Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

Thanks @Michael Leigh ,that sounds good if you have a bad day or a week but what about if a setback takes months to go away? As Rivotril can't be taken for more than few days as you said, how you do it in this case?
Thanks a lot for your time btw.

 

HI @Rafa03

You are not a newbie to tinnitus and like myself you're a veteran. If your tinnitus has increased there is a specific reason for this, as I would assume you have habituated after having tinnitus so long. I note your tinnitus was "Noise induced". Therefore, unless your tinnitus naturally varies in intensity as mine now does - if you're having a loud spike something has caused this. Have you been using headphones? Or going to places where loud music is played? When tinnitus increases and it's prolonged for a week, 2weeks or more usually a person has been exposed to loud noise or it's headphone use.

Although I have had tinnitus 23 years it got worse in 2008 after a second noise trauma. If you read my story from 2008 onwards, then you'll understand why I say something (usually sound related) has caused your tinnitus to increase, because you are a seasoned veteran to this tinnitus. Therefore, simply taking Rivitrol/clonazepam may reduce the tinnitus short term but it's not a long term solution.

My tinnitus does not increase for days or weeks. It is variable because that is what it changed to in 2008 after the second noise trauma. As I type my tinnitus is very very low almost unnoticeable. Tomorrow it could be mild, moderate or severe. Only when it is severe for more than 1 or 2 days will I take Rivitrol. Many times it will reduce on it's own, to Silence, mild, or moderate and I can easily handle that because I have habituated. Please click on the link below and read my story.

Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-experience-with-tinnitus.12076/

 

@Michael Leigh
Thanks for your reply, you are right indeed, I've got a new tattoo about a month ago and the tattoo machine was very loud, even with my earplugs on.

I've never had any problem before getting a tattoo but doing anything having tinnitus and hyperacusis is always taking a risk.

I've signed up on Neuromod to get my Lenire a couple of weeks ago but I haven't got reply yet (even if they sent me an email right after signing up saying they would contact me in within 14 days..).

I'm just trying to find relief till I can get my Lenire but I understand everything you said and it makes sense.

I guess I just can hanging there and be patient.

 

My ENT gave me clonzepam. I’ll take it occasionally when things get really bad, maybe once a week. I’ll take it at night and it’ll help me fall asleep, then the tinnitus will be much lower the next day which is great, but it doesn’t stay.

It freaks me out because I don’t want this to become habit forming, but it’s the only thing that helps when it gets really bad.

 

My experience with Clonazepam is very similar to yours. Five years later I still use it as need it (roughly once a week). I never had any of the habit/withdrawal problems that populate the internet. I discussed with health professionals and they say that is very unlikely at low dose and low frequency. I will note that even if after Clonazepam the next day usually seems like quiet T; I have the common experience that after one or two bad days, T calms down by itself no matter what. Go figure...... I have a couple of good days, the most likely outcome is a following loud day, and the same is true the other way around. It is like some sort of wicked balance game.

 

Did anyone here watch "This is Life with Lisa Ling, last night? Thoughts?

I recorded it and then watched this morning. My doctor prescribed Clonazepam for me in July, after I went to see him due to two really bad spikes. I came home and did some research and in the end I didn't take it. The bottle is still unopened on my dresser.

I was prescribed only 5 tablets to be taken as needed. From what I understand it can be useful/helpful if used accordingly, but what is accordingly? Short term is what I read, no longer than a couple of weeks.

This Is Life with Lisa Ling "The Benzo...

 

HI @emmalee

In 2010 I was going through a very difficult time with my tinnitus and my ENT consultant prescribed clonazepam. I was advised to only take it when the tinnitus was severe. She recommended 2x 0.5 tablets which I took for no more than 1 to 3 days maximum then stopped. It usually reduced the tinnitus to a more comfortable level or silenced it completely over 24hrs after taking one dose. I don't know what I would have done without this medication because I was at the end of my tether. I still have it on prescription and never had a problem with it in 9 years.

