Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

I understand that feeling of wanting to rip the band-aid off but if you really want to do this, it has to be a slow taper.

 

A fast taper is very unwise, instead, a slow and steady taper is advisable. Cold turkey is never suggested when coming off of a benzodiazepine. The resulting withdrawal symptoms can be much more intense than what you are dealing with right now.

 

A compound pharmacist can help with a taper. They can do all the precise measurements and taper you off as safely as can be done.

 

I am confused, last Monday Dr. De Ridder told me that someone can build dependency, but NOT tolerance to Clonazepam. I am surprised as many people on Tinnitus Talk talk about needing to up the dose for it to stay effective. I have recently been taking 0.5 mg every other day for sleeping, but worrying about the dangers of staying on it. However, if there are no tolerance issues, I'd be happy to be on Clonazepam for the rest of my life as I can see some benefits on the 1 mg dose.

What do people think about this?

 

That surprises me as when he spoke with Hazel on the Tinnitus Talk Podcast, he mentioned that eventually 'the body ignores it.' So he clearly changed his opinion. I think if there was no risk of tolerance, then many of us here would use it everyday.

 

All I know is I'd still have a livable level of tinnitus and some sound tolerance if I hadn't been pushed to take Clonazepam everyday. You probably build tolerance and get worse. I would stay away from all drugs if I were you. If you can live without drugs and eat a low inflammation diet and fast a lot, I feel that is the best way at healing. Live as cleanly as possible and protect your ears like fine china from all loud noises.

 

Did you respond badly to the Clonazepam from the beginning, or once you started tapering? Did it stop working for you at some point?

That's confusing.

 

@Diego LR, it doesn't help getting mixed messages. Although I think it's individual, so I wouldn't worry. There are members on here that have taken Clonazepam daily for 6-7 years and it's substantially useful to them. I have noticed they take it 'at the same time' as Gabapentin, so there may be a synergistic effect that reduces tolerance gain.

Stay Strong.

 

I've reduced from 900 mg Gabapentin to 300 mg, split now to 100 mg pills, looking at cutting to 200 mg, then 100 mg. I will probably stay on the last 100 mg for a while because I have heard there's often significant insomnia with losing the last bit of it.

I'm still on 2 mg/day of Klonopin.

No plans on Klonopin reduction at this time, but if I end up feeling okay some months post Gabapentin, I might very slowly and cautiously see what happens when I start to work down. I've done slow tapers off benzos twice so I sort of know what to expect, and what warning signs would be that actually the benefit of the drug is still much outweighing the downsides.

I have to admit that the more screechy, oscillatory parts of my tinnitus do seem to maybe be more pronounced again, which may be a result of Gabapentin reduction, but so far I am not actually thinking about it or actively experiencing it much more often than I was 3 months ago, so, if the upshot is that the subjective audiological severity is worse off the drug but my brain has plasticized around living with this well enough that I still don't think about it much -- I'd prefer to not take the damn pills, of course.

The reason is, I was starting to have anger issues which I had read can occur with extended Gabapentin use, and also I think it's kind of a weird drug and I'd prefer to not be on it indefinitely.

If I can withdraw from one thing, then attempting the same with Klonopin, or at least attempting a reduction, makes sense.

At this point I don't trust global supply lines to not leave me completely screwed at some point. My insurance policy is a 750 mg bag of Norflurazepam (legal analog) but that would be super dangerous to screw with, it's my doomsday plan for tapering if I somehow lose access to my pharma supply, because I am not willing to be dependent on benzos in 2022 without having enough on hand to taper, yet, my doctor didn't want to give me an extra 6 months of Klonopin

(My doctor does know about my doomsday box, he doesn't love it but he thinks I am weirdly informed and make weirdly informed decisions on this stuff...)

Crossposting in Gabapentin (Neurontin) thread.

 

My ENT doctor prescribed me Clonazepam in 2008, with the advice to only take it when the tinnitus is severe. The dose is 2x 0.5 mg tablets. It reduces my tinnitus over 12 hours to tolerable levels or complete silence. The doctor mentioned not to take it too regularly as dependence can set in with unpleasant side effects. She also said that the body will quickly habituate to it if regularly taken and then more needs to be taken for it to be effective which can lead to addiction.

I have never had a problem with Clonazepam in 12 years, and found it immensely helpful. It won't work for everyone.

