Klonopin To Xanax

[Grace511]

So about a week ago my doctor switched me from 0.5 mg of klonopin three times a day to up to 3 mg of xanax a day. With the xanax I usually take half in the morning, half at lunch and a whole at night because my anxiety is very bad when it comes to falling asleep. However, I have noticed I am not sleeping as well on the xanax. Should I take one and a half at night?

Also I take my half at lunch around two and by six Im shaking is this normal?

In the morning I take my half at 7 but don't notice myself shaking at work.

Any advice or suggestions?

 

[franciemarnie]

I wonder if by chance the shaking is related to getting off the Klonopin. When I didn't take it, I shook for a couple days and had trouble sleeping for a while thereafter.

I'd ask the doctor to be safe as far as administering different doses and any questions. I hope you can get some quality sleep soon!

 

[presentjoy]

I'm using generic names because internationally these drugs are not all known by xanax and klonopin.

Half life of alprazolam (generic for xanax) is shorter than the half life of clonazepam (generic for klonopin). In essence, alprazolam reaches half the concentration in your bloodstream more quickly, therefore it "wears off" more quickly. Without knowing drug equivalency, even if you were on the same equivalent dose of alprazolam, it wouldn't last as long per dose as clonazepam. Hence withdrawal effects. Hand tremors can be a pretty common withdrawal effect.

I was going to post a link to a half-life chart, but I'm getting some error that tells me not to include email addresses in a post. I guess it means no links. Oh well.

Each benzo can affect each person differently. So my experience on alprazolam won't be yours, even if we had the same experience on clonazepam. Which we probably didn't.

Your doctor is the only person who should really advise you on how to take your meds. The only general rule is to try and keep any med in your system as consistently as possible, which can mean spacing the doses out as much as possible. However when a drug has such a short half-life, the only thing might be to increase frequency of the dose. That can be more effective than increasing the amount you take in any one dose (but that can also help).

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm concerned that you're taking them every day around the clock. I think the shaking is a withdrawal symptom, indicating that you may grow dependent on these pills. I never slept well on Xanax, but did sleep well on klonopin.