Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

I am tapering off of Clonazepam after being on it a very long time. (20 years) I started decreasing my dose from 2 mg a day to 1 mg a day over many years. Then I decreased to .5 mg a day for about 6 months. I am now on .125 mg a day and the withdrawal symptoms are severe and numerous. Many people do the Ashton method with a liquid taper but I just cut up a .5 mg tablet. It isn't the best way but I am going to keep plugging away until I am off. I am going down to approx .0625 mg for as long as I need to. I will then stop.

I wish I had known how hard it would be to come off of this med when I started as I would not have taken a benzo every day.

It is startling to realize just how many people are withdrawing from benzos and suffering the awful effects. I have seen mostly success stories so healing is possible and better yet, probable. I don't know many people who have come off of benzos after 20 years so if anyone has some light on this subject please let me know.

I think some people use valium to taper off as it has a longer half-life. You could try asking your doc about that. What sucks is having such bad anxiety with almost no other option than to take benzos.

Yep, I thought of doing the Ashton method using valium but then decided that I didn't want to. I just want to get off. I have had anxiety but not as bad as others, yet. That might happen when I actually come off of it.

Supplementing with l-theanine, taurine and magnesium can help to calm the nervous system. Plus, propranolol can help with the rebound anxiety attacks/racing heart. I'm in the same boat, although I wasn't on clonazepam nearly as long. I'm having a hard time functioning without it now/on a low dose. The anxiety is severe- worse than before I started taking it. I also wish I had never taken it.