I have recently found out that if a person is driving a vehicle in the UK and is stopped by the police and breathalyzed, if Clonazepam is detected in the body over the limit, they will be charged for drug driving.

Michael

 

They can’t do a breathalyzer for benzos lol. You serious?

 

You are correct. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice my mistake.

Since you know the correct method for testing for drug driving, there is no need for me to enlighten you.

Michael

 

You will likely become dependent, taking it several times a week. For some people, including myself, continued usage causes long-term post-withdrawal syndrome which took me almost two years to recover from, unless perhaps you go through a complex slow tapering process that can also take a very long time.

These drugs were originally intended to treat seizures, not tinnitus distress or anxiety. Clonazepam is very powerful and has a terrible reputation for exacerbating tinnitus. I would advise against the use of any and all benzos, especially this one.

As an alternative, if cannabis is legal in your area, some of the pure Indica strains may help you sleep, with few other psychoactive effects, and no risk of withdrawal or other dangers that are associated with benzos.

 

Many lives have been lost and ruined by benzos; especially tinnitus sufferers who made the mistake of being on Clonazepam daily.

I am stuck at 1.5 mg daily and I have worse tinnitus than I could have ever imagined being able to live with. I wish more people were like you and advocated for people to stay away from benzos. I am afraid getting on Clonazepam has been the death of me. I lost all sound tolerance and am not sure how to get off it without dying. I'm barely living with the level I'm at. I've been on Clonazepam since June. My doctor and family recommended and asked over and over if I'm taking my prescription like I'm supposed to. Poison it is. Using it only every now and then is also bad for healing, imho.

 

You can take Clonazepam. The trick is not to exceed 0.5 mg/day. It saved me when I first got tinnitus.

 

@Luman, 2 years is a long time. I presume you took it daily.

How many years did you take it for? What dosage did you taper from?

 

Got to say many people post about how marijuana spikes their tinnitus. It is the one thing that spikes mine temporally.

 

@dan, how long did you take it for and what was the taper like?

 

Due to symptoms of an undiagnosed autoimmune illness, before I had tinnitus, I took low doses of Alprazolam a few times a week for about 5 years, starting in 2005, and tapered quickly in 2010, without too many problems.

I took it again for a few weeks in 2016, several times a week, and after stopping I had difficulties that lasted for a few months, but I did not realize that this was likely caused by an effect from multiple withdrawals known as kindling.

I acquired tinnitus in the summer of 2017 and took Clonazepam for four months, a few times a week. The total amount of Clonazepam that I took, over the course of four months in 2017, was less than many users take in one week. I tapered at the end of 2017 over the course of a few weeks. I had withdrawal symptoms that were mostly mental for a few weeks but had very bad Protracted Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome symptoms, which lasted all of 2018, and most of 2019. I literally thought that my life would soon be over. The Clonazepam after-effects caused me to have the absolute worst period of my entire life, for nearly two years.

I would urge extreme caution to anybody considering taking benzos, for any reason, because this has happened to others who thought that they would be safe in taking small amounts of Clonazepam, or other less powerful benzos, several times a week, even after a very short period of use. I would have been far better off dealing with tinnitus in other ways and letting habituation take its course, which it eventually did.

 

I took it for 3 months and it took 3x as long to taper off them. I was down to the smallest crumb you could possibly cut, and it still spiked my tinnitus between tapers, but the spikes were not catastrophic and took 3 days to calm down, then I would keep that dosage until I felt stabilized.

 

I agree with this guy's opinion. I hope someone who is considering to take benzos sees this and decides not to. This could be life saving. I am upset that doctors and so many people push benzos so much when it would be better to ride out the symptoms than screw with things when they are already screwed up. Better off finding natural ways to get on with it. IHMO. I wonder how many people have been killed by benzos on here when they would still be alive if they hadn't gone down that path. @Brian P comes to mind.

"Benzos for short period of time has no value to any individual. If you have bad anxiety, then taking benzos for 6 weeks won't help as once off, your anxiety increases, same as insomnia and other disorders.

Some people develop physical dependence within the first 2 weeks.

Medical supervision means nothing as most doctors and psychiatrists are not benzo aware and trained. They detox people too fast, causing more damage to your body.

Some think that short them use is okay to be cold turkeyed. That is very toxic and neurologically damaging.

