HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Please enough with the BENZO bashing!

Support Forums
>
Anxiety & Panic Disorders
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 4/30/2007 11:37 PM (GMT 0)
I was recently Diagnosed with GERD, I know I have had it since i was a teenager but NEVER this bad, it all came on like a ton of bricks after i had a  surgical procedure. I treid several OTC products and nothing helped, it seems to be worst in the mornings but it got so bad that i lost all my appetite and would throw up first thing in the morning, I ended up losing about 8 lbs and I was already under weight! My Gastro Dr  decided to do an upper and lower GI and low and behold I had GERD (and some hardening in some areas) Finally I went to see Dr Shipko in Pasadena CA where he runs the Panic Disorders Intitute, I always knew my GERD was anxiety related just like my dads was. Dr Shipko has found that Xanax or Klonopin in low doses taken twice a day (sometimes 3) helps most GERD cases (as well as anxiety of coarse) Low and Behold he was right! It definatley helped alot! It is rather sedating but after a few weeks it passes. It took three different Dr's 3 months to convince me to take any benzo since Ive heard they were addictive however they said "IF YOU NEED IT YOU NEED IT PERIOD" Its the people that are looking for a "high" or that have addictive personalities that become addicts. In my case I was told that since my father had GERD and anxiety all of his life I would most likely also so the Dr's told me to compare my use of Klonopin and/or Xanax to people who take insuline for diabetes, or beta blockers or statins for heart patients. Some of us will become dependant on certain medications for the rest of our lives but whats the alternative? Feeling like crap or having to take a medication for the rest of my life?...I finaly let go of the benzo phobia and am living my life. Thats all I can do until someone invets a majic pill to cure all ills. 
Posted 4/30/2007 11:47 PM (GMT 0)
I take Klonopin and it's also helped my GERD a whole, whole lot. That and Prevacid have just about eliminated it, in fact, even though I smoke. If I stopped smoking I bed I could come off the Prevacid. Every great now and then I'll take an antacid like Rolaids or whatever, but not very often at all.

And Klonopin has kicked my panic disorder's ass. I've only been on it six weeks or so, so I still have concerns about tolerance. I'm not really worried about addiction. As long as it keeps me from being screwed up in the head, I'm definitely okay with being addicted to it. I don't care. It's not like I'm taking it for fun. In spite of some issues with sedation, I don't even feel it so it's not like I'm getting high. I don't think Klonopin can even make a person high. Some drug addicts use it to intensify heroin and other opiates, but I don't think Klonopin itself will make you high. Then again, I've never taken more than a .5 mg tablet at a time.
Posted 5/1/2007 3:17 AM (GMT 0)
Seems to me that the two of you have the right attitudes. Benzo's shouldn't be taken lightly (like any other med), but ironically, the panicky fear of taking them and is often evidence of our illness. You take them to help your brain function normally so that you can make better life decisions - including decisions about medicinal therapy. : )
Posted 5/1/2007 4:50 AM (GMT 0)
This discussion goes on all the time. I have done a great deal of research along with consulting with my Pdoc. Anxiety sufferers rarely become addicted to benzos. It's not as if you're after a cheap high. If you have no history of substance abuse and don't go over the prescribed dose you shouldn't worry. I asked my doc when he would be concerned? He said if I called and said I needed a refill before it was scheduled to be refilled. Don't sweat it.

I have been experimenting with new SSRIs (currently luvox with success) and while I'm in the breakin period I've been taking small (.50-1 mg a day) of Klonopin. I find it to be a real help in dealing with anxiety from SSRI. Don't sweat it.
Posted 5/1/2007 4:06 PM (GMT 0)
Spot on Mark and Debaser

Very true Porridge........
I have taken them for over 30 yrs I was taking up to 3 daily ( valium) but now I can go a day w/o or even longer
WHEN I need them I take them
It is my way to function when I am in a bad place and I dont particualy care if others dont agree
MY doc RX them and I take them
PLAIN n simple

I am glad this thread is up

LYN

yeah .......THANKS

Posted 5/2/2007 12:51 AM (GMT 0)
Whatever works. You only live once. There are worse things than being physically dependent on a medicine that helps you lead a normal life, for crying out loud. Provided a person's doctor is competent, they have nothing to worry about with most benzo's. Anytime someone goes on one they should educate themselves, but I wouldn't be fooled by the anti-benzo crowd. The good thing about this class of drugs is they work almost immediately. You'll know if it helps before you become addicted/dependent on them, unlike SSRI's. If they don't help, you can simply stop if it's only been a few doses.
Posted 5/2/2007 3:37 AM (GMT 0)
I'm on 2mg at night of clonazepam. Before I entered hospital my anti d was my morning med my clonazepam my night one.

Some of the nurses in there made me feel like such a junkie though and then to have an intern take me off it literally cold turkey and the withdrawal effects I had really re-inforced the junkie feeling. Luckily after seeing my pdoc and being back on it I just see it as my night med again but it's still the first one I want to slowly come off when we find the right anti d to control my anxiety and depression.

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply