[shame]

i need to up my klonopin .. i am on 0.5 4 times a day but is not working for me anymore - i am having more agitation - anxious feelings .. hard to calm down .. i get triggered esy by little things ..
i asked my pdoc she said no - so i asked can i have like a 4 oz wine with dinner to help? she said no..
so what do i do? anxiety is high and worse!
or should i ask for something else?
i just dont feel it as much anymore .. it has been since last september that i have been on this dose.

[timeforsleep]

If you tell them you drink anything they will probably not even renew your current prescription. If you are in USA.

[shame]

i dont drink .. was just an idea i had to relax. . calm the anxiety.
will not do that though.

Have you done any mindfulness meditation for anxiety management?

Do you exercise regularly?

Caffine? Nicotene?

The trouble with taking benzo's for anxiety is that often people find that they habituate to the dose and need to take a bigger dose to get the effect out of it that they once got. The trouble with increasing the dose (or adding alchohol to maximise the effects) is that one eventually habituates to that... And so on...

There are medications that don't have such habituation effects. Effexor, for example. Could you talk with your doc about going on something like that (or an anti-p where the main side effect is sedation - which, of course, helps with anxiety)?

Things like yoga and other forms of exercise and relaxation can be helpful for teaching you how to manage the physical manifestations of anxiety.

I hope you find some relief soon.

[shame]

yes i do mindfulness .. as much as i can until the anxiety gets the best of me..then i cant remember anything ..coping wise.

yes i do drink coffe but have for years.

Maybe i need more because my tolerance to klonopin has grown?
i only take 0.5 mg 4 times a day - throughout the day.

I can not tolerate anti depressant medications at all .. they have a reverse effect on me and is always not good - makes depression so much worse .. tried effexor xr - and so many others - same result.

I do excercise as much as I can ..
It is the racing thoughts and physical feelings in my stomach - tightness - nervousness - racing thoughts that I cant deal with.

[rosariotijeras]

Have you had anxiety for years? I'm not saying that your anxiety is completely caused by caffeine; but it can't hurt anything to wean yourself off caffeine (when you're feeling better) because it IS known to exacerbate anxiety.

Are you in therapy?

[shame]

yes i have had anxiety for years..coffee is probably not helping i agree with that .. coffee helps me in the mornings - would be extremly hard to give up.
yes i am in therapy ... probably another reason anxiety is high.
since all the emotions that come up after a session has ended.
i havent been to therapy in 2 weeks though.. waiting for a time i can get back.

[sunrise]

hi freewill. Do you know why your pdoc said no to a higher dose of klonopin? Is it because he thinks you are becoming addicted? Or does he think you should try harder to cope with non-medication methods? If it's the latter, it probably won't do any good to suggest other medications to him. But if it is he is worried about your becoming addicted, maybe you could try an anti-anxiety drug with a different mechanism of action.

I know it doesn't work for everyone, but Buspar might be something your doc would be OK with. It is relatively benign, is a completely different class of drugs from the benzos, and is not addictive. I took it for several months and liked it at first. Then I habituated to it and it was no help at all. So I quit (without bad side effects). But some people find it helpful.

Good luck.

ETA: go ahead and try no coffee for a while and see if it helps. It only takes about 3 days to wean off of coffee and then the headaches go away. Three days is not too long. You can do it!

[shame]

um first freewill and i are 2 different ppl - i am Free1 ~ its ok i have been mixed up with freewill before lol .. hmm .. maybe i should change my name here becauce of the confusion lol

I dont know why she wont give me a higher dose .. ??
Her nurse told me that she woulnt increase it - I will ask her when I see her.
She told me before Buspar would not work for me.
I can cut back on the coffee .. but most likely will not stop - helps me too much
Will probably just excercise more and get fresh air outside .. breathing it in and relaxing that way.
It is just i am going thru a stressful time right now - my son is getting married in less than a month - have to get ready for lots of company coming in from out of state..so it is a high stress time but fun ..
Many other stressors on us too other than that.
Thought i could use the increase during this time ..and then cut back after the wedding.
Just to take the edge off the increasing anxiety.

[sunrise]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Free1 said:
um first freewill and i are 2 different ppl - i am Free1

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">Oh, whoops, sorry! No, don't change your name. I like it! I'll pay closer attention.

I think the immediate increase in stress with the wedding might be a good reason to increase the dose. Maybe your doctor will agree if he understands it is just a short term change to get you through this stressful time.

More exercise sounds good! I need to do that myself. One of the things I really like about exercise, is that when I do it, I usually go for a brisk walk or maybe a jog and I do these things alone. It is total "me" time--no one to bug me or ask me to do stuff or interrupt me. It is like a time I can be alone and hear myself think, and that definitely helps me handle the stress, even without the exercise benefit (but that's good too!).

I think that the concern about upping the dose is that one will eventually become tolerant to that (as one has become tolerant to the present dose) and then one will want to up the dose again... And so on.

Withdrawal from benzos is not pretty. I know of a number of inpatient drug treatment facilities that WILL NOT take patients who are trying to cease taking benzos until they have been off them for 3 months. How come? Because those patients are harder to deal with than the patients who are coming off of opiates. The psychological withdrawal syndrome from benzos can be INTENSE.

A low dose of an anti-psychotic (such as seroquel or largactil / chlorpromazine PRN) could help by sedating you slightly (which reduces the physical symptoms of anxiety). There is typically no problem with ceasing those - nowhere near the problem with benzo's at any rate.

I know you said you had a paradoxical reaction to SSRI's - but anti-p's are a different class of drug.

[shame]

Sunrise ~
It is ok - I have been confused with freewill before.
Yes I definatly need an increase in klonopin .. just have so many triggering things going on and much more to come as the wedding draws near in 23 days .. have alot of ppl coming in from out of state that i havent seen in many years .. trying to battle the house work and organize everything to make everyone comfortable etc..
just need the increase for a short period - i have no idea why she thinks this is not a good idea. Feel like sitting down for a drink sometimes and i dont even drink.. just need the effects of keeping calm.

[shame]

Alexandra ~
I need the increase or I am not going to be able to handle things..
I dissociate easily when anxiety is too high as it is now.
Just need to get thru the wedding events ..snd then i should be able to decrease it.
Not planning on withdrawal from Klonopin because I dont plan on stopping it - i need it too much.
As of now i need to either add another med or increase the klonopin

I understand that you think that increasing the klonopin is the only way that you will be able to handle things. I think that your doctor may be wary about that, though, because believing that one needs an addictive substance as the only way to cope makes one at high risk of addiction / tolerance / withdrawal syndrome. They really aren't any fun, and I'd say your doctor is wary because he doesn't want you to go through that!

I understand that a wedding seems like a once off kind of activity. Often certain stressful events (e.g., weddings) are simply replaced with other stressful events, however.

[shame]

i think i have become tolerant to it - i dont really feel it working anymore. . well it works for about 30 minutes then .. it wears off. is that addiction? or needing more?
i just think - Oh great what will I do at the wedding when everything triggers me..?