u/No_Policy_7884

I want to share something that happened to me today because it made me realize something about myself.
The biggest reason I became dependent on benzodiazepines was my head tremor and physical anxiety symptoms.
Today I went with a friend to buy hashish from a dealer. The area is known for that kind of activity, and suddenly the narcotics police showed up. They stopped both of us. My friend had the hashish on him. They took our IDs, and after they realized we were from related tribes and knew some of the same people, the officer**’s attitude changed. He looked disappointed and eventually decided to let us go.
The strange part is what happened to me physically. While we were talking, they were mostly questioning my friend. I’m currently tapering off clonazepam, and when one of the officers grabbed my arm I could literally feel my pulse pounding through my veins. Inside, I was terrified. When I saw the hashish they found on my friend, my fear got even worse. I was shaking internally.
But despite all of that, my face stayed calm. My voice was steady, my answers were clear, and I didn’t panic or stumble over my words. The officers were watching my reactions to see if I looked nervous, but outwardly I stayed composed.
Years ago, when I was taking Xanax, I had another incident where police detained me during a politically tense situation. They had two AK-47s pointed at me because I had been filming. I wasn’t actually filming the incident or the fire—only my own car—and they eventually let me go. Back then I was also completely calm and answered confidently.
So I’**m confused. Today I felt intense fear and physical shaking, but I could still speak calmly. I want to get back to being that emotionally steady person without relying on benzodiazepines.
Has anyone experienced something similar while tapering off clonazepam? How did you deal with the physical trembling and adrenaline without letting it affect your ability to stay calm?

Hey everyone,
I reduced my clonazepam dose from 1.75 mg to 1.5 mg and stayed at that dose for 10 days. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and masturbated, and ever since then everything has felt completely out of balance. My symptoms came back much stronger than before.
This has happened to me before. If I**’m still adjusting to a dose reduction and haven’t stabilized yet, masturbation seems to make my symptoms much worse.
My question is: Should I go back to my previous dose of 1.75 mg, which I was stable on? Or after 10 days is it already too late, and going back could make things even worse because of the “kindling” effect?
I’**d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar. This is pretty urgent for me.

I**’m currently tapering clonazepam. I was taking 1.75 mg, then reduced it to 1.5 mg for 10 days. During that time, I masturbated. For me, masturbation almost always causes intense brain fog, much higher anxiety, muscle tension, and generally makes me feel mentally “off.” Because of that, I went back up to 1.75 mg.
Today I took my 1 mg morning dose, and surprisingly I feel very different. I have a lot of mental energy, my thoughts are racing in a good way, I feel like doing everything, I’m interested in life again, and I want to be productive. I want to watch a movie, play PlayStation, and do a bunch of other things. I haven’t felt this good in a long time.
The main reason I want to eventually quit clonazepam is the memory problems. I feel like my memory has started to improve recently, but I’m worried that once I stabilize on 1.75 mg again for a month, the memory issues will come back.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Why would going back to 1.75 mg suddenly make me feel so motivated and mentally “awake”? Is this likely to last, or is it just temporary after increasing the dose?
Also, how did you deal with memory problems while taking clonazepam or tapering off it? Is there anything that actually helped preserve memory and cognitive function?
For context, I’m also taking pregabalin (Lyrica) 150 mg, and that dose hasn’**t changed.

Its rare in GCC countrey From my experience, the crystal form of pregabalin gives me more energy and motivation than the powdered form. As far as I know, Double Signature is the only brand that uses fully crystalline pregabalin like this. Most other brands, including regular Lyrica, seem to contain smaller or less-developed crystals.
Has anyone else tried it? What was your experience?

My short-term memory has gotten much worse as I**’ve been tapering my dose. I thought it was supposed to improve by now. I’ve gone from 4 mg down to 1.75 mg. Has my brain been permanently damaged, or can it recover? I feel like I’ve lost a lot of memories, and now I can’t even remember people’s names. Someone tells me their name, and I forget it almost immediately. What’**s going on? Has anyone else experienced this during a benzodiazepine taper?

I**’ve been on 1.75 mg of clonazepam for about a month now. Before that, I was on 2 mg, and originally I started at 4 mg/day.
My memory is strange—it gets much worse at times, then improves again. I’m wondering if this is a good time to reduce my dose by another 0.25 mg, since it’s been a month. I usually reduce my dose every month or two.
Right now, I don’**t really feel many withdrawal symptoms except that my anxiety has come back, and the thoughts that used to trigger anxiety about my tremor have returned. I was originally prescribed clonazepam for the tremor.
However, I feel like pregabalin (Lyrica) is enough for me now. In the past, I was taking 150 mg twice a day, together with Effexor (venlafaxine), and both my anxiety and tremor were very well controlled.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Does it sound reasonable to reduce by another 0.25 mg at this point, or would it be better to wait longer until things stabilize?

The last couple of days have been really stressful for me. I was involved in a car accident while returning to my hometown for vacation, and my family has been blaming me for it. I don**’t want to make this sound dramatic, but because of everything that happened, I ended up delaying my medication doses by more than 12 hours, sometimes possibly up to 16 hours, because I was forcing myself to sleep.
Right now I have pain in my left shoulder and a strange sensation that feels like a tight nerve or tension running upward. It’**s hard to describe. I took my medication about 45 minutes ago. Yesterday I mostly felt the same issue and nothing else.
Has anyone experienced symptoms like this after delaying doses for a couple of days? How long did it take for the symptoms to go away after taking the medication again? Also, if I keep delaying doses like this occasionally, could it affect me in the long term?