My ENT doctor told me of its addictive nature and unpleasant side effects if taken too regular. Before prescribing the clonazepam, I asked her to be candid about my tinnitus and she said: in all the years she had been practicing Audiovestibular medicine, I was the second worst tinnitus patient that she had met. She said that she would never give up on treating me.

There are a lot of scaremongering stories about clonazepam but when tinnitus is severe, it can help in the short term "for some people" to get some relief from the noise, when nothing else will work as in my case.

Michael

 

Hi, Michael, so nice to hear from you, thank-you for the reply.

Yes, I am aware of the scaremongering, this is why I did quite an extensive research on the clonazepam, after being prescribed. My spikes were about as severe as I ever want to experience again. Lucky for me they both subsided within a few days.

The plan is to keep the pills, just in case. I do believe that there is definitely a place for this drug. I have read countless reviews by those who have used is responsibly, like yourself, and it has enabled those individuals to live their lives. For every bad experience there is a positive one.

The Lisa Ling special really was an eye-opener, though. Anyone considering using a benzodiazepine to help with their tinnitus would benefit greatly by watching the show.

 

@emmalee

It is good to see you on the forum Emmalee as you have been quiet for a while. Back in 2010 I knew nothing about clonazepam but glad I was prescribed it. When tinnitus reaches severe levels it can drive a person to do things that under normal circumstances they wouldn't contemplate. Clonazepam does have a place but you are right, it needs to be used responsibly as dependency can set in if taken too regular.

Pleased to hear the tinnitus calmed down for you. My tinnitus is variable from: complete silence, mild, moderate severe and can reach very severe levels. I don't always have to rely on clonazepam as the tinnitus will sometimes calm down on its own. I normally take it once or twice a month for 1 or 2 days.

About 8 weeks ago I started taking magnesium tablets, just following the instructions on the bottle. When I first got tinnitus 23 years a go, noise trauma, a Herbalist advised me to take magnesium as it helps repair nerves throughout the body. Since the auditory system consist of mainly nerves I was advised to take it for at least a year. My ENT doctor agreed and said he advises his tinnitus patients to take magnesium and Ginkgo Biloba.

I haven't taken magnesium tablets in years but as I say recently started. I have noticed the tinnitus hasn't reached very severe levels where I've needed to take clonazepam and hope this continues.

Take care
Michael

 

@Michael Leigh -- That sounds VERY encouraging! I'm also a big believer in magnesium, and wrote a bit about some of my experiences in the following thread:

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

 

Thanks for the link @Lane a very interesting read.
Michael

 

Can you speak on the Lisa Ling special at all as far as what you mean in regard to using benzos for tinnitus?

 

Thank-you. So nice of you to say, Michael. I take breaks from time to time, mostly when things here start to become overwhelming. From my first visit here I have always gravitated to the lighter, more positive threads. I truly believe this is how I have managed to cope with my tinnitus as well as I do. The "hopeful" threads gave me just that, hope. I still read the success stories to this day.

In light of some recent threads, and the comments in them, please let me say "thank-you" for holding your own, Michael. Your staying power, in spite of some down right rude comments, is admirable. You help so many newbies who come here looking for some hope and encouragement. Your articles must be considerably time consuming, I respect your commitment to this forum and its members.

Thank-you.

My tinnitus, unlike yours, never relents. My pitch/loudness has always remained the same, a very loud tea kettle whistle, heard over everything all of the time. This past summer, due to high stress situations, I endured two spikes that were off the charts. To say I was distressed is an understatement. I was in tears at the doctor's office, this is why he prescribed the clonazepam. He is a great doctor, he never left out one detail when explaining the medication to me. He gave me five pills, with no repeats, to use only as needed. If and when I were to finish the prescription, I was instructed to come back to the office to discuss my experience with him. I am one of the lucky ones, I presume. Like I said, he is a very good doctor.

I hope this continues for you, too, Michael. I will have to look into this for myself.

 

Hello, Selah 1281.

What I meant is that if you were considering taking a benzodiazepine to help alleviate your anxiety, due to your tinnitus, then watching this show would be very helpful. One needs to learn everything they can about benzodiazepines, they can have some serious side effects and tolerance is a very real issue. All of this is explained and discussed very well, in my opinion, in the show.

