Posted by laima on February 8, 2007, at 9:07:34
In reply to Re: Benzo Confidential )Phillipa,, posted by Squiggles on February 8, 2007, at 8:13:37
I just don't know what to say about the study you found about tolerance- I've seen that some respectable sources say no tolerance with clonazapam, other credible sources say yes. My experience was a yes, in that a steady dose would completely lose efficacy, raising it would reinstate efficacy, that would lose efficacy, then dose would be raised...I went from .5 knocking me out, to 2 doing absolutely nothing. And off, my base anxiety turns out to be less than what it was when I started clonazapam in the first place-whereas I was convinced it was FAR worse. For whatever reason, the fact for me is, I went from bad anxiety to clonazapam use, which initially resulted in no anxiety or just very little-- then it steadily got worse. A lot worse. Despite dose being raised by doctor, several times. Never ever had any panic episodes before starting clonazapam and being on it for long time. Several months out, again, anxiety near vaporized, no panic attacks, no hyperventilation. And those were very common experiences for me while on clonazapam! What mechanism caused this? I can't help but believe it was related to building up a tolerance, and experiencing chronic mild withdrawal. That's the best explanaition I've got. And no, haven't used the zyprexa at all for over a month either, so it's not that helping me now.
So maybe the "tolerance question" is a matter of semantics, or a matter of if they are talking about the anti-convulsant properties or the anti-anxiety properties?
I don't know what a proper taper schedule would be- Mine was a mere 3 weeks, and I was miserably anxious, hyperventilation, even emergency room visit. Of course, at the very end of my using it, I took up to 4-5 mg at a time more than once in desperate effort to (unsucesssfully) deal with some excruciating panic episodes. (That probably didn't exactly help matters.) Though the zyprexa (2.5-5 mg at night) certainly helped, especially with sleep, I still think this taper was way too fast for me, anxiety- wise. Chopped by .5 every few days to a week. Dr.'s philosophy was that prolonging it would prolong my misery. On the other hand, Heather Ashton lists some various detailed schedules on her site, and she recommends a much slower and gradual taper.
I've definately also gathered an impression that the longer one uses this drug, the harder to withdraw- but that sure doesn't make it impossible or mean it's not worth the effort. I don't know who has got the "misery avoidance" philosphy better figured out- the Ashton style long taper, or my doctor's more rapid, get it over with taper. I suppose it might even be a matter of opinion.
poster:laima
thread:730516
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/731060.html