Posted by Viridis on December 6, 2003, at 0:41:36
In reply to Re: A Balanced Alternative View of Xanax, posted by burnedout on December 5, 2003, at 11:38:41
Hi Moose,
Thanks for the feedback and concern. When I said "immediate", I was referring to Xanax, rather carelessly. What I meant was that my pdoc was somewhat concerned about my tolerance to it, but not overly worried because my use is so infrequent. So, he said that if I found myself needing it regularly at increased doses, he'd insist that I stop using it.
He's well aware of the risks of sudden benzo discontinuation, so I'm quite sure that, if I were to become dependent on Xanax, we'd work out a gradual discontinuation schedule. The risk of this seems very low anyway, given my and his awareness of what's going on, but he certainly wouldn't pull a patient off a benzo cold-turkey. After all, he's told me several times that benzos are not drugs that you can just stop suddenly if you've been using them for very long on a regular basis.
The bottom line is that Klonopin seems very safe (for me, anyway) and I have no plans to stop taking it any time soon. If I ever do, it will be gradual. Xanax works extremely well and I have no trouble controlling its use, so at this point stopping it wouldn't be a problem -- I can easily go without it for weeks at a time. But I'd rather have it available for those times when I do need it, and my pdoc is comfortable with this, as long as I don't find myself "needing" more and more on a regular basis.
poster:Viridis
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031202/msgs/287064.html