Changes123

Hello,
So yesterday I celebrated 6 months of sobriety, go me! For 10 years I was prescribed 1mg of klonopin daily and for 5 of those years I smoked marijuana just about every night. I stopped both cold-turkey (i know...) on September 16th after realizing I needed to salvage whatever short-term memory I had left. For the first few months of sobriety I had just about every withdrawal symptom in the book. They included but were not limited to insomnia, depression, anxiety, sleep tremors, panic attacks, obsessional thinking, sweats, weight loss, weight gain, feeling of impending doom, apathy, mood swings, malaise, restless leg, fidgety movements, disorientation, brain fog, irritability and self-diagnosing . Fast forward to today and while most of my symptoms have subsided my main concern is my memory. It doesn't seem to be getting any better and it still causes me major anxiety. I recently have seen a neurologist, a psychiatrist, and a psychologist. 3 scans of my brain and a neuro-psych all came back normal. How long will I have to wait to see an improvement? Anyone out there experience anything similar? I'll also add that this site has been a blessing during my recovery so I thought I'd share my experience for anyone out there going through something similar.

Dee74

Hi Changes

I have no experience with Klonopin but I smoked weed more or less daily for 30 years.

I was an alcoholic as well as a pot head and my last detox was complicated by several mini strokes, so my experience may not be particularly relevant - but it took me a long time (about 5 years) to get my memory and cognitive functions fully back, and even now there are some holes.

The point I wanted to make was not the length of time but that things came back

I'd expect a much shorter time for anyone else - but I think, if you haven't already, the protracted withdrawal from benzos might be something to look at and ask your Dr about?

D

Bunny211

Not Klonopin but I was a daily 2-3mg Xanax user for about 10 years. And let's be honest, sometimes I took more than I was prescribed. And, I mixed it with booze. It took some time for me to shake the PAWS from that. Early on my head was so, so foggy but gradually it got better. The main thing for me was anxiety rather than the memory. But, I do remember for months my head was so fuzzy. Hang in there, it gets better. Try not to let yourself freak out and create problems where there aren't any!

Changes123

Thanks to both of you for replying. It's reassuring to hear that things will eventually get better with time. I assume the brain fog and major anxiety is from the klonopin and the memory deficits are from the marijuana. I had access to some pretty powerful stuff. Today I took my son to get pizza and almost walked out without paying after we ate. The owner had to flag me down and I just played it off. Ugh.