 

Sorry to know your tinnitus is so high pitched and relentless @emmalee and I wish there was something to help lower the intensity for you. What about trying white noise generators? I have used them for many years as and when I want to, and find them helpful. Set below the level of the tinnitus, they can help distract the brain from the tinnitus. You haven't said what caused your tinnitus? I'm just wondering if it was noise induced? Were you a regular user of headphones, or used a headset often. Worked in a noisy environment or went to clubs or concerts often? Any of these things can cause tinnitus.

It sounds like you have a good ENT doctor and can help a lot knowing there's someone in your corner, that understands what you're going through and is able to be of some help.

Thank you for your encouraging words and support. There are a few undesirable people in this forum and their agenda is to cause trouble and strife. I will not get into it with them and have used that very useful facility called "Ignore" so I no longer see their posts. I am here to help people as I was once helped in a forum like this many years ago, so they are not going to stop what I want to do.

Take care and hope you start to feel better soon.
Michael

 

thanks for responding.

I’m already on clonazepam. Have been for 4 months almost. I’m definitely concerned about continuing, but can’t sleep with how loud my tinnitus is.

It does nothing for my anxiety, but it definitely quiets my tinnitus considerably which allows me to sleep. In addition to its sedating effect of course.

I asked my psychiatrist about withdrawal as I am concerned. He tried to tell me that since I only take it once a day that it’s not at a level where I would go through a severe withdrawal. He said I’d need to be using it 3 times a day for that to happen. Not that I particularly believe him since there’s so many people reporting quite the opposite online and while some may understate their use they all surely can’t be lying.

it also often makes my hyperacusis much better.

 

You are most welcome, Selah.

I wish I had the experience to offer up some advice to you. Four months, 3 times a day, would be considered a long time, from what my doctor said. The longest he would prescribe me would be two weeks, tops. Now, having said this, my doctor is not a psychiatrist, he is an MD. Perhaps you could make another appointment with your doctor and discuss your concerns. A good doctor will do this to help put your mind at ease.

I ended up not taking the clonazepam. Instead, I went home and did some research and came to the conclusion that I would do better to ride out the spike. Luckily, it subsided, without my having to take the clonazepam.

 

And here I'm just taking my little cocktail (that includes clonazepam, an antipsychotic and an anti-Parkinson medicine) and trying to not think of the possibility it'll one day stop working or if I have to come off it, lol. Honestly, it's the only thing that's keeping me alive and working and if physical addiction is the price I have to pay for it, well - maybe I'll be paying it for the rest of my life. I've come to accept that thought after all these months.

 

HI @Helheim

Please try and not look at clonazepam like that because I found it of immense help when my tinnitus was and is severe, and nothing else helped to reduce the noise. I have been taking it of 9 years only for "short" periods as I was advised by my ENT doctor. 1 to 3 days and stopped. The tinnitus would reduce or be completely silent within 24hrs. The dose was: 2x 0.5 tablets. Please click on the link below and read my post: My experience with tinnitus.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-experience-with-tinnitus.12076/

 

Please do not stop taking your Clonazepam without tapering off this medication slowly if you need to come off it...

I was told the same thing that I was not on a high enough dosage for it to cause any troubles or long enough... I was only taking 0.5 mg of Clonazepam, and I have been suffering for 8 months so far and have not finished tapering from the cross over to Valium.

I have suffered acute symptoms all the way through and 100s are just like me on BenzoBuddies, some have suffered for years after taking this drug for only 5 weeks due to not tapering...

Tinnitus is one of the symptoms you can get when you hit tolerance or go through withdrawal from this drug. Unfortunately even those that have never experienced tinnitus before can end up getting it permanently from benzo withdrawal... My own experience is that it has increased my tinnitus to deafening levels with multiple tones that I have never experienced before... I will not list the other horrid symptoms...

Many medical Doctors do not get educated on this class of drug, my own Doctor has admitted he did not know about tapering or the dangers of tolerance and being placed into acute withdrawal from Clonazepam, I was told by 5 different Doctors it was safe as it was used long term for epilepsy patients and did not need tapering at such a low dose... WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!

