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Re: Klonopin withdrawal AND reinstatement » Squiggles

Posted by JohnX2 on February 11, 2002, at 14:13:29

In reply to Klonopin withdrawal AND reinstatement, posted by Squiggles on February 11, 2002, at 12:20:46


Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your chronic pain.
It sounds just awful.

I have struggled with a really bad facial neuralgia
for about 2 years. The symptoms were bad tension
headaches, lock jaw, a feeling of wierd pressure
points that would cause pain in my head if touched,
and other issues. The only medicine that seemed to
cure it was Klonopin. I took a pretty strong dose
as I grew tolerant to the anti-convulsant action.
Last month I switched medicines to Topamax which
has basically very similar anti-convulsant actions
as Klonopin but is not habit forming. Anyways I
have been tapering Klonopin quite successfully
from 6 mg to 0.75 mg in 6 weeks with the Topamax
replacement. Topamax may not be for everybody,
but you may want to keep it in mind.

I hope you feel better.

-John


> Hello everyone,
>
> You may remember my posts about benzo withdrawal.
> I managed to withdraw from XANAX (which was not
> a necessary prescription as the Synthroid had
> made me anxious - this theory my doctor has more or less
> gone along with and furthermore, lowered the
> Synthroid dose by about 40%) I no longer have
> panic attacks.
>
> My battle with Klonopin withdrawal is a horse of
> a different colour. The Xanax (2.0mg over 10-15 yrs)
> took 3-4 months of anxiety, etc. to get over and
> successfully withdraw from.
>
> The Klonopin on the other hand at a dose 0f 1.0mg
> has taken close to two years. It had to be suspended
> on account of a stroke/seizure incident this August,
> which left me very ill (stroke symptoms: travelling
> electric sensations in the head culminating in a
> feeling of an axe hit in the back centre head;
> consequent staggering, lack of concentration, narcolepsy,
> painful migraine like headaches, severe depression both
> physically and mentally, pin point pupils unreactive
> to light, disorientation, etc.) for a month.
>
> My husband nursed me back to 0.50mg from 0.125mg -
> that was the point of the cerebral "storm" effect;
> and then my doctor asked me to wait 6 months to see
> how it went at that dose... unfortunately i started
> getting worse, and my doctor doubled it to the
> original 1.0mg.
>
> Where I am now - reinstating to 1.0 - it has been a month;
> going up is not as hard as going down, but it certainly
> is no piece of cake - I get dyspnea upon taking the
> K dose, and I also get pains in the back of my head -
> the headaches are getting better but reminiscent of
> the areas where the "electric eels" traversed - that's
> benzo talk for electric current sensations around the head.
>
> I hope to stabilize soon. The localized, headaches in the
> back really feel like there's tumour there or something,
> but I am sure that is just subjective. I also take lithium and
> Synthroid if that is significant.
>
> I suppose I will never be able to get off this drug, and
> perhaps I should not - I have read articles that as
> an anti-convulsant it is specifically given to bipolars
> because this disorder shares certain aspects of an epileptoid
> disorder. On the other hand I have also seen it prescribed
> for GAD - so unless the two are co-concurrent I really
> don't know if they've got this right.
>
> In any case, stability seems to be the best I can hope
> for now, no matter what the pharmacopolitics.
>
> Thanks for reading. ( I tried posting before unsuccessfully
> it seems).
>
> Squiggles


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poster:JohnX2 thread:93743
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020208/msgs/93762.html