The Time I Almost Died From NOT Taking Drugs - Clonazepam Withdrawal Story (Klonopin)
There was a time when I didn't take drugs regularly.
Maybe you've tried to quit smoking, or drinking coffee.
Those are common addictions.. but not life threatening if you stop cold turkey.
Most of you can't relate to what I'm about to say...
I have quit smoking cigarettes. I stopped drinking alcohol for a while. These were drugs that I could identify as a obvious craving. A desire. An addiction. When I wanted a cigarette, I knew what I wanted.
The benzodiazepine withdrawal crept up on me over the course of a week. I couldn't identify where these horrible feelings were coming from. All I knew is I wanted it to stop! It wasn't long before I checked myself into the ER. I thought I was going to die, my heart was beating so fast. I was going crazy and I didn't know why. I was shaking for no reason (or so I thought.)
Why was I feeling so horrible if I had stopped taking clonazepam a week ago? The answer is in the HALF LIFE of the drug I was taking. Clonazepam has a half life of 30 to 40 hours. A half life of 30 hours means that it takes 30 hours for your body to processed 1/2 of the dose of clonazepam.
After about 2 days, there was less than half of the amount of clonazepam in my bloodstream than I was normally used to. After 4 days, there was 1/4. After about a week, the significant drop in my bloodstream became noticeable as my body struggled to produce more GABA. The theory is simple: When you force open the receptors, more GABA is able to get in. Since that increases the calming effect, your body needs to produce less GABA. When you stop taking the drug, your body needs to start making it again. This process is known as upregulation / downregulation of neurotransmitters, in case you want to look it up.
It's important that you understand a few things. First, GABA is a neurotransmitter chemical found naturally in the brain. Benzodiazepines work by forcing open GABA receptors. Second, I was taking these drugs as prescribed. No one told me I could get severely sick or die if I stopped taking them. There wasn't a lot of discussion about how addictive these drugs really were. I was told it was only a small amount and there should be no withdrawal symptoms - but there were. I was taking 1mg of clonazepam every night before bed. It SOUNDS like a small amount - only 1mg.. Barely enough to move a scale. In reality, 1mg of clonazepam (klonopin) is equivalent to 20mg of diazepam (valium). This was a shocking discovery that made me realize I wanted to get off these drugs.
Benzos can be more physically addictive than heroin. Both can be life threatening if stopped cold turkey.
It's only after a long period of self study and education that I found Dr. Heather Ashton's tapering schedule for benzodiazepines (link below). The shorter the half-life, the harder it is to taper off. That is why alcohol is impossible to taper off (It has a short half life), and why long half-life benzodiazepines can be useful in treating alcoholism.
ABOUT BENZO ADDICTION: You won't see it coming. With short acting drugs like lorazepam, the withdrrawal hit me as inter-dose withdrawal after only a few nights of using. (Super short half life). When I quit clonazepam cold turkey, the withdrawal symptoms took almost a week to manifest. The symptoms of benzo withdrawal can cause pain all over the body, because you have GABA receptors everywhere. Many withdrawal symptoms are wrongly classified as muscle pain, fibromyalgia (another word for muscle pain), flu, psycho somatic illness, etc. Most obvious symptoms are nightmares (Benzos suppress REM sleep), night sweats, irritability, insomnia. Do not attempt to quit benzodiazepines on your own, seizures and long term damage can occur.
LINKS:
Ashton Protocol: https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/
Benzo Buddies Help: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php
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