Posted by madge on October 4, 2003, at 17:25:56
I was on Klonopin 1-1.5mg a day for anxiety for approximately 9 months. It really worked well to soothe my anxiety and I had very few side effects except that it made my body feel dry. During that time I was getting frequent UTI's, and got one at the end of July this year. I finally looked up the side effects of Klonopin only to discover that it can be dehydrating. No wonder, I was having problems. I am very sensitive to drugs that are anticholinergic, and had discontinued many antidepressants over the last year because of this. I ended up with lasting symptoms from this bout of a UTI, and decided to go off the Klonopin. This has been the most horrendous month of my life, and it is continuing. I had NO IDEA, the withdrawl was going to be so nasty. The withdrawl symptoms are worse than the original problem for which I was being treated. My Pdoc suggested Neurontin as a substitute for the Klonopin, and as an aid to discontinuting the benzo. I tried 3 times over the last month to tolerate the Neurontin at various doses, but it was an awful drug for me. I ended up with slurred speech, headaches, nervousness, dizzyness, and ataxia. In between times, I was weening off the Klonopin, and having insomnia. My pdoc perscribed Ambien for sleep. This worked initially, and with the Neurontin, but then it quit working after 7 days. The Ambien was also contributing to my body's dryness, and I have turned into a prune over the past two weeks. Everyplace that is supposed to be moist, isn't. It's awful. Last weekend, I stopped the Klonopin after weening for a month. I didn't sleep more than 5 hours a night from Sun - Wed. And my sleep was 2 hours here, then 3 hours there after being awake for 3 hours. I went to my doctor who does accupuncture on Wed eve. I was able to go to sleep without the Ambien, and although I woke up after a few hours, I was able to go back to sleep on my own. Thursday night I slept for 8 beautiful hours only waking up once to pee. Last night I was back to having the same Klonopin insomnia; waking suddenly after 3 hours; awake for 2, asleep for 3, awake again. I feel terrible. I have a very high pressured sales job, and it has been all I can do to go to work, try to function at a high level feeling awful, and then go home. I feel disabled, because I am so exhausted every night that I have no energy to do anything when I get home. I was wondering what other people have experienced trying to discontinue Klonopin and what solutions worked to ease the withdrawl. Thanks for your help.
poster:madge
thread:265588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031004/msgs/265588.html