Clonazepam for 12 Years for Sleep

I was on clonazepam for 12 years due to extreme chronic insomnia.

At that time, I also had a misdiagnosed situation with my back that has been horrible. It took 15 years to figure out what was actually wrong. I finally got the right surgery and it helped a lot, but having to be so sedentary for those years because I could not walk, sit, or stand very long. I could not work, even at home. I couldn't work because I couldn't sit at the computer long enough. I even wound up bedridden for 10 months. If it wasn't for my husband taking care of me I don't even think I'd be here now.

Clonazepam wasn't the only medication I was on, but that was the last one I got off. All the others were so much easier, even the opioid that I was on for pain. I had very high-level chronic, debilitating pain every single day for more than 14 years.

I did so much on my own to try to get better and spent every penny I had and much more, putting me in debt which I've never been in my life.

I find it very interesting that I had to get off opioids, nerve pain medications, and I was also on muscle relaxers and even Valium for relaxing the muscles. The Valium was a very low dose so that was easier to get off of, and I wasn't on it quite as long.

I had no problem getting off the pain medications and the nerve pain medications. The worst side effect I had was some hot flashes. I hardly even remember having symptoms of withdrawals when I was getting off of hydrocodone that I had been on for 14 years. Once the pain was gone I simply took less and got off it easily. I was on Lyrica that had withdrawal side effects of hot flashes when I was getting off it, but nothing major and I got off it myself. I was on that and gabapentin for CRPS.

Years before that I was on Sinequan, which helped me sleep, and I was on that for at least 10 years. Getting off that took longer probably because that is technically an antidepressant. It took me about 18 months to get off that. I did it myself, not even under doctor supervision. I had decided I wanted to go off of it and I cut cold turkey and started to feel really bad so I did go back on it, and I cut it down a teeny bit at a time and that way I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms at all.

Now with the Klonopin, what happened was my doctor was going to get me off of it, but he wanted to go very fast. It's amazing that they push these drugs for doctors to push the drugs, and the doctors do push the drugs, but they don't educate the doctors at all on how to get them off the drugs or the problems that can happen from being on these drugs.

I hope that will change. So getting off the clonazepam was difficult. My brain felt really weird watching TV. I could not take certain noises or certain images, or it was like flashing. It was loud as if there was too much information coming into my brain and my brain couldn't handle it. It was a really bad feeling. I think I'm luckier than most though because I was able to get off it successfully.

I was in a Facebook group that was very helpful, because when my doctor was going to get me off it very fast I said no please don't. It's my brain. I have to protect it. The leader of this Facebook group actually contacted my doctor and sent him the information about getting off these drugs.

He did listen to that and let me handle getting off on my own, and I did it in a little under the time. It should have taken me about 18 months, but it took me a little over a year. Once I started cutting down, I never went back up and I cut down very gradually over time. I did it on my own.

I'm very thankful that I haven't had any triggers to set it off again. I do, however, think my brain has been damaged from all those drugs and I really hope that I don't get Alzheimer's because of it. I'm 70 years old and my memory is not great these days and it's scary.

My back is not the only thing that was misdiagnosed in me. I have scoliosis and SI joint issues. Neither one of them are rare at all, but doctors don't know anything about them. I literally went to more than 35 physical therapists here locally and not one of them could help me. Although almost all of them wanted me to continue coming, so they could take my money and just put me in a generic type of back protocol, which did no good at all.

I truly hope something changes with our health care because doctors are taught to prescribe drugs. I truly believe that's about it. My insomnia that lasted 20 years was also misdiagnosed, because what caused it took 20 years to find out was estrogen from the birth control pill. It was very severe. I was sleeping only an hour and 15 minutes a night for the first 10 years, until I found a medication that actually did help with that, Sinequan, which had its own negatives.