Hello my names is Joshua Ribalkin and I'm from Ontario Canada. I was on a benzodiazipine for 2 years called clonazepam. I was on that medication every day during those 2 years. I am a college student and am having a hell of a time with withdrawl and going to school. The witdrawl seems to make me extremely anxious at times. The doctors around here know nothing about withdrawl from a benzodiazipine. I feel lost and want to know if I should just stick it out or maybe reinstate my benzo and then taper very slowly. I went of the benzo extremely quick in like 2 weeks time. If you can't answer this maybe you can tell me someone that I could email that could help me. The famous expert ashton, Arthur doesn't take emails so I don't know what I should do.
Ashton recommends slow stepwise withdrawal, but in your case, if you have already passed the worst time, starting again and then tapering out might only increase the problems. The problems with withdrawal are usually worst the first two months, and then get better.
Read more about benzodiasepine withdrawal.
In his 1984 article "Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: An Unfinished Story" professor C Heather Ashton writes that Benzodiazepine withdrawal is a severe illness with many very strong symptoms, including memory problems, excitabity, vision problems, panic attacks, depression, headache and other kinds of pain, even including toothache, weakness, muscle coordination problems, dizziness, insomnia, sweating, influenza-like symptoms (for a longer list: read his article). But all patients thought the end result was that their life was better after withdrawing than before.
Medical doctors often do not understand how severe the problems are for withdrawing patients, she writes.
Even if patients had less symptom, after four to six months than during the first two months of withdrawal, some patients reported some abstinence symptoms more than a year after they quit using benzodiazepines. In the 1984 article, she recommends fast withdrawal, with a reduction of the dosage every day, combined with various other medicines to reduce the withdrawal symptoms. But in another article, "Helping patients come off benzodiazepines" published in 1987, she recommends slow withdrawal, with reducing the dose every one, two or four weeks. That article also lists the other drugs which can be used to reduce symptoms of benzodiasepine withdrawal.