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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

So I'm trying to taper off of clonazepam...

Y

yo0123yo

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
506
Location
Malibu, California
so I have been on at least 2-4mg of clonazepam for at least the last year just because of my anxiety(i know i have social anxiety) so i tried a couple benzos and clonazepam is my favorite so recently i went and talked to my psychiatrist and he wants me to taper off with two .5mg clonazepam tablets daily for a month, and then after the month to try and get me even lower...he also prescribed me clonidine .1 tabs for a month to help me sleep and he said it helps withdrawals and he gave me 25 mg Amitriptyline tabs to take at beditime and some ambien if im really having trouble sleeping because i do sometimes have a very hard time trouble sleeping..what do you guys think of this list of meds he has me on?..he wants me to taper of this clonazepam and then try to deal with my general anxiety disorder someother way..which i know will be hard on me because i'm so used to being on clonazepam it seriously helped out of all the benzo's
 
he said the Amitriptyline and clonidine will make me tired so i dont know what to be expecting both of these are new to me he just put me on.
 
Amitriptyline is a fairly effective hypnotic at 25-50mg doses, it has the benefit of not typically developing tolerance. I have used it before for this purpose many times. So is clonidine, so they should help with the sleep.
 
Amitripyline is an anti-depressant that can make you drowsy which is why he gave it to you. It doesn't produce sedation and its not really a hypnotic. The only similarities it has to a hypnotic or sedative is that it can make you drowsy. Clonidine can also make you very drowsy but its a blood pressure medication. Some doctors seem to think that it helps with addiction to different drugs. There is "some" evidence that it works for opioids, I don't know about benzodiazepines. The one medication that will help some of the withdrawal symptoms is Ambien because it is similar to benzodiazepines. Take it only on an as-needed basis because if you start taking it daily then when you stop you'll have a harder time getting to sleep than it already is.
 
What do you guys think of this tapering down process and the stuff he's got me on taper down and what other thing can help my social anxiety disorder instead of clonazepam? And if I took that amitripyline tonight how will I wake up? Any other tips thanks
 
Best way I found is start at your baseline dose.. And take a quarter mg off for a week.. Keep doing it til your off of it. Also psychologically tell yourself that you will be okay. So if you were taking 1 mg a day you could be tapered off in a month.
 
Lyrica is of tremendous help. I used it to taper off an 11 year addiction and came out with no physical withdrawal symptoms, still have mental cravings. This was after a real slow Diazepam taper of course.

I suggest you taper 0.125mg every 5 days. That will be 0.75mg every month. You should be done in a few months. I always suggest slow tapers.
 
That amitripyline made me very tired last night and I ended up sleeping a good 12 hours..so are some of you guys saying this is bad to be taking when tapering down from clonazepam? Also is it normal when tapering down since I was on at least 2mg daily to go down to 1mg daily now for the next month to feel a lot of anxiety until my body gets used to it? I just HATE that anxious withdrawal feeling throughout the day I just don't know how long until that goes away..the only thing that stops that feeling is upping my dose back to 2 or more mg clonazepam but i'd rather taper down and try to go about fixing my social anxiety disorder this process has been taking forever I appreciate all your helpful advice thanks again
 
My psych told me to taper down .25mg at a time and stay at each new dose for two weeks, she told me to never rush it and I now know why. It's not easy, at least for me, but if you can taper slowly enough I think it's doable. Don't rush it and don't let your psych rush you either, even my psych told me she wasn't allowed to rush me due to the drastic side effects of of coming off benzos.

I went down from 3mgs a day to 2mgs a day and have stayed there for a bit, I want to get off them completely but I know if I don't do it right I'll be back on them so I'm going slow. It is frustrating trying to get off this stuff and expensive but imo it's worth it to do it right. It only took one seizure for me to learn just how serious benzo withdrawal is, be safe and explore all your options.

Good Luck!
 
See that stuff worries me..how did your seizure happen and how long were you on benzos before the seizure..did you just stop cold turkey and had the seizure or what symptoms did you experience before the seizure if you don't mind...that's what is really worrying me now.
 
yo0123yo said:
See that stuff worries me..how did your seizure happen and how long were you on benzos before the seizure..did you just stop cold turkey and had the seizure or what symptoms did you experience before the seizure if you don't mind...that's what is really worrying me now.
Click to expand...

You only get seizures if you've been taking benzodiazepines for a LONG period of time...I'm talking years...and you decide to go cold turkey. If your tapering this won't happen. If you wanted you could down 1mg every month but I suggest you do 0.25mg every two weeks.
 
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