Decades ago people were told that cigarettes are totally fine. it was part of your lifestyle. Decades ago leaded petrol was fine until they discovered how damaging it is to you. That's why we have unleaded petrol now.

Benzos have absolutely no short term or long term benefits. The only exception is a pre-surgery medication. One off use. Absolutely fine. My doctor just wanted me to be cold turkeyed. I have to buy my taper from black market. Glad that exists. Depends where you live. Where I come from, doctors won't give benzos just like that. Unless you have a terminal illness, a few months left to live or pre-surgery. Here in the UK they throw benzos at you like snow balls. US is even worse. It's the most useless medication known to man.

What is medical supervision anyway? They have no clue how your body is reacting to it in the background and if you have some side effects, they just tell you to ride it off or give you other benzos that cause the same danger. Same as with antidepressants.

Benzos are highly addictive and coming off them makes heroin look like a child's toy. If i have to make a choice between heroin and benzos, I would choose heroin without doubt. Benzos are a money making industry. They should not be legal for regular use."​

This thread should be moved out of the Treatments section and into its own. I probably wouldn't be in the Suicidal thread or here on Tinnitus Talk at all without benzodiazepines being in my life. Horrific drugs for anyone to take. They never should be suggested without a huge huge warning by anyone that suggests them. Why tell people to take a drug that literally causes and worsens tinnitus & hyperacusis. Horrific.

 

My 2 cents. I've been on Clonazepam for 2 months now at 1 mg a day, mostly at night, just to help me sleep and it helps tremendously. Not in the sense that it reduces the presence of my tinnitus but it helps with making me almost less aware or care less about it.

Not saying it's for everyone but I have fairly bad anxiety in general and I find it helps me to relax quite nicely. I don't think 0.5 mg would do much for me but I seem to not build up much of a tolerance to the 1 mg I'm taking at night.

I also don't have tonal tinnitus. I'd describe it as more of an electrical static sort of noise that cuts in and out the whole time which makes it awful to sleep with because of the intensity changing every second (which is where Clonazepam has helped).

I'm not sure if my case is related to GABA or not. If I may ask, how does the Gabapentin affect you? Does it have any sort of physiological effects that you can clearly separate from the Clonazepam (such as reducing tinnitus noise level)? I'm interested to maybe try the same cocktail as you.

 

I'm pleased the Clonazepam is helping. Its seems opinions are divided here. Around 1/3 do not get any benefit from it. Some do great long-term on it daily, whilst some get in a mess. This is why, like most diseases, there will never be a tinnitus cure as we are all different. Instead, there will be different treatments for different people.

I use Clonazepam when my tinnitus gets too much or is debilitating for a few days, causing sleep issues. I do get some side effects like dizziness, sedation and slight cognitive impairment for a few hours.

However, when needed, I use 1 mg for 1-2 days, then stop. I do this every 7-10 days on average, so around 5 mg a month. It usually reduces the volume and intensity in 18-24 hours.

I have not decided (yet at least) to use it daily due to concerns of dependence and then if wanting to stop, very difficult withdrawal symptoms. On top of this my GP will not prescribe it daily.

On Gabapentin, I have sometimes taken it with Clonazepam, and it does seem to make the tinnitus less intense for a little longer. On its own the Gabapentin does little, but in combination they do something.

 

Hi brother,

I'd say almost all tinnitus cases are related in some way to GABA. Taking into account that Clonazepam is a PAM of GABA receptors (meaning it makes the GABA receptors work more efficiently when they coupled to the Clonazepam), that's the reason it helps you.

I take 2mg Clonazepam and 0.5 mg Alprazolam but I'm tapering off of the benzos.

The problem with them is, as you continue taking them, the body becomes used to them and starts downregulating the GABA receptors, which in turn can make your tinnitus worse with enough time. This does not happen all the time though, according to what I've read here. But it happens most of the time.

So I'd say, take it for the time being, but if you notice it starts getting worse, start tapering slowly.

 

I agree, opinions on Clonazepam are quite mixed. Fortunately, it has helped whenever my tinnitus is severe and doesn't reduce after 2 to 3 days. Taking 2x 0.5 mg Clonazepam tablets usually reduces it over 12 hours to a more comfortable level or complete silence. I take it once or twice a month. Another good thing, I haven't had a problem with it in 12 years and I hope this continues.

