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Valium Taper

Why is clonazepam so common these days. I was first prescribed it 25 years ago and nobody had even heard of it. I began to notice my memory was really bad and I kept tripping over things.

So I asked to be swapped to clobazam. It's in no way a 'fun' drug but if I miss a dose, I don't get hit with a wave of anxiety. If others are being prescribed clonazepam for epilepsy, I can only tell you that clobazam seems to work just as well without the usual 'hooks' other benzos have.
 
That would be great to try; after going from 4mg/day to 1mg/day at doctors request gave me
akathesia. Still at 1mg/day even though I still run short.

agree with doctors on a decrease in meds; that goes way easier than asking for more when the reduction didn't take
five years and I feel constantly on the edge of benzo sanity
 
I just checked. Clobazam is now used in the UK, US, Canada and India.

My only note of caution is that clobazam is a 1,5-benzodiazepine. That means it binds to different subunits of the GABA receptor than all the other benzos (all the others are 1,4-benzodiazepines). So if someone is dependent on a 1,4-benzodiazepine, clobazam won't substitute. But initially at least (for 2 weeks maybe) it does have anxiolytic activity that isn't cross-tolerant with other benzodiazepines, so likely you won't feel anything. I just thought I should give you all the information I know.

All I can say is that in my case, I felt like I wasn't 'trapped' into taking it exactly as prescribed. No edgy feeling if I miss a dose. I now know why. The half-life is 36-42 hours and it's active metabolite, norclobazam has a half-life of 59-82 hours. So if you miss a dose, you don't really notice. I suppose if you missed it for days, you might feel it, but I've totally forgotten to take a dose and only realized the next day.

That not feeling trapped improved my mood immensly. My memory came back and I stopped falling over.

I don't know anyone else who is prescribed it. I wish there was so others could give their opinions. I don't want to give you bad advice.
 
I like any advice when it comes to my relationship with clonazepam. But my prescriber won't switch me to valium or even prescribe the .125 mg ones that are sublingual
 
lolis my thesis said:
I like any advice when it comes to my relationship with clonazepam. But my prescriber won't switch me to valium or even prescribe the .125 mg ones that are sublingual
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Depending on where you live it's going to be hard to find a doc who will prescribe you Valium. Most have little idea about how to taper down benzos. It's like one day they were fine prescribing them, then all this bad benzo hype came up and they were told to not prescribe them anymore (and prescribe antidepressant instead, what a bs).

What kind of clona (brand/mg) do you have? Most are 2mg bars or tablets that are very easy to split (even into .125 mg bits) and they will dissolve in your mouth almost instantly.
 
lolis my thesis said:
I like any advice when it comes to my relationship with clonazepam. But my prescriber won't switch me to valium or even prescribe the .125 mg ones that are sublingual
Click to expand...

I've noticed that doctors in the US seem to prescribe clonazepam when once they would have prescribed diazepam. My theory is that because clobazepam is used to treat certain forms of epilepsy, if anyone checks on the list of medicines they have prescribed, they can easily claim that they weren't prescribing clonazepam for anxiety or insomnia but because the patient 'displayed myoclonus'.

Certainly I was VERY surprised that after developing severe myoclonus, my doctor readily prescribed clonazepam. I had presumed I would be sent to see a specialist to find out what was causing it. But no, I was only in his office for five minutes and walked out with a prescription. TBH it was severe. I kept twitching and stumbling. The fact that it was painful was really the main reason I decided to see a doctor and I suppose I didn't need to say anyyhing. He could see it happening.
 
nznity said:
I was 40 days clean but had to reinstate and (relapse you could say) dose myself with some clonazepam due to other health problems. I'm back using clonazepam everyday but from 2-4mg a day I was using, I'm only using 0.5mg every day.
Benzos are a tough bitch, I'll try to quit once again when my overall health improves. Rn I need them.
Agmatine is a must btw, same with propranolol for benzo wds. And gabapentin at least for the acute part.
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Well, atleast that is some progress. I wish you the best, hope your health improves in general and you manage to kick these nasty benzos!

I would like to reiterate, also for the other posters here in the thread struggling with benzo addiction, that finding some Amanita powder, gummies or capsules (microdose, so you don't trip) can really help in my experience and that of @Jabberwocky.

Amanita works on the GABAA but not in such a harmful way as benzo's do apparently.

I'm quoting old posts from Jabber here, I hope that Jabber is okay with it:

"
There is definitely something to this man! I feel surprisingly great, I'm having almost zero withdrawal symptoms +7 days after last benzo dose. I've also started to lower my amanita use and feel fine. There is both anecdotal and a small amount of actual evidence that muscimol may not only alleviate withdrawal symptoms, but that it actually heals the receptors and reverses benzo dependence.

"Two potential medications that may restore GABAA receptor function are the gabapentinoids (Figure 5) and muscimol (MML) (Figure 14).

[...]

