Withdrawals from clonidine are HELL......

[bdomihizayka]

Long story short- I have been off opiates for around 6 months until a couple days ago. I was given clonidine for the withdrawals and never got off. In fact, I took a shitload of it daily. Now, I take .2mg in the morning and by 8pm I feel the need to take me night dose which is .4mgs. I was taking over 1mg a day at one point. I only realized about two weeks ago how addictive this shit is when I decided to stop taking it.... I was hit with a MASSIVE panic attack and thought I was going to seize or something- it felt so dangerous.

Anyways- the withdrawals from this stuff is exactly like opiate withdrawal in my opinion and feels even worse- I'm not being facetious- because of the massive headache and blood pressure spikes. I had chronically low blood pressure- and now if I go like 20 hours without a dose my bp will go up to 175/105.

SO I relapsed the other day on poppy tea. Why the fuck not I told myself- I'm already addicted to something just as if not more awful.

I also read online this shit can be so addictive that you may need to take it for the rest of your life!!! Doctors have been of no help and just tell me I have high bp and need to be medicated when in fact I know its the discontinuation of the drug

Can anyone help me out please? I've never been so scared and desperate in all of my junkie years- this stuff is frightening!

 

[herbavore]

You may want to try the blood pressure meds they are suggesting--they do relieve anxiety in a lot of people.

What about an extremely long gentle taper?

 

[CFC]

What about an extremely long gentle taper?

This is exactly what you need to do OP. Clonidine is one of those meds that you absolutely mustn't just stop taking - you'll get a terrible rebound as the body will try to compensate for the suddenly absent adrenergic stimulation/blocking.

You need to taper down carefully and slowly over a few weeks, possibly months. Are you working with a doctor on this?

 

[Rachella666]

I'm on that stuff to help me withdraw and boy, if i miss a dose/day I feel like absolute shite, I take around 1mg a day, which is 4 of the little blue tablets (.25), it does help with my anxiety but I get rebound anxiety from missing doses, sweats, panicky, restless, this is a horrible drug, OP, did it actually help you with any aspect of withdrawal? I do find it great for restless legs though