On Klonopin .25 twice daily for a month

Hello Cheryl.

Don't be scared, you're taking the best action by sharing your concerns and getting support. You're also taking responsibility for your own health and medical care and I feel that more people should do so instead of blindly trusting and not researching their prescribed medications. We'll hopefully find a resolution that you are comfortable with.

Firstly, if you have concerns about a certain med then your doc will have no problem switching it to something else that will help through this transitionary time.

I too have read the stories about Klonopin and other very similar anti-anxiety medication giving people a very, very hard time when they attempt to stop. In my humble opinion, I think it wiser to not use them in the first place, rather than having to go through what could be a difficult withdrawal and bring upon extra suffering and worry for yourself - right when life is challenging you enough. 

As you know, everyone's biology and reaction to chemicals can be different and people can become addicted to a benzodiazepine drug quickly, although you may also have read that some individuals don't seem to have much trouble coming off them at all.  Considering you know you're sensitive to medication then it might be wise to not take a risk and instead go with what your intuition is telling you - that you don't want to be on this medication.

If your doctor intended to use the Ashton Manual/Method to taper you when the time comes to withdraw, then she will be planning to gradually decrease the Klonopin and then switch you to Diazepam (Valium) at some point and have you slowly taper from that.

Here is the Aston Manual: https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

As you can see from the withdrawal schedule (under Chapter 2) 10 mg of Klonopin is equal to 30 mg of Valium.  That is a large amount of Valium, would you agree?  I'm not sure why she hasn't offered you another med to help with the breakthrough anxiety that isn't benzo based first to see if another med will successfully treat the anxiety without having to then experience withdrawal symptoms. Of course, she might not be planning on using the Ashton Manual at all and simply decreasing the Klonopin itself.  In fact, she may never have heard of the manual or have knowledge of how hairy a Klonopin taper can get for some patients. 

Have you tried propranolol?  That is effective when the anxiety symptoms that bother you the most are physical, like a racing heart and shaking hands. You'd be surprised at how many professional and famous musicians use this med for stage fright. I've used it myself and there are no discernable withdrawal symptoms from it (I took 80 mg a day) and it really did work for me.

If your anxiety is really quite bad at the moment and you do appear to need a benzo-based medication, then a much lower 2 mg Valium (even split in half - 1 mg in the morning and 1mg later in the evening) would effectively put that to bed if you've no or not much tolerance to benzos at all. 

There will be more options for your doc to discuss with you until you find something together that you do feel comfortable taking for the next two months or so.  It might be an idea to research antianxiety medication yourself before you next see her. Meanwhile, until you get an appointment with her and if you feel comfortable doing so, I'd nibble a very tiny bit of the Klonopin once or twice a day to tide you over until you get a replacement med. Nibble the smallest amount and 'wait and see' for half an hour and if it doesn't eliminate the anxiety then take another tiny nibble and again wait and see. Hopefully, you won't need more than one nibble and will get to see the pdoc within the next 7 days.

I hope this helps somewhat, Cheryl - Good luck.  

Mari

I've been tapering off of 1mg.

So far 11 months in and at about 70% complete.

I'll share with you 3 blessings I've found.

1)

https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

2) Benzodiazapine recovery Facebook group.

3) http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php

Doctor's have know clue on these Med's on how to get off.

As far as the SSRI, I'll share more on that one if you want.

I had been on 1mg Klonopin for 6 year's for sleep and 20+ year's on SSRI's.