Xanax to Clonazepam - What to expect

[Solid Snoop]

Hi everyone.

I stopped xns completely (apart from one or two slip ups) and switched directly to the same dose of Clon@z.

I felt a bit weird the first week or so but after that I have to say I felt pretty damn good. My anxiety is non existent, pain reduced and my mood has been lifted. I knew x@ns were horrible but didn't realise how much they really hold you back.

Anyway, since then I've managed to reduce to 10mg of clonaz split into 2 doses, morning and night. Yes I know that is a scary amount for some but believe me, it is nothing compared to what I was doing last year. I feel great during the day but for some reason I cannot sleep at all. 

I've tried all the z Drugs without any success, Nitrazepam (was out of date so unsure if it's tolerance or not) and even popping some xans one night to try and sleep. Nothing worked. The only thing that worked for a short period was heavy doses of promethazine but my body soon decided that it was going to fight that too!

Right now I'm going days without sleep. I don't mean a restless night, I mean pure insomnia where I lay in bed, listen to the rain fall at night right until it's time to get up. After about 4 days I eventually crash but it's usually a restless night with a migraine thrown in for good measure.

Has anyone experienced this amount of insomnia while on such a strong bennie? I know the dose drop could be the root cause but that was weeks ago. I've tapered before and never experienced this.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated. I've tried all the old school anti histamines and they are doing Jack before anyone recommends Nyt0l or Ben@dryly. I JUST WANT A FEW HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP PLEASEEEEE!

 

[PTFC]

The mirtazipine still spark me out the odd occasion I take them snoop. But when I switched from zans, I jumped to clonaz and had a daily dose of Diaz on the go too. The Diaz might just add that little bit tiredness, and it's what you are gonnaxebd up on eventually? 

 

[PTFC]

I just mean a nornal dosage, not 100mg or anything!!!

 

[Solid Snoop]

I did have the mitraz and it was great actually. I forgot I took that stuff! It nearly put 3 stone on me though as I took it daily.

Can it be taken as required? I really don't want to go back on it full time. It was.effective at low doses. Quite a peculiar med. Nothing else like it.

I'm not taking diaz yet as I feel it would be wasted while on such a high dose of clons. I'll start to slowly move over to them at 4mg as that's how high the Ashton guide goes. 

Thanks for reminding me about the mitraz, I'll get that at the docs this week! ?

 

[PTFC]

Yeah, just use it twice a week for timebeing, for as long as you need too. I found it helpful on dosage drops.  

 

[trinity]

Hi everyone.

I stopped xns completely (apart from one or two slip ups) and switched directly to the same dose of Clon@z.

I felt a bit weird the first week or so but after that I have to say I felt pretty damn good. My anxiety is non existent, pain reduced and my mood has been lifted. I knew x@ns were horrible but didn't realise how much they really hold you back.

Anyway, since then I've managed to reduce to 10mg of clonaz split into 2 doses, morning and night. Yes I know that is a scary amount for some but believe me, it is nothing compared to what I was doing last year. I feel great during the daheavyy but for some reason I cannot sleep at all. 

I've tried all the z Drugs without any success, Nitrazepam (was out of date so unsure if it's tolerance or not) and even popping some xans one night to try and sleep. Nothing worked. The only thing that worked for a short period was doses of promethazine but my body soon decided that it was going to fight that too!

Right now I'm going days without sleep. I don't mean a restless night, I mean pure insomnia where I lay in bed, listen to the rain fall at night right until it's time to get up. After about 4 days I eventually crash but it's usually a restless night with a migraine thrown in for good measure.

Has anyone experienced this amount of insomnia while on such a strong bennie? I know the dose drop could be the root cause but that was weeks ago. I've tapered before and never experienced this.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated. I've tried all the old school anti histamines and they are doing Jack before anyone recommends Nyt0l or Ben@dryly. I JUST WANT A FEW HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP PLEASEEEEE!

The out of date nitrazepam wont make a difference on its potency so you can out rule that as a factor.

Youre trying to come off one of the strongest benzodiazepins on the chart and replacing it with drugs which are weaker in effect. Clonazepam due to its long half life is used with success during tapering phase although your doses do seem rather high which would indicate a strong tolerance due to abuse. Have you spoken to your GP and had a referral to the drug team who could help monitor your taper?

 

[Solid Snoop]

The out of date nitrazepam wont make a difference on its potency so you can out rule that as a factor.

Youre trying to come off one of the strongest benzodiazepins on the chart and replacing it with drugs which are weaker in effect. Clonazepam due to its long half life is used with success during tapering phase although your doses do seem rather high which would indicate a strong tolerance due to abuse. Have you spoken to your GP and had a referral to the drug team who could help monitor your taper?

The initial problem was over prescribing by a doctor. He had me on 8mg of Lorazepam, 30mg of Diazepam, Zopiclone and Setraline.

