TaperCommunity
I’m 59 and I’m blessed with an amazing husband, we have 5 Children and 7 grands, going on 8! I love to write, read, crochet, and hunt!! Love the outdoors! I love antiquing with my husband. Love dancing in the kitchen. We have the cutest dachshund, Stanley, two Calico girls, turkeys, ducks, and chickens! Most of all I love the Lord and absolutely love talking about Him and how my life has been changed by Him!! 🌼🌼🌼 My story..well the part that contains Benzos! Near 20 years ago I started having migraines and anxiety. Many ER visits, drs and specialists. One of the meds I was started on for both was Xanax. .25 four times a day. Come to find out, after really good drs took a dive in to see what was causing it all, my thyroid!! Many issues. It had to be removed. In the years forth I figured out the only time I had anxiety was when my numbers were off. (I’m now finally after all this time in a good place, hence the tapering of Klonopin in 2025, about a year ago.) Amazingly no one ever said, let’s stop the Xanax. I was doing dishes one day and said, I don’t wanna take this any more! I started my own taper. Didn’t know anything about tapering. I started with removing a 1/4. That journey took me 3 years. Hard years, but I was so proud. That lasted about 4-5 years. Anxiety came. I was just simply exhausted and overwhelmed. My mom was ill and would in months pass away. The NP said, “Let’s try Klonopin. It’s unlike Xanax and it’s not addictive!!” Oh boy!! I took it for 6 Years. Never felt odd. Never side effects. Just knew it again was time. Had convo with dr and he agreed. I started. His words,“just break your pill in half!!” 🤦♀️ well, I did this for a year. I was taking .25 three times a day. I would get down to morning and evening dose and that’s when I’d struggle. I didn’t know. I would just start over. Now, on June 30,2026 I ended up in ER with severe anxiety. They gave me 2 Ativan and sent me home. Said, “Maybe you have a virus?!!” No!!! I now know I was in withdrawal. Next day, July 1, 2026, I was at dr office. He stopped the Klonopin and started that evening 2 mg of Ativan. 1 morning/evening. Weeks of sheer hell!! I was withdrawing from the Klonopin and overdosed on the Ativan. It was a dark month. Every week I was messaging and begging to be removed from it and try Valium. He listened and started 10mg of Valium on August 4. 5mg in morning and 5 in evening. A month later on Sept 2 I started my taper of removing 1/4 from my evening dose. I didn’t feel withdrawal until 4-5 days later. Insomnia was the worst. Then it was like I woke up!! 3 weeks later, last Friday I removed a 1/4 from my morning dose. Ouch!!😩 That hit hard and fast Sat morning. As the day progressed it got worse and worse. Sat night was agony. Here I am today! Started my 5mg morning dose again. I will stabilize and learn as much as possible for this journey ahead. I didn’t realize how great of a taper that was! In my mind I was thinking, “It’s just a 1/4!” How wrong I was. So, like all of you I’m in for the long haul. However long it takes I want this medicine out of my body!! That’s my rollercoaster in a nutshell!! ❤️❤️❤️
Day 13 of my last taper. I was doing very well and it hit me day 11. The last 2 days were kinda rough, but tolerable. I’ve learned so much I know what’s happening now and it doesn’t scare me. It was only 1/8 of a cut, and since I went 11 days feeling great I wasn’t expecting it to hit me. Today is much better. Some inner shakiness and still at times my legs feel like jello, but I’m okay. Been having bouts of insomnia, fatigue, headache, and appetite changes. Each day I mark off the calendar date and say, “One day closer to healing!!”♥️
I think today is day 5 of taper. Amazingly I’m feeling good! It’s kind of that, waiting for the ball to drop, but just maybe with the smaller taper it drop! Feeling very good. Been having bouts of headache.
Okay! Day 2 of second taper and I’m making it! Staying focused and busy. I know with the Valium it can take a few days before you really feel it, but the last one was too much too fast so I crashed and burned. This one with a 1/8 cut is feeling better than the 1/4 cut. Feeling good. Been having bouts of headache.
Feeling very good. No specific symptoms.
Okay, I’m trying it again!! This time smaller cut. Cutting 1/8 or .25 from my morning dose of 5mg. Feeling okay. No specific symptoms.
Not sure what changed but today sucks. Feeling poor. Been having bouts of headache, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, muscle aches, tinnitus, and visual disturbances. Even had nerve pain in my hands.
Feeling poor. Been having bouts of irritability, headache, crying spells, appetite changes, tinnitus, sweating, and anxiety.
Holding here for another week. Feeling very good. Been having bouts of appetite changes, tinnitus, and insomnia.
Feeling fair. Been having bouts of nausea, anxiety, headache, irritability, crying spells, tinnitus, appetite changes, and visual disturbances.
Feeling bad. Been having bouts of headache, irritability, appetite changes, tinnitus, and insomnia.
Feeling okay. No specific symptoms. Just waiting for it to hit. Hoping it won’t be too bad. My first taper was Sept 2 and didn’t feel well day 4-6 basically and then it was like woke from a fog.
Feeling very good. Been having bouts of tinnitus, visual disturbances, fatigue, headache, nausea, insomnia, brain zaps, dizziness, sweating, and flu-like symptoms.