Posted by Hiba on August 11, 2002, at 23:54:35
In reply to Re: Klonopin Withdrawl » Hiba, posted by Squiggles on August 11, 2002, at 5:56:41
Dear Squiggles,
Amazing stories once again. I don't understand why you guys find it very hard to withdraw such a safe and effective medicine like klonopin. I am not an advocate of Roche Pharmaceuticals. But when I was on klonopin,( better called rivotril in India) I remember I was better than ever in my life. My whole life was a mess with anxiety and obsessive worries, that made me took several kind of antidepressants and internists and psychiatrists were really experiementing their medicines in me. First they put me on amitryptiline and the dosage was 150 mg. Enough to make an elephant bed ridden for days. But I was taking the medicine and going for work as usual.I kept taking it for six months and tapered for the sake of experimenting another tricyclic called dothiepin. Then came maprotiline, imipramine, fluovoxamine, sertraline, amitryptiline again, mianserin, flupenthixol, and now fluoxetine. Of those benzodiazepines, I took valium, ativan, trika(xanax in US) librium, rivotril(klonopin in US). I must honestly admit, of these all kind of medicines rivotril was the best fix for me. It controlled my obsessive worries and anxiety very adequately and the sense of tranquility made me quite a different person. I could look unto my problems more realistically. I was on 1.5 mg of rivotril for over a year and I think that period was the best in my life. I felt much better, a betterment which 150mg of amitryptiline and 100 mg of sertraline failed to bring.
But my psychiatrist was concerned over addiction and he put me on fluoxetine 20 mg and told me to taper the dosage of rivotril. I cut 25% of the dosage and stayed on it for 10 to 15 days. Then made the reduction again by 25% and staying on it for another 15 days. After the last parting from rivotril I felt like dysphoric for almost a month, and that was the only withdrawal symptom I experienced. (keep in mind that I was effectively stabilized on fluoxetine by that period).
I can give you my e-mail ID as hiba_kalam@yahoo.com If anyone has any doubt on what I wrote please write to me in details. And for those who are on clonazepam and feeling much better than before, my advise is not give up your medicine after hearing those horror stories of benzo withdrawal. Once again I state benzodiazepines are much safer than Antidepressants which hailed by many doctors as non-addictive and safe.HIBA
poster:Hiba
thread:115326
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020807/msgs/116119.html