Benzos Benzo withdrawal question

[SuperPump250]

Well I am almost done with Klonopin withdrawal, long road, but nearing the end thankfully. I hope this does not come across as a stupid question, because we know with these kinds of drugs you can never be to safe.

Anyways, once I feel I am 100%, I wanted to know if it would be safe to take this drug occasionally without having a negative effect on my brain? What I am asking is, does my brain set back to normal, and can I use it like a new person to the the drug who has never gone through benzo withdrawal, or even taken benzos before?

In other words, once I recover, is it safe to switch to an as needed basis? I wouldn't use this drug more than a couple times a year. I just want to make sure this lengthy withdrawal didn't leave a lasting impression on my brain where I should NEVER take it again? Better safe than sorry.

 

[yb62338]

The biggest risk in taking the drug again is relapse into addiction. Please don't fall into the trap countless others before you have and say "I can control myself this time." Chances are if you can control yourself, you wouldn't have become addicted in the first place.

I don't have experience with Benzo dependence specifically, but I have quite a bit with opioid dependence. IME, if you become physically (or psychologically, for that matter) dependent, it takes a lot less exposure to reproduce withdrawal symptoms. I believe there's actually a medical term for this, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[msFancyPants]

OP, please don't take this the wrong way, but this is a post that should maybe concern you in that... you haven't even stopped the Klonopin, you ARE on a taper, and you're already making plans to use it in the future, inclusive of how frequently! In the world of "recovery" they call this a "reservation". A quote from that thing they call the Big Book: "If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st. Edition

I only write about it because your post was quite "textbook" and something that most, if not all, addicts go through as part of their journey into sober-hood. I am not one to follow the way of 12-step programs personally, but I do know that there is some merit to these groups, elsewise it wouldn't be the model of choice in substance abuse treatment!

But from a scientific standpoint: Once you have gone through all of the acute stages of withdrawal from benzos, your tolerance goes back down, and so does your dependence on it. Therefore, taking klonopin on a truly rare occasion will not PHYSICALLY set you back or cause withdrawal again when you stop it, but it may set off some psychological withdrawals that may make you feel as if you want/ need more and therefore trick you back into using it more regularly, in which case you WILL be set all the way back to the beginning!

I wish you luck in your journey... coming off of benzos, in my opinion, is harder and scarier than coming off of most anything else! Kudos!

 

[SuperPump250]

I will add this bit of information. I am prescribed Klonopin to take as needed but I am given a daily amount. I read about the difficulty of benzo withdrawal prior to taking Klonopin. Knowing what I did, I never took the drug on a daily basis. I read up online you can take Kpin once a week with no withdrawal symptoms.

Well for about a year straight this is how I used Kpin.

Most often no more than once a week. In some cases I would go 1-4 days taking it straight, and I would even take 2-3 weeks breaks. Really a pattern of random use, but not abuse. I was never addicted to it, and could have easily taken less had I known what I was getting into.

Well when I decided to take a LONG break taking Klonpin, after about a month of minor head pressure my symptons turned into random more severe head pressure, brain zaps, and most importantly having a negative effect on my mood.

It's been almost a year since I last took Kpin, and these symptons are still present but very minor. Now, somebody who takes a benzo dose daily and withdrawals typically goes through something much more severe in comparison to what I am going through.

My withdrawal hasn't been HELL like some benzo stories you read online, but it hasn't been fun either.

So that's my standpoint currently, I am only wanting to save this drug for rare situations like bad acid trips, no more than once a month use. I am prescribed this drug, have had it prescribed for over two years, and threw away almost 1,000 extra pills that expired that I thought I might use. Only listing this because I don't want people to deter me from taking the drug ever again, addiction is not a worry for my individual situation.

 

[SuperPump250]

Fancypants your post came as I was typing mine . Please read my updated post.

 

[max_]

do you really think you're done with clonazepam the day you stop taking it? think again. stay clean for a year and then repost this--

 

[burn out]

if you had a major addiction/withdrawal you can never safely take benzos again, ever. it might put you back into withdrawal, assuming you actually get to 100% many former benzo users never recover 100% from their first withdrawal. after 2 years i am about 30% recovered but still in serious withdrawal every day.

 

[Trigeminal]

if you had a major addiction/withdrawal you can never safely take benzos again, ever. it might put you back into withdrawal, assuming you actually get to 100% many former benzo users never recover 100% from their first withdrawal. after 2 years i am about 30% recovered but still in serious withdrawal every day.

