Posted by JohnX2 on February 26, 2002, at 0:10:28
In reply to Re: Clonazepam-too good to be true???? » JohnX2, posted by Alan on February 25, 2002, at 22:26:48
Hi Alan,Basically before I became tolerant to the
medicine it took 2 mg to treat my headaches.
Its mainly been the headaches that have been
bothersome. They are just so terribly excruciating.
I don't get particularly anxious when tapering
the Klonopin, I never had an anxiety disorder and
that's probably part of the reason I was good
at tapering the 1st 5 mg. The Topamax allowed me
to taper the 1st 4 mgs really easy. The next 1 mg
was hard due to rebound headaches. The last was
really going rough due to insomnia and just too
excruciating headaches. So I decided to restart
Serzone. Serzone was the only other medicine
besides Klonopin and Topamax that releived my
headaches. Don't know why. In fact the last time
I took Serzone it made me so tired and drowsy
I just gave up Klonopin almost without thinking
about it. This time it isn't making me dizzy, probably
because of Lamictal interactions, but does seem
to be kicking in its anti-headache properties.
So hopefully it will also help with the insomnia.
I should be in good shape to go after that last 1 mg.I think once you get hooked to a benzo, its just
really tough to get off those last crums. One
should use all the tools available to relieve
symptoms while tapering. I used zyprexa and
neurontin to help with anxiety and tingling. It
helped a lot. Topamax helped to alleviate the
rebound headaches.I actually thought things were going to be
much more rough than they have. Although the
1st 4 mg went so fast I was expecting the last
2 to go quickly , then I was surprised how
horribly I got stuck!Regards,
John
> >
> > It saved my life. I was having treatment refractory depression
> > with excruciating headaches and a doctor gave me some to
> > treat restless legs while taking Effexor. It totally stabilized
> > my mood (it is an anti-convulsant and hence good for bipolar
> > disorder) and it also fixed my myofacial pain. I don't have
> > anxiety disorder, it just pointed out that my treatment was going
> > in the wrong direction (unipolar vs. bipolar depression).
> > Anyways I was one of those horror stories where the medicine crapped
> > out fast and I escalated the dose from 2 mg to 6 mg in 2 yrs and the
> > medicine lost its effectiveness. Fortunately I have found that Topamax
> > is a really good replacement. It fixes my headaches and in 2 months I
> > was able to taper the Klonopin from 6 mg to 1 mg. The last mg has
> > been next to impossible.
> >
> > Regards,
> > John
> *************************************************
> Perhaps with all of the blessings the klon sent your way, the fact that you aren't/weren't taking it for an anxiety disorder is making the last MG impossible? Or that you have some small amount of underlying anxiety that the med is simply treating and going off of the med leaves it untreated? Just guessing.
>
> Best,
>
> Alan
poster:JohnX2
thread:95467
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020222/msgs/95538.html