Long story short I've been on Klonopin for 2 years. I don't take it daily but there are times where I'd come close to it and then times id pull away (I've rigorously tracked every dose on a calendar on my phone).
Recently due to a string of stressful events I ended up taking it daily for about 2-3 weeks. I saw this and decided I needed to pull it back since the doses ranged from 1mg-3mg (dose never consistent), some of them being multiple doses a day. I opted to taper for two weeks with the goal of returning to 2-3x a week usage. (The plan was to run a taper in the background of desired goal usage, reducing until the "in between" days were not dosed at all)
The question:
I tapered mostly fine on 0.5mg 2x a day, only experiencing shakes/rebound anxiety the first 4 days. About day 5/6 I began getting zaps inside my head, 0.25mg was enough to stop them and would replace one of my two doses if I felt up to it. On day 8 an actual event came up where I took 1.5mg. I resumed my taper the next day, the zaps returned (I mention this because they seem to show I was still approaching peak). On day 11 another event came up which was more demanding of me socially, and I took 2.5mg. I resumed my taper the following day (today). Once again the zaps returned, thus furthering my assumption that I was nearing the 14-day peak zone. My plan was to drop my dose slightly again after this point...
But... then I stumbled across one
post claiming that it is possible to 'reset' withdrawals and have to start all over? Is this a thing or am I misunderstanding? If so, how does it work? I've always been of the mind that since it takes 14 days for Klonopin to leave your system, only your last 14 days of doses are relevant to your current dependency state baseline. If I went from taking 1.5-3mg doses to now only taking 0.25-0.5mg doses how exactly does one day of 2mg set me back to square one? Even digging through google I couldn't find any information on an actual "reset" taking place, just that taking a large dose can increase your chance of a relapse (indirectly ruining your taper). This actually makes even less sense considering the last step of most taper plans starts to be day-skipping. This constant on/off of dosing wouldn't work if it resets. Each dose after the day off would technically be a dose jump and reset you then, would it not?
Hypothetical comparison, would an alcoholic weening down the drinks suddenly become fully dependent on alcohol again if they went out one night during their taper? Why can you 'cut back' on alcohol but not benzos?
Does it actually "undo" your progress or just risk re-introducing those initial rebound-symptoms shortly (aggravating your withdrawals)?
Note: my goal isn't to quit them just to get back to an as needed 2-3x a week max routine, but now I'm terrified and frustrated that I may have just screwed up this taper? My pre-benzo life is not one I wish to return to, they were the final hail mary after a carousel of meds that either didn't work or produced horrible side effects.
Recently due to a string of stressful events I ended up taking it daily for about 2-3 weeks. I saw this and decided I needed to pull it back since the doses ranged from 1mg-3mg (dose never consistent), some of them being multiple doses a day. I opted to taper for two weeks with the goal of returning to 2-3x a week usage. (The plan was to run a taper in the background of desired goal usage, reducing until the "in between" days were not dosed at all)
The question:
I tapered mostly fine on 0.5mg 2x a day, only experiencing shakes/rebound anxiety the first 4 days. About day 5/6 I began getting zaps inside my head, 0.25mg was enough to stop them and would replace one of my two doses if I felt up to it. On day 8 an actual event came up where I took 1.5mg. I resumed my taper the next day, the zaps returned (I mention this because they seem to show I was still approaching peak). On day 11 another event came up which was more demanding of me socially, and I took 2.5mg. I resumed my taper the following day (today). Once again the zaps returned, thus furthering my assumption that I was nearing the 14-day peak zone. My plan was to drop my dose slightly again after this point...
But... then I stumbled across one
post claiming that it is possible to 'reset' withdrawals and have to start all over? Is this a thing or am I misunderstanding? If so, how does it work? I've always been of the mind that since it takes 14 days for Klonopin to leave your system, only your last 14 days of doses are relevant to your current dependency state baseline. If I went from taking 1.5-3mg doses to now only taking 0.25-0.5mg doses how exactly does one day of 2mg set me back to square one? Even digging through google I couldn't find any information on an actual "reset" taking place, just that taking a large dose can increase your chance of a relapse (indirectly ruining your taper). This actually makes even less sense considering the last step of most taper plans starts to be day-skipping. This constant on/off of dosing wouldn't work if it resets. Each dose after the day off would technically be a dose jump and reset you then, would it not? Hypothetical comparison, would an alcoholic weening down the drinks suddenly become fully dependent on alcohol again if they went out one night during their taper? Why can you 'cut back' on alcohol but not benzos?
Does it actually "undo" your progress or just risk re-introducing those initial rebound-symptoms shortly (aggravating your withdrawals)?
Note: my goal isn't to quit them just to get back to an as needed 2-3x a week max routine, but now I'm terrified and frustrated that I may have just screwed up this taper? My pre-benzo life is not one I wish to return to, they were the final hail mary after a carousel of meds that either didn't work or produced horrible side effects.
