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Misc Clonidine rebound worse than benzo withdrawal?

W

waterv1

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 16, 2017
Messages
11
I was prescribed clonidine for my benzo taper; I took it for a few days a month ago when I was having a tough time, and it worked great. But I realized that when it wore off, I felt like ripping my skin off. I became a danger to myself and thought I was experiencing akethesia.

I decided not to touch the stuff, until I continued my taper & hit a rough patch. I decided to take one every morning during panic attacks. After a few days, I ended up going back up on my dose to try & taper more slowly. I wasn’t in WD, so I didn’t need the clonidine anymore.

Except I did. Every night, screaming, agony, hitting my head on the floor, legs spasming, begging for god to kill me, telling my family I was going to kill myself. The diazepam doses barely did anything anymore, but the 6 hours it was active was the only peace I got. Didn’t sleep for 3 nights. Finally, I caved, taking the damn thing just to see if that was the cause or if I was just being fucked over by God, bc upping to 10mg Diazapam for the night just to see if I could sleep did Nothing. I was wired, I was in agony, I was screaming for God to kill me like I never had during WDs.

I take half of a .1, I wait, I’m normal. I’m a functioning human being. The “I’m actually going to kill myself” juice evaporates from my veins after 3 days. How the hell is something that was supposed to help me fucking me this bad. The benzo taper was scary enough & now I have something that feels worse, and despite having no insomnia the entire taper, now Diazepam doesn’t even touch it. I can handle windows and waves and panic attacks, I cannot handle the unrelenting agony I just endured.

How do I fix this? Beyond going into weeks-long clonidine rebound and screaming through it? Taking a diff low BP med to transition ? I cannot be going into extreme suicidal mode like this.
 
Clonidine can cause withdrawal/rebounds but typically it takes more than just a few days of use and also more than 0.1mg daily. What you are describing sounds more like benzo withdrawal. Hard to say for sure though without more information like your total doses of clonidine and your benzo use/addiction such as which specific benzo and the dose, how long you used for, etc. I'm not surprised that 10mg diazepam didn't do anything as the tolerance to benzos can get very high due to abuse.
 
Conky said:
Clonidine can cause withdrawal/rebounds but typically it takes more than just a few days of use and also more than 0.1mg daily. What you are describing sounds more like benzo withdrawal. Hard to say for sure though without more information like your total doses of clonidine and your benzo use/addiction such as which specific benzo and the dose, how long you used for, etc. I'm not surprised that 10mg diazepam didn't do anything as the tolerance to benzos can get very high due to abuse.
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I was on 1mg Klonopin for 3 years as prescribed, rapid tapered too quickly, ended up at .5, switched to Diazapam 10mg, which was enough to make me sleepy! Got down to 8mg painlessly, 7mg brought hours-long panic attacks that sucked ass but at no point was I thinking “I want to die”. Went back to 8mg & was peachy, withdrawal evaporated, had a good day. The only time in this taper when I’ve felt this level of agony has been right after a dose of Clonidine wears off, and it’s not normal anxiety, it’s like my limbs are on fire. Only .05 of Clonidine relieved it.
 
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waterv1 said:
I was on 1mg Klonopin for 3 years as prescribed, rapid tapered too quickly, ended up at .5, switched to Diazapam 10mg, which was enough to make me sleepy! Got down to 8mg painlessly, 7mg brought hours-long panic attacks that sucked ass but at no point was I thinking “I want to die”. Went back to 8mg & was peachy, withdrawal evaporated, had a good day. The only time in this taper when I’ve felt this level of agony has been right after a dose of Clonidine wears off, and it’s not normal anxiety, it’s like my limbs are on fire.
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garygroundwork said:
Clonodine helped me get off coke.

Then I had no issue getting off Clonidine.
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I’m glad it was able to help you.. I’ve woken up today in the same anxious restless state, sleepy & calm mentally but body feeling like I’ve been stabbed with an epi-pen.. I really wish I never touched this stuff. It’s going to wind me up on suicide watch in the hospital if I stop taking it. And I don’t want to die, I truly don’t.
 
waterv1 said:
I’m glad it was able to help you.. I’ve woken up today in the same anxious restless state, sleepy & calm mentally but body feeling like I’ve been stabbed with an epi-pen.. I really wish I never touched this stuff. It’s going to wind me up on suicide watch in the hospital if I stop taking it. And I don’t want to die, I truly don’t.
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sorry to hear that.
 
