Benzo alternatives

hashi - I'm on 4mg a day, for the past five months. Before that I was on 4mg alprazolam for about three years.

I've weaned off quite a few meds and each one was different. The key is the tapering and having your doctor work with you. I know people that have tapered off in a month and others a few months. It just depends. The key is that you taper slow enough that you don't lose your mind. Hugs!

There are a lot of good uses for benzos but they are designed for short term use because :

- they become less effective over time, first creating issues of tolerance and increasing dosages then when the dose is no longer increased they become ineffective for anxiety at some point

-if you have a high tolerance to benzos (which develops quickly) when an instance comes up they're indicated they're much less effective and require much higher doses, making them much less useful overall

-numerous adverse health effects (cognition and cardiovascular so far) have been linked to long term use of benzos

For short term they're great until a long term solution takes over. I don't think many doctors are concerned about their CIV status, pdocs prescribe tons of controls and it's totally appropriate. There is very little oversight FOR PRESCRIBERS for CIV medications (patients are watched much more carefully)

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I will start tapering Klonopin soon. What rate of withdrawal is too fast for you? Are you having withdrawals? Thanks.

e VERY careful tapering off the Klonapin! It can causes seizures! I've been tapering off Klonapin (1mg) for the last 12-weeks under the care of my Pdoc and even that rate of withdrawl is too fast. Benzodiazapines reduce the effectiveness of your GABA receptors in your brain, it can take years for the receptors to heal. In the meantime, anxiety can increase. I am really angry I have been prescribed Klonapin for 10-years when it should only be prescribed for few weeks at a time. 2-mg is a high dose and withdrawl should be carefully monitored by a physician- I wish you the best [/QUOTE]

Thanks.

Since I've been averaging between 2mg and 4mg a day (I tried going down to just 1mg, but it was too fast), I thought maybe going down 1mg a month would be good at first, and then once I get down to 1 splitting that in half and doing .5mg for a month, and then going to none. Talking to doctor about this of course.

How are you feeling, Raspberry? I am doing a klonopin taper-down at the moment, too. I just dropped my dose from 3.5 to 3.0 about 3 days ago and I'm feeling pretty twitchy today.

Do you have anything to take for anxiety if your taper causes problems? I have 25 mg hydroxyzine/Vistaril to use if I need it. I don't like to take it, because it causes such awful dry mouth and gives me bad headaches sometimes, but it (surprisingly) works fairly well for me with moderate anxiety. I used it almost everyday last year when I was tapering down my Cymbalta dosage over about a 5 month period.

Right now I don't have anything to take as replacement (except 50mg of seroquel, but that makes me look like I'm on illegal drugs when I take it at work, and I definitely couldn't drive while on it!). But, hopefully new pdoc next month will prescribe something that will help.

I really wish I could just get off it now.

Aloha Rasberry,

UPDATE: As of today I am Benzo free. My pdoc had me decrease dose every 2-weeks and it worked. The final taper was... 2-weeks 0.5mg then 2-weeks of 0.25 mg then 2-weeks of 1/4 tab of 0.5mg tablet...slow tapering worked well for me.

Im not sleeping as well and i do have more anxiety but... i think its going to be well worth my effort. My mind seems to be clearer. Ive spoke with 3 different Pdoc's to ask when the GABA receptors should begin healing, most said 6 months to a year.

Just wanted to share a success story with you!

Does the new pdoc expect you to have tapered off it before you see them?

jo - No. The nurse I spoke with said they would start when I see the new doctor. She told me not to worry, that new pdoc would do a very slow taper if necesary, and that she would continue prescribing them until I was done. I just want to get a head start (and I was stupid and reckless with my clonazepam two nights in a row, so I really have to make up for that).

Oh, okay. I'm glad that the doctor is going to supervise the taper. I was thinking "what a meanie!" if the doctor expected you to stop them before she would see you.

Ha, yeah, that would be mean, but no. The nurse I talked to was really nice and said they'd give me an alternative. It's okay. I'm done worrying about this. I think I'll feel better once I actually talk to the doctor about it. And once I'm off them, who knows. Maybe I really will feel better. Though before them I just remember being anxious ALL OF THE TIME at intolerable levels (like I abused alcohol it was so bad).

I went through a bad experience with benzo withdrawal many years ago. I was taken off it too quickly (one-week taper!) I had horrible anxiety and it was difficult or nearly impossible for me to go into crowded public places for nearly a year afterwards.

I didn't realize at that time that my brain had to go through a healing process after stopping the drug.

I did eventually become able to handle going to the grocery store, a mall, and other crowded places with lots of lights and "stuff" without "freaking out".

I didn't have any support from my psychiatrist as far as trying to find a medication that would help me get through this time. I think doctors know lots more about how to help people with this process now.

Oh wow! One week is too fast of a taper for any medication. That sucks. I'm so sorry you had to go through that!

I'm pretty sure the GABA receptors (or whatever they're called) in my brain are all sorts of messed up from the last three (four in october) years of benzo taking. So hopefully this new doctor is good at tapering people.

Propranolol helped me but not nearly as much as clonopin does. It seems like almost bad practice for a place to rule out the use of benzos. Some people need them. Are you sure it's a good clinic? I'm glad you found a clinic and all (I'm going to have to do that soon), but them making you go off benzos seems like maybe not the best idea. I have been on a lot of anxiety meds and nothing has worked as effectively as clonopin.

I don't think taking me off clonazepam at this point in my life is a good idea either, but I'm stuck with this new pdoc. Seriously, where I live, NO ONE is accepting new patients without a refferal. I even called a place that's an hour away out of desperation, and they said they couldn't help me, so I'm just going to have to deal.

That sucks I'm sorry.