Posted by michele on December 31, 1999, at 23:02:53
In reply to Re: Clorazepam Trial ReVisited, posted by GS on December 31, 1999, at 17:07:55
> > Dear friends,
> >
> > A Happy New Year to one and all.
> >
> > I am hypersensitive to drowziness and/or sleepiness effects of drugs and Klonopin was no exception. I began with .125mg and slowly increased to .25mg bid over a 12 day period. I definitely found quite profound relief from Social Phobia symtoms. This is the good news but for me the bad news is an equally profound feeling of stupidity and a sense that my brain was glued shut. Also felt very restless; found myself chewing the inside of my mouth constantly (not one of my regular twitches) and irritable (more than normal). Also very clumsy.
> > I am sad about these side-effects because the upside is so good. The effects were increasing rather than decreasing so I tapered off.
> >
> > Perhaps one of you very knowledgeable folks might have an idea about what is happening chemical system wise in my brain. I also could not take Tricyclates because of the extreme sleepiness caused. i.e. could not go beyond 7mg amytryptyline after a month of trying. I had real heavy effects from SSRI's in general (tried them all expect very latest ones like celexa). PsychDr is favouring Parnate but I am not hopeful or enthusiastic.
> >
> > Rick has had very good results with Klonopin and he adds a bit of selegiline for mental acuity - we are all so different and these mix and match things are anecdotal so who knows what could work. What would Dr. Jensen say (: !
> >
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions.
> > Canadian Michele
>
> I was also Klumsy (!) on Klonipin and assumed that all benzodiazapines would do same re: my social phobia. I then read somewhere (not Dr. Jensen) that benzos. don't necessarily all get that same effect. I tried ativan next and voiala! I could take small amounts when I knew I would be in those social situations and dosed accordingly. After awhile, I found the proper dose for a situation and settled on that. To avoid the withdrawl symptoms of such a short half-life benzo. going in and out of my system it was recommended that I also take Neurontin (with its small side effect profile) in a smallish dose to stabilize my mood. I can comfortably go in and out of from anywhere between .5 to 3.0 mg. of ativan with this schedule. Combining that with downstepping the ativan dosage a little bit after larger doses, I have no problems. Not traditional but made alot of sense when it was suggested by my pdoc. He is now using it he tells me with others too. Tells me Neuontin is used on the hospital ward to get people off of overdoses of benzo. and off of alchohol. I also experimented with xanax (which was also too sedating) as well as valium (same).
> How does this sound to you?
> GS
> =================================================Hey GS,
You are a dream- you have given me new hope and something to present to my psychdoc. I found over xmas that I was really hitting the booze to counteract the benzo/restless thing. The neurontin sounds like a good thing to try.
Thank you
Michele
poster:michele
thread:17732
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/17749.html