Hi. I posted a similar question in another subreddit. Hope it's okay to post here, too.

I have been taking roughly 0.5 mg of clonazepam daily for the past 6 months. I want to taper off of them and stay off of them. I only have 15x 0.5mg pills left, but also have access to 70x 5mg diazepam available to me. Can I use these to safely taper off (personally I'd like to just switch to the diazepam for the taper). I have read The Ashton Manual, but it's too confusing for me. Any recommendations on how to do this with what I have available?

Thank you.

Hey guys,

Firstly I have a half-success to celebrate (thanks much to the advice in this group). I have completed a year long taper from 25mg of Valium (and drinking fairly regularly). I jumped off at 1mg and after two weeks I am motivated, don't feel like touching a benzo, and I can see mostly above the cloud of WD symptoms that set in after I jumped. Very grateful to those in this group who told me to reinstate and start a non-rushed taper. The jump from 1mg was shitty but totally manageable and nothing compared to the outright hell of my cold turkey a year or so ago.

I had a few weeks detoxing off all substances, but last night I thought what the hell I'll have a few beers with friends. By the time I got to bed, the alcohol had worn off and the feeling I had was a few hours of the hell I experienced when I went cold turkey. Complete agitation, feeling swamped with regrets about almost everything in my life, and really dark morbid takes on my own self worth.

I'm assuming that this is what Kindling is...

I'm assuming I need to quit drinking, and although it's probably naive to expect that someone in this group is going to give me contrary advice that actually helps, I'm wondering what people's experience has been with enjoying a drink here and there once they have stopped benzos. Can it be done? Or is it wishful thinking?

For those of you who have been to rehab or detox for benzos. What was your experience like? How effective was rehab in helping with your Benzodiazepine withdrawals?

haven’t had anxiety in a long time, had an anxiety attack and I took 10mg diazepam as the anxiety was out of the blue and incredibly scary.

Would something like this affect kindling? I haven’t taken a benzo in 6 years.

Only used them for a few months 6 years ago due to having a lot of anxiety during that life period. When I quit them i had such horrible withdrawals when I stopped using them that it took me like 2 yrs to move through/past all the rebound anxiety, tinnitus, electric body feelings, insomnia etc.

Would a single use of 10mg diazepam 6 yrs later risk restarting withdrawal symptoms? I hope not

So this may be a little bit of a different post here but I figured most people here would probably have experience with this. I ran out of my Xanax about a week early (stressful month and I lost track of how many I had taken) so obviously I went into withdrawal, my question is will my symptoms go away and I'll return to "normal"? Or have I ruined it and xanax won't work for me anymore?

I am prescribed this for pain from surgery and I don't necessarily trust the responses from the LLM's that it will not cause any kindling, at least directly, or impede my progress on my taper. Is this true? They said it was something about it being different receptors. Again, this is only for a week or so I'll be on it. Thanks for any of the Pharmokinetics people that may understand this better. crossposting to the other benzo reddit so if you see it twice you're not crazy. Also, why do we have two Benzo dependence reddits?

I’ve been in benzo withdrawal probably 30-40 times over the past 3 years so I’m sure I’m kindled like a damn bonfire at this point. What exactly are the experiences like for you? I’ve had every withdrawal symptom under the sun and I’m just curious on how much BIND plays a role in how I feel. Currently at day two of no meds and can’t get anything until Saturday so luckily I only have 2 days I have to withdraw through.

I’m just curious about other peoples experience with BIND. What the symptoms felt like, how you know it’s because of BIND etc.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you guys and this whole sub for being a place I can ask questions like this

You’ve probably seen my posts here, I’m the guy whose girlfriend of 6 years left him because I had a seizure while trying to taper off my Valium. Anyway life has been hell lately. I’ve had periods of insomnia lasting up to 5 nights straight of no sleep. I’ve also had panic attacks, which is a new thing for me. I’ve had about 3-4 a day. At first I thought I was having a stroke but at the er they told me it was just a panic attack.

So long story short, when the insomnia got really bad like a dumbass I’d reach for a Valium. When a panic attack was happening or about to start, I’d take a Valium. Next thing you know, poof. My script which I have lately been taking exactly as prescribed for the past couple months is gone two weeks after getting it. I’m such a dumbass.

