DH was prescribed Klonopin (generic for Clonazepam) due to high anxiety a month prior to a medical procedure. He was prescribed .5 mg, 3x per day; but to be on “the safe side,” he only took half the pill 3x per day.

Let me tell you, there is no “safe side” to this drug. He is fully addicted. His efforts to titrate off are meager at best.

Please stay away from this stuff, even if your LDS doctor prescribes it. There have to be safer ways to deal with anxiety.

So sorry to hear it. Can the MD help him? Switch to something else and then titrate down slowly or ??? Good luck with a difficult situation. (And yeah, meds are tricky things).

I took that stuff (very small dose) for about 2 1/2 months a few years ago. I then did some research and found out it was very difficult to come off of. That scared me so, without doctor's knowledge, I cut my dose in half for a week or two, then stopped completely. It was very difficult for another week or two after that, but I pulled through. I am NOT advising anyone do this. All I can say is that I had a very vigorous exercise regimen going at the time (six days a week) and still do. Everyone's different. I hope your DH can find a way to deal with this powerful drug.

I have read that having your doctor switch you to valium is an easier withdrawal. Longer half life.
There is a message board called Benzo Buddies that is a world of help.

I have been on this drug. I didn't have withdrawal symptoms, but my usage was brief.

besides switching, some therapy to practice anxiety management techniques may be helpful.

I have anxiety issues and I do not take any medication for it, much to the suggestion of my freaky Cult family members. They want me drugged up, because it is the 'Mormon way to be happy' and other crap.

Also, sad as your husbands case is, no one made him take the medicine prescribed to him. He had the option to go to another doctor and get a second opinion. A non Mormon doctor.

nolongerangry Wrote:
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> ... no one made
> him take the medicine prescribed to him. He had
> the option to go to another doctor and get a
> second opinion. A non Mormon doctor.

Yeah, well hindsight 20/20, as they say. Sometimes you don't realize these things ahead.

And maybe everyone doesn't have the option to get 2nd opinions.

And maybe a patient's reaction isn't all that predictable.

And maybe it wasn't a Mormon MD?

Etc.

That is a frequent cause of opiate addiction among the LDS population.

Oy.

I've had to take sometimes medication before surgical procedures to reduce my anxiety. As habit forming as it can become, there is now a lot being done in the field of mindfulness with regards to disease, relaxation techniques and learning to deal with stress.

I'm not one to sit and meditate. But I relax by doing. Like walking, stretching, or even do breathing exercises - which is a form of meditation really. :) The older I get sometimes breathing can feel like a workout. (getting over an upper respiratory infection can have that effect.)

Getting off a drug like Klonopin take it easy, take it slow, but do it gradually and persistently knowing that he has to get off it or else. Then go cold turkey.

Good luck.

Amyjo Wrote:
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> Getting off a drug like Klonopin take it easy,
> take it slow, but do it gradually and
> persistently knowing that he has to get off it or
> else. Then go cold turkey.

These are opposites. Gradually/slowly OR cold turkey (quick and likely painful).

Just saying. :)

What I meant when I said to cut back was just that. Cut back first, and then go cold turkey. Instead of going cold turkey all at once.

That way it isn't as much a shock to the system, and by the time a person has mostly cut down on the substance, it's not as hard to stop it altogether was my point.

I'm sorry that this happened to your husband. Hopefully his physician can come up with a plan to wean him off the drug.

I also suffer from anxiety in advance of medical procedures. My standard procedure is to take 2 mg. of Valium the night before, and 2-4 mg. an hour or so before the procedure. It's always worked like a charm, and I've had no difficulty with it. I then take pain pills for maybe 2-3 days (800 mg. of Motrin, or Tylenol 3,)and then quit those as well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2019 07:49PM by kathleen.

Not sure how he titrated, but did he go low and slow, as little as reduce by 1 mg. I take Paxil and heard it is hard to get off, they recommend tiny titrates like 1 mg at a time until you feel ok, then another 1 mg, and so on, then when you get to a dose you are having a hard time with, go back up to the last dose and hold that for awhile, then try again, etc until you are off, it could take months, year or whatever it takes.

I was on Paxil for a couple of years. I was always a very skinny person but gained 20 pounds on Paxil. I decided that getting fat was too high a price to pay just to have my emotional pain slightly numbed. I stopped cold turkey, which was pretty stupid. I remember feeling weird electrical-like zaps to my brain and I was often dizzy. I got off it though and was determined not to mess around with anti-depressants again. I promptly lost the 20 pounds I'd gained on the drug.

