Posted by Lou Pilder on May 12, 2008, at 20:03:35
In reply to klonopin update, posted by becksFLA on May 12, 2008, at 10:13:11
> Take all this with a grain of salt, because I've always been different...needing 14mg daily, then going down to 5 in about 6 weeks.
>
> In any case I'm trying to taper, about 5 days ago I went from my usual 5 to 4.5 daily. Question is how long should I go until I know if this is just "rebound anxiety" or if I have leveled out?
>
> Thanks
becksFLA,
You wrote,[...how long should I go...?]
In my experiance and with what I know of the experiences of others that have wanted to be free from benzodiazepines, there is first a day when the withdrawal symptoms start. With the people that I have known that discontinued the drug all at once (sometimes called cold turkey), in about 3 days or so after their last taking of the drug they experience a horrific condition of insomnia and extreme agitation and such, but you may not have those symptoms yet or at all. With the people that I have known that tapered, they reached that condition slower, but still reached that condition. I have read of those that did not reach that condition, and with one person I knew, they tapered for a year and got down to a millligram and still had that condition when they stopped taking the drug at that point.
The first stage then as I have experianced was like standing on the sand and seeing a beast rise out of the sea. This goes on in some of the cases that I know for about 7 days to 14 days, with horrific insomnia and agitation and dread. Some that I knew described that period of time as being dead, yet alive, living in the shadow of death. You may not enter that condition when you get down in your tapering. But if you do, I am saying that others that I have known have overcome that condition after 2 weeks or so and then they entered another condition and then another in all told 7 phases before they overcame the withdrawal symptoms...
Lou
poster:Lou Pilder
thread:828669
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080510/msgs/828767.html