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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Rick on February 25, 2004, at 9:53:48
I'm inviting people to report experiences tapering off an extended use of Klonopin/clonazepam WITHOUT
great or lasting withdrawal distress.I emphasize "withdrawal" because, to the extent possible, I want to divorce this discussion from the distress that may come from the sudden return of pre-Klonopin anxiety (although it may be hard for some people to distinguish between the two, especially if they have become psychologically dependent).
Although there are plenty of pro-Klonopin posts on here, there seems to be a lot of negative discussion and worry lately. But I know lots of people have also reported quitting with zero-to-minimal problems, even cold turkey in some cases (NOT recommended)!
After five years, mostly at 1 mg/day to *great* benefit, I am tempted to experiment with quitting *temporarily* because
1) I'm just curious to see if I will have the terrible withdrawal many have reported...I'm pretty sure I would not, but by no means positive. While this doesn't "prove" anything, I know I haven't had any problem dropping some non-benzo drugs that have produced bad withdrawal for many.
2) I want to see if there has been any lasting benefit for my social phobia. J.R. Davidson, one of the top social phobia researchers, has done studies showing substantial residual benefit after discontinuation (and he reports that most patients tapered the Klonopin without significant distress, incidentally).
One hesitation I have to even experiment is that Klonopin had several *beneficial* side effects. I.e., when I started taking it, it unexpectedly addressed several bad problems that I wasn't even looking for it to help, e.g., my frequent facial and sinus-area pain (undiagnosed TMJ?). I'm almost sure something like that problem would quickly return upon discontinuation.
Anyway, bottom line, please share any *success* stories getting off Klonopin (which, I repeat, is not to imply that someone *should* necessarily try to get off if it's having overall net theraputic benefit).
No disrespect to those who have had unfortunate withdrawal experiences, but they are (understandably) much more likely to write to share their experience and warn people, so we hear about a disproportionate number of these kinds of these outcomes. I would guess these folks may also (again, understandably) continue to need further support in their quest to get better, and thus visit a board like this more often. As an analogy, if you trusted internet boards for all your info about the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor -- perhaps the world's top-selling med -- you would think it was likely to ruin your life, when in fact the great majority of people have zero-to-minimal side effects. (It's not a cut-and-dried issue...I *do* think the medical community and certainly drugmakers are sometimes unaware of, and/or downplaying, negative effects. But in my opinion many net boards tend to over-fuel these concerns, causing people to "run scared" from medicines that could be extremely tolerable and beneficial to them because they've been "warned" by "horror stories" on the net.) Also, getting back to Klonopin, there are always at least a few anti-benzo zealots who come on the board and vociferously try to further their cause, sometimes posting under multiple aliases.
Thanks in advance for posting your experiences about minimal-difficulty Klonopin/clonazepam discontinuation.
Rick
Posted by cubbybear on February 26, 2004, at 1:08:27
In reply to Seeking Klonopin taper-off SUCESS stories, posted by Rick on February 25, 2004, at 9:53:48
Hopefully, I'll be seeing total victory right around the bend in about 2-3 weeks. I was on a high of 4 mg. back in 2002, had to quit the taper for a while during a depression episode, and resumed it many months ago. I've deliberately gone slow as molasses with this taper, since I hated the mild-to-moderate withdrawal anxiety I developed at one or two points during the taper. I got down to .125 mg. and experienced a bit more, then decided to try switching over to VALIUM (diazepam), which has been utilized as means of quitting most any benzo because of its longer half-life. At present, I'm down to 1 mg. Valium, which equals a mere .05 mg. of Klonopin. So far, so good. I plan to drop it to .5 mg of Valum this Friday, and quit totally about a week later. This is all coming at a time of job uncertainty and overseas trip planning, but I'm determined to see the benzo taper to the end! I will definitely post a Victory note on this board when I feel sure I'm fully in the clear (maybe about 2 weeks after totally stopping). Many people want to know just why I want to get off the Klonopin/benzo bus and the reasons are manifold. The main reason was that I was originally prescribed Klonopin for insomnia (a side effect of depression) but it's no longer a problem,
This is the end of the thread.
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