Not to be an ass, but a study proving time correlates with withdrawal severity (absent of dose increases) would be needed first. From a physiological standpoint your mind really would not care about the difference of 3 steady weeks and 3 steady years.
I restate:
In pharmacokinetics, steady state is when a drug reaches blood peak, it takes about 4x Half lives to reach this. Blood peak due to metabolites for a long acting benzo such as Klonopin would be reached in (40h x4) 160 hours, which to round up is 7 days. Steady state does not mean dependence. Dependence onset would still be about 3 weeks of daily dosing. In reality someone using for 1.5m will be as dependent as a 5 year user.
I think a fair comparison here is an SSRI, while having withdrawals they aren't dangerous. You do not have worse withdrawals the longer you use them, only when you climb in dose.
So, I don't know if you read my posts or my history with Klonopin and anxiety, but I have unfortunately been on it a very long time now, about 15 years at 1.5mgs a day (I very rarely go up to 2.5 MAX but sometimes only need 1mg for anxiety and I have never really needed more than 1.5 for my anxiety) , and about 5 years ago, roughly 10 years after being prescribed it, I was cut off by a doctor and wasn't on it for 9 months before I had to get back on due to the same anxiety symptoms as before returning because they were no longer masked by the Klonopin.
The hospital I went to fucked up and really didn't even give me barely any kind of taper, yet SOMEHOW I was extremely lucky and experienced pretty much zero acute physical WD. I remember I only had one day within probably the 1st 2 weeks off it were I felt kind of sick for a few hours and then it passed, and that's literally it (I don't even know if it was WD, could have been something else but probably was a bit).
Then while off it my anxiety didn't really return till about 2-3 months afterwards and then it started up again with the exact same symptoms as before.
I was wondering if you thought that the was mostly or entirely just the same old anxiety returning or if maybe PAWS might have been a factor??
I mean, I don't know, I think it's possible it could have SLIGHTLY been a factor, but that even if it was it was still probably like at least 85% just the same old anxiety returning cause if it was really PAWS I figure I would have had at least ONE other symptom other than just the same anxiety as before, like insomnia or depression or whatever (I had neither and slept BETTER than before and had a better mood too), but it was literally ONLY my anxiety.
The idea it could have been PAWS at first bummed me out cause I thought maybe if I'd toughed it out longer I could have stayed off them and the anxiety may have subsided, then I thought that that really sucks that it probably WAS NOT PAWS cause if it was that would provide more hope that in the future I could get off Klonopin if I toughed it out longer.
Also, do you really believe that people like us who have taken MODERATE MEDICINAL doses of Klonopin for many years are doing some kind of MASSIVE permanent brain damage to ourselves??
Do you think that if we ever try to get off them that they will have actually made our anxiety WORSE than before like some people say, and that we are likely to get alzheimers or memory/cognitive problems?
I know that that stuff CAN happen but from what I have read it is FAR from set in stone that any of it will like some of the benzo-bashers like to say.
Do you think our brain chemistry is really PERMANENTLY altered?
I mean, even though I could assume there might be some kind of long term or permanent change in our brains, that's not necessarily at all the same thing as everyone adamantly insisting that we will DEFINITELY have HORRIBLE long term side effects.
I also had a couple more questions:
1)
How long did you say the half-life of Klonopin is, and how long is the full life of it in the blood stream till it's completely gone, and how long do you think a person like me who has been taking 1.5mgs a day for years would need to go without before real acute WD would begin??
I have had times where I ran out and was unable to take it for 2 days (I don't think ever longer than that) and I did not get WD.
2)
Do you drink coffee/use caffeine at all, and if so, does it make your anxiety worse and do you think you'd be able to use lower doses of benzos if you didn't consume caffeine/as much caffeine??
I drink way too much and have tried to quit (I have cut my usage in half from what it was before) and I know that it greatly exacerbates my anxiety and that when I drink none or less I need less Klonopin and that is part of my plan on how to reduce my dosage or even eventually taper off, which is to stop drinking coffee or at least not more than 1 cup a day.
I know in the past when I have temporarily quit coffee or at least cut down that I have needed MUCH less Klonopin, sometimes only 0.5mgs a day instead of 1.5.
3)
If you were going to try to get off benzos, what would your plan be in terms of how to manage your anxiety off of them?
Do you think any other medications would work for you and would you have other ideas on how to deal with it like reducing stimulants or exercise? (I know both help me)
I really want to at least find a way to cut down, and soon I am going to be looking for a new psychiatrist and trying to find out if there's any other meds that aren't benzos that could help, mainly cause Klonopin makes me tired and I also think maybe increases my depression, so I want something that won't make me tired or depressed.
I also take Lexapro but i don't think it works. Meds that have been suggested include a newer SSRI that one guy on here who had the same kind of anxiety I do said worked for him, which is called Vortioxetine, and also Gabapentin, which while I know it is a Gabergic, for SOME people like my aunt she says it does NOT make her tired most of the time and others on here who have anxiety have successfully switched from Klonopin to Gabapentin and said that Gaba works for their anxiety just as well or better and that it doesn't make them tired like Klonopin did so that sounds promising.
Sorry for this being so long Lol...
Thanks.