Klonopin (clonazapam) Withdrawal

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I'm going through major clonazapam withdrawal right now. I take clonazapam 2 times a day for really bad anxiety. I stupidly let my prescription run out and I called my local drugstore to fax my doctor to get my prescription refilled but my doctor didn't fax them back on Friday and the drugstore is closed for the weekend. I have an appointment on Monday morning to get stitches removed so I'm going to have to go through from now until later Monday and possibly even longer without any clonazapam. I'm starting to feel kind of anxious and depressed.

There are also triggers popping up that wont leave my mind and it's making me more depressed. I'm also getting really twitchy, dizzy and shaky. If I'm lucky my parents might be able to get me to the doctor tomorrow but it's out of the way plus it's Mother's Day and I don't want to make them spend it in the doctor's office because of my stupid withdrawal symptoms. I'm just scared because I have to go to the hospital on Monday to get stitches out and it'll probably get worse because I've only been off of it for one day so far. I also take Effexor XR and Seroquil. The Seroquil might help but it makes me fall asleep and I can't have that during the day.

Sorry, I'm just freaking out and venting because of my anxiety and depression. Does anybody have any suggestions that might help me cope with the symptoms? The only thing that is kind of helping me relax is reading a book. Everything else triggers anxiety and depression. It's like I can't hear certain sounds, it can't be too bright, I have to wear certain things, I can't be around my parents, etc. I'm basically having a meltdown and it doesn't help that I'm pretty much agoraphobic right now.

This too shall pass.

Benzo withdrawl is truely awful. I am not prone to psychologically abusing substances, but I honestly forgot to take my clonazapam dose by accident and I was very messed up about 12 hours later. I was twitching so bad I thought I was having seizure. I got zero sleep for almost 30 hours. I figured out what happened later and took some clonazapam.

If your are truly out you might want to take some diphenhydramine (Benadryl) to take some of the edge off. Everyone rapidly builds a tolerance to benzodiazapine drugs so you might want to keep that in mind, when you discuss meds with your dr. (Note: I did not say you should not take it!)

Also, just a caution, never run out of venlafaxine (Effexor)! I have found it to be an awesome antidepressent. (It works great when the ssris often don't), but it will take you months to get off of and the withdrawls can be truly horrible if you decrease the dose too fast.

Yes, psych meds--cannot live with them, but can't be alive without them, or so it feels sometimes.

I would go to the emergency room if I were you, especially if you have been taking it longer than a few weeks. Benzo withdrawals can cause seizures and delusions or hallucinations. It can be dangerous and can also make your blood pressure spike.

If you can call the answering service for your dr and get the on call dr to call you back, he might be able to tell you something to help or at least call some in to get you through the weekend. However, if you can't get a dr, I'd go to the emergency room. If you. do go, make sure you take your empty prescription bottle and also all the other meds you take so they can see that you aren't just drug seeking.

I used to abuse Clonazepam. I was going through a really dark period of my life, am bipolar and at the time was not on the proper medication. My psychiatrist prescribed Clonazepam to help me with anxiety. I can't fault her for that, because I never had a history of abusing substances before that. But a few months after I had been prescribed it, I was conning my pharmacy into giving me refills early and was taking 10 mg or more in the course of a day. I was depressed and I preferred to spend it zoned out on the couch than thinking about how much I had screwed up my life.

My psychiatrist at the time was incompetent (he wanted me to go cold turkey off the Clonazepam. That could have killed me, and that's not an exaggeration) but I managed to talk him into doing a fast taper rather than cold turkey. It was crappy. Headaches, nausea, general weakness and just feeling fuzzy. After a few weeks I felt better.

Now, I have to deal with my anxiety without benzos. Doctors won't prescribe them to me any more once they see I used to abuse them. I'm glad they won't - I want to learn to deal with anxiety by calming myself down in other ways. I don't like how physically dependent I was on benzos.

Benzo withdrawal is also dangerous. Someone else already mentioned seizures. Going to the emergency room if you can't get to see your doctor might be a good idea.

I think you might have a good idea if it is more than a day or so or if it was a high dose. As you point out sudden withdrawls from from high doses are medically dangerous.

10mg is way high. The max daily dose is 6mg/day (I think?). Were you blacking out at that dose? I blacked out once in the '90s from an accidental double-dose of alprazolam, that was scary afterwords. A few weeks to detox from such a high dose!--wow with most people that would take many months while using diazapam as a final taper.
I could also rage forever about incompetent psychiatrists. Some have caused me so much grief.

Thanks, I might try the Benadryl thing. Yeah, I know that I'm definitely building up a tolerance to Klonopin. I plan to talk to my psychiatrist when she returns hopefully this month. She's been gone on extended leave for almost one year now. Yeah, I've stopped Effexor cold turkey before and it really messed me up. I was really sick but I was hallucinating at the same time.



Yeah, I probably will if it gets any worse. I think I'm going to try and get in to see the doctor tomorrow anyway.



Yeah, I'll admit that my body is definitely addicted to clonazapam. I'm not however trying to get any more than what I take. Actually, I used to take three tablets a day and I asked my doctor to reduce me to 2 because I felt like I only needed 2 a day and I didn't want to be any more addicted than I already was. My mom has a prescription drug problem and she finds my clonazapam and takes some from my purse sometimes if I forget to hide it from coming back from somewhere. That's part of the problem, I'm running out of it too soon because she takes a portion of my monthly dosage. She's not allowed to be on benzos either, it's in her file.



Yeah, my doses aren't too high, just .5 a pill but I take them twice a day and I've been on them since September and I used to take them 3 times a day. If my symptoms get any worse which I know they will, I'll probably go straight to the doctor or hospital.

Yes I was. But that was one of the things that drew me to it. I was in a really bad place and blacking out was preferable. I am so glad I have been able to turn myself around. And I'm thankful the fast taper didn't hurt me. That psychiatrist often discounted the things I said, so maybe he didn't even believe I was taking that much, even though my therapist at the time did believe me and called him herself and left a message while I was in session with her.

And I was really motivated to get off the benzos, which is why I think it was possible for me to taper off a really high dose that quickly. I used a 12 step group for support for maybe 2 months, but I don't consider myself an addict - I no longer need them, and am not interested in trying to convince anyone to prescribe them. I definitely wouldn't buy them elsewhere. I don't attend 12 step meetings regularly, as the social aspect is hard for me, and I don't consider myself an addict. Alcohol is another story, but I can stay away from drugs without much effort.



Sorry that your mom has a problem. It would be frustrating to end up short because someone else was taking them. How long have you been on the clonazepam? Is it just short term, or do you plan to take it for years? I think the other part of what made me quit them, other than the whole abusing thing, is that I didn't see an end to my anxiety and didn't want to take benzos forever, so I've learned other ways to deal with it. Meditation, positive self talk, therapy... they've helped.

I don't know, see the problem with me is that my social anxiety and anxiety in general is horrible. When I'm not on benzos I'm even more of a social recluse than I am now and I start shaking. My shaking gets so bad that I don't eat in front of other people. I'm going to ask my psychiatrist if I could switch to ativan for awhile and then eventually go back to clonazapam or something similar. My mother's a nurse (not working right now obviously) and she was saying that it would work, she's just not sure if my psychiatrist would go for it.

Um, you do know that Ativan is the brand name for lorazapam, which is another benzo drug. I guess I don't see the point in switching and going back.
It's pretty sad that your mom has an addiction problem.