Posted by tony p on April 29, 2014, at 2:09:00
In reply to Re: Who Has Successfully Withdrawn Fron Long Term Benz, posted by jono_in_adelaide on April 29, 2014, at 0:50:18
I've been trying to withdraw from clonazapine / diazepam for three years now. Not a success story, I'm afraid - I get down to about 20 mg diazepam per day & then either get stuck or have an anxiety crisis and blow the program. I'm currently (once again) down to 25 mg diazepam/day and going very slowly - 10% every 2-3 weeks - and hoping....
I started withdrawing after I discovered that clonazapine (3 mg/day) was severely affecting my memory. I believe clonazapine is particularly bad for memory and cognition, and deceptive -- I didn't even know I was having what amounted to memory blackouts. BTW, I'm in my 60s, which may be a factor.
I have a theory that although all the benzos show cross-tolerance, switching to one you haven't taken for a long time can be beneficial - e.g. 30 mg of oxazepam is usually rated same as 10 mg diazepam, but I find it much stronger, not having used it much. I'm having trouble convincing the Drs, who have all bought into the diazepam-is-the-only-way route.
I respect Dr. Ashton's principles and agree with her general approach, but some of her dose equivalences have been questioned and don't agree with my experience.
I see a specialist on the 22nd - will see what she has to say (my experiments with oxazepam have been off-program, but maybe good ol' Librium might work better).
poster:tony p
thread:1064917
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140419/msgs/1064927.html