Posted by anxiety_free on June 27, 2004, at 21:40:45
In reply to Tolerance on Klonopin, Ambien, Sonata?, posted by KaraS on June 27, 2004, at 19:00:11
> Anyone here developed tolerance/addiction with any of these meds? I only took a small amount of Ativan for sleep for a short amount of time and then went through hell trying to get off of it. I realize that Ativan is shorter acting than Klonopin and that Ambien and Sonata are in a different category altogether, but because of my experience with Ativan I have never had the nerve to try any of these other drugs (though there were plenty of sleepless nights when I wished I had). Am I being overly cautious?
I take Klonopin and have for about 2 years. I'm tolerant in the sense that I now use it for day time anxiety and not sleep, but not in the sense that I need to up my dose for anxiety relief. As for addiction...if you take a benzo for a month or so, its safest to assume some level of chemical dependency; that's why docs usually do slow tapers with long-term benzo users and may use anti-convulsants, blood pressure meds, and anti-depressants to smooth everythig out. As for Ambien and Sonata...those two aren't benzos, but they're very benzo-like; fortunately, they're easier to stop taking (I stopped Ambien cold turkey after 2 1/2 months and all I needed was Benadryl for few nites to take care of the rebound insomnia). Personally, I think Ambien is much better than sonata (slightly longer half-life, a little more "oomph"). If you're very worried about addiction, try using something "off-label" for sleep; trazadone, neurontin, seroquel, for instance, can help a lot. Remeron is good for sleep as well, so if you're depressed/anxious you might want to give that one a whirl.
poster:anxiety_free
thread:361070
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040627/msgs/361127.html