Withdrawal from Rivotril

[Rxx]

Hello. New member here. I wanted to ask about Rivotril. I had been taking it for 6 months for anxiety and insomnia at 1 mg a night. I’ve recently come off it and have been experiencing some rather severe withdrawal symptoms; a lot of weakness, irritability, and dizziness. I saw on one page that it is not recommended to take Rivotril longer than 4 weeks, but I haven’t seen this repeated anywhere. Is 6 months too long? Have you had any experience discontinuing Rivotril and experienced any withdrawal symptoms? How long did the symptoms last?

Best,

Rxx

[alankay]

Stopping many benzos cold turkey usually will have withdrawal effects and longer acting ones like clonazpam are not as bad as shorter acters but these will fade in the coming weeks. I would resume the med(if it's really bad) at 1/2 the dose for a week or two then 1/4 table(if you can manage the 1/4 tab by splitting it) and stay there a week or two before stopping all together. Better yet if you doc is on board he can rx some 1/2 mg tabs to help you taper off. You can also ask to switch to a very long acter like valium, prazepam, clorazepate) and taper off it in a similar fashion. Again though the feelings you have will subside in time as your neurons adjust back to no med and your REM sleep comes back to normal. 1 mg is not a giant dose so this will pass fairly quickly. Alankay.

[tstont]

I experienced bad WD from the same med. You have to taper by cutting very small doses about once a week. Everyone is different. Some have severe withdrawl (like I did) and some have non at all. I was on that med for 7 years. My doc didnt warn me that Health Canada warns you shouldn't take this med longer than 6 weeks!
There are lots of websites on dealing with Benzodiazepine withdrawl.

[wanttoheal]

Hi -
Benzo withdrawal can be very difficult. I too am trying to come off klonopin. I get a lot of info on a web site called benzo buddies. You should check it out.