Hi everyone,
I**’m looking for experiences from people who used clonazepam (Rivotril) long-term and developed memory problems.
I was on 4 mg daily for about 2.5 years. I’ve been tapering for around a year and I’m now down to 1.75 mg.
The biggest issue for me has been forgetfulness and memory problems. Since lowering the dose, I feel like some aspects of my memory are a little better, but the overall forgetfulness is still very noticeable. Sometimes it even feels like the taper itself is making things worse.
I’m trying to understand whether this is normal during withdrawal and recovery.
For people who have been through a similar situation:
Did your memory improve during the taper or only after you completely stopped?
Did anyone experience worse memory while reducing the dose?
How long did it take before you noticed significant improvement?
What was your dose and how many years were you taking it?
If your memory recovered, was it gradual or did you notice a major improvement after reaching a very low dose or stopping completely?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who were on higher doses (2–4 mg or more) and used clonazepam for multiple years.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences. I’**m trying to get a realistic idea of what recovery timelines looked like for others.

I**’ve been taking clonazepam for about 3 years. I used to take 4 mg daily and now I’m down to 2 mg through tapering. The problem is that the memory issues and brain fog are getting really hard to deal with, and I want off this medication as fast as possible.
I currently have a 3-month break where I can stay at home and isolate if needed, so I’m thinking about doing a much faster taper. I already know how bad withdrawal can get because I previously had a severe episode where I felt dissociated, like I was in third-person perspective, and it was terrifying.
I know a rapid taper would probably mean extreme anxiety, physical exhaustion, insomnia, etc., but since I don’t have responsibilities during these 3 months, I’m wondering if it’s worth pushing through to get off faster and hopefully improve my memory sooner.
My main questions are:
Can a rapid taper permanently affect the brain or make memory problems worse long term?
Is it possible that staying on clonazepam longer is actually worse for cognition than a difficult withdrawal?
Would pregabalin (Lyrica 150 mg) help reduce withdrawal severity?
Has anyone used cannabis/marijuana during benzo withdrawal, and did it help or make things worse?
I’**m not asking for medical advice, just looking for experiences from people who went through something similar.

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I feel like recovery from benzodiazepine-related cognitive damage doesn’t happen for everyone. I’ve been reading Reddit posts and I keep seeing people who never fully recovered from memory problems, and honestly I’m scared I might be one of them.

I’ve been using clonazepam for around 3 years. I started tapering because my memory issues kept getting worse. Right now I’m down to 2mg daily from 4mg. I also take Lyrica, but I honestly don’t think Lyrica was the original cause of my memory problems.

Before benzodiazepines, I used to take Neurontin 800mg with Effexor 150mg, and my life was completely different. I was energetic, social, productive, confident, and mentally sharp. I got over social anxiety, became outgoing, funny, helpful toward people, and I never stayed home. I’d finish university then immediately go out with friends until late every night. I genuinely felt alive and motivated.

When I got into benzos, things slowly changed. At first they gave me confidence and relief, but after the first months everything faded. Eventually I switched from Neurontin to Lyrica because the benzos seemed to weaken the positive effects I used to get.

The biggest reason I started tapering is the memory loss. I forget things constantly now. I forget where I placed things seconds ago, forget names, forget conversations, forget events from the past, and sometimes even important things people told me recently. Sometimes memories come back later, sometimes they don’t. It scares me because I feel vulnerable and easy to manipulate since I can’t fully trust my own memory anymore.

I know tapering takes time, but I honestly want to ask people who went through something similar:

Did your memory and personality eventually improve after long-term clonazepam or benzo use? How long did recovery take? Did anything actually help?

I’m currently on a tapering plan for the medication. I’ve gone from 4 mg down to 2 mg. The issue is that the doses now make me feel sleepy and fatigued, even though they’re lower than my old doses. I’ve also noticed recently that the medication lasts longer for me, and I no longer need to take it every 6 hours like before — now it’s more like every 8 hours. But sometimes I still feel symptoms coming back only 4 hours after taking it, which is confusing.

The reason I want to stop the medication is because of the memory problems. It’s going to be replaced with Lyrica — or more accurately, I’m already using Lyrica, but I want to switch back to relying only on Lyrica together with Effexor.

Honestly, this medication feels like hell. It numbs emotions, places, interests, and everything. Unlike Lyrica, it doesn’t give me motivation or energy to do anything, even if I take it with caffeine or a can of Red Bull. It just completely dulls my emotions and thinking.

What do you guys think or suggest?

It**’s been two years now since I started using clonazepam. My dose used to be 4 mg, and now I’ve reduced it to 2 mg daily. Suddenly one day, my memory got affected, and day after day it kept getting worse, until I started struggling to remember names, studying, roads, days, players’** names, and football matches. On top of that, there**’**s the psychological effect.

When I look back at my old personality, back when I was only using pregabalin and Effexor, I was energetic, social, and had a lot of people to talk to. I loved communicating and meeting new people. I even used to do dumb funny things on purpose just to make myself and my friends laugh. Of course, I know that being “the funny guy” sometimes means you**’re the clown and everyone else is laughing at you, but I honestly didn’**t care. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy myself no matter how people saw me.

But after clonazepam, at first it felt like Lyrica or even better, but now it**’**s become the opposite. It feels like a burden. It numbs me, makes me not care about anything, and all I want is to finish the day, smoke a weed cigarette, sit on the couch, and watch reels. My life has become like hell: forgetting words, forgetting letters, low energy, no motivation.

Even after lowering the dose, and even though I still take Lyrica and Effexor, the result was just the return of the old stupid thoughts — like “this person is looking at me,” “this person thinks I’m weird,” and things like that. The memory problems still haven**’t improved. Lately it feels like I’**m getting close to zero again.

So what**’**s the solution? Am I going to stay like this forever? Because 2 mg is nothing compared to 4 mg. I was supposed to feel at least some improvement.