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I want to be off all medications but I'm stuck...

Flowing

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
60
I'm stuck on Depakote ER and Klonopin and want to come off of both of them. However, I keep running into hurdles with my psychiatrist with giving me the smallest doses made so I can detox slowly and live a sober life away from the mental health system. What can I do?
 
I had to face the same thing armed only with the information I could find for myself. I got really good at cutting the Klonopin into tiny slivers to make the two month supply they offered (cut off as soon as they realized I was refusing to fill the others because I wanted to get myself right, finally) to make them last a while and minimize the withdrawal syndrome. Expect a lot of neuropathy no matter what you do. It can actually last a while (I'm at nineteen months now, sans Klonopin, it still strikes on occasion), so be prepared (I refer to it as "glass shards and lightning bolts" myself) but you can do it. Just be sure to taper slowly or you could have seizures (I've had five or six so far, but they're getting fewer and further between and now just amount to a mental status change [ie confusion and trouble remaining conscious] but there's always an aura before hand). Consider yourself lucky that you have a doctor willing to assist you in getting off those things (not everyone is/was so lucky, apparently) and know you can actually do this but, expect it to get a little "bumpy" at times.
Most of all, be aware of yourself and your own mental state of well being and condition. Be safe. Make adjustments to your routine if you need to. For the pain, I found intense exercise to be the most useful. Know that you can get through it but, don't make any uneducated guesses. Benzos are one of the few drugs that can kill if WD is approached improperly but it is manageable.
 
I don't know about your country but in the UK diazepam is available as an oral liquid to allow really fine dosing, it might be worth considering switching to this if it's available to you.
 
Diazepam is definitely useful in benzo withdrawal. It has a very long half-life and profile. I didn't personally mention that because I didn't get that experience myself, but that's what I've read on numerous occasions.

What helped me during acute attacks of neuropathy was alcohol and later, other GABAnergics (some phenibut, some alcohol, some valerian, kava kava, pakimilon) but, of course, everything MUST BE APPROACHED WITH CAUTION. Prescription related or not, drug abuse or not, addiction is addiction. It predisposes to addictive problems with other substances in similar or same classes.
 
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Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. I apologize for my late replies but my situation was quite chaotic. I was going to lose all of my meds forcing me to go into a dual cold turkey from Depakote ER and Klonopin which would have landed me into a psych ward for sure. I managed to battle my pdoc by threatening with legal action. Apparently this tactic is very useful because now my pdoc has agreed to prescribe me whatever I want in order to come off safely off of all psychiatric medications. I'll be damned if I'm going to be labeled as bipolar for my entire life when I know for a fact that I had an SSRI induced manic episode. Sure, the valproates and benzos knocked out the manic episode but once the manic episode is gone, it's not going to happen again unless I come off of medications too quickly. I plan on doing a slow taper one medication at a time for the rest of this year or possibly longer if needed.
 
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