MML also exhibits promising properties. Research has shown that MML is potent GABAA agonist and binds directly to the δ subunit on the GABA binding site [63]. Stimulating the δ subunit is unique for MML since none of our other medications activated this isoform.

[...]

Increased GABA concentrations and a GABAA agonist may stimulate the GABAA receptor enough to allow its gating structure to return to its normal state. Thus, our hypothesis supports the NMDA/AMPA and GABAA uncoupling models and rejects the receptor down regulation theory."
www.genesispub.org
www.genesispub.org
"

post2, concerning of Amanita provides any withdrawal itself after helping alleviate benzo withdrawal:

"
Indeed no withdrawal. Not only did I not experience any benzo withdrawal, I did not experience any secondary withdrawal from amanita when I stopped both.

Honestly, I feel BETTER than when I even started the benzos. I feel like amanita is a powerful agent to heal and reset the GABA system.

Although that could just be cognitive bias, because I quit drinking alcohol 3-4 months ago, and my GABA system is healing from years of alcoholism, which is why maybe I feel so good.

"

Cheers everyone, may we all manage to beat our addictions and regain health.
 
4DQSAR said:
I've noticed that doctors in the US seem to prescribe clonazepam when once they would have prescribed diazepam. My theory is that because clobazepam is used to treat certain forms of epilepsy, if anyone checks on the list of medicines they have prescribed, they can easily claim that they weren't prescribing clonazepam for anxiety or insomnia but because the patient 'displayed myoclonus'.

Certainly I was VERY surprised that after developing severe myoclonus, my doctor readily prescribed clonazepam. I had presumed I would be sent to see a specialist to find out what was causing it. But no, I was only in his office for five minutes and walked out with a prescription. TBH it was severe. I kept twitching and stumbling. The fact that it was painful was really the main reason I decided to see a doctor and I suppose I didn't need to say anyyhing. He could see it happening.
Click to expand...

Okay, I have a question. How do you find clobazam for treatment of myoclonus over clonazapam? Clonazapam is incredibly effective even as a mono therapy for myoclonus or multiple etiologies. Now I want to know how clobazam compares. Thank you.
 
4DQSAR said:
I've noticed that doctors in the US seem to prescribe clonazepam when once they would have prescribed diazepam. My theory is that because clobazepam is used to treat certain forms of epilepsy, if anyone checks on the list of medicines they have prescribed, they can easily claim that they weren't prescribing clonazepam for anxiety or insomnia but because the patient 'displayed myoclonus'.

Certainly I was VERY surprised that after developing severe myoclonus, my doctor readily prescribed clonazepam. I had presumed I would be sent to see a specialist to find out what was causing it. But no, I was only in his office for five minutes and walked out with a prescription. TBH it was severe. I kept twitching and stumbling. The fact that it was painful was really the main reason I decided to see a doctor and I suppose I didn't need to say anyyhing. He could see it happening.
Click to expand...
I think they’re aware that diazepam is preferred by most people (particularly recreationally) and that’s why they prescribe other benzos instead. But your theory makes sense too, especially for drug users. I think we might be seeing rising rates of myoclonus.
 
fairnymph said:
I think they’re aware that diazepam is preferred by most people (particularly recreationally) and that’s why they prescribe other benzos instead. But your theory makes sense too, especially for drug users. I think we might be seeing rising rates of myoclonus.
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Myoclonus is relatively rare and hard to fake. It is also extremely debilitating. I worked in neurology for 2 years, and we almost never saw it as a stand alone condition. I actually only even know about because a family member I take care of has it. Psychiatrists don’t usually give out benzos for obviously fake or psychogenic movement disorders. If you make it to a neurologist (after a 6 mo wait) asking for benzos for your obviously fake movement disorder, they will laugh in your face.
 
SeekingOblivion said:
Myoclonus is relatively rare and hard to fake. It is also extremely debilitating. I worked in neurology for 2 years, and we almost never saw it as a stand alone condition. I actually only even know about because a family member I take care of has it. Psychiatrists don’t usually give out benzos for obviously fake or psychogenic movement disorders. If you make it to a neurologist (after a 6 mo wait) asking for benzos for your obviously fake movement disorder, they will laugh in your face.
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Oh, I mean as a mild symptom. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
 
@fairnymph what OP said is true. If you have this horrible, debilitating movement disorder, then yes a first line treatment is clonazapam. What you implied is different. This condition is distinct and once you’ve had the misfortune of experiencing it or the horror show of a movement disorder clinic, you wouldn’t consider that we’d be seeing a lot more of myoclonus (presumably as a malingering to get clonazapam). No provider would fall for it and that’s not what the OP was suggesting.
 
SeekingOblivion said:
Okay, I have a question. How do you find clobazam for treatment of myoclonus over clonazapam? Clonazapam is incredibly effective even as a mono therapy for myoclonus or multiple etiologies. Now I want to know how clobazam compares. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Never tried that benzo b3fore, srry. I've only tried Clonazepam, Alprazolam, Lorazepam, Diazepam, Bromazepam and Midazolam IV.
 
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