Withdrawing from Clonazepam!

Your problem is your doctor isn't very good.

The solution is not to take your health into your own hands and start doing whatever you want with the drugs prescribed to you.

A lot of our rehab programmes are community based where a special nurse will come to your home and measure your bloods and vitals and help you if you get constipated or upset tummy or headaches or paranoia.

Its really worth checking the local rehab centres.

Jon is absolutely 100% correct, please do get a medical second opinion. Obviously we care enough about you to say these things.

You were given a Yield sign, not a red or green light. Neither professional liked the idea of you going off that med in any fashion. With your physician "not wanting to deal with the problems", tells you right there that you need a new physician.


No matter how much personal experience someone has with meds, NEVER take their advice as the way to go. Take their 'knowledge' and ask a professional about it, but don't go solely with it.

I want to thank all who posted for all the info I've received.

Very informed comments to really think on!

I've been in your shoes altough on a different lavel with different drugs. I was prescribed labetalol and metopolol, both were addictive and I had to be weaned off of them, the metoprolol gave me hallucinations and the labetalol masked the symptoms of low blood sugar A second opinion is the safest route.

I can only speak for where I live but my pharmacist does not know anything that is wrong with me as in, s/he does not know my conditions or illness because most medication can be used for different conditions or illnesses.

However, my pharmacist has a list of all my meds, when the last time I had them filled was and s/he has a list of any allergies I have. Its all in the computer.

There have been times I have been given a prescription and come to find out via my pharmacist, I can't take it due to drug interaction so then s/he rings my doctor and my doctor will tell my doctor why or the doctor who gave me that med why I can't take it and he'll tell the pharmacist what else to give me.

So basically where I live, pharmacists are not allowed to prescribe drugs nor do they know my specific illness but they are better than the doctor for making sure I never ever have a drug interaction. Most doctors here just write the prescription and do not check that out, that is what the pharmacist does. I have no idea how it works anywhere else but this is my own experiences.

Most doctors I see do not know what the pills looks like, the size of them, the color etc but my pharmacist knows all of that. Here the pharmacist also gives you your shots if you take any liquid medications. They charge 20$ per injection bu free at clinic but they are allowed to do the shots if you do not want to wait to see your doctor.

If I need to know if something over the counter will harm me, I call my pharmacist, they look in the computer and tell me. Doctors here tell you to call the pharmacist because its all in the computer and they are trained to do that for us.

Regarding doing off medications, you need to speak with your doctor. You can become quite ill going off drugs or doing down too many mg and/or doing it too fast.

Its not wise nor is it safe.

I will share this, there was a time when I would have to be out of meds before my insurance let me call them in and some of these meds are not ones that the pharmacist always has to sometimes I was 24-72 without medications I needed and it was God awful how I felt and I would wish that on no one. Now its rare this happens because I complained about it but it was God awful when it happened.

One more thing, and before anyone shoots me, I am only going based on here, pharmacists here are allowed to give you information in regards to how many mg you should go lower at a time in order to gradually go off a medication. They are trained to do so and our doctors work with the pharmacists as well. Here, a lot of medication situations are handled by the pharmacists.

The pharmacists here are way more educated on drugs than the doctors are for sure and that's why they advise their patients on how to proceed with certain meds etc... As I said in an earlier post, my pharmacist checked every single med I was one for the culprit to the hallucinations and zoned in on one and told me if I was going to do it to do it very slowly with a doctor's help.

I hate the withdrawals as I'm sure there aren't any withdrawals that I know of that are good ones. I really think that maybe I'll stick to where I am for now and perhaps up it .05 because this feels way to awful for me as I'm in a zombie state of I've never experienced before. This is so tough..

I hate being on this med which was only intended to be used for 4 weeks tops for my specific problem but has now been over 10 years. My therapist was supposed to wean me off before he retired but didn't. Now I'm stuck with the major decision and no help in weaning properly although I must say I think I'm doing pretty good with the weaning and knowing my body and mind and catch all things out of the ordinary. But what's the norm for me? I truly don't know any more because I've been drugged up on this medication for far too long and it has taken over the real ME!!

Sorry, had to let that bit of angst out!!! I'd kudo you but I'm out sorry!

Well, it's been awhile since I started to wean myself off this drug.

I'm afraid I've only been able to wean down .05mgs and can't seem to go any lower because the side effects are horrible.

Feeling bad about that, but will continue to try. Day by day!

Hard drug to get off, please people if you don't absolutely 'need' to take this drug 'DON'T' start.

That's the dose I am on. And I plan to stay with it. Life is just better with at least that dose.