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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
[email protected]Shown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by CindyL on April 26, 2016, at 16:20:31
Hi, My name is Cindy and I live in Florida. I have been a psych patient since around 1995. In that time period I have been diagnosed and treated by a lot of different psychiatrists. I think I have taken about every SSRI, Benzo and anti-psychotic at one point in time. I recently decided that I wanted to get off my drugs and I quit taking the drug Brintellix (my insurance wouldn't pay for it anyway) and trazadone. Unfortunately during the 10 years I have been living in this part of Florida the 1st psychiatrist has me up to 8 mg of Xanax per day. He moved to another state and referred me to another Doctor who continued giving me this amount so I have been on it for around 7 years or more! I decided that I wanted to get off it. I mean I am losing huge chunks of my memory, have turned into a tired fat slug etc. So, a few weeks ago I went to my Psychiatrist for our 3 month medication management meeting. I told him I wanted to get off this drug using a very slow taper. I had to go cold turkey for 7 days one time and I wound up in the ER and thought I was going to die. As it is my brain is so addicted to this horrible drug that by the time I wake up in the morning I am already feeling withdrawal symptoms. I can't believe what he did. He gave me 1mg of klonopin x 3 times a day!! This in no way compares to 8mg of xanax and I talked to my pharmacist who thought it was crazy too. She said I shouldn't be alone if I were even trying to attempt this. Since I mostly live alone because my husband travels all the time I haven't even attempted it until today. OMG, it threw me into total withdrawal I mean in a few hours. Luckily I still have a bottle of xanax with 1 refill but I am already freaking out! Does this make any sense to you all that the man would cut my dose so drastically? He seemed like he was mad I wanted to quit. Now I am afraid if I call him and tell him this isn't going to work and he will say too bad. The guy actually kind of scares me. Is this in any way ethical for him to do? I mean it was my idea to get off xanax and I told him I wanted to do a slow taper. I would appreciate any advice or thoughts on this. I am new, please help me?
Posted by Hugh on April 28, 2016, at 12:41:02
In reply to Getting off Benzos, posted by CindyL on April 26, 2016, at 16:20:31
The Ashton Manual has good advice on tapering benzos. Here's a tapering schedule for Xanax. It would be good to do a gradual crossover to Valium, and then taper this, since it has such a long half-life. A lot of doctors are reluctant to prescribe Valium.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm
Posted by Lamdage22 on May 3, 2016, at 11:17:26
In reply to Getting off Benzos, posted by CindyL on April 26, 2016, at 16:20:31
I wein off my APs so freaking slowly... And only "if possible".
Dont force it. Your brain needs to do a lot of adapting and that takes time.
Posted by Lamdage22 on May 3, 2016, at 11:20:43
In reply to Re: Getting off Benzos, posted by Hugh on April 28, 2016, at 12:41:02
I noticed that reducing my Effexor (however slowly) was a really bad idea. But at least now i know that i take it for a good reason.
This is the end of the thread.
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