There are many things today that can cause anxiety. Someone in the family may have fallen ill or passed, stress at work, a big move to another place, almost anything that disrupts your everyday life can cause stress and anxiety. There are many ways to go about getting help for anxiety issues: there is a holistic approach with healthy eating, meditation, and yoga, or other stress-reducing activities, or the quick fix that seems to be more popular is to get a prescription from a doctor.
A few medications can be prescribed, but among the most commonly prescribed Benzodiazepines or benzos are Valium, Xanax, and Klonopin. These are medications prescribed short term for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. These drugs are prescribed for short-term use because most people will develop a physical dependence after a few weeks. It doesn’t matter if you were taking the prescription as directed; there is a high chance that once you stop taking the drug, you will start to have some form of withdrawal after a few hours or days.
What Happens When You Abuse Klonopin?
Some patients take Klonopin as prescribed, some don’t, and others get the drug illegally. No matter how you handle them or what kind of user you are, taking benzos longer than three to four weeks, you can experience withdrawal symptoms.
For people using benzos for more than six months, about 40% will experience moderate-to-severe withdrawal symptoms. The other 60% will still have symptoms, but they will be far milder
For the use of Klonopin, Just like any other substance, the severity of your withdrawal will depend on many factors:
- Your current Klonopin dose
- How long you’ve been taking it
- Whether you regularly mix it with other drugs or alcohol
- Your age and physical health
- And much more
Klonopin withdrawals and alcohol withdrawals are very similar. Both medications are probably the worst withdrawal you could experience and the only one you could die from if you don’t have supervised medical detox. You can feel anxious and have flu-like symptoms, and they can be severe or mild, and they can come and go.
Since Klonopin is a long-acting benzodiazepine, it has a long half-life from 30 to 40 hours, so it can take a while for the withdrawal symptoms to start. It can start from two to seven days after the last time you took the drug. The withdrawal symptoms can last on and off from two to eight weeks. The withdrawal symptoms of Klonopin will affect you physically and mentally.
Physical manifestations of benzo withdrawal can include:
- Troubled sleeping (nightmares, waking in the night)
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Sweating
- Headaches
- Tremors
- Dizziness or unsteadiness
- Muscle aches and pains
- Blurred vision or other visual disturbances
- Tinnitus (ringing in the ears or hearing a sound that isn’t there)
- Grand mal seizures
The psychological symptoms of Klonopin withdrawal can include:
- Anxiety
- Irritability and agitation
- Insomnia
- Panic attacks
- Restlessness
- Nightmares
- Strange bodily sensations
- Depression
- Abnormal perceptual changes (things touch, taste, or feel different)
- Problems concentrating
- Trouble remembering things
- Distorted body image
Second Stage of Klonopin Withdrawal
There is also a second stage to the withdrawal after the initial, post-acute withdrawal. This could last anywhere from months to a year. Again this can differ from person to person, but you go about getting off Klonopin, whether tapering or cold turkey; it’s best to do a medical detox where you can be supervised, and at Allure Detox, we can help.
Patients choose medical detox because it allows them to continue participating in their former lives. This aids in the healing process of recovery and teaches the value of living without drugs and alcohol. And it has been statistically proven that a more extended detox period is more likely to lead to long-term recovery than a shorter period.
For these reasons and many more, patients choose the expert, compassionate care of Allure Detox. We look forward to working with you and your family to get your lives back on track. Contact us around the clock for a confidential assessment, and let’s see if Allure Detox is the right treatment center for yourself or a loved one.