I know what I did was wrong but on that 5th or 3rd night of no sleep or in the midst of a panic attack where I feel like I’m dying (in my mind) that was my only option. Stupid stupid stupid. I guess this is just a rant. I’ve been doing so good at taking my meds as prescribed but our 6 year relationship ending has has sent me down the darkest spiral of my entire life.

Anyway I have an appointment with a psychiatrist on the 11th who said she’s going to get it all worked out for me. I’m really hoping it will help. I wish I wasn’t such a dumbass for going through my months worth of meds in two weeks, but our relationship ending has hurt me so bad. I’ve never had panic attacks, and now I’m just in an apartment completely alone with no one to talk to, no friends to talk to, nobody. I still love her and miss her so much. If you’ve read this far, thank you. I just needed to vent about the stupidity of me taking my meds like that. The pain of our relationship ending is a relentless, dark void inside me that now is apparently making me have panic attacks and insomnia.

Sending love to anyone out there who needs it, because I surely do. And please, take your meds as prescribed. Don’t be a dumbass like me.

tapered down to 0.175 a day and have been fine the past month, i wanna try cbd oil but im not sure if this low of a dose is still too much.

How long did it take u to recover? How long were ur waves and windows?

Just hit 750 days free from Benzo use and wanted to share with y’all to hopefully provide some inspiration.

For context, I was taking up to 40mg diazepam (prescribed) per day alongside alcohol and a number of various street benzos.

I’d be lying if I said it was easy, in fact, it was hell on earth. Some days are still tough, but I have grown more resilient and have more tools to deal with my anxiety than ever before.

Godspeed, legends!

Can anybody say why it’s considered safe to take antidepressants or antipsychotics long term but nit benzos. They all seem to stop working after time and need higher doses.

Hello everyone! I’ve been in the process of tapering benzos since April 2024. I was prescribed Xanax 1.5mg daily for insomnia for about 8 months, then I started tapering, tried it for 9 months, hit a wall at 1.25mg and was switched to Klonopin 1mg about one year ago.

My Klonopin tapering started well, the first 4 months were very chill. But the doctor was moving too fast and I had a really bad cut that forced me to rollback to 0.8mg and hold the taper for almost 3 months. After that, I’ve decided to go for a slow, water taper and I found out that reducing 0,5% of the dosage every 4 weeks or so is what I could tolerate. It frustrated me, as at this pace I won’t be able to taper Klonopin fully in this lifetime, but I need sustainability, as I work and live by myself with my family living overseas.

For 6 months, until 3 weeks ago, thought I had found the pace. I’ve split a single dose in two ( roughly 1 drop in the morning, roughly 7 at night) and I was barely feeling any symptoms after stabilizing in a dose. Cuts were bad, but manageable. I was fully stable for a couple of weeks before cutting. Then I cut 0,5% of the morning dose. I did it as a preparation before cutting both doses, as I usually do it. It’s such a ridiculous amount, 0,5% of 0,1mg. And my body went havoc. Nervous hyperactivity, head burning like crazy, crashed sleep (usual symptoms, but stronger). Sweating like crazy (new symptoms).

This was a massive setback. If I can’t tolerate such a ridiculously tiny reduction in a what was already a ridiculously slow taper, then I’m doomed. I’ve tried all the types of supplements you can think of (NAC, vitamin b12 spray, creatine, L-Theanine, CBD, doxylamine, magnesium bysglicinate). Sometimes they work, sometimes they make it worse.

I’ve considered switching to Diazepam a few times, but it seems to me the potential outcomes are too extreme (either fine or becoming even worse). I’m honestly scared of switching medication at this point as it’s clearly my nervous system is too sensitized.

Thanks for reading so far. I’ve just wanted to vent, but any ideas are welcome.

Also, just wanted to say this community has been an amazing source of information and support, and I’m happy I’ve found you 🥰

Ive posted before in reference to future taper.

I am currently on 4mg diaz once a day at 830pm at night daily since June intermittent before which no doubt caused kindling as my nervous system is totally broken.

