help-meI have been on clonazepam for 12 yrs. I have been taking 1mg. at night to help with sleep and anxiety related thoughts. I am now trying to stop because I think it was causing more harm than good, and it's been too long. I tapered from 1mg. nightly to .5 mg for a week, then tapered down to 1/4 of a 1mg tablet over a ten day period, and then stopped. I am having terrible problems with my vision, dizziness/motion sickness, slight nausea, light sensitivity and a horrible heavy-headed feeling pushing right out to my ears, and worse at the base of my head/neck. It's very difficult to focus on work (I'm at a computer all day), or even carry on a conversation. I have racing heart, which isn't great since I'm a cardiac patient. I am also sleep deprived. I have been clonazepam free for one difficult week. When will these withdrawal symptoms go away, and are they normal? Should I go back on a tiny dose and taper back off since it looks like I may have tapered too quickly, or do I stick it out? Thanks
Clonazepam 1 mg nightly, 12 yrs, Withdrawal, symptoms advice please!?
- Posted:
- 3 Mar 2011 by help-me
- Topics:
- anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, clonazepam, withdrawal, sleep
Responses (5)
gentlefoo...3 Mar 2011
I hope this may shed a little light on what you are experiencing. I've been taking 2mg clonazepam at night for two years. I also have meniere's disease. Clonazepram is also prescribed for that because it reduces pressure caused by fluid build up in my inner ears. Perhaps after 12 years your fluid level in your middle ears grew dependent on the medication. Now that you are weaning yourself from it, you may have increased fluid build up creating your symptoms.
LaurieShay3 Mar 2011
Hey help-me,
What you are experiencing sounds like typical withdrawls from the benzodiazepine. Clonazepam can last in the body up to 50 hours after the last dose. So you are now through the worst of withdrawls. It will gradually get better over the next few days. I encourage you to hang in there.
Try googling "clonazepam withdrawl" if you would like to read more about this topic.
Good luck and keep in touch,
Laurie
whitefish6 Jun 2012
I am on 6 mg. of clonazapam for the last year. Just started the weaning process. I cut back .05 for a month and continue til we find a good balance. I have had very few symptons of withdrawel. Some aching, slight headache and dizziness which went away after 3 or 4 days. I think some people think it's going to be worse so they make themselves feel worse. Obviously it will take me a long time to get to 2 mg. but this is not that difficult. Good luck!
SLC196024 Feb 2013
Good luck to you, my son has gone off his and is having problems sleeping. He was also on several other things that did not seem to "mix" well. I have been on Clonazepam for about 5 years for restless legs, and am working on weaning off. God Bless and Good luck. Hope all goes well, I will continue to follow.
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Thanks so much for your responses. I got a little worried when I saw people were still symptomatic months later with withdrawal symptoms. I don't think I could take too much more of this. Strangely enough I asked a couple of my docs about my symptoms and mentioned the clonazepam and no one recommended tapering or potential problems. I decided to go off because I was having some visual problems, thought I might black out and some issues with memory. I can't say that is better, as that seems to be exacerbated by the withdrawal. I just hope I'm not crawling in my own skin for too much longer, and that my head stops feeling like a lead balloon.
Hi Help-me,
I've tapered off of Xanax, which is a benzo, like your clonazepam, and had no problems withdrawing from it. You will be amazed at how your memory returns once the initial withdrawal is over!
Just wanted to add to what Laurie said, going cold turkey off any benzodiazapine can cause seizures, so please be careful !!!
Best wishes to you,
I am looking forward to getting my memory back. I've been having trouble recalling words, following conversations, etc. That was a big issue that made me want to get off the clonazepam. There were certainly more worrisome, physical things, so I had reviewed the side effects again after all of these years! I wish I had spent a little more time preparing for the withdrawal. I guess I thought my doctor was going to clue me in on that, but he didn't. I did have uncontrollable shaking two nights ago. I don't know if that would be considered a seizure. I've never had one before. Fortunately it subsided pretty quickly. For now I just sit here at my computer with my "stuffed head" balanced on the end of a pin-point ... my neck, and hope my vision is a little better today. I did manage to catch three hours of sleep in a row last night and that's the first since I went off.
Expand this post...
I've also been lacking sleep during the tapering off period, so I am pretty tired, and yet I am truly wired. I have had numerous health problems the last 15 yrs. which is probably the only thing that kept me out of the ER, since things cycle through with the anxiety of dealing with it all of it. Strangely, I had major cardiac surgery 6 yrs ago at a very prestigious hospital, and ended up inadvertently withdrawing because no one ever bothered to ask about my clonazepam dosing, so it wasn't prescribed. I spent a week in the hospital paranoid, hallucinating, crawling in my own skin and not sleeping. I thought it was because of the surgery and other drugs, but I'm beginning to think it was the clonazepam withdrawal. Because I never attributed those symptoms to anything but the intense surgical recovery, I ended back on the clonazepam for some relief as I was not getting it from pain meds. I wish I knew then, what I am realizing now. I appreciate the help through this difficult time... Just waiting to feel better and realize it will be a very slow progression. I hope I can stick it out.
Hang in there help-me,
It will get better soon. You might want to check out the site called benzobuddies.com. It is a supportive group of folks who are or have gone through what you are going through. Just a thought.
Laurie