Short term clonazepam use--when it's time to taper off......?

Sounds like such a low dose that it shouldn't be a problem :) Just work with your doc closely during this process so you will be safe and not worrying.

Thanks Vin.

I should be comfortably on Lexapro by then (God willing) so I hope that will help a bit when I do taper off the Kpin.

thanks!

Dawnie

Dawn,

If you are doing fine on a low dose you should not have any trouble coming off but I would suggest that until you are off the other med you use the clonazepam as ordered by your physician.  Be sure to be your own best advocate and talk things through with your physician.

Peace to you.

Kitt

Vin, good to know that Lexapro is a good one. I have heard that and I am praying it is true for me.

I am pretty freaked out at the moment.

when I take .25 clonazepam in the morning, it is making me feel reaaaally depressed...

I asked my Nurse and she said I could take .125 in the am and .125 in the evening.

I am so scared by all this.

Currently I am taking:

AM)

6.5 Paxil (no longer working, trying to get off it)
.25 Clonazepam (takes away the anxiety but makes me feel depressed)

Lunch: 1 a day vitamin and 1000 mg of fish oil

Dinner: 2.5 Lexapro (only 3 days into it)


I feel horribly depressed in the first part of the day and then it lightens up by the afternoon and evening.

Do you guys think I should cut my .25 (been on for 3 weeks now) of Clonazepam in half and take part in the am and part in the evening?

I would like to just take half in the morning and let that be it, but since I am just starting the transition to Lexapro, I don't think I should try to taper off Clonazepam just yet.

Any advice?

need help!

dawn,

i ended up getting lymes disease in june which caused me to have a severe nervous breakdown and suffer from panic disorder and i was hospitalized from it. of course i didnt know it was lymes disease until i tested on a whim in december so they thought i was just nuts. they took me off the lexapro and put me on a combo of klonopin and paxil cr 50 mg. that helped take away the panic and crisis sistuation i was in. wish i would have known about the lymes sooner and would have gotten treated for that instead of going through the disaster of a summer i had.

i remember when i intially started taking klonopin i would get depressed from it. but don't forget you have been messing with your brain chemicals for a bit now so you really need to get stable for a while. ur body will likely get used to/tolerant of the .25 of klonopin. the 2.5 of lexapro is probably not doing anything as therapeutic dosages don't start until around 10 mg. and paxil is one of the drugs that once you stop taking... re-introducing previous doesn't seem to work as well as if you had stayed on it so you are likley still gion through issues with the paxil withdrawal.

I'd leave the klonopin dosage alone for now and not mess with that drug until you are stable with the others. i also think you can probably ramp up to 5 mg in another 2 days of lex, and then up to 10 of lex 5 days later while taking out the paxil once you hit the 10 mark. 6 mg of paxil is a minor dosage compared to what you were at...so having tiny amount of paxil + a tiny amoutn of lexapro is not enough to offset you withdrawal from original higher paxil dosage.

You might still go through some withdrawal once you drop the paxil and hit the therapeutic level of lex and the adjustment period may last for a few weeks to a month so don't expect an overnight fix especially with being on paxil for 6 years and then stopping it. I'd speak this over with your physician though as I am not a doctor. but those are my thoughts. hang in there and let the meds do their work before messing around with them again!!

Vin

Well, so much for that!

I took the .125 this morning and then had a knock on the door from my neighbor telling me a sexual offender moved into the house directly behind us. (I have two little girls)....


I could have thrown up.

So I went ahead and took the other half of the clonazepam right away. Today is NOT the day to be spreading out my coverage for anxiety!!

ugh

Dawnie

Vin,

Have you always taken your Clonaz. at night? I was thinking of that too as a possibility, changing it to night time, but I am pretty set on not making any more changes until, like you said, I am stable from the SSRI thing I have going on.

I wanted to only go up to 10mg of Lexapro but my nurse was saying 20?? 10=20Paxil and that was always enough. I kind of want to play it by ear and see how I feel at 10mgs.

She also suggested I taper off the rest of the Paxil, not just quit it all at once.

I guess I gotta take it one day at a time.

