. However since coming off the med the past 2 weeks, I've been miserable. Headaches every day, muscle twitches, dizziness and worse of all - increase in tinnitus/ being very sensitive to sounds (I have an ear condition and it's gotten a whole lot worse latley). I have been unsettled by all of this since I was under the impression from my doctor that my dose was too low to cause any bad withdrawal symptoms. But sure enough, the other night I took .125 at night and some of my symptoms eased up the following day. I was clueless until I went online and found my symptoms to be consistent w/ other who go through w/drawal... Before then, I thought I was losing my mind! Needless to say I'm really pissed at my doctor.

My question is should I take 1/16 of a pill for a few weeks then go off it? Or, since I've been off it for 2 weeks (except for 1 night), just tough it out and wait for all this to finally go away?

I'm no professional or anything, but if I'd made it two weeks, I'd keep going.

This is my first post. I've been ADDICTED to K for about 4 years. Started taking it for "life problems". It helped. It removed all emotions and made me feel even in the beginning. I want to be able to "feel" again. I've tried reducing dosages, but I seem to go right back to where I was as soon as something happened in my life. Can't say I don't have any drinking issues also, because I do. If I don't take it I get all the symptoms posted before, so I won't repeat them all. The worst is the head disorientation and nausea. The thing that makes me most concerned is that I'm thinking about is life really worth living or just escaping the one I live. It may be will power and develop a plan, not sure. I would even go to rehab if I thought it would help. The last choice is to just accept that I'm a lifelong addict and take it until the day I die. I wish I knew back then what I know now, I would have never taken that first pill!!! Thanks doc. This stuff shouldn't be given to any new people, unless the drug company wants a society of addicts, which is quite possibly the case. Any comment or advice would be greatly appreciated. My GF also wishes that I would be more active, if you catch it. It's really screwed me up!!

I have taken K for several years, before that Xanax. I was up to 3mg a day of K. I wanted to taper off but was always terrified to. Finally I got a Doctor who gave me a VERY LONG schedule of SLOW tapering. I had the typical awful withdrawl symptoms, shaking, increased anxiety, sleeplessness, but these symptoms passed! I have now off Klo for several weeks and everything has leveled off. Whatever you do...WHATEVER YOU DO...Taper off SLOWLY! don not rush. If your Doctor doesn't understand this, get another one. Most Docs will be very patient and let you come off slowly. It's hard to leave the saftey net of Klonipn, but if you are addicted, and not taking it now and then only for anxiety, you will eventually feel *better* than you ever did while on it...Just take the time and do not come off it too fast. Be sure that your dosages decrease to 0.12 or so before you stop. 0.12 (Half of a .25 pill.) Be patient with yourself, and don't spend hours reading horror stories on the internet. If your anxiety prone like me, these stories will only increase your anxiety and lessen your hope. There is hope and you will feel better. You are not going to be in hell for "2 years" or whatever. Just do it properly and although it will be hard for awhile, you will be glad.

Trust me, if I can come off Klonipin...ANYONE can. I was as dependent on this drug to get through the day as I am dependent on the sun for light. I'm happy to be free of that. There are so many other anxiety meds that do not have this addictive property. It can be done.

Also, I would like to add that Klonipin can be perfectly safe for people who are not prone to addiction and can take it on occasion only for anxiety. I can say from experience though that if your are an addictive person in any respect, you might be better served looking for a non-benzo med.

Don't give up and don't lose hope. :-P

Yikes. I just read this thread and it sounds really scary. o.O
I've been taking K for about 5 years but since I was always aware that it is very addictive I always hesitated to increase the dose even at moments when I felt a bit more anxious. My original prescription was 3 x 0.5 which I took for about a year. Then I dropped down to 2 x 0.5 and eventually to 2 x 0.25 for several years. I actually never had any bad experiences with K while on it and have to say that my anxiety I had before was a lot worse and wasn't exactly a picnic either.
Several months ago I decided to get off of it on my own mainly because I'm not sure what will happen in the future if I keep on taking it. I reduced my dose by 50% every 2 weeks. The first reduction was in the evening which meant I took 0.25 in the morning and 0.125 in the evening(I roughly split the pill). I felt a bit shaky for a couple of days but otherwise I was fine. I continued doing this until I only took 0.125 in the morning. After I finally dropped the last dose to 0. I felt normal for about a week. Then I slowly started feeling a bit weird. To be honest, I started feeling worse after reading all this on the internet so I can't say how much is actually withdrawal and how much is imagination due to what I read about other people's experiences which might make me project them on me. Maybe it's a mixture of both..
Since I tapered off by myself and didn't have any psychiatrist to ask or assist me so I decided to get back on K for a while and look for a psychiatrist first. Reading what many people have been through here and my own experience, I hope that if I taper off even more slowly by cutting the 0.125 in half again and then reducing as far down as possible I might minimize the w/d as far as possible. Maybe it helps to stay on each extremely low dose for several weeks.
I need to see how it goes.