clonazepom said:
Sucks to hear this.. either way I cant go to hospital or detox programs because Im likely to start job soon. I lack of willpower for sure but I really really dont want to be so depended on benzos anymore. I'll drop the dosage by 1mg from tomorrow and take 1mg in morning and 1mg 8 hours later. I dont know what to do but it sounds like bullshit that you could actually die from only 3mg clonazepam.
and to answer your question Ive been on this for maybe 4 months, before that oxazepam for short time and before that xanax. over Year in benzo hell is enough for me.
Well clearly since you lack the willpower to taper off of the benzo on your own, you're going to have to go to a hospital based detox program if you're serious about getting off of your benzo. There is no way around that.
I'm especially glad (and by glad I mean annoyed) to read that someone with likely little knowledge of benzodiazepines says I'm full of shit after soliciting advice on how to withdraw from them. I'm also tired of reading the same crap over and over again every time someone talks about benzodiazepine withdrawal, namely that "it isn't dangerous dude, totally, my friend (or I) just stopped 300mg of Valium a day cold turkey and I was fine."
The reason that it pisses me off is because this misinformation could be dangerous and/or fatal to the person asking about it if they take the advice seriously and consult and internet forum rather than a doctor. This is still a harm reduction site, no? Benzodiazepine withdrawal is on the same level as alcohol and barbiturate withdrawal in that it almost always needs to be medically supervised (and they work similarly, but that would take too long to explain), because it is one of the classes of drugs that you can die withdrawing from.
To give you an example of how serious people who actually treat patients who need to detox, or rapidly withdraw, of off benzodiazepines are about this, let me explain to you quickly the medical classifications for detox and what happens in each of them in my state. First, I should start out by mentioning that no residential detox center will take a patient until they have been detoxed at a hospital based inpatient facility because of the seizure risk and the lack of a residential treatment program's ability to handle them quickly enough for you to live.
Now, as for the classifications, in Pennsylvania, they run from 1A, which is the least serious, to 4A, which is the most serious. 1A is outpatient detox, where people are weaned off of their medications slowly under medical supervision (something like a methadone treatment program). 4A is inpatient, constant monitoring, locked floors, 24 hour a day inpatient hell where only the most dangerous cases go (in other words, the people who are most likely to suffer from life threatening side effects, like seizures). Would you like to take a guess as to where ALL benzodiazepine withdrawal patients go who are addicted?
That's right, 4A. No visitors, no phone calls, no bullshit. You are monitored constantly because of the acute risk of seizures and other serious side effects for the duration of your withdrawal, which will vary, but with something like Klonopin, maybe 10-15 days. You are constantly watched as you are rapidly tapered off of your benzo with Ativan or Librium to make sure that you don't die. You will of course suffer from side effects, such as anxiety, muscle cramps, etc. They expect that and will treat those symptoms if they can, but you are not there for that, you are there because the withdrawal could kill you. 3A is also inpatient, but you don't go there, because they don't monitor you all of the time and the risk of dying is much less. That's where most of the hardcore opioid addicts go. 2A, for reference, is partial hospitalization, meaning that you can go out during the day, and they keep you there at night, or you go there during the day and go home at night.
At this point, I frankly don't care what you do, as it's your decision, and I'm tired of reading crap from people who don't know what they're talking about or who make outlandish claims on the internet. It's your choice; you can either try to understand how seriously the real world and the people experienced in benzodiazepine treatment treat acute benzodiazepine withdrawal, or you can listen to internet stories of "my buddy" who quit 40mg of Klonopin cold turkey with no problems (note: The maximum amount of Klonopin prescribed per day is 20mg, and that is for seizure patients, the maximum amount for anxiety is 4mg a day). I'm not going to get in to the fact that serious benzodiazepine withdrawal effects like seizures can be induced by even low doses of long term (note: long term is considered more than six weeks) benzodiazepine use because I don't feel like pulling up monkey studies (yes, they tested benzodiazepine withdrawal on baboons) and comb through medical literature to prove a point. I gave you my advice, take it or leave it.