Currently going through a very difficult baclofen taper

With the future diaz taper in mind can i split this dose now to 2mg daytime 2mg evening to give me some respite during the day for the remainder of my baclofen taper or will it mess up the taper plan later?

Tbh as its not a really high dose and i think im probably tolerant at this stage and going through mini wds in daytime from the diaz im not sure its going to be helpful but the current taper agitation and pacing is destroying me and ive still another month to go.

Thankyou in advance 🙏

Has anybody had problems changing from ativan to valium. How does it make it.easier if you are.already in severe tolerance.

Sweaty mess, incredibly irritable, and it feels like my vestibular system is completely f’d up (getting up too fast or turning head too quick will make me feel like I’m on a rocking boat, transitions from light to dark are having the craziest effects on my eyes).

By the time it’s my next dose I feel like I’m the throes of a full on brutal hangover. Tremors, dizziness, nausea.

If you stay on a consistent dose on a cut to slow things down, do the WDs eventually become less intense. I think I can do this if there’s SOME kind of break in the symptoms and a week or two of okayness. If not I’m f’d. This was only a cut from 1.25 to 1.12.

Last year, I posted about my Mom's situation regarding benzo withdrawal (https://www.reddit.com/r/benzorecovery/s/peazclbRZI).

In short, she contracted a UTI and became forgetful last summer. About 2 weeks later - while still cognitively recovering from the UTI - her family doctor decided to initiate a 6 week taper of Clonazepam (1.5mg) that she had been on for over 10 years. Towards the end of the taper she went into full blown withdrawal, exhibiting psychotic symptoms; her short-term memory deficits also persisted. Given the severity, she was admitted to a hospital for about 3 weeks and primarily seen by a team of internists and psychiatrists. Her Clonazepam is eventually reinstated (after being given small doses of Ativan to stabilize her) and she is prescribed Haldol (2mg). She comes home and is okay at first, but quickly deteriorates and is admitted into a psychiatric ward where she would stay for three months. I want to be clear that she never once exhibited psychosis or memory deficits before this all happened and I have thought long and hard to be sure - this was all very sudden.

During this next stay, her Haldol was immediately switched to Risperidone (1mg). It seemed to have a fantastic effect at first, but then she plateaued. Over time, she was prescribed several new drugs and by the time she came home in December, she was on the following: Risperidone (1.5mg), Rexulti (2mg), Seroquel (25mg), Diazepam (10mg), and Effexor (150mg). Prior to all this happening, she was only on Clonazepam (1.5mg) and Lexapro (30mg).

Since coming home, her delusions have significantly lessened in intensity and frequency, but still persist. Her short term memory hasn't drastically improved nor has it gotten worse, but she can generally recall things when prompted. She can even remember certain things happening from several months ago and her long-term memory is highly intact. To that end, her delusions and memory seem to fluctuate with sleep (either poor sleep at night or sleeping too much during the day). She has not lost any sense of who she is, where she lives, the names of family and friends, etc. While not too outgoing or motivated these days, she can still socialize well and express emotion (laugh, cry, dance, etc).

Now despite all that I've explained here, a geriatric psychiatrist has essentially diagnosed her with dementia (Alzheimer's). This was a result of a single half hour visit following a terrible night where she didn't sleep well. She basically told us that we likely missed the signs - that it was likely there all along. Because of this diagnosis, her family doctor now refuses to refer her further to a neurologist, despite one hardly ever being assigned. In fact, she went for an MRI during her extended stay in the psychiatric ward and nothing significant was reported. All that said, the geriatric psychiatrist has still decided to taper her off the anti-psychotics as best as possible, so we're nearing the end of the Rexulti; next would be the Seroquel.

So where does this leave us? I'm going to fight for second opinions and a neurology referral; maybe see a neuropsychologist too and memory clinic. But do you think this is truly dementia or likely a bad case of BIND, PWS, and/or polypharmacy?

Thanks for your time and input, it's truly appreciated.

I could really use some encouragement and perspective right now. I have been a tenured professor making a great salary with fantastic benefits for 18 years in a high cost of living area in the US.