 

Yeah, it's a very weird thing this ailment of ours. Right now, as I type this, mine is quite bad but I haven't taken Clonazepam since last night which may explain it. In particular I've had tinnitus all my life (more so the ringing kind, and it was very quiet for most of my life so I never really paid it much attention) but this year in February one morning I got fleeting tinnitus in my left ear with presumably some SSHL (without any real triggering event) as my audiogram showed mild hearing loss in my left ear (which my tinnitus is definitely more prominent in) when I went to see the audiologist.

Some days it's very frustrating knowing how badly this actually affects people (not just myself), but those who aren't bothered by it or don't understand it, don't really seem to care or are completely ignorant of how it can affect someone's life.

I understand now why some of you guys and gals (including myself) are so desperate for proper treatments for this. If I could just reduce the volume/intensity, I'd consider myself cured to be honest. I reckon we should throw everything and the kitchen sink at it till something sticks (within reason though of course).

I'm definitely a little nervous about the negative effects associated with benzo use but hopefully if I do notice any sort of increase in volume/intensity, tapering off the benzos will help. As far as I know, @linearb has been on them for quite a long time with what seems like no problems.

I sometimes wonder (perhaps naively) to myself, if tinnitus is not maybe an early sign of dementia or something (I may be completely off base here) but my grandfather had Alzheimer's and my grandmother got dementia in the end as well, and to my knowledge hearing loss can be associated with it? My GP didn't seem too concerned about prescribing me a 6 month repeat for 1 mg Clonazepam so I'm assuming it's not a surefire thing that I'll get one of those diseases from taking benzos long term (perhaps one of you know the correlation a bit better than I do)? The ENT I saw, although knowledgeable, just told me to befriend my tinnitus after getting an MRI back which showed no sign of anything unusual. So I'm just kind of left wondering what to do, which I think is the case for a lot of us here. Just praying it might go away one day.

 

[QUOTE="XiviaN, post: 684097, member: 28114" If I may ask, how does the Gabapentin affect you? Does it have any sort of physiological effects that you can clearly separate from the Clonazepam (such as reducing tinnitus noise level)? I'm interested to maybe try the same cocktail as you.[/QUOTE]
I feel like there's a synergy where Klonopin makes the attention-loop component of tinnitus easier to avoid and Gabapentin may actually reduce some of the high pitched squeals.

But, Gabapentin is generally a "weird" drug to me, and I have slowly worked down from 600 mg - 900 mg / day to 300 - 400 mg / day at present and continue to slowly reduce it. Not having it seems to cause pretty severe insomnia, even with regular benzo use and access to infinite cannabis; it's also a newer drug than benzos (or cannabis, ha) and I felt like it might have been contributing to anger control problems. I've got that under control with patience and meditation and communication, but I'd still like to get the Gabapentin to as low a dose as possible, even if I decide not to get off the last 100 mg or however much.

if I get off it entirely, I am pretty likely to start very slowly reducing the Klonopin. I see all these things as being better than being in a state of barely-functional distress 24/7 (duh!!!) but also none of them are great. I've withdrawn from benzos twice before and it is pretty slow and awful. (In both cases I had been quite dependent for 2 years or more).

 

I have the same idle set of worries. There isn't any evidence that tinnitus signals dementia that I'm aware of though.

There is evidence of a connection between hearing loss and dementia, in which tinnitus could be a incidental, but the research has also shown that correcting hearing loss ameliorates the dementia outcome. To date there hasn't been an experiment completed to demonstrate hearing loss-dementia causality, though there is a randomized control trial ongoing now. Prior study:

Hearing loss and incident dementia

I continue to take Klonopin about weekly at 0.25 mg - 0.5 mg and haven't noticed any need to escalate the dose to achieve the effect.

 

Hi, you say that Clonazepam lowers your tinnitus down. What is your baseline tinnitus like? 24/7 loud?

 

I have variable tinnitus, so there is no baseline level as such. It can be completely silent, mild, moderate, severe and very severe. I can easily cope with it when it's moderate. If it's severe for more than 2 to 3 days, it can affect my ability to fully focus on things such as reading or watching TV. It can reduce by itself but when necessary, I take Clonazepam to calm the tinnitus down to more tolerable levels or complete silence.