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Withdrawing off clonazepam

nephron

nephron

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
890
I'm coming off clonazepam (been on it for 2-3 months), and I'm on my last 0.25 mg. Suddenly the withdrawals that I've been managing all along get much worse, and I find myself craving and craving the benzos 'cause I know they'll make all of the stress and stiffness go away, and they'll just scratch that itch. I have piles of oxazepam, lorazepam and diazepam and they're just screaming out to me.

Anyone know how I can get these cravings under control (preferably legally) *without* taking more benzos? Should I just tough it out without anything else? Is drinking just going to give me another addiction/lower my inhibitions so I take more benzos?

Thanks in advance!
 
when i quit taking benzos (had a xanax addiction for several months), it helped me to drink a little bit of alcohol (like 3-4 drinks) every night. if you don't go overboard with the drinking you should be able to avoid thinking "fuck it" and taking more benzos.
i don't know what you may have access to, but while i was withdrawing my friend gave me a few vicodins, and i found taking 2 of those (10 mg hydrocodone) greatly improved my mood and calmed me down so i wasn't feeling so on edge.
i would advise you not to take any of the other benzos you have and just make a clean break with them now, unless of course someone else here can suggest a good taper.
 
I just can't imagine not going overboard with the drinking. Once I start I have real trouble stopping- probably a sign that I shouldn't be using it to get over another addiction, huh.
 
^^^^
heh, i don't know then. maybe you just have to bite the bullet and go cold turkey?
good luck :\
 
Well, I've found midstrength beer to not be a bad option, as there's only so much I can physically drink, and that's about the amount I need for the withdrawals to not be so bad. All I really need is a couple of hours a day for the withdrawals to go away/become milder and then I can cope.
 
Cold turkey on benzos can lead to seizures. If you have diazepam, taper on that. Tough it through the day and take the minimum at bedtime. All these people who moan about opiate addictions should try giving up a long-held benzo addiction... its a lot worse. I switched to clomethiazole for 2 weeks and came out clean.
 
Cold turkey on benzos can lead to seizures.
Click to expand...

that depends on how much he was on when he went cold turkey... going cold turkey from a prescribed 1mg of xanax a day wont kill ya.

how much were you taking daily?

im kinda wondering the same stuff, cause ive been taking 3mgs minimum a day every day for months now and im wondering if i could quit cold turkey
 
^^^
i quit from a habit about that big with basically no taper and it was not a pleasant experience, but i didn't have any seizures.
 
I'm unlikely to have seizures due to the low dose I'm on and because I'm on an anticonvulsant (for non-seizure reasons) anyway. But I talked to my psych and he said it was OK to use absolute minimum doses of diazepam to get me through the withdrawals & that apparently diazepam is easier to come off than clonazepam?

Anyway, I took a little quetiapine last night which seems to have cut the anxiety down a little, hopefully I won't need any diazepam.

ETA: I wish I could change the topic to "Withdrawing /from/ clonazepam"
 
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yoga and mediation can treat anxiety very effectively (thusly helping the mental withdrawls from the chemical anxiety treatment). the only problem is that one actually has do it. easier said than done, i know.

good luck!!!
peace
 
Thanks for all your advice. With a combination of small amounts of booze and smaller amounts of diazepam I'm now through the worst of the withdrawals and looking forward to a benzo addiction free life :)

I'm so going to be more careful with benzos from now on.
 
Withdrawing from clonazepam...

...is said to be a long-lasting bitch, possibly culminating in misery, seizures and/or death. The process, which is generally done under medical supervision, can take years. Xanax (alprazolam) is even worse.
 
I found clonazepam to be far easier to withdraw from than diazepam. As for the other benzo's that you own, I have no idea. But in your current situation you risk making the situation worse rather than better.

If anything, I would recommend a small amount of alcohol. It will relax you, and help a lot with the withdrawal. I am fairly certain that drinking, say, a pint of lager once or twice a day (or equivalent) won't cause anything worthy of concern.

Take care now. If you are having a lot of difficulty without the benzo's then feel free to PM me; I've withdrawn from them more than enough, for long periods of time.

And time will change... even now, does it feel as though days are becoming weeks? And weeks are becoming months? I pity you, Clarice.

Take care.
 
Why was the first bit of the withdrawal so easy, and the last bit so hard?
 
nephron said:
I'm unlikely to have seizures due to the low dose I'm on and because I'm on an anticonvulsant (for non-seizure reasons) anyway. But I talked to my psych and he said it was OK to use absolute minimum doses of diazepam to get me through the withdrawals & that apparently diazepam is easier to come off than clonazepam?

Anyway, I took a little quetiapine last night which seems to have cut the anxiety down a little, hopefully I won't need any diazepam.

ETA: I wish I could change the topic to "Withdrawing /from/ clonazepam"
Click to expand...

quetiapine is Seroquel

I went to a psychiatric hospital in St louis missouri and they prescribed me that 3 times a day for Bi-Polar and all kinds of other stuff.
 
I know what quetiapine is, I was prescribed it for my bipolar disorder. I'm not currently regularly taking it though, except occasionally to help me sleep.
 
(especially to Kerrigan): I also have oxazepam and lorazepam. I'd think the lorazepam certainly would be a bad plan since I really enjoy the way it makes me feel- so feeding into the reward part of addiction, and the oxazepam maybe has too short a half-life so I'd just get in the habit of dosing and dosing again?

Anyway, I think this is a moot point now. I can even drink coke without getting horrendously jittery now so I think I'm basically over it.
 
I am just wondering, how bad are benzo withdrawals?

I've been withdrawing of smoking H, but have been taking Xanax and Versed for withdrawals for the past ten days heavily (1-2 mgs of xanax, and a couple pills of versed at night)

I want to quit everything all together, but I know I have to be careful. Benzo's haven't ever been enjoyable for me; just useful.

Am I going to be in a lot of pain? is it worse than H?
 
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