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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by GregMasley on December 7, 2005, at 16:46:16
benzodiazapenes and panick attacks/insomnia
I have been on 10mg nightly of Ambien for the past 8 years for chronic
insomnia which I stopped about one month ago and switched to lunesta
3mg nightly. For the past year I have been on a low 5mg nightly dose of
buspar from my PCP Dr. Ryan at Carefree Family Medicine and Lorazepam
2mg as needed and Viagra 50mg as needed for anxiety/panick attacks and
ED.
My panic/anxiety attacks for some reason became worse this past month
which is the urgent need to have my medication checked. I took three
trips to the ER with extreme panick attacks lasting hours.
At that point, two weeks ago, Dr. Ryan told me to see a psychiatrist
ASAP and put me on Klonopin 1mg twice per day and raised my buspar from
5mg to 10mg three times per day.
So now I am on Klonopin 1mg twice per day, buspar 10mg three times per
day, lunesta 3mg once per night, and lorazepam 1mg twice per day.
I'm not sure what went wrong I was doing so well weaning down off the
medications until a month ago and then out of nowhere my panic attacks
came back worse, extreme and daily.
Any help, advice, looking at my meds, making suggestions would be so
greatly appreciated. I hate being on pills, I just want to wean off and
live like normal again without insomnia and panic attacks. I have been
doing a lot of research on my own for a solution and came across the
Ashton Method online whereby a person can withdraw from benzodiazapenes
substituting valium to curb the withdrawal symptoms.
What is your opinion and could you please help me. Doctor Ryan my PCP
is a GP/FP doctor and I can tell by how he keeps telling me to see a
psychiatrist that he really doesn't want to or have the specialist
knowledge to rehabilitate me.I have somewhat managed to stabilize on:
10mg ambien per night(been on ambien for 13 years for insomnia)
.5mg clonazepam 3X per day(been on clonazepam for one month due to panic attacks which were infrequent up until this past month then started happening everyday)
1mg lorazepam 3X per day(been on lorazepam for one year as needed for panic attacks which were infrequent up until this past month then started happening everyday)At the suggestion of others I cut the lorazepam completely out and switched to clonazepam 1.5mg 2X per day for a day and then
dropped down to clonazepam 1mg 2X per day plus ambien cr 12mg nightly
I have been to three psychiatrists and none of them will give me valium to do The Ashton valium substitution taper MethodNow what do I do?
How do I taper off all three drugs using the Ashton method or any other method?
All at once or one at a time and if so which one first second and third?The only other thing I have been on has been multivitamin and omega-3 and viagra besides the ambien,lorazepam,clonazepam,buspar,melatonin,unisom and calms forte. I have tried removing everything except ambien and clonazepam to rule out it isn't one of the others. Something went wrong a month ago. It started out with trembling if I took my sleep medication: lunesta,lorazepam,buspar,melatonin,unisom