Klonopin withdrawals.... Quitting cold-turkey, how bad can it get?

[cactus19]

Well I've been taking clonazepam 1mg for about 18 months now, almost everyday (well every now and then for a couple months, but usually everyday) - and I also took ambien 20mg for about 3 years.

I stopped the ambien 2-3 weeks ago and didn't notice any changes really, except I felt a little better and I've been a lot more entertaining/funny around my friends.  


And the other day I went to a native american ceremony called the "sweatlodge" where you're basically in a sauna for ~3 hours, and you get detoxed very fast.  There were other people around detoxing off much harder stuff and looked terrible... But I felt fine sweating out all of my meds.  I've been thinking about stopping clonazepam for a while now, and I figured this would be the perfect occasion...

The only problem is that I haven't asked my doctor about it as she's very busy... Yesterday was my first day off the meds and I felt fine, just headaches.  Today I'm doing alright, still headaches that don't go away after tylenol/aspirin but I guess that's normal.  My main concern is just the withdrawals:  I've heard that benzo's and other non-benzodiazepine meds (ie. ambien) have a cross-tolerance - meaning, the clonazepam would basically be taking care of the ambien withdrawals, at least until I stopped the clonazepam.  I know benzo's are also a very dangerous drug to detox from... but I'm not sure if my dose is THAT high, and I've taken it for a while but not several years. I guess tapering the dose would be alright but I'd rather not if its not necessary.  Any help would be much appreciated.


BTW:  I'm quitting my meds b/c I don't feel that I need them.  I'm only 18, a kid, and I don't wanna ruin my life because of some stupid pills I didnt need.  They get me buzzed/high/whatever but don't really help when I don't have them in my system (ex.  cant sleep w/o ambien; get really bad anxiety w/o klonopin) - so I'd rather be a normal human being without the need for external chemicals in my body everyday.  Plus, the withdrawals are only going to be worse the longer I wait.

[maxximage]

KLON and AMBIEN work on the same receptors, the GABA receptors; I went on a 6 month taper to stop KLON but was taking AMBIEN as well- I later found out they work the same receptors so my 6 month KLON taper was wasted !
I  went to my internist who informed me they have short half lives which are HARDER to taper from;  short answer-- I started Valium, while another benzo, has a longer half-life and for some reason,  is easier to stop.
I have since stopped KLON & AMBIEN over the past 8 months, and no longer suffer the horrible withdrawal. I am now tapering of the Valium with no noticeable withdrawal.

[RubyWitch]

While I applaud your desire to be chemical free, going cold turkey from a benzo is a very bad idea. Even tho your dose was small, you were on it for quite awhile and I would advise speaking to your doctor or a pharmacist about doing a taper. It shouldn't take that long as Klonopin is one of the easier benzos to w/d from. The fact you had also been on the Ambien may or may not be a factor. I'm not qualified to tell you what the consequences of that combination might be. A quick phone call could answer these questions for you and I suggest it's always better to be safe than sorry.
I wish you luck.
Peace
Greenlydia