Withdrawal from klonopin

[Anonymous]

Ps - hence my comment re me feeling ashamed...

[Anonymous]

PP, here was my non hospital withdrawal kit: I am NOT a doctor. But I have gone through withdrawal once at a very expensive in treatment place (didn't take!) And once by myself 15 years ago--I quit for good then. Yay, me.
Huge bottle of plain aspirin (NOT Excedrin™, it contains caffein, which of course will make you shakier and NOT TYLENOL, which could be deadly at the amounts you would need to get rid of the muscle aches and skeletal pain),
lots of water,
a bottle of lavender extract (take a hot bath with a few drops of it in the water; mix some in baby oil and rub your self down with it--this is aromatherapy; it will calm you and help you sleep)
One bottle of the best bottle of wine or vodka you can afford. Stay away from red--nitrites can cause nausea and worsen your hang over. Also, no brown liquors.

This "kit" is for when you have taken and tapered off K down to a few crumbs (less than .125 mgs a day) or even none. This should never be done by a person who has quit abruptly or is still taking large doses (anything over .25 a day.)
You are going to have to drink just enough to make yourself sleep in 12 hour shifts for about 4 days--You are going to make yourself sleep for 20-22 hours per day through the worst part of the withdrawal.
On the fifth day you can begin to cut back and treat yourself as you would with a severe hangover (use the aspirin at maximum recommended dosage and water. but increase the amount of time for recovery to 8 hours and so on. Until you are drinking to sleep for 15-17 hrs and keep tapering for @10 days.

Obviously, this CANNOT be done if you have children. You will have to take vacation days from work to do this. You could check into a hospital-but they will take you down cold turkey and it will be excruciating and you will have a medical paper trail of the episode. Hang in there OP! I am really praying for you--you can kick this, one way or the other. Don't look back, only forward!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, here was my non hospital withdrawal kit: I am NOT a doctor. But I have gone through withdrawal once at a very expensive in treatment place (didn't take!) And once by myself 15 years ago--I quit for good then. Yay, me.
Huge bottle of plain aspirin (NOT Excedrin™, it contains caffein, which of course will make you shakier and NOT TYLENOL, which could be deadly at the amounts you would need to get rid of the muscle aches and skeletal pain),
lots of water,
a bottle of lavender extract (take a hot bath with a few drops of it in the water; mix some in baby oil and rub your self down with it--this is aromatherapy; it will calm you and help you sleep)
One bottle of the best bottle of wine or vodka you can afford. Stay away from red--nitrites can cause nausea and worsen your hang over. Also, no brown liquors.

This "kit" is for when you have taken and tapered off K down to a few crumbs (less than .125 mgs a day) or even none. This should never be done by a person who has quit abruptly or is still taking large doses (anything over .25 a day.)
You are going to have to drink just enough to make yourself sleep in 12 hour shifts for about 4 days--You are going to make yourself sleep for 20-22 hours per day through the worst part of the withdrawal.
On the fifth day you can begin to cut back and treat yourself as you would with a severe hangover (use the aspirin at maximum recommended dosage and water. but increase the amount of time for recovery to 8 hours and so on. Until you are drinking to sleep for 15-17 hrs and keep tapering for @10 days.

Obviously, this CANNOT be done if you have children. You will have to take vacation days from work to do this. You could check into a hospital-but they will take you down cold turkey and it will be excruciating and you will have a medical paper trail of the episode. Hang in there OP! I am really praying for you--you can kick this, one way or the other. Don't look back, only forward!

Op here: thanks for your response! There's no way I'd do a hospital thing - there's evidence to show permanent damage from doing it this way. I have kids and am a SAHM so the alcohol thing might be tough but I see your point in how you managed. How long before you felt decent after all the klonopin was out of your system?

Ps - thanks so much for prayers...

[Anonymous]

I just found this thread from searching...so helpful because this is all so familiar, not for me personally but DH is dependent on Klonopin and trying to cut back and it is HELL.

(During our 21-year marriage, we have been through 3 very serious illnesses, infertility, adoption, and most recently, a mentally ill teen with a history of multiple hospitalizations. Also 3 relocations for his work and 1.5 years of employment for DH. A LOT of stress).

Both of us started taking benzos a few years ago. The difference was that his MD prescribed Klonopin, which also really seemed to help his migraines, so he took it daily.
My MD prescribed Ativan, which I just took once in a while, on the really bad nights. DH has now been taking .5 mg twice a day for years and has not been able to withdraw on his own, so I pleaded with him to get a new psychiatrist. She prescribed Celexa, which triggered terrible nightmares, so he quit. Now trying Effexor, which has completely sapped his libido and doesn't seem to help otherwise.

I keep telling him to go wild with the pill splitter and cut back (as people has suggested) super slowly but he is afraid because of the awful withdrawal he had before. His MD is out of the country for another week of so but I'm wondering if he shouldn't find someone with serious experience in this type of situation. Any advice...for either of us?

OP, hope you are doing well!

[Anonymous]

I found this very helpful when winding down the benzos:
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/
Written by a doc who has overseen many, many patients withdraw from benzos.

Keep going OP!!!

[Anonymous]

Op here - crazy to see my thread a year later! I'm happy to say my last klonopin was Feb 25, 2013. It was hell overall but it can be done. Taper as slow as you can tolerate...

[Anonymous]

That's wonderful OP! Congratulations!!!!!
Didn't realize this was an old thread. Obviously its still useful!