Posted by viridis on September 13, 2002, at 2:42:52
In reply to Re: Question for Alan » alan, posted by LLL on September 12, 2002, at 9:43:18
I think that individual responses to benzos vary greatly, just as with almost any other drugs. If possible, you need to try different ones at different doses and see which is best for you.
For me, Klonopin works very well. I take it daily and worked up from 0.25 mg 4X/day to 1 mg in the AM, with minor side effects in the first couple of weeks and none since then. One friend uses 0.5 mg Klonopin very occasionally and has excellent results. I also use Xanax now and then for breakthrough anxiety, and it's very effective (although anything over 0.5 mg makes me sleepy). But, I really dislike Valium, so clearly not all benzos are appropriate for me.
If Klonopin causes problems for you and Xanax works well, then why not stick with Xanax -- so what if you have to take it a bit more often? Or maybe Ativan etc. would be better -- may be worth trying.
The key is to find a doctor who's flexible enough to let you work out the dosing and ideally, try different benzos if necessary. Any doctor who insists that a particular drug, dose or timing is optimal for everyone clearly doesn't understand the tremendous variation among individuals. You have to do the experiment and find your optimum -- just start low (dose-wise) and go slow in changing dosage and timing.
poster:viridis
thread:118149
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020906/msgs/119709.html