Quote:
Originally Posted by BethRags
Hi Fluffy, I've been on Klonopin for 25-plus years and am entirely physically addicted to it. I have never had a pdoc who encouraged me to stop taking it, but I would like to, because it isn't doing anything to help me anymore - not for many years.
If I were to re-do my "benzo
experience" I would have been very careful not to take it every day. I would have started off with a much lower dose than my first prescriber prescribed for me. In other words, the very lowest dose to be effective.
I would never have taken it for more than a month at a time without giving myself a full week off. So during the course of 30 days I would have taken the K-pin maybe 4 or 5 times/week, then have a full 7 days when I didn't take it at all. And that schedule would have been the maximum days I would have taken it. Ideally, a smaller number would have been better (less days, I mean).
With such a schedule I would have avoided building up a tolerance to the benzo and needing more for the same effect - or, where I'm at now, which is using the same dosage just to avoid the severe withdrawal symptoms.
If you're used to using only benzos to sleep, maybe try something like ZzzQuil or straight NyQuil to alternate with the benzo.
Please be very cautious with any benzo. I literally have a benzo monkey on my back - and that is by taking it exactly as it was originally prescribed to me.
btw, the heat you're having to live with sounds atrocious. I have a window a/c that doesn't do much (if anything) for my bedroom, but I use several fans. I wouldn't be able to sleep without them - both for the cooler air and the sound.
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Thank you, you've convinced me to be even more careful with the benzos. I don't think I've developed a tolerance yet; I haven't needed a higher dosage and I haven't noticed any withdrawal effects besides not sleeping as well (which I think is because of my own brain and not due to withdrawal).
What I'm trying now is to take a small dose of Seroquel IR (in addition to my XR) in the evening, instead of the benzos. That seems to work, kind of, but I know it's not a long-term solution either (especially since I want to get off Seroquel). It's just that between depression, kids, and trying to work and function normally, I really can't handle sleep deprivation right now. What I really need to do is find a way to get stable...
For now at least I've bought a "mobile" AC unit for the bedroom, and that gets temperatures down to a tolerable level. Hopefully in another week we'll be done with the heat for this year. Often I sleep better in winter because of the dark evenings and the cold.