I had minor surgery. Although I wasn't in much pain the doctor had me hooked up to a morphine drip with a pump so I could self administer. I was going to try it, just to see how it felt, but decided against it. Another time I went to urgent care because of stomach pain. Again, doctors/nurse immediately offered Morphine (I declined), and seemed to offer it to everyone who walked through the door. I can see why people get easily hooked. I blame the doctors for handing it out like candy.

Sheesh, and here I had to practically beg my doctor for cough syrup with codeine when the over-the-counter stuff didn't do it for my upper respiratory cough I've had since mid-March.

My pharmacy told me to call from there after I'd tried everything else. It was the last thing available.

Some doctors are too conservative. They get that way because of those that hand out narcotics like they're candy.

There was a glorious time in my life that I and my friends enjoyed buckets of weed, blow, XTC, LSD, 2CP, toad sweat, mushrooms, peyote, synthetic mescaline and plenty more.

The only drugs that have ever made me feel like I could get brain cancer were zoloft and welbutrin.

My doctor gives me Xanax now. I used to get Valium. It makes me sleep. When my dogs die, if I take half a dose, it takes the edge off. Otherwise, I can have it sitting around for months and months. I have some now and I haven't had a refill for months. My son is on Klonopin and has been for a long time, BUT he ran out before his sister's wedding and I gave him some of my gabapentin that I have for neuropathy from diabetes. I used to type a psychiatric hospital in Colorado Springs and they prescribed gabapentin for their anxiety patients. My son likes the gabapentin much better as it makes him feel level, not up and down. His doctor (who got him off drugs) agreed that he could have gabapentin. He doesn't over use it. He still gets a few Klonopin a month, but he has cut down to next to nothing because of being on gabapentin. It is the only medication/drug he takes now.

Now, I love gabapentin and I hear it is hard to get off. Not a schedule drug at all, but I love it because it makes it possible for me to tolerate sitting at a computer. Otherwise, my foot goes numb and pins and needles. Gabapentin takes it away. I started on it for shingles. It helps with postherpetic neuralgia, too, which I got from the shingles.

But he might see if he can try gabapentin to get off the Klonopin.

Effexor about did me in. I do take 10 mg of Prozac. I also go on that when I lose a dog. I was on it FOR YEARS after my ex left me. I won't take more than 10 mg. But I always go back to Prozac. My doctor wouldn't help me off Effexor, so I looked it up. It said to change to Prozac and then taper off Prozac. It worked. I had what they call brain shivers going off Effexor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2019 11:34PM by cl2.

I was given Xanax during a very turbulent time in my life. The turbulence is history now, but I am physically addicted to the Xanax. I have tried to wean myself off of it, in tiny doses, over several weeks' time. When I get to about half the dosage I have taken for years, I start getting scary tightness in my chest and terrible headaches. Not to mention off-the-wall blood pressure. Withdrawal is too physically wretched. Since I am fairly elderly, and have health problems anyway, I have decided not to try to go through withdrawal. And my doctors agree with me on that.

They gave my parents in their last years as much of these medications as they needed. My mother had Valium. My dad had a lot of pain issues with bad knees that they couldn't do surgery on or absolutely wouldn't. He had as much as he could possibly want.

I did have a son who had had drug issues as I've stated. I was alone in my dad's room where he died when nobody was there as I arrived when others hadn't. My sister accused me of being in there alone to get drugs for my son. I had NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I didn't even think about his meds at that moment. My father had just died. I grew up in that house from age 3. It was my bedroom when I was a child. My grandmother (second mother) died in that room. I went in there because my dad had just died in there.

She dumped them DOWN THE TOILET. This was Oxycontin. We had many people ask for them. I never once did. My son says now that he believes she took them. I wouldn't be surprised.

P.S. Paxil is a bitch to get off! I didn't take it for long. I've tried so many antidepressants and always end up back on Prozac at 10 mg. It takes enough of the edge off. If I take too much Prozac, I end up lying on the bed feeling like I can't get up and do anything, like sloshing through drying cement. At a higher level, it made being a single mother working 2 jobs (that I needed to be self-disciplined for) extremely difficult.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2019 11:32AM by cl2.

Thank you, everybody.

I had him read your responses and he is encouraged now and also impressed at how people on this site are so helpful to each other.

Lost Horizon Wrote:
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> Thank you, everybody.
>
> I had him read your responses and he is encouraged
> now and also impressed at how people on this site
> are so helpful to each other.

Tell him "Thank you, and Best Wishes" from us.

:)