Posted by laima on February 7, 2007, at 9:03:19
In reply to Re: Benzo Confidential - clonazepam's history, posted by Squiggles on February 7, 2007, at 7:53:48
> -It's a default kind of luck.
Seriously- You Lucky! Especially if tolerance hasn't been an issue.
I started the clonazepam after ativan proved insufficient, and I am a very restless sleeper, prone to periods of myclonus. Clonazepam seemed like a better choice. I was experiencing severe general anxiety, as well as physical manifestations of anxiety, and panic attacks. Lots of agitation, day and night. I was on it to aleviate these symptoms. He warned me it might not work forever, and urged me to get into therapy and rexamine my lifestyle, etc. but I didn't believe it, because it was working out great. I started with .5, some 4-5 years later was at 2mg- which I would take and not even be able to detect I took anything. And feeling worse than before. Why not raise higher? For one thing, he said most doctors don't like to go over 4mg, and I've actually seen that in print- I wish I could remember where. But it was a mainstream source- maybe medline or something like that. Again, I know all good doctors won't agree for their own reasons. Well so it was a decision I couldn't argue with- why keep raising indefinately, until reaching unsafe levels? I could see plain as day I was getting worse- and then I'd have to eventually come down from a very, very high dose? That would be worse, and I would have gained nothing. And it was already making me cognitively "fuzzy"- that I only see now in retrospect. I didn't really WANT to stop- it just wasn't working anymore, I was worse off than before, and I could see how this would continue. More than anything, I just wished it still worked like it used to. I was very, very disapointed and disillusioned.
No, zyprexa wouldn't touch seizures. Tapering the clonazepam prevented seizures, the zyprexa was to help out with the rebound anxiety associated with withdrawal, and to help sleep. Very hard to sleep through withdrawal- body is on high alert.
Yes, I am aware Drt. Ashton recommends valium or other benzos to aid withdrawal- I guess this guy's philosophy was different. Just wanted the benzos out, asap. Figured that would be in my best interest. He's no dummy, either- I'm sure he had his reasons for his choices.
Funny you mentioned stims- adderall (the brand version in particular) seems to have given me an awesome grip on my anxiety- I guess I feel both more outgoing and capable. Capable in my abilities, capable to face people, situations. No more bodily manifestations of anxiety, panic, any of that. It's weird. No jitteriness or anything like that. Agitation not a problem. Far less worrying, though I still worry too much. I started it about 6 weeks ago. My doctor says tolerance is unlikely if I stick to the low dose I use, and never take it late in the day. It's a short acting drug, short half life, and so the theory is that the brain gets some recovery time overnight. He said drugs which bathe the brain for 24 hours a day (ie, klonopin, many antidepressents) are far more likely to cause tolerance. (Note-didn't say "never" or "always" or use any other words like that.)
Feeling less anxiety off clonazepam-
> -That's odd... is it because you had been in a state of withdrawal while on clonazepam? I don't understand why you feel better having withdrawn.It is very surprising, isn't it? I feel amazed, still. I saw Dr. Ashton wrote about the possibility of having daily or constant "mini-withdrawals" while still on the drug, as its effectivess wanes. Larry Hoover wrote about a similar experience just yesterday, about his experience with oxycodone, and did a little research on the phenomena. While I gather Ashton's asssertation is controversial, I still speculate breaking that cycle most likely explains my experience. I can't come up with a better explanation for why my anxiety got worse as clonazepam went up, then near vaporized after it flushed out of my body- and the real weird thing- after starting an amphetamine! Well, the one other theory I have is this: benzos disrupt sleep architecture, snipping out stages 3 and 4- which are crucial for solid mental health. After a period of deprivation, mental health can become strained. So maybe I'm getting more of these stages of sleep, and that's helping, too. I had a couple of sleep studies while using clonazepam at night, and sure enough, VERY short on these stages. Dr. is interested in me getting another study to see how sleep architecture looks now, but I can't bear to go through that again for an intellectual curiosity.
The one bummer- I am a VERY restless sleeper again, though thankfully no myoclunus. But, I think I'll choose to live with this rather than mess with chronic use of another complicated substance.
Psychopharmacology: weird and complicated.
poster:laima
thread:730516
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/730731.html