Klonopin Experiences?? Given Rx For That Today & Very Hesistant To Medicate.

[Caroline01]

My psychiatrist gave me a prescription today for Klonopin to take as needed to prevent panic attacks. She also gave me a Trazodone prescription for my difficulty sleeping. I've taken Trazodone before....didn't really like it, especially because I had recently been on Ambien, which I found to be a much more effective sleep aide...

She said that if I was really struggling with sleeping even after taking up 2 Trazodone pills (I need to check to see what the mg are), to then take Klonopin as well.

Curious to hear any thoughts/experience on this because I very much resist medication.....I don't feel I have had sufficient opportunity to give the time and focus to healing/recovering from my trauma and PTSD that would be necessary in determining my ability to naturally manage & recover. Meds scare me because it's unrealistic to assume any medication will be taken for the rest of my life...so what happens when I need to/want to stop but I will not have ever learned how to cope in a healthy way and/or regulate my emotions (as much as I can at this point) off of medication.... I fear that could be huge potential for falling far backwards with my trauma and ptsd healing and recovery...??

I'm terrified of psychiatrists at this point. I have yet to find one who actually fully understands me, hears me & is open-minded to my perspective and fears because I have had some very dangerous medication experiences because of irresponsible psychiatry.

 

[PtsdEdu]

I do not have any experience with klonopin. I too resisted meds in favor of cbt, emdr, among others. However, 9 months ago I added meds to my treatment.

I went through about 6 Dr's until I found one I trust. I can say when it comes to night terrors, prozasin has eliminated those. Prior to the prozasin i had them three to four nights a week. They also habe a tendancy to cause drowainess which helps. I use 5mg of valium as a backup.

I have gone from having episodes every three weeks that lasted anywhere from 5 to 10 days to none for 70 straight days. I then had a setback and had a rather bad episode. At that time my doc added 15mg of deplin to my 200 mg of zoloft and there have been incredible results.

Of course this is still all inconjunction with regular therapy sessions.

Sorry I could not be more help, but I wanted to let you know what has been working for me.

I wish you the beat.

 

[Caroline01]

@PtsdEdu Honestly, any & all input is greatly helpful, as I was SO deeply in denial & lacking awareness that I prior to 2 months ago I did not believe I had actually experienced genuine trauma...so to be thrown into this world of accepting, understanding, managing, healing & recovering PTSD from multiple traumas... I know it goes without saying how excruciatingly overwhelming that is.

So... my point being, I appreciate you offering your perspective on also having resisting, but giving in to it & being glad you did....Also interesting to know what meds work for you...though I know that is entirely case by case....this is all just SO new to me...I have so much to learn & so much to heal that I didn't even know about.... so to be suddenly thrown right into this like I have been is truly the most complex, overwhelming & intimidating experience of my life!

Thanks for responding...is more help than you know :)

 

[PtsdEdu]

@PtsdEdu Honestly, any & all input is greatly helpful, as I was SO deeply in denia...

Honestly, anytime I can help. I have been battling this for 35 years based on extreme and frequent violent abuse as a child.

Two books I highly suggest: The Many Faces of PTSD. And The Body Keeps the Score.

Reach out to me any time.

All my best.

 

[deer_in_headlights]

My psychiatrist gave me a prescription today for Klonopin to take as needed to prevent panic attacks....

Hi Caroline,

I think you are being very wise.
I have mixed feelings about Klonopin. On one hand, it can dampen down the intensity of panic attacks.

I didn't find it to be as effective as my P said it was. I seemed to have more suicidal ideation on it.
I couldn't drive after using it - it was too sedating, even if I broke the pill to take a partial dose. I only took a partial dose when a panic attack would start.

After a few months, I began having extreme vertigo, as a side effect. I would have a spinning vertigo episode, and then get completely lost. I would get lost in stores - would have no idea of where I was or how to find an exit, if I couldn't orient by finding a window.

I used to be on a search and rescue team, doing wilderness rescue. I was able to do fantastic orienteering / navigation work for our team that helped us find and rescue lost and injured people - and get us all safely back. After starting the Klonopin, I completely lost my treasured sense of direction, and nearly 20 years later, I've not regained it, because of permanent side-effects from the Klonopin. It did something nasty to my brain.

Because of the severity of the vertigo, and how rotten I felt on the Klonopin, I took myself off of it. It was a rough week or two of withdrawal, but well-worth getting off the stuff, for me.

I've found therapy with EMDR and great counsel with trauma therapists to be tremendously more effective at quelling panic attacks than Klonopin ever was.

That's just my experience. Others might find the drug to be very useful.
I hope this helps.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I think klonopin can be helpful, but not if taken every night. It is not meant to be a daily type of medication because dependency issues can arise. I became dependent because my doc told me to use it every night to help me sleep. I didn't know this class of medications caused dependency. Coming off of it was pure hell. I am warning you because you deserve to know the truth, as opposed to me, who was a bit naive at the time and didn't realize that my doc was causing more issues than he was helping.

Some docs make the argument that one withdraws fully if the drug is taken only at night. Well, I'd argue that these docs got their degree out of a cracker jack box because the half life of the med can be up to 50 (!) hours....Meaning that after 50 hours, you can still have HALF of the original dose in your body. This is a far cry from fully withdrawing from the med between nightly doses.

I metabolize medications slowly, and one dose of klonopin would make me depressed for days. I wasn't able to handle it. I am able to handle ativan a bit better, but it still makes me irritable as heck. Not fun, but at least I have it for emergencies.

My advice? Take it sparingly. If you become dependent on it to help you sleep, your body can actually forget how to naturally fall asleep. (Retraining my brain to fall asleep after no meds was not fun, but necessary to get my sleep back on track. I ultimately went to a sleep doc to help my sleep issues.)

 

[joeylittle]

The very first time I used Klonopin, I was so afraid to take it, I split it into quarters. A 1mg tablet. But actually - .25mg became the dose that worked for me. If it hadn't kicked in enough after an hour, I'd take one other quarter, for a grand total of .5mg. I don't even know what would have happened to me if I took a whole tablet. So, my only advice is, go minimal, and get by with as little as you can - but use it when you need to.

Sometimes it's good to try a new drug like that before you need it in a crisis - just so you have experience already with what it does, and you don't actually start panicking more after you take it.

 

[shimmerz]

I used to be on a search and rescue team, doing wilderness rescue. I was able to do fantastic orienteering / navigation work for our team that helped us find and rescue lost and injured people - and get us all safely back. After starting the Klonopin, I completely lost my treasured sense of direction, and nearly 20 years later, I've not regained it, because of permanent side-effects from the Klonopin. It did something nasty to my brain.

You have no idea how this helps me! I was on crazy high dosages of klonopin for years. I can't figure out where the front door is most days. I had no idea that this was potentially an issue with klonopin. Thank you so much Deer.

 

[shimmerz]

Sometimes it's good to try a new drug like that before you need it in a crisis - just so you have experience already with what it does, and you don't actually start panicking more after you take it.

Smart. Really smart.