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Originally Posted by still_crazy
hi. i had a hellish experience with Klonopin. I think its because I was immature and also...the taper was a ==nightmare==. but...
ive seen other people take fluctuating doses (say, 2mgs/ most days, occasionally up to 3+) with no major problems. i will say...
valium is easier to get the dosage right, its more sedating, long half life, acts quickly, and I don't think it causes depression as much as Klonopin does. problem there is...for a while, most shrinks were not prescribing it. I guess it was the whole Mother's Little Helper stigma? but...
yeah. ativan...also difficult to taper, but it lasts longer than xanax (not really saying much there, LOL), acts quickly, and is good for anxiety that goes into straight up agitation territory. now and then, people are on both...klonopin for long term, ativan as needed/prn. of course...that was before the DEA delcared war on controlled substances, so...I don't know if most shrinks will do that...
anyway, try not to worry too much about it. If you have ongoing probs with depression, I'd personally see about a switch to an equivalent (or slightly higher) dosage of a different benzodiazepine. helped me tremendously, personally. there's a xanax xr now I think...1 or 2 pills daily, sometimes actually helps lift the mood a bit.
hope this helps.
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Thank you so much, still_crazy, for sharing your experience. I used to take my mother's Valium back in high school (she never used it, so didn't notice the missing pills). Yes, I was self-medicating - but I did so because I needed to decrease my anxiety and mania. It wasn't until six years later that I saw a pdoc and was properly medicated. So those teen years were my only experience with Valium.
Ativan- I reacted to that one oddly. I had complete black-outs from it. Scary stuff. Did things, normal things, then would "come to" after a few hours with zero memory of what I'd done.
Xanax...I recall being prescribed Xanax many years ago. I think it was alright. Klonopin just seemed like the benzo that truly helped me the most. I'm thinking that I might do well to stop fearing the future ("what will happen if a pdoc forces me to go through withdrawal") and deal with what works now.
And yeah - the War on Drugs and All Controlled Substances - when is the government going to accept that it is an enormous failure....