Clonidine has done wonders for me. I usually take 0.2mg-0.3mg a night.

Just because it works for others, doesn’t mean it has to work for you. If you feel like killing yourself regardless of the med, I’d suggest heading to see a doctor early in the morning while it’s happening - if possible.
If not, see someone sooner than later.

Clonidine can also deplete the body of potassium. Maybe increase your potassium intake while you decide what to do.

Hope you get it figured out
 
I recently tried to get off 30mg diaz and latterly had badly pressed alpraz pills which took the edge off the withdrawals slightly but no sleep, i had that burning skin sensation which is awfull, it's like a million pins being stuck in you all over your skin, or someone is holding a flame to your skin.

At no point was i on clonidine. although i did search for it.

Good luck from hete dude, you are not alone.
Take care mate.
 
Just to ask mate, keep us informed on how you are doing if you don't mind.

Given i had the same burning sensation which in all honesty was one of the symptoms which nearly had me calling an ambulance as i was thinking it was a prelude to something worse. Taking the dodgy alpraz pills made the sensation go away, so i'm thinking it may not be related to clonidine as i never managed to find it.

Also it was worse for myself when i was laying in bed, so i'm wondering if it's a circulatory condition? but what do i know eh.

As mentioned, keep us informed and take care.
 
Sometimes if I'm in fear from a hard benzo binge...and if I'm feeling like my head can't rest n shit I'll take half a gabapentin just a lil bit to help with rebound..
 
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I've never been dependent on clonidine, but I once went cold turkey from 180mg/day propranolol. It felt like benzo withdrawal minus the anxiety. It was pretty awful, but nowhere near as bad as benzo withdrawal.
 
You MUST gradually reduce dose daily over 2 week span (with hidose long term use) 2-3 tablets daily for 2weeks/months definitely

Rebound hypertension will occur 100%
 
Yes, a few days or taken sporadicly will not cause rebound hypertension…..only daily, hi dose,long term use 2 weeks + approximately

I’ve stood up before and saw stars and felt lightheaded…….i had to gradually reduce daily dose over 1-2 weeks to be ok. But now, I take a tablets here and there, once a weekend or whatever, no issues at all

I alternate between my anxiolytic meds….like a Valium, then a Pregabalin, the next time a Clonidine, etc….so you don’t become tolerant or dependant to one drug
 
So I’ve been taking about 0.1-0.2mgs of clonidine daily for a few weeks. What would the taper/detox method be for that? I can def feel my blood pressure coming up and the sweats kicking in. Also part of the bzo and PAWS of opiate wd
 
pnillyg said:
So I’ve been taking about 0.1-0.2mgs of clonidine daily for a few weeks. What would the taper/detox method be for that? I can def feel my blood pressure coming up and the sweats kicking in. Also part of the bzo and PAWS of opiate wd
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Hmm a few weeks at that dose shouldn't cause to severe of rebound hypertension symptoms. I wish I could give you advice on how to taper but I did it with my Dr. helping me and I never payed attention to how slow they lowered the dose but it was painless as it was done correctly.

So hopefully it wont be to painful for you if you carefully stop the dose your own slowly.
 
If you have enough at hand or can get them easy enough then i would go as slowly as i could, i've no experience with clonidine but letting your body re adjust at a slow rate seems logical to myself.

Good luck and take care.
 
A random different blood pressure med probably won't help unless your blood pressure being high is literally the only cause of the horrible feeling. It has to work the same specific way clonidine does. It's like how buspirone can NOT help a person with benzo withdrawal even though those are all anti-anxiety meds.

I couldn't tell you the best way to taper off it. I take 0.1mg clonidine every night until I get my zolpidem script (which I promptly go through in the span of 3-6 days because I hate myself) and I've never had rebound effects. If you had the horrible feelings disappear when you took half of a 0.1 tablet, though, I'd go ahead and just do that every day for a good week, then shift to every other day for another week. See how that goes, I guess? I'm NOT a doctor though, and blood pressure spikes can be dangerous. Any doctor who prescribes it should understand the rebound effects of clonidine and how to deal with it safely.
 
Agreed. Problem is I’ve only ever met my doctor over the phone and he sometimes dips out for a while so I can’t get direct advice.
 
Anteras has great advice I would probably go this route IF you can't talk to Dr.dipshit...you were prescribed these? Maybe you actually really do need it daily now? I dunno. But yeah that advice he gave is good and would take it into consideration.
 
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