[suzzie]

did your doctor decide you needed it. i think need something more for certain times. one being for in t. i am so wound the whole time i get nowhere. and would to get somewhere. t also sparked a flashback somehow today. just thought benzos might help for this. am i understanding their use right. my t asked me today if i take ativan or something before t. that got me wondering about it too. i tend to just suffer through things.

[Altered Moment]

It took me a year of asking for something for anxiety. First it was Hydroxyzine. Didn't do a thing. Muscle relaxers worked but I had to take triple the prescribed dose for it to work. My PA's boss said I was abusing them so no more. Finally my pdoc PA agreed to give me klonopin. Works great. Do your research before deciding to go on them. My clinic is very reluctant to prescribe them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yoda]

I was getting a divorce and was having trouble sleeping and one of the cardiologists that I worked with in the hospital gave me a Rx for one month supply of Halcion. It helped and I was forever grateful.

[Jolisse]

My Pdoc suggested it, my anxiety was out of control.

[Teacake]

Read about the amino acid gaba or how to increase gana with yoga. Benzos are addictive. Ive seen miserable people withdrawing from benzos and alcohol. It was shocking.g how haggard and pained they killed and how they brightened when they got their taper down dose. Made me know i never wanted to use those pills regularly.

[thatssomething]

My pdoc wrote me 3 different scripts without me even asking for them, she's kind of script happy.. 5mg of Ativan to help me when I wake up in the middle of the night, 1mg for panic attacks and. 5mg of klonopin to help put me to sleep at night they're helpful but now that I've been taking klonopin nightly I can't sleep without it so it was a blessing and a curse.

I was offered Klonopin 20+ years ago because they were handing benzos out like candy back then. Like there was something wrong if you refused a benzo. Unfortunately, no one told me (or knew) how very addictive and messy benzos often become.

[splitimage]

Think long and hard about requesting a benzo. They will do absolutely nothing to help a flashback. They work for anxiety, but they can be as addictive as all get out, and most people eventually develop a tolerance to them, and start needing more. They're also commonly abused.

A lot of Dr's are leary of prescribing them now, because of their addictive nature.

I'm on a fairly high dose of Klonopin, since 2007, and I'm completely physically dependent on it. If I'm late taking my night time dose, I start getting tense and anxious.

I have tried to come off them once, and failed - the taper my pdoc had me on was too fast, and I had hellish withdrawal symptoms. Next time I try to go off them, I'm going to ask my addictions Dr. to take over prescribing / weaning, as she has a really good track record of getting people successfully off benzo's, but we're talking in terms of months to taper.

splitimage

[Blue_Bird]

Originally Posted by Jolisse

My Pdoc suggested it, my anxiety was out of control.

Same here

[healingme4me]

My PDoc prescribed it, to me, last summer, when I was going through a cancer scare. I had been under treatment for years, prior with both my anxiety and depression disorders.
This is for long term treatment.

It raised my eyebrows, as if to say, you just gave me, what, again? Further discussion has been had. I'm comfortable with this being the medication for my anxiety. I didn't fare well, my second time on Celexa. That was a good choice, two birds, one stone. The first time. I'd had a newer to me MS treatment in between, so who knows the second time..

I was in hospital after a pretty serious sui attempt and all the lights and noise of the hospital was making my insomnia worse so my pdoc prescribed temazepam.

For obvious reasons that was stopped after I left hospital though.

[regretful]

I was in the hospital for depression and also expressed significant anxiety upon my admission. I took it only briefly because it really had no significant lasting effect on reducing any anxiety. Best to you.

[Pikku Myy]

My GP was the first one to get me on it... later podc. Helped at the time.

Benzos are okay if prescribed for, say, 2 weeks. Just to help you get through a rough patch. Longer than a couple of weeks and you are guaranteed serious trouble. The worst, most awful thing about benzos is that eventually they have a kick-back tendency. So instead of helping anxiety, they create anxiety. At this point I'm anxious from the k-pin, but if I drop the dose down even the tiniest bit the anxiety is literally unbearable. What a mess.

[suzzie]

thank you everyone. i will research more before asking. i was thinking of it as short term or occasional use. my anxiety is exstream at times. maybe increasing the effexor would help. but its hard to come off too. and takes time to work. i was thinking of something for in the moment times. when it shoots out of control.

[UnderRugSwept]

I took Ativan for awhile for anxiety, prescribed by a pdoc...I developed a tolerance to it although I was never dependent on it. I stopped it easily once a fairly high dose stopped working for me.
A few years later I was given klonopin for terrible nightmares (probably caused by anxiety) by a different pdoc. I was taking 4 mg for several months. (I have always had a high tolerance to meds; for example, I need 3 times the novocaine usually required when I have a cavity filled...my father does too, so I figure its a genetic thing.) No issues stopping it though...I realize that's very unusual.
I have a friend who takes valium as needed when she is feeling very anxious. Perhaps something like that (or ativan) might work for you.

[healingme4me]

Originally Posted by Sister Rags

Benzos are okay if prescribed for, say, 2 weeks. Just to help you get through a rough patch. Longer than a couple of weeks and you are guaranteed serious trouble. The worst, most awful thing about benzos is that eventually they have a kick-back tendency. So instead of helping anxiety, they create anxiety. At this point I'm anxious from the k-pin, but if I drop the dose down even the tiniest bit the anxiety is literally unbearable. What a mess.