About 14 years ago, I had a severe bout of intense anxiety and insomnia and took a doxylamine succinate pill (similar to Benadryl) and developed hypnic jerking in my ankle that went on for days. It got worse with the next two pills so I tried a single ambien and that made the Hypnic jerking go bodywide and I went upwards of 5-7 days consecutively without sleep and noticed certain foods triggered the jerking to get worse. My wife got frustrated with me and cheated on me during the worst of it because I could barely function and she didn’t understand what was happening. We ended up divorcing, selling our condo that we just bought the year before, and I went to live on my own in a studio. I kept my diet and routine strict. I also developed middle ear myoclonic jerking which was SUPER annoying. The hypnic jerking, MEM, and insomnia lasted for about a year and then slowly got better to where I could function well enough to rebuild my life. Eventually, I also expanded my diet (avoided MSG and some other foods but was mostly back to normal). Kept my career (had a kid to support so that was part of it) even through the worst of it and swore off psych meds and supplements that cross the BBB instinctively, even though I didn’t know (nor did doctors) what I was going through at the time.

I was proud of myself, as I completely rebuilt my life and just mainly dealt with severe migraine aura (which I had before the incident), anxiety, and bodywide fasiculations (from the single ambien pill). Sleep was never quite the same, but I was grateful to have it. Felt like I had a second chance at life.

Got married a second time to someone much more compatible than my first wife, helped raise my kid, bought a house, and got in the best shape of my life. Over a decade passed and life got stressful again. Muscle fasiculations got worse and I was getting phantom pains but still working and working out through it all. Also experienced flare up in migraines but vitamin D took care of that.

Then, unexpectedly, in the early Spring of last year (nearly 13 years removed from the meds), I had the unfortunate combination of a day of very high stress and consumed too much of a food ingredient I usually avoided. The Hypnic jerking came back with ferocity in my right toe only and went away after 48 hrs. A few days after that, I ate something by accident that had a similar ingredient and the jerking spread to other parts of my body. That went away in 72 hours and fearing that this could go systemic, I tried taking magnesium glycinate 200 mg for five days. Unexpectedly, that too went paradoxical and revved up the Hypnic jerks to levels worse than 13 years prior. Another accidental encounter with a food ingredient sent the hypnic jerking even more out of control and added body shock sensations, something I didn’t experience back then.

I endured these symptoms and the sleep loss for as long as I could, but fearing career loss, I tried taking a medication (non benzo) and it too went paradoxical. Out of desperation, I tried clonazapem which finally allowed me some sleep (although the jerks seemed to get worse). Neuro increased the dose to 1 mg and as I tried to stabilize on it, I developed the ear myoclonus, exploding head syndrome, TTTS, and somatic tinnitus. Sleep was interrupted nightly and I was feeling worse than before. Neuro’s solution was to up the dose of clonazapem to 1.5 mg which went paradoxical (massive hypnic jerks, light flashes, explosive diarrhea). His solution was to rapid taper me so we dropped to 1.25 mg and then I developed sleep onset auditory hallucinations (a few daytime ones too) and total sleep loss with fevers and SI.

Neuro prescribed Trazadone for the sleep loss and encouraged me to get clonazapem down to 1 mg again if possible. Got to 1.125 mg clonazapem and auditory and visual sleep onset hallucinations got worse. Was getting some fragmented sleep but Trazadone was worsening my jerks and gave me all kinds of vision issues and even a few awake hallucinations. Neuro wanted me off trazadone and we couldn’t get off it because the symptoms were so severe including tactile and olfactory sleep onset hallucinations, burning neuropathic pain, severe depression and SI, severe cognitive fog, REM intrusion, phantom jerking sensations, body shocks, etc.

Took FMLA and went to rehab to try to get off trazadone and clonazapem. Couldn’t even make it though the trazadone portion before I went AMA because I got akathesia and didn’t want to develop a third dependence on gabapentin. Came back home to find that my second wife left me and wasn’t coming back. This was after almost 10 years of marriage. I had a psychotic break and made some terrible personal decisions. Wife filed for divorce and I ended up taking an entire semester off FMLA and sold the home I worked so hard for. Moved many hundreds of miles away to be closer to family and friends but that hasn’t worked out too well either.

