Posted by Quintal on December 10, 2006, at 8:29:05 [reposted on December 11, 2006, at 0:24:11 | original URL]
In reply to Xanax 4 mg Daily for Three Years. Now?, posted by Mishal on December 10, 2006, at 2:55:57
>Interestingly, my pdoc won't prescribe either Valium or Klonopin to me. He says Valium is addictive, Klonopin is much harder to withdraw.
If you've been following this board for a while I suspect you know already those statements are dubious. I live in the UK and Xanax and Klonopin are not used by the medical profession to treat anxiety. Xanax is considered to be excessively habit forming and particularly difficult to taper during withdrawal. Ativan is also discouraged for the same reason. Klonopin is used only to treat rare forms of epilepsy. Valium is the most popular benzo for anxiety.
I've been addicted to all four at one time or another and from my experience Valium provides the most gentle withdrawal. There is a thread about this here which you may have read already: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061206/msgs/711859.html.
I've quit Klonopin at 20mg cold turkey (though my tolerance was probably lower than that and I was also taking Lamictal to guard against seizures). Xanax and Klonopin are about equally as potent.
Heather Ashton provides some good advice for people trying to withdraw from benzos. Here is a high dose (6mg) withdrawal schedule - it may be a good idea to start at the 4mg dose and work your way down from there if you could get the pdoc would supply you with Valium: http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s1 Withdrawal from Xanax alone is *not* recommended regardless of what your pdoc claims. He seems to have only a vague idea of the effects and withdrawal process of benzos at best.
Here is another link to Heather Ashton's general advice booklet on how to withdraw from long term benzodiazepine use: http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha02.htm
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:712421
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20061010/msgs/712423.html