Posted by laima on February 7, 2007, at 7:22:53
In reply to Re: Benzo Confidential - clonazepam's history, posted by Squiggles on February 7, 2007, at 6:39:11
Lucky you Squiggles, not going through a withdrawal. My doctor wasn't willing to raise my official dose over a mere 2 mg, because to sum up a longer story, he said tolerance would continue to go on indefinately, and then to withdraw from a higher dose would be even worse and more dramatic. And that unwanted side effects, such as cognitive /sensory difficulty, would really manifest and then just go up with the dosing. I'm sure doctors would argue this, how to handle this, but mine believed it was best to just get the withdrawal over with asap, with a brief couple week taper, and said that "taking less" wasn't going to solve the anxiety it was contributing to. Being "off" would bring the relief, drawing out the taper would only draw out my misery, he felt. I actually think my taper was too rapid, but that's my opinion. I suspect my taper was designed to prevent seizures, as I was immediately given 2.5-5mg zyprexa for anxiety during that period. So that's how I ended up having to withdraw. But off both the klonopin and zyprexa, I do indeed feel much less anxious, so much so that people have actually commented on it, that I seem relaxed, glad I'm not as stressed out as I used to be, looking good, that kind of thing.
One way klonopin/clonazepam differs from other benzos, of course, is that it is also an anti-convulsant. The .5, then finally 2mg which I was prescribed was supposed to be doing double-duty for anxiety as well as for restless legs/active sleeping and the myoclunus. And it worked very well for all of these purposes at these doses for a couple years.
The anticonvulsant part- I wonder if that could have anything to do with the depression many report it seems to bring on for them? Could it be literally "depressing" something if it is "anti-convulsing"? Is the benzo component the only way it differs from other anticonvulsants used in psychiatry, such as lamictal?
But people take lamictal for "mood stabilization" and for help with depression- though when I used it, my suspicion and impression was that it kept my mood stuck in "flat". My mood lifted when my lamictal trial was over.So why aren't other benzos not considered depressing- or are they? The only one I personally am certain I got markedly depressed from was restoril, but that has sedative/hypnotic properties to it. Though the sedative/hypnotic I've tried, the extended release version of ambien, didn't make me depressed at all. If anything, it gave me a groovy, really nice dreamy feeling- which led me to stay awake on it to enjoy it, and all sorts of ridiculous and very embarressing behavior resulted.
Hard to untangle this, isn't it?
> That's exactly what happened to me, though i never did withdraw. You can't say that about the other benzos.
>
> Squiggles
>
poster:laima
thread:730516
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/730696.html