Posted by Christ_empowered on June 16, 2010, at 23:14:19
In reply to Nardil + Klonopin Advice, posted by angels78 on June 16, 2010, at 21:31:01
hey. Klonopin is a little different from xanax. xanax starts working very quickly and also wears off fairly quickly. Klonopin takes a longer time to start working and sticks around for a while. If you're on long-term, daily Klonopin treatment (which is pretty common for social phobia; if you're looking for PRN use, consider ativan or xanax), a lot of times you just have to take a tablet 2-3x daily. When I was on daily klonopin, all I noticed was the absence of incapacitating fear. That said, after several months I did experience drug-induced depression and my tapering was AWFUL.
One trick, if you're going to be using Klonopin for a while: start the dose out high, about where you expect it to be for the duration of treatment (for SP, that's usually 1.5-2mgs/day, although it can go higher). Take most of it (at least 1mg) with dinner--don't drink any alcohol, please. Because Klonopin takes a while to kick in, you should start feeling drowsy around bedtime. Because Klonopin makes a *terrible* long-term sleeping pill, you'll lose the drowsiness effect within a week or so. Then you can start breaking up that PM dose over the course of the day, with much less grogginess.
There are, of course, options to long-term BZD use. There's therapy, which doesn't work for everyone (I wouldn't do it), but does work for some. There's supplements--high-dose niacinamide (B3) kinda sorta acts like a benzo, only there's no tolerance (tolerance to the sedating effect, not the anxiolytic effect) and it acts as a pretty potent antioxidant in high doses (that's why they put it in wrinkle creams these days). It may also prevent tardive dyskinesia AND help you get more mileage out of any benzos you take, which would probably help keep the doses lower, prevent in-between dose anxiety (a big prob w/ regular xanax use), and make the tapering process go more smoothly. The only that sucks is you have to take it on a regular basis, 3x daily. Doses run from 1.5grams/day up to a max (from what I've seen) of 30grams/day, but the higher doses were more for severe psychotic disorders.
Good luck.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:951280
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100615/msgs/951293.html