Spend a good part of the day handing out fliers to my neighbors about the lovely fella living behind us now. *gack*

Thanks for your reply Vin!!! You are awesome.

Dawnie

Laughing!

Well she is a psych nurse and she works under a psych. I have been to 2 different male psch doctors, and the first one is the one who messed me up in the first place, and the second one basically told me what to do, but then was always too busy to ever take calls, and I felt as though he could care less. (I have issues with male Dr's to begin with--bad experience in my past)

So I was on a paxil support board and a lead moderator suggested I go see her Psych nurse since we lived near each other. She said she was very knowledgeable about these drugs and withdrawal and how to switch/handle it all. She came with glowing recommendations!

I went to her and just loved her. (for the first time!)

So I do have faith in her....and that is HUGE for me to say!

My paxil story is a mess. I was on Paxil CR 12.5 and then 25 for years. LOVED IT. Changed my whole world. Best 6 years of my life, really.
So wonderful that I decided I wanted another baby...so I started going off of it. I did real well and got down to 5mgs when I found out we had family coming into town to stay with us for 2 weeks.
I started having anxiety attacks again, and so I went up to 10mgs. Nothing....still anxiety....so my GYN told me to "take 2--" so I doubled my Paxil dose the day the family was coming in. OMG. I was a mess....couldn't sleep, could barely eat...was a zombie. I felt horrible. So the DR switched me back to 12.5 CR....then 25CR.....then 37.5CR. I was still an anxious mess. Then he had me go to 40 of the regular release and it was real bad. I had scary reactions to that dose. Felt dark and suicidal and had horrible thoughts. It was the scariest thing ever. Basically, the Paxil had quit working when I went up in dose and instead of saying ok, Paxil is done for me, the Dr said let's keep going up up up (and away!).

I decided I had to get off the paxil, so I started tapering down down down. 40--30--20--15--12.5--10--and it was pure hell. I have never been so sick, scared, depressed, ready to throw in the towell as during those times.

The reason the Psych nurse is starting me at 2.5 is really my choice. I am so scared of having a bad reaction again, that I wanted to start slow.
(make sure I wasn't going to freak out or stop breathing, or one of those crazy worries of mine).
So she is going slow with me. Another reason I like her, she respects my concerns!

So she has me going from 2.5 to 5 and then she wanted me to go to 10, and then 15 and then 20.

I ended up emailing her and asking her if this schedule would be ok since I was concerned about going to 20.

(current) Paxil 6.5mg/ Lexapro-2.5 for 1 week. = (11.5 Paxil equiv)
Paxil 5mg / lexapro 5mg for 1 week = (15 Paxil equiv)
Paxil 2.5mg/ lexapro 7.5mg = (17.5 Paxil equiv)
Paxil 0/ lexapro 10mg = (20 Paxil equiv.)

and she ok'ed that or said I could go up to 10mg Lexapro and THEN taper off the paxil.

so who knows...

sorry this got so long.
my brain is fried by today's activities!

Well I didn't do so well here....

going to start a new thread, but theh lex was doing me pretty good for a while there! I actually felt hope like things were going to get better.

I added 2.5 Lex for 1 week
then 5mg last friday and then Saturday morning, I lowered my Paxil dose....ugh.

ONly went from 6.5 to 5mg but that was enough. Within a few days, I started feeling funky and weird, OCD came back along with anxiety (how I felt when dropping in dose before)

Thinking of going ahead and getting to the 10mgs of Lex and feeling good a while, then tapering off the rest of this darn paxil.

Is it ok to go from 5mg Lex to 10mg Lex? (skipping the 7.5)

Dawnie

and you are at 5mg now right mom?

Did you have any problems when you went from 5 to 10?

thanks!

Dawnie

So are you going to stick with the 5mg and go through therapy?

I do take mine at bed time....actually, right around 7pm.

I am both excited about going to 10 (for hope of feeling better) and nervous about it.

When I went from 2.5 to 5 I really didn't notice anything...

(well until I tried to drop my Paxil, then I noticed something and it was not good!)

Are you also taking Klonopin? I know we chatted before about meds but I can't recall.

Thanks for your reply!

Dawnie