• 💊 OTHER DRUGS 💊 Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads 1 Notable Threads 2
    Dangerous Combos Addiction Support
    Emergency Services Benzo Guide v.1
    Addiction Stories Scary Case Studies
    Biology, Pharmacology & Drugs 101
  • Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Misc (Clonidine) withdrawal

Transcendence

Transcendence

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
2,505
I've been using clonidine a couple times a week for various purposes. Apparently suffer stopping long term use can lead to some nasty symptomes like extremely high blood pressure and bad headaches. How long do you have to use clonidine for this to be a concern?
 
Yeah, I wore a cloned ime patch for a month, and stopped abruptly. I didn't notice any problems.
 
Transcendence said:
I've been using clonidine a couple times a week for various purposes. Apparently suffer stopping long term use can lead to some nasty symptomes like extremely high blood pressure and bad headaches. How long do you have to use clonidine for this to be a concern?
Click to expand...

I've used Clonidine daily for detoxing over around a week to ten days and while it seriously crashed my blood pressure while I was on it, following the advice to taper down from peak dose over at least four days I had no issues whatsoever with rebound hypertension. Can't answer how long you'd need to take it before the potential for hypertension issues arises but if you're planning a period of sustained use so long as you're careful to taper down I wouldn't envisage any problems.
 
Last edited:
I've been taking clonodine for sleep and occaisonal buprenorphine w/ds, as I take tolerance breaks every now and then for over a year now. As a matter of fact today I started another tolerance break regime. I have never had any problems coming off of it, even after taking high doses (.3mgs or more) consistently for months at a time. The only thing I noticed is my blood pressure was a tad high last time I checked it, but this was after not using it for over a month and I have a lot of anxiety issues. However, my doctor would not allow me to raise my dose or even give me a few extras because he said that a study was published recently claiming that long term use can cause high blood pressure. Well yeah, any drug when discontinued (with a few exceptions, ie weed) will cause the opposite effect of what it does to you. So in my opinion, it's a very safe and useful medication and you have nothing to worry about.
 
I never found clonidine did anything for me except made me even more exhausted in WDs

I'd rather take a few milligrams of alprazolam or have a few beers / drinks in opioid withdrawal
 
nash__ said:
I never found clonidine did anything for me except made me even more exhausted in WDs

I'd rather take a few milligrams of alprazolam or have a few beers / drinks in opioid withdrawal
Click to expand...
I disagree to me it is one of the most effective withdrawl aids there is.
 
I was taking clonidine 0.4ish mg for months.. maybe 6 months total maybe more.. and lets just say DO NOT by any means stop without tapering. There is no withdrawal quite like it.. The weirdest and craziest aspect was that I had what I guess would be called night terrors or tremors.. dunno what they are called exactly..I would fall asleep for a few seconds and get this pressure in my head and blurred vision..the dreams were so real and every time I would be trying to get to the ER or phone to dial 911 because of this crazy pressure in my head.. The pressure was so real but I would wake up and it would not be there. I was scared to even go to sleep because literally as soon as I would manage to fall asleep the pressure shit would happen and it was scary. Also, crazyy rebound hypertension like my heart was beating so hard at the peak of withdrawal I was on the virge of going to the hospital because I thought I was going to have a heart attack or something. It was either get more clonidine or go to the ER.. so I got another script of clonidine 1st thing in the morning and oh my god it was such sweet relief. I made sure to never ever run out of that shit again..and to get off of it.

That being said I tapered down to 1/4 of the 0.1mg pill and stopped problem free. From 1 month I doubt you'll have withdrawals..but they are VERY real. There is nor eason to take clonidine for so long.. its good to help wtih withdrawal but looses its magic after a few weeks anyway and just becomes something that lowers blood pressure.

Clonidine withdrawal can be fatal regardless of what you may think so it is a serious drug to watch out for. This is a list of symptoms off webmd or something: tremors , visual hallucinations, headache, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blurred vision, sweating, and fever. I can say I had all of those except headaches and vomiting

I made a post about it a year or 2 back on here.. probably archived detailing my withdrawals adn shit.. a few poeple didn't beleive you could get withdrawals and a few people had experienced symptoms like I described.
 
Last edited:
I was on 4 mg guanfacine (analogous to clonidine pharmacologically) and tapered off over about three weeks. Even then, when I initially halved my dose, my blood pressure shot up, my mood went down, and I felt pretty tense. No fun. I was sick at the time too though, so that may have been a lot of it.
 
