Mental Health Tapering off Clonazepam. Getting some side effects after having none so far

[paranoid android]

So i have been on Clonazepam at 4-6mg's a day (mostly 6mg's) for over a decade now. Last spring/early summer i decided to taper down my dose of Clonazepam for various reasons (making it easier to switch Benzos if i need to, taking less benzos if i need to and also because the medical board seems to think your a OD waiting to happen if your on a strong Opiate like Morphine along with a Benzo (even if your doses have not changed in almost 5 years ) so to shut those cunts up as well. So far i haven't gotten any real withdrawal symptoms except abit of extra sweating after dropping my dose a few times. I have only dropped from 6mg's a day to 4mg's so far but my doctor is being extra careful as he doesn't want to fuck me up with a too fast Benzo taper. Also i should mention my goal is to not get off benzos altogether as they do help my pain as well as anxiety but to get the dose down to a lower one where maybe i could swap the Clonazepam for 40mg's of Valium a day instead which means dropping down to 2mg's of Clonazepam.

Anyway until now i haven't really gotten any side effects but during the past few weeks i have been waking up fairly frequently with a strong feeling of anxiety overwhelming me along with feeling like my heart is beating out of my chest. Needless to say that is not a fun feeling. I find that my dreams/Nightmares if they are intense enough can cloud my mood all day and when i am Depressed having a Depressing dream and waking up feeling horribly depressed is fairly common. I used to constantly get the heart beating out of my chest right after waking up thing alot but once the Clonazepam started doing it's job that mostly went away. Although i still seem to get it sometimes no matter what dose of Benzos i am on.

Has anyone else experienced this tapering off Benzos or not? I am not entirely sure if it's the Benzo taper itself causing this or perhaps some real life anxiety is getting to me in that way. I haven't experienced any physical withdrawal or even Psychological withdrawal from the Clonazepam taper worth mentioning so i guess maybe i am getting off easy. However if this is a sign of what my life will be like on little to no Benzos i will gladly take being on a Benzo for the rest of my life over being so worried about going to sleep that i end up staying up. I am not going back to the nervous wreck i was pre benzo use where i couldn't even go out in public in crowds for awile because i got such bad anxiety from those situations that i would have a panic attack and puke. I wonder if maybe dropping the dose of Clonazepam further and maybe taking a mid acting Hypnotic Benzo like Nitrazepam right before sleep would help the anxiety i get right after waking up? I guess i got kind of used to not feeling like i was having a panic attack right after waking up so maybe i'm spoiled now

Any input would be appreciated thanks

 

[basix]

How fast are you tapering?

A decade is a long long time. Everyone gets different side effects from benzo withdrawals so it's kind of impossible, if not pointless trying to pinpoint exactly what is causing what. When other drugs, anxiety, depression, random lifestyle factors are coming into play it could be anything. I have a theory benzo withdrawal can imitate basically any symptom there is, so even if something else 'causes' it, the withdrawals can start to mimic it in my experience.

I've been on 6-10mg of clonazepam for about 3 years.
I tried to taper fairly quick last year, with weekly drops. I went from 8mg --> 2.25mg in 3 months and didn't get any side effects until I got to 2.25mg... then the rebound anxiety kicked in. I tried to drop to 2mg but ended up back at about 6mg.

It sounds like you have no intention of getting off in the near future, so a very slow taper of <10%/month with daily reductions would be a lot more manageable than if you were dry cutting, which comes with all sorts of issues like inaccurate dosing.

Basically if you can dose multiple times a day, keep your blood levels stable the whole time, and go slow enough you should hardly notice anything. When something comes up, you can just pause the taper and stabilise the dose then start again when you're ready.

Not sure if this helps, but if you just want to reduce and time doesn't really matter then I'd do a really slow taper using water titration taper with daily reductions.
Easiest way I've found is measure 300ml water in a bottle, dissolve your 6 mg inside (just let it sit for a few minutes then shake it up, clonazepam dissolves easy enough).

Get a plastic syringe and remove a small amount of the mixture right after you've shaken it up.

Remove 1ml ( 0.33 % ) Day 1
Remove 2ml ( 0.66 % ) Day 2
Remove 3ml ( 1 % ) Day 3

After 30 days you've dropped 10%.

It's best to split it into 3 doses throughout the day to minimise withdrawals, and keep your blood levels even all day.
Maybe you were already doing this - I assume you know what you're doing.