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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by shiraz on March 14, 2004, at 8:23:58
I am withdrawing from Klonopin, now down to 0.125mg
at night. Hopefully I am nearly through but still
finding it rough going. My grouchiness is
compounded by nicotine withdrawal. Is anybody willing
to share experience, provide mutual support?
I'm more interested in sharing expeience and
practical advice than in complaining about
how awful Klonopin is but I recognize that that
has its place :)
Posted by DepNYer on March 15, 2004, at 15:21:55
In reply to anbody withdrawing from Klonopin?, posted by shiraz on March 14, 2004, at 8:23:58
I guess my only question would be why you're going through nicotine withdrawl. I appalud your desire to stop smoking, but I certainly know that stopping two addictive substances at once is a setup for trouble. For me, stopping smoking is a nightmare. It increases my anxiety to a level that people around me beg for me to just start somking again so they can be around me.
If you're down to .125 at night, you're just about there. That final dose can be toughest to give up though. I don't now how much you titrated down from, or how long you've been at .125, but if need to stay where you are for a while, it's better than just stopping and finding yourself reaching for it again, only to find yourselff on a higher dose. If being at .125 really is intolerable, try backing of to .25 for a few weeks, and then try again. Good luck.
Posted by cubbybear on March 15, 2004, at 16:12:21
In reply to anbody withdrawing from Klonopin?, posted by shiraz on March 14, 2004, at 8:23:58
OK, I've got some practical advice that worked for me just within the last couple of weeks. I'm now OFF the benzo bus, since I switched over to the equivalent dosage of VALIUM for my taper down to zero. Like you, I was running into some anxiety problems once I got to .125 mg. and was determined to get off the final .125 as smoothly as possible. So I explained all this to the pdoc and got an Rx for 2 mg. Valium tabs. Since 5 mg. Valium=.25 mg. Klonopin, then 2 mg. Valium=just under .125 mg. Valium. You can try going back up with a dose of 5 or 4 mg. Valium, stay for one week, then split the pills and decrease by 1/2 mg. Valium each week. These are much smaller increments than you can get by cutting the Klonopin. You can stay as long as you want/need to on each dose. I finally got down to 1/2 mg. Valium and quit after one week. It's been about 10 days since my last little morsel and I've had ZERO problems since then. (I had planned to post a new thread about this anyway, for all to see.)
I learned about the recommended switch to Valium from the website www.benzo. org. Many people resent them as being benzo-phobic, and I can see why. Yet, their tapering chart and recommendation for a switchover to Valium did the trick for me, and I'd totally recommend it to anyone who's having problems getting off Klonopin.
Posted by djmmm on March 15, 2004, at 19:03:29
In reply to anbody withdrawing from Klonopin?, posted by shiraz on March 14, 2004, at 8:23:58
> I am withdrawing from Klonopin, now down to 0.125mg
> at night. Hopefully I am nearly through but still
> finding it rough going. My grouchiness is
> compounded by nicotine withdrawal. Is anybody willing
> to share experience, provide mutual support?
> I'm more interested in sharing expeience and
> practical advice than in complaining about
> how awful Klonopin is but I recognize that that
> has its place :)I still am tapering....I find that melatonin helps alot.
Posted by shiraz on March 16, 2004, at 7:39:13
In reply to Re: anbody withdrawing from Klonopin? » shiraz, posted by cubbybear on March 15, 2004, at 16:12:21
Thanks for your responses. Well done, cubbybear!
I have looked high and low on the web and found very
few uncomplicated success stories like yours. Do post it elsewhere! I have been skeptical about benzos.org since even their 'success stories' sound godawful. There is just one symptom that
I have been having, namely insomnia + nightmares
(no anxiety fortunately). It seems that this is just
a rebound of REM sleep. Now that I know the cause, I
am less worried about it and after stabilizing on the 0.125 mg dose I am not currently affected by it. As for smoking, what happened was that I fell
off the wagon because of the insomnia I was experiencing. Fortunately, that demon has been put back in the bottle. So I think I will stay on 0.125 mg for a while and see what happens next time I try to reduce. I will try melatonin as a first resort then valium if necessary. Thanks again.
This is the end of the thread.
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