Posted by Squiggles on February 11, 2002, at 12:20:46
Hello everyone,
You may remember my posts about benzo withdrawal.
I managed to withdraw from XANAX (which was not
a necessary prescription as the Synthroid had
made me anxious - this theory my doctor has more or less
gone along with and furthermore, lowered the
Synthroid dose by about 40%) I no longer have
panic attacks.My battle with Klonopin withdrawal is a horse of
a different colour. The Xanax (2.0mg over 10-15 yrs)
took 3-4 months of anxiety, etc. to get over and
successfully withdraw from.The Klonopin on the other hand at a dose 0f 1.0mg
has taken close to two years. It had to be suspended
on account of a stroke/seizure incident this August,
which left me very ill (stroke symptoms: travelling
electric sensations in the head culminating in a
feeling of an axe hit in the back centre head;
consequent staggering, lack of concentration, narcolepsy,
painful migraine like headaches, severe depression both
physically and mentally, pin point pupils unreactive
to light, disorientation, etc.) for a month.My husband nursed me back to 0.50mg from 0.125mg -
that was the point of the cerebral "storm" effect;
and then my doctor asked me to wait 6 months to see
how it went at that dose... unfortunately i started
getting worse, and my doctor doubled it to the
original 1.0mg.Where I am now - reinstating to 1.0 - it has been a month;
going up is not as hard as going down, but it certainly
is no piece of cake - I get dyspnea upon taking the
K dose, and I also get pains in the back of my head -
the headaches are getting better but reminiscent of
the areas where the "electric eels" traversed - that's
benzo talk for electric current sensations around the head.I hope to stabilize soon. The localized, headaches in the
back really feel like there's tumour there or something,
but I am sure that is just subjective. I also take lithium and
Synthroid if that is significant.I suppose I will never be able to get off this drug, and
perhaps I should not - I have read articles that as
an anti-convulsant it is specifically given to bipolars
because this disorder shares certain aspects of an epileptoid
disorder. On the other hand I have also seen it prescribed
for GAD - so unless the two are co-concurrent I really
don't know if they've got this right.In any case, stability seems to be the best I can hope
for now, no matter what the pharmacopolitics.Thanks for reading. ( I tried posting before unsuccessfully
it seems).Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:93743
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020208/msgs/93743.html