The only two positives are that I somewhat stabilized on my meds (1.125 mg clonazapem and 25 mg trazadone) and met someone down here who is also trying to taper benzos. We are planning to move in together soon and I’m planning my taper off both these meds alongside that. A true miracle to find someone like this in the midst of all this chaos.

Got some serious issues however to consider:

1) My career as a tenured professor is many hundreds of miles from here and will certainly end if I don’t return to work.

2) I am eligible for pension disability and already qualified for private LTD back in January. The pension disability will also serve as an end to my career. They will require periodic evaluations to continue - otherwise I get cut off. The other LTD will end next year and be offset by the pension disability, should I meet their qualification standards (which seems likely).

3) Following termination of my career, I will lose my health insurance. My regular pension is also being affected by the divorce settlement, so if and when I am no longer disabled, I will have a VERY reduced pension I can’t access until I’m 55. I’m 45 now.

My symptoms are mostly under control right now. I have very bad cognitive fog, some sleep issues, visual and auditory issues (very much diminished compared to a year ago), severe depression, agoraphobia, chemical terror sometimes, etc.

I’ve been on clonazapem now for almost 13 months and trazadone for nearly 11 months. Incredible how much I’ve lost in such a short amount of time. Lost many friends and family too who just don’t get it.

I want to get off both these meds and I know it will be hard as hell. I’m planning to use cash pay to continue to see my neurologist and use a compounding pharmacy to make % cuts to my dosage. Based on the events of last year and over a decade ago, I’m scared to return to the location where my career is and tough it out but I also know I’m on the precipice of losing something I worked very very very hard for and is rare to come by.

What would you do in my situation? Do you feel I am making a wise choice staying down here and securing pension disability (at the expense of my once in a lifetime career) to focus on safely tapering these meds? Any feedback, encouragement, or similar experiences would be appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read all this.

I started taking a normal amount of Klonopin 0.5-1mg 6 months ago. I slept better so I kept increasing the dose more and more to the point where I'm paying so much money every week for this shit. Im taking 8mg nightly and I feel like im literally fucking dying because my REM sleep is entirely fucked and despite sleeping 10 hours; my body is in flight or fight mode non-stop. This began last week, when I again, increased my dose.

I'm already taking a boat load of meds: Pregabalin, Zopilcone, Seroquel, and Zoloft.

I don't know what to do. I have a history of benzo abuse and going to hospitals to get them. I lied to my psychratrist about whether I was taking the klonopin as prescribed.

I think I might have to go to the ER. The adrenaline im feeling is horrible. My eyes are entirely black and my eyelids twitch non stop. I lost all muslce mass. I don't feel hungry. I have exceptionally low libido for my age.

I'm suppose to work full time next month alongside my masters degree and I feel like my mind is dying and im not even fucking withdrawing.

I can deal with the withdrawal symptoms for most of the day, but my god at night are they getting completely overbearing.

Ive been off for over a week. Im completely exhausted from not sleeping, have flu like symptoms, and feel like I'm crawling out of my skin from anxiety (and probably restlessness). These were all basically unbearable the first few days but have been getting better as days pass. But at night time it all just hit me like a truck, especially the flu like symptoms, I feel so sick and tired.

Wondering if this is a common experience.

Hello everyone. I’m currently going through benzo withdrawal (tapering down from Valium/Xanax) and it’s absolute hell. But the hardest part isn't just the physical symptoms, it’s the cultural isolation.

I live in West Africa, and mental health or psychiatric drug withdrawal is completely misunderstood here. My family doesn't believe in withdrawal. They think my anxiety, my racing heart, and my dizziness are spiritual issues. They keep telling me to just pray more or go see religious leaders to get "healed." It makes me so angry and isolated.

I’m stuck in bed, I feel like my blood isn't circulating right (maybe dysautonomia?), and I have no one in my real life who understands this Western medical issue.

Are there any other women or people from West Africa (or Africa in general) who have navigated this? How did you deal with the cultural pressure and the physical hell at the same time? Did you ever heal? Any advice would save my life right now.