I want to add that when i was in reall ybad withdrawals I considered taking metropolol something my dad takes for hsi heart..but luckily I read up on the net and that actualyl would have compounded my problem (something having to do with beta blockers or some shit). Point is.. don't do it thinking you can replace 1 for the other..
 
in the last weeks i have been using clonidine (bought without prescription for opiate withdrawal aid) not every day, but many times a week in doses ranging from 75 to 300 micrograms, averaging 100-150, big doses mostly in combination with stimulants to reduce side effects.
Today is day two without clonidine and i am experiencing strange symptoms: dizziness, anxiety, fainty feelings combined with blood pressure higher than usual 80-130 instead of about 60-110 and strangely low heart rate: 60 bpm, i think my normal heart rate is about 70-75 as i am a small guy.

what would you suggest to do? can this be the clonidine withdrawal? if so should i start taking clonidine again and then taper? if so how to taper safely?
is maybe better just to treat anxiety with low dose benzos? i can understand why my BP is higher than usual but why my HEART RATE is LOW??

HOW LONG COULD IT LAST???


thanks in advance

should i start a new thread or not? this is a year old...
 
Why is there a withdrawal of clonidine if it is just a blood pressure med? I know some use it for ADD but it's not an amphetamine so how is there withdrawals? Does it deplete neurotransmitter's?
 
Built240 said:
Why is there a withdrawal of clonidine if it is just a blood pressure med? I know some use it for ADD but it's not an amphetamine so how is there withdrawals? Does it deplete neurotransmitter's?
Click to expand...

It kinda signals your body that there's more noradrenaline than there really is, so less is released while it's having an effect. Your body always adjust over time, maintaining homeostasis is never an instant process, so if you abruptly stop clonidine there will be excess noradrenaline released until your body can adjust again.
 
So unlike amphetamines if you taper off you are fine and won't withdrawal?
 
Built240 said:
So unlike amphetamines if you taper off you are fine and won't withdrawal?
Click to expand...

If the taper is done right, this is my belief at least. I am forced to go through a rapid taper right now and I'm feeling some withdrawals, but it's manageable at least for now. It really depends on how much and how long you've been using, I had daily use of around 0.3-0.45mg for almost a year.
 
Thank you, this post was very helpful. I am currently on .3mg of clonidine and I take up to 12 a day, now I am forced to withdraw as my doctor refuses to fill anymore. I'm scared, I have 45, 1 mg klonipin and 15, 300mg gabepentin to take when I halve the 4, .3 mg tabs I have left of the clonidine. I have experienced nasty withdrawals before, rebound hypertension and vomiting that's off the charts. I pray I won't go through that again this time, because I'm done with clonidine.
 
I have been on Clonodine .3mg for the last 3 years and for a while when I'd run out I never really thought about running to the pharmacy right away to refill until the second day of being without. I started belching horribly, acid reflux kicked in and I started throwing up crazy nonstop . There was absolutely no relief at all. I didn't think all of this was withdraw from my clonodine. I thought it was the flu or something. The vomiting was nonstop and after the fourth day I decided I better go to the hospital. This happened 3-4 times before I figured out it was clonodine withdraw. The hospital always told me it had something to do with my GI tract and to see a specialist but......when I realized this always happens when I run out of my Clonodine I told the doctor at the hospital after he admitted me and ran tons of tests.....he told me that it wasn't the normal Clonodine withdraw so he ran more tests. Finally he gave me .2 mg and a half hour later I felt like a million bucks. Withdraw from Clonodine is thee absolute worst! I would rather go through opiate withdraw! Well needless to say I am once again out of my Clonodine and have no refills left and am in the midst of renewing my insurance so.... I am on day 3 of being without and I have been puking my guts out nonstop the last 2 days. I did find a single Clonodine pill on the floor next to my night stand and took it a little while ago and I am starting to feel better. I have been lowering my doses every few weeks for the last couple months so I am hoping and praying the withdraw will not last long. I went from .3 mg 3 times a day to .1 mg 3 times a day. I am so not looking forward to the next couple days however I have to go through this because I seriously want off the Clonodine! I was given this medicine for high BP and of course for treatment along with Suboxone but I've been off Suboxone for 6 months now and I did that all on my own! Phew! And I have Linsinipril for my high BP now so there's no reason to keep taking the Clonodine and having to go through this terrible terrible withdraw every time I run out! Uggggghh! I'm so glad I found this thread. My advice to everyone is to just stay away from it! It's a bad drug! It does help but the withdraw is bad bad bad!
 
^ Welcome to Bluelight Jenn :)

Sorry to see you're going through such unpleasant w/ds from the clonidine. Can't you pick up some more and taper off more slowly? You really don't need to suffer as much as you are doing.
 
I?m on 0.3mg 5x/day and I hate the withdrawal if I run out. Guaranteed to not sleep on the first night and my rebound hypertension is horrible (BP is 151/119).
 
5x a day is way too much

Any ER will refill Clonidine, they have literally offered a one month supply, certainly 10-15 days worth at a lower dose or to taper at the least, though as many times as a guy in a Tabuki suit has been given 1 or 2mg clonazepam( and even a month supply more than once) clonidine is no problem- Be honest, about your symptoms, and either tell truth about situation or simply say you cannot get a refill at this time

Please, do not suffer needlessly

-Lorne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top