Posted by Mikey_C on March 2, 2003, at 18:58:17
In reply to Re: Any Seroquel Users Out There??? » Mikey_C, posted by KrissyP on March 2, 2003, at 17:55:36
With Clonazepam though, like I said, I use it almost like you would use a Tylenol for a headache. Every night I take 1mg to help me sleep and so far 1mg has been all that I've ever really needed to pull that off. It's been 8 months for me at 1mg every night and don't find a need to increase it at all. Before that 8 month period though, I had 6 months off of Clonazepam, and before that I used it almost every night for about 2 years because I was having panic attacks and severe insomnia at night. It was like my body just could NOT shut down. Anyways, when I decided to take those 6 months off of Clonazepam, I initiated it cold turkey. And no matter what you've heard, Clonazepam withdrawal is not that bad. In fact, when I compare it to any of the SSRIs I've taken, it's pretty much a joke.The point about Clonazepam though is that you should not be using it as the "only" medication to keep you from slipping... It is definitely only an add-on, and I would have to think that yes, if I was using it as my primary medication, I would have to continually increase my dosage and push it to the point where addiction is a real problem.
But... What would you call the dependency that you get on the other drugs that you're taking, such as Effexor or Seroquel. Obviously when you stop taking those your body goes through complete Hell. Coming from somebody that has used a lot of street drugs in the past, withdrawal symptoms that bad are definitely a form of addiction. So, therefore, just about any medication you're taking is addictive. So why is all this negativity put on Benzos in the first place? I say if it works reasonably well, and it isn't posing any serious danger to your health... and well.. like in our cases, is actually helping our mental and physical health... then why worry about the fact that it's addicting? If we start worrying too much about addiction then we shouldn't be on any medication whatsoever and just get used to the fact that we are slowly going nuts...
As far as that spliff goes... I'm still hungry for it... See, I like to test out my willpower quite a bit because if you're going to be taking any of these medications then you have to be STRONG... So, when I decided to quit I took the last of my stash and rolled it up into one average sized joint... and it's been sitting there on my dresser now for about two weeks... I think in time I'll be able to look at it and not want it anymore... that's when I know that I'm safe to quit for life.
Anyways, I'll definitely keep you updated on how I'm doing. Today the Seroquel side effects are definitely dying down. I used about .25 of Clonazepam today during the afternoon because after I took some last night I actually felt quite a bit better. It's weird... I had the most F'd up dreams last night... I actually woke myself up yelling at somebody in my dreams... Weird... oh, and another thing... don't want to gross you out.... but did you have a hard time taking a dump for the first little bit that you were on Seroquel? Is that a side effect? The last two days have been kind of rough for me in that regard....
And two more days before I'm supposed to bump up to 100mg... I'm hoping that this does what my Doctors have said it's going to do and controls my anxiety and depression... I'm still on Depakote at the moment but I'm supposed to come off of that and use Lamotragene instead....
Oh well, enough, I'm just rambling now...
poster:Mikey_C
thread:205170
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030301/msgs/205350.html