I worked for 8 years part time in a drug and alcohol unit, not once did I ever come across anybody detoxing from a benzo, I now know why...

Another thing I will mention to you is if you need to be placed on an antibiotic for any reason be careful what class of antibiotic you take as most Doctors are also not aware that some antibiotics like fluroquinolones can displace the benzo off the receptor site and put you straight into withdrawal...

I would also be wary of Augmentin Duo Forte which is Amoxicillin and clavulanic acid...

 

It was a very informative show, and from my experience it was very truthful about the medical profession not having the knowledge about safely withdrawing patients from this class of drugs... I was a nurse and was told Clonazepam was a safe benzo and that it was used by epilepsy patients long term.

I had never in all my nursing years come across this drug, I would not have touched Xanax or even Valium but for some reason I believed what I was told about the Clonazepam...

I also remember looking up this drug and seeing studies that recommended it for chronic tinnitus along with Gabepentin... So I thought if it was being recommended for tinnitus surely it cannot be dangerous for tinnitus sufferers to take. Well let's just say in my own personal experience, it was the worst mistake I have made in my entire life...

My Doctor has now acknowledged that he was misinformed about this drug including the correct way to taper.
I hold no grudge against my Doctor as his intentions were good, but it took him several months to come to this conclusion and unfortunately it was not just by listening and witnessing my symptoms that changed his mind.

 

Hello, @Star64.

I did the same as you and came away with the same conclusion.....until I followed a link which took me to the Benzo Buddies Forum. I had no idea such a forum even existed. After reading many stories from unsuspecting people, just like us, I made the decision to not take the Clonazepam. I will be forever grateful to have found BB, talk about an eye-opener.


I am So, So Sorry that you are experiencing this, Star.

As a side note, I visited the BB Forum this morning and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of new members that have introduced themselves, since watching the Lisa Ling episode.

Let's pray that there will be a positive shift in the way that the medical community addresses this issue.

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=3nsmsiko6ubfl2pn2n81j9i1q6&board=54.0

 

Wow.. due to me having morse code tinnitus with a little pulsitile component I had this drug on my list of things to try. Maybe not.. Given that amitriptyline moves me from screaming to total silence at times and seems to give me no side effect I better stick to that.

 

@emmalee I think you're making a wise decision; benzos are best avoided if at all possible.

That said -- Benzobuddies gives a pretty distorted view, because the vast majority of people who detox benzos do it without ever bothering to google it because their symptoms are not very severe. BenzoBuddies is also very up front about this idea. My own father C/Ted off 4mg Clonazepam after taking it 4 years and had very few symptoms at all. When he went on, and then back off, he had more issues but self-tapered with no input from anyone and it was fine.

Basically, I had an extremely difficult time tapering benzos, but in my real life I know probably a dozen other people who have done it and none of them began to have the degree of symptoms I did. So, while the stakes here are very high, in terms of "benzo hell is a total ludicrous nightmare", the actual odds of ending up in that situation are relatively low, when we consider the huge amount of benzos scripts written annually and the huge number of people who withdraw from them vs the relatively small number on BB.

I think it's important to have rational, stats-based ideas on these things. Ashton's work is very much worth reading, because while she doesn't at all downplay the severity (she literally wrote the book on tapering) -- she's very upfront that it's a "minority" of users who have these issues.

well, the second part of that is certainly true; I know a couple of them. The first part is more dubious. KPin is less likely to create escalating dependence and interdose withdrawal than Xanax or Ativan. That probably makes it "safer". But to me the idea of a "safe benzo" is sort of like a "safe motorcycle" or a "safe chainsaw". Ain't no such animal.

 

@linearb, thank-you for your thoughts. To be honest, I was hoping you would add your take on all of this. If I may ask, did you watch the CNN special with Lisa Ling?

This is very true. I have read the Ashton Manual from top to bottom, again, I did not even know such a thing existed, not until finding BB.

Point well taken.

 

I haven't, I am somewhat allergic to cable news channels after working in an office building that blared them in the lobbies, but I'll take a look.