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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
[email protected]Shown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Marco Polo on January 16, 2008, at 22:49:20
Hi all, long time reader, first time poster to this board. I hope someone has experienced the same thing that I'm about to describe.
I have been stable on Klonopin (1mg) for about 2 years. In December, I decided to taper off in favor of Lyrica a non benzo anti-anxiety drug. Bad news. I got down to .5mg and started freaking out, so I went back up to 1mg. No good, still freaking out. It's been 2 weeks now and tonight I upped the dose to 2 mg. Some relief, but still jittery. Did I screw up? Can I go back to the lush green fields of 1mg? This is pretty frightening.
I plan to followup with my psych doc tomorrow, but wanted to survey the soldiers in the field here, so to speak, for a similar experience.
I didn't realize how important this particular med was to my sanity.
Cheers,
Marco.
Posted by seldomseen on January 17, 2008, at 4:59:37
In reply to Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back?, posted by Marco Polo on January 16, 2008, at 22:49:20
Welcome to Babble.
did you actually start on the lyrica or are there any other med changes?
Posted by Marco Polo on January 17, 2008, at 7:10:17
In reply to Re: Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back? » Marco Polo, posted by seldomseen on January 17, 2008, at 4:59:37
> Welcome to Babble.
>
> did you actually start on the lyrica or are there any other med changes?I've been on Lyrica for about a year now. It's been quite helpful.
Posted by Squiggles on January 17, 2008, at 8:55:53
In reply to Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back?, posted by Marco Polo on January 16, 2008, at 22:49:20
> Hi all, long time reader, first time poster to this board. I hope someone has experienced the same thing that I'm about to describe.
>
> I have been stable on Klonopin (1mg) for about 2 years. In December, I decided to taper off in favor of Lyrica a non benzo anti-anxiety drug. Bad news. I got down to .5mg and started freaking out, so I went back up to 1mg. No good, still freaking out. It's been 2 weeks now and tonight I upped the dose to 2 mg. Some relief, but still jittery. Did I screw up? Can I go back to the lush green fields of 1mg? This is pretty frightening.
>
> I plan to followup with my psych doc tomorrow, but wanted to survey the soldiers in the field here, so to speak, for a similar experience.
>
> I didn't realize how important this particular med was to my sanity.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marco.Marco,
I had a similar experience -- only the
time of taking and withdrawing were different.
I had to increase my dose to stop the withdrawal.
Klonopin is a very nasty benzo to withdraw from.
However, i have also heard that some SSRIs are just as bad-- never tried one.Anyway, you *can* stabilize with a higher dose.
I wanted to go to an addiction clinic, but did
it on my own, with a slow taper. It was a failure. Maybe you can ask to be referred to an
addiction specialist -- they give another long-life benzo to help you get off - like Valium.Squiggles
Posted by Phillipa on January 17, 2008, at 10:25:10
In reply to Re: Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back? » seldomseen, posted by Marco Polo on January 17, 2008, at 7:10:17
Yes welcome to babble but you say you were on lyrica found it helpful for a year was your klonopin dose still stable then? Or were you tappering? I'm a bit confused. Let us know what pdoc has said. Phillipa
Posted by Marco Polo on January 17, 2008, at 10:50:03
In reply to Re: Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back? » Marco Polo, posted by Phillipa on January 17, 2008, at 10:25:10
> Yes welcome to babble but you say you were on lyrica found it helpful for a year was your klonopin dose still stable then? Or were you tappering? I'm a bit confused. Let us know what pdoc has said. Phillipa
Thanks Phillipa. I had been stable on both Lyrica and Klonopin for about a year (also just Kono a yr prior). It was great, maybe because of the two together, I don't know. But I got the idea I didn't want to be 'dependent' on Klonopin (i.e. Lyrica had a better profile) so I started tappering off in .125 mg steps a week. I did that for 4 weeks and got slammed with the withdrawal which doesnt seem to be going away even with incraesing the Klono dose. Scary stuff.
Posted by garyengelm on January 17, 2008, at 16:13:43
In reply to Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back?, posted by Marco Polo on January 16, 2008, at 22:49:20
I would say there is something else going on. The answer to Klonopin w/d is of course restarting it. And it appears you have doubled your original dose. I would try and take 25mg of benedryl and see if this helps your symptoms. I've certainly heard of benzo withdrawal and have personally experienced it, but the fix is just to restart the med. Going up should only cause increased sedation and more relaxation. Check your bottle, make sure the pharmacy didn't give you something else. I've seen that happen before. Other than that, I can't think of anything else that could be causing this. I tried Lyrica and got terribly dizzy and headaches and anxiety and had to discontinue.
Posted by Phillipa on January 17, 2008, at 18:59:12
In reply to Re: Klonopin Woes, Can I Go Back?, posted by garyengelm on January 17, 2008, at 16:13:43
Gary really as had read that it is good with anxiety too. Phillipa
This is the end of the thread.
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