I realised 4 months later after joining this forum that nobody should ever be prescribed that amount of these meds, especially an out patient driving to work every day!

After a lot of reading I decided to bin all the doctor stuff and do it on my own. I read raving reviews regarding xanax which for months helped at a pretty decent dose. I knew it was a short term fix though so did the Ashton guide with a doc down to 20mg of Diazepam. I then had a severe mental episode, bought dodgy bars from some wanker and went crazy on them. I mean 30mg a day crazy.

I got myself down to 15mg and decided to move over to Clonazepam at 12mg per day (now on 9mg) which really has been a life saver. Yes the daily dosage is high but I was on the brink and this stuff brought me back. Xanax did not help with pure anxiety despite what people say, it's a 2 hour bit of relief and that's about it. It just numbed me and made me a zombie taking it through the day. With Clonaz I'm coherent, anxiety free, my mood is at a 5 year high and I'm a great father/partner again. I take a morning/evening dose, don't crave it, don't get drowsy, can enjoy life without worrying about when my next dose is and just be happy. It was just the sleep thing that was a fucker.

I will continue to drop the clonaz until around 4 - 6mg  (depending on how I feel as it's my body) then I'll work through the Ashton guide at my own pace.

The sleep issue has been how slow it's been for the Clonaz to completely replace the xanax in my body, receptors and all that. I can now finally say that I'm getting around 6-7 hours sleep as of 2 days ago, no idea how it happened but it did, and think that the dirty, evil drug that is zans is now completely gone from my body.

Thank you for the advice guys but I seem to be on top of this for now.

 

[Vecuronium]

@Solid Snoop Kudos to you, I had to double my Rv0tril when I switched from X@ns, from about the same amount. (Also experienced the same mood changes, the Riv0s lifted a huge cloud from my brain). Good luck!

 

[Natty]

Right now I'm going days without sleep. I don't mean a restless night, I mean pure insomnia where I lay in bed, listen to the rain fall at night right until it's time to get up. After about 4 days I eventually crash but it's usually a restless night with a migraine thrown in for good measure.

Has anyone experienced this amount of insomnia while on such a strong bennie? I know the dose drop could be the root cause but that was weeks ago. I've tapered before and never experienced this.

Yes, I have had this experience while on them xans at extremely high doses.

 

[Solid Snoop]

Thanks for the support guys.

I don't get any real support at home, with friends (apart from one over email), doctors etc as I kept my relapse to myself. Stupid thing to do but luckily it has worked out ok for me. I have a steady supply of affordable R0ch3 Clon@z coming in (which will soon be Diaz, fingers crossed) and I've had 3 nights of about 6 hours sleep. 6 hours is a shit load when you are used to 0 - 30 minutes!

@Solid Snoop Kudos to you, I had to double my Rv0tril when I switched from X@ns, from about the same amount. (Also experienced the same mood changes, the Riv0s lifted a huge cloud from my brain). Good luck!

I did take a high dose for the first 2 days but after a lot of reading I knew no matter how much I took, it would take at least a week to stop the major withdrawals. Your comment on the cloud lifting is exactly what I feel.

No foggy brain, slurred speech  (friends and family have said they have seen a big difference in me that gave a further boost), no sleeping for 14 hours unless somebody drags you out of bed and my shirt term memory is beginning to slowly return. That is my main concern at present. My memory is shot to pieces, maybe forever according to 3 medical papers I read on good ole bennies but I'm staying positive and will recover completely.

Again, thanks for the kind words and the boot up the arse @trinity ! ?

 

[ElectroNymph]

Clonazepam was my drug of choice for a while last year. I am ordering 600 tomorrow. They are strong and last for almost a day and a half, so you don't need to take more than a couple - in my case anyway. They make anxiety much easier to cope with.

 

[Solid Snoop]

Clonazepam was my drug of choice for a while last year. I am ordering 600 tomorrow. They are strong and last for almost a day and a half, so you don't need to take more than a couple - in my case anyway. They make anxiety much easier to cope with.

They do deal with day to day anxiety very well but I have to admit that I do miss the "zone out" benzos every now and then.

On Clonaz I am as sharp as a knife. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, a very good thing but a little recreation can go a long way.

Still sticking to my guns though!

 

[Cason]

I would get yourself some green and as you laydwn right before par take that always made me sleep coming of Zan's  ;but more realistically you won't have a normal night's sleep until you get the Zan's completely out of your system and maybe the clons too

 

[ElectroNymph]

They do deal with day to day anxiety very well but I have to admit that I do miss the "zone out" benzos every now and then.

On Clonaz I am as sharp as a knife. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, a very good thing but a little recreation can go a long way.

Still sticking to my guns though!

I know what you mean, it's nice to be a bit 'zonked' now and then. With Clonaz I was able to live my life normally, still had panic attacks but ignored them more.