You'll get better. There's no evidence that benzo withdrawal is permanent, although some unlucky people have a protracted withdrawal, where they have serious symptoms for over a year (sounds like your case). But you'll get better.

 

[SuperPump250]

do you really think you're done with clonazepam the day you stop taking it? think again. stay clean for a year and then repost this--

The day? I've been clean for a year.

I appreciate people trying to warn me and stuff, I don't even like being on benzos and would appreciate if people could instead answer my question which is the reason why I made this post. I am not some benzo addict, I got this stuff prescribed to me to take on a DAILY basis, I don't even take it that much, no where even close. Out of the 24 months I have been prescribed Kpin, 90 pills per month, 24 months x 90 pills is 2,160, I've taken NO MORE than 300 Kpin pills in my life. The rest that expired are in the trash.

I just want to know, once I am safely withdrawn, if I can safely take this drug again when necessary?

 

[Znegative]

the problem with klonopin is that because it's got a longer half life, there's actually more possibility for developing withdrawal symptoms with even only once a week usage. If you're going to only use benzo's once a week, xanax or ativan, or ANY of the short acting ones would probably be safer ironically than the klonopin (or other long HL benzo's, phenazepam, diazepam, etazolam).

After getting a pretty bad (for me) addiction to benzo's last fall, and finally tapering down to an inconsistant dosage of usually .5 mg of clonazepam a day (with randome, relapse episodes thrown in here and there, the last of which lasted a month), I kind of figured a way to keep my benzo usage at a reasonably safe and low level.

The first thing is, that if I'm going to spend a lot of money on a benzo, say enough to take 1 mg of xanax a day for 3 weeks, and I had been taking clonazepam prescribed .5 mg/day previously, I stop taking the clonazepam, and use the xanax as a replacement for at least three days before deciding to take the clonazepam again. I find that clonazepam is a lot like methadone in the sense that it only works as a maintenance thing after a week or two you have to take significantly larger dosages of clonazepam(sometimes two or four times your initial dosage) to get high, or even just less anxious, whereas with xanax, I feel like it's effects at fighting anxiety are more efffective for a longer period of time albiet shorter duration than clonazepam, and also unlike k-pins, an added .5 mg can make a huge differance.

A lot of people might think I'm full of shit right now or think that I dont know that both clonazepam and alprazolam are pretty much equipotent, which is true, but the thing is, is that since clonazepam's 1 mg is spread over a way longer time (like 8 hours compared to xanax's meager 2/5 hour duration of effect) than often people with no benzo tolerance might need to take .75 mg to feel as good as someone taking .25 mg of xanax. The great thing also about switching back and forth between clonazepam and xanax is that, when you switch back to the clonazepam, you really do appreciate how powerfull and long lasting this benzo really is. I went about two weeks off of my .5 mg of klonopin to taking about 3.5-4mg of xanax a day, and when I decided to take 1.5 mg of clonazepam one day in the morning, I was still high and didn't need to redose by the time I went to bed!

 

[max_]

sorry, i misunderstood your post. as an answer to your question, taking my personal experience, and real medical advice into account: No, you cannot take benzos ever again in your lifetime without the risk of going back to step one of your withdrawal. There is real recovery from the addiction, but your body will never forget. of course it depends on each individual, but there is a possibility of rebound/relapse even after years.

 

[Opanaking]

You might end up getting different effects then when you used to take the klonopin. For example if you've been addicted before your body might have more of a paradoxial effect when you ingest it. Almost like fighting off a bug.

Here's the real question, why would you want to start taking somthing occasionaly that you were extremely addicted to? What was your duration of use and dose everyday?

If you've been through benzo withdrawal once, let your body heal and recover back to normal. You should know that after awhile they loose there use. I'm guessing your withdrawal wasn't that bad or you definently wouldn't want to take it again. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

[Trigeminal]

sorry, i misunderstood your post. as an answer to your question, taking my personal experience, and real medical advice into account: No, you cannot take benzos ever again in your lifetime without the risk of going back to step one of your withdrawal. There is real recovery from the addiction, but your body will never forget. of course it depends on each individual, but there is a possibility of rebound/relapse even after years.

Fuck, one time? What if you need surgery? I think they give you benzos beforehand.

 

[mrflowers00]

it's almost impossible to be addicted to a drug then quit and start using again without becoming addicted again