The End of Tapering Klonopin/Clonazepam

I came back here to share the good news.

It has been over 500 days of tapering! What a long time and I learned so much! I had my GP and my OBGyn behind me all the way!

My GP helped with BP medications when tapering shot up my blood pressure. I even had a really supportive Dentist! The one Doctor I lacked was supportive psychiatrist. All he wanted to do was cut my dose in half! That would be a 50 percent drop!

So I did what I did with Lexapro and I tapered on my own. When I was close to being off of Lexapro my I then told my doctor that I wanted to taper. He was dropping my doses by 5mgs! Way too fast.

But I was safe because I had already been tapering. Then when I was done he sort of apologized about the withdrawal and wanted me to go to a group for people traumatized after getting off of these medications. Weird!

I think about 30 days after I was off of Lexapro, I started to look into tapering klonopin. I found a plan that had me taper my dose 5 percent every two weeks and my dose was in milk. For 4 months it was going ok, I thought it was easy. Then as your read above my best friend died and I was very upset. I decided to hold my dose, I was exactly half way to zero mgs.

It ended up being eight months. Then one morning I woke up at 3:00am in a horrible fear state and that was the beginning of my severe acute benzo withdrawal. I had no idea at the time that it was withdrawal, I had no clue what was going on. After five days I could not take it and went to the ER, they gave me a dose of Klonopin, I took my orginal dose and my symptoms started to calm, that is when I knew it was klonopin withdrawal and I was very scared because I didn't know what to do.

Some people kept telling me it was a wave from my Lexapro withdrawal and I knew it was not that. I had to find real help and I knew I would not find it at benzobuddies, they were the ones that gave me the 5 percent schedule and I knew that when I hit acute everything changed and would be so much harder.

Luckily a person from a board told me about a woman that was perfecting a new type of taper. No percentages, using mgs instead. They were not accepting new people but I thought I would look over the forum (which is gone now) back then I noticed my screen name already in the login with an password, so I clicked and got in, I joined while tapering lexapro so I was a member and I was accepted.

And she showed me the taper and it was the best taper out there for symptoms control and the safest method there is.

I tapered my dose daily instead of every two weeks, I took off .001mg a day! Well I started out with .0005mg a day and then jumped up to .001mg a day. On days I felt anything bad I simply held for that day.

I stayed away from certain foods that either induced klonopin or inhibited it and I stayed away from certain supplements.I went through stages, there were three of them and this was mainly all physical symptoms and a lot of anxiety.

My GP didn't have any experience with this type of withdrawal but he made sure to monitor my vitals and gave me blood pressure medication when my BP went up to high. He really cared.

I tried to get away from my doctor that had me on the klonopin but it was hard to find a doctor willing to help me taper the slowest way possible. To be honest six months into my taper I gave up finding a doctor, they tapered people off way to fast and I wanted to avoid any possible damage. By then I had my taper down pat and my symptoms were clearly better.

I tapered for along time and over that time I could see I tapered all my symptoms away, slowly, evenly and safely.

So now I am off Lexapro and Klonopin/Clonazepam and I am enjoying once again my life. I lost 90 pounds that Lexapro was responsible for, in fact you can now see weight gain as a known side effect. My hormones have settled down and my thyroid is normal!

Truth about these drugs are slowly getting out there. Truth is being published and debates are happening. All I can say is at least there is a chance that a person can weigh the real risks before taking that pill.(hopefully)

Regular everyday people are coming forward, you can see some of them on you tube because they record their struggles and journey.

The truth might be hard and unpleasant but no one should hide from the truth, the truth is what sets you free. Don't be afraid to search for the truth, ask question and advocate for your health.

This is not about pill takers versus anti-psych. This is about the truth of the chemical that a doctor wants you to put in your body and is it worth the risks? Is there not another safe avenue for your situation?  

I have much more to say. But this an impromptu post.

For more extensive Benzodiazepine (klonopin) posts I will be hosting my own blog. I will do general posts about benzo withdrawal here. I have also kept a personal journal of every single day of this last taper. I have kept track of symptoms and my taper and everything that happened and all that I have learned.  I have learned so much.