I can see a daily script being problematic. They are meds to be mindful of. This is my long term anxiety script.

Knowledge is power. Mindfulness of benzo use, a must. It wasn't given as a rough patch. Has neurological benefits, in an ironic twist in my health, recently. Prn may mean .25mg, once or twice a week...

[pangaea]

go to rate mds put in your area look for psychiatrist check reviews...

[BlessedRhiannon]

My pdoc prescribed it as his first choice for my anxiety issues. I tried several different benzos before we both agreed that Xanax works best for me.

I tend to have strange reactions to meds, and I wanted something that would have limited side effects and work directly on the anxiety. I'm on a very low dose of xanax, several times a day and my pdoc has given me the flexibility to increase or decrease my dosage, within reason, as needed.

I did not ask my pdoc about benzos. I wasn't even sure I wanted to try meds. He gave me the script and told me that he thought it would help but that I was under no obligation to fill it. I decided to fill it, and once I filled it, I figured I should give it a try.

[BlessedRhiannon]

Originally Posted by Sister Rags

Benzos are okay if prescribed for, say, 2 weeks. Just to help you get through a rough patch. Longer than a couple of weeks and you are guaranteed serious trouble. The worst, most awful thing about benzos is that eventually they have a kick-back tendency. So instead of helping anxiety, they create anxiety. At this point I'm anxious from the k-pin, but if I drop the dose down even the tiniest bit the anxiety is literally unbearable. What a mess.

I think that this really depends on your dose and how your body handles the meds. I've been on a daily low dose of xanax for over a year now. I have not had "serious trouble." I have not developed a dependency, I have not experienced rebound anxiety, I have not developed a tolerance. I can flex the amount I take each day, depending on how I feel. If I don't take xanax one day, my anxiety is at the same level it was before I started benzos. I can go without, but the entire reason I started taking xanax was to not have to suffer the extreme levels of anxiety that I was feeling every single day. I take anywhere from 0.25 mg to 1.25 mg per day, depending on my level of anxiety that day.

Originally Posted by BlessedRhiannon

I think that this really depends on your dose and how your body handles the meds. I've been on a daily low dose of xanax for over a year now. I have not had "serious trouble." I have not developed a dependency, I have not experienced rebound anxiety, I have not developed a tolerance. I can flex the amount I take each day, depending on how I feel. If I don't take xanax one day, my anxiety is at the same level it was before I started benzos. I can go without, but the entire reason I started taking xanax was to not have to suffer the extreme levels of anxiety that I was feeling every single day. I take anywhere from 0.25 mg to 1.25 mg per day, depending on my level of anxiety that day.

Yeah. Well...I've been on klonopin for about 20 years. At just over a year I was doing fine on it...in fact, it was the best medication ever. That was a long, long time ago.

[Hellion]

Originally Posted by splitimage

Think long and hard about requesting a benzo. They will do absolutely nothing to help a flashback. They work for anxiety, but they can be as addictive as all get out, and most people eventually develop a tolerance to them, and start needing more.

I don't know about that I've found my Valium somewhat helpful for flashbacks(though a slightly higher dose would likely be more helpful), at least taking the edge off some or sort of helping to calm me after the initial bit where I feel like I'm reliving crap. They tend to do more for general anxiety though....but in my experience they aren't totally useless for flashbacks.

[Hellion]

Went to a doctor and explained I had anxiety issues and they recommended hydroxine or whatever that anti-histimine is called, it did not work just made me feel weird like anti-histamines tend to do so came back told her it didn't work and was prescribed klonopin....that did not work out very well since the doctor didn't really go over risks or do anything to really check up on how I was doing so started taking it a lot and it got somewhat out of control.

I was taken off that in the psych ward because it was part of why I was there, got prescribed trazodone for sleep and anxiety...it helped anxiety somewhat for a while, but too sedating as well. And eventually after trying a few other things I was prescribed valium a different time time in the psych ward which was more recent...I told them about the issue with the klonopin but needed something to help the anxiety and they figured with more knowledge and valium potentially not being quite as addictive it might help without ending up like the klonopin. So far so good with that.

[SingDanceRunLife]

My GP gave it to me when I went in to talk about depression/anxiety and told him my symptoms. It was for xanax.

Since then I have had 1 pdoc give my Ativann, and and my current one klonopin (switched from the Ativan).

I know lots of people have trouble getting benzos, but it has never been an issue for me at all.

[SingDanceRunLife]

Originally Posted by Sister Rags

Benzos are okay if prescribed for, say, 2 weeks. Just to help you get through a rough patch. Longer than a couple of weeks and you are guaranteed serious trouble. The worst, most awful thing about benzos is that eventually they have a kick-back tendency. So instead of helping anxiety, they create anxiety. At this point I'm anxious from the k-pin, but if I drop the dose down even the tiniest bit the anxiety is literally unbearable. What a mess.

I disagree.

I have been on benzos for about a year and a half now, and they have never given me any issues. And I will go from taking 1-2 klonopin/day for a month to suddenly dropping it to none when my waves of anxiety have calmed, and nothing bad has happened to me.