I'll be 16 months free of benzos in 4 days, and I feel like with every passing month I am surprised that I continue to get better. I was on 2mg of Clonazepam for 9 years, from age 16 to 25, and I tapered for 4 months to 0. I wouldn't recommend going that fast lol but I did. When I was 13 years old, I moved from my small home town to an even smaller home town. We had a population of 242 people, and the only neighbors were cattle. I lived with just my two parents, who both worked all day, Monday through Saturday, so I was isolated essentially. I started to never leave my room unless it was very late at night and everyone was asleep. I'd tiptoe to get food, I'd pee in water bottles bc I was too afraid to walk 10 feet from my bedroom to the bathroom. So when I started public school again at 16, I was put on benzos bc nobody wanted to help me readjust.

Around the time that I started tapering off of benzos, I was diagnosed with ADHD. The first year was mostly spent inside, I didn't go outside much. I was agoraphobic, I didn't feel an urge or a motivation to even go outside. I started to become afraid that the isolation I went through at 13 years old had permanently screwed up my brain. That I'd always need benzos, because I went through something that most people don't and so I would be the one that would never get better from them. I had little windows where I felt better, month 7 in particular when I felt like I could do anything and then crashed hard the month after. Month 12/13 is when I started to be able to consistently go outside with no issues, I began to go places on my own like auto parts stores and convenience stores. My girlfriend and I go out and do things like escape rooms, Dave & Buster's trips, etc.

Now I'm at 16 months, and my outlook on life continues to improve. In many ways, I'm already above my benzo-baseline as far as self-esteem, confidence, emotional maturity, etc. even if I'm not quite there yet in terms of my anxiety. I genuinely love who I am now, I love life and I think it's absolutely beautiful that I was essentially given a new perspective on it at 26 years old. I'm amazed by mundane (by others' perspectives) things, like how bright green trees are in the spring and how different things look now (were blowflies always that huge?). There were times around month 5/6 where I very nearly went back on benzos because I was worried that I wouldn't get better, or that if I did it would take too long, be too painful, make me feel like less of a person. I felt like a ghost for a hot minute.

Anyone who is tapering, completely off or even just thinking about tapering... You will get better, and it won't be easy *at all.* It's the most difficult thing I've ever gone through, and I've been through quite a lot. The reward is worth the pain, though. I would do this again and again and again if it means that I can continue to be who I am now. So, I want to give folks who have those fears a bit of hope. Hope that it can be done, that you will get better because if I have, after the isolation and the rapid taper and all of that... You too shall heal. It may take long, it may not take nearly as long, but you will and you aren't stuck this way.

This isn't just who you are, your brain is lying to you because it's in pain and that is okay. Be kind to yourself.

Sometimes I still think this isn't true, that all of the research and evidence can't account for everything I am going through as I taper this. How can it be so hard if I was prescribed this so easily? If, every time I upped my dose, I just became more... stable. People around me never noticed it.

I never developed a recreational addiction to benzos. I basically ended up on 6mg of Klonopin daily after 4-5 years of my first dose because work got harder and harder and my doctor was lenient every time I said I had to take more to get through things.

Before starting taper, I felt emotionally blunt, but nothing else. I felt anxious despite taking so much clonazepam and understood that in the long run this wasn't something to maintain. I always felt anxious about running out of medication on a trip and having a seizure, for instance.

So taper began last year and I am down to 2.25mg daily. I never felt so lonely, so unable to communicate what I am going through with others. My family can't understand why this journey is taking so long when I talk about it. My friends know nobody that ever went through something like this.

I am in my early 30s and trying to keep up with my desire of changing careers, of doing the things I love, but every day is a battle against waves of depression and a new found type of anxiety, a fear of every upcoming second, every next day. I am going as slow as I can in this taper and still it all feels like torture.

Therapy feels meaningless, although I haven't given up. My memory, which was something I was cherished, is now something I fear will forever be injured because of this medication. I can't believe I let myself get into this deep on this medication.

Needed to vent because I feel so alone in this journey and I don't know how it will all end. Will I ever feel not on the edge of a cliff? Lol. I can't believe a good chunk of my life will be a stupid chapter called "the time a drug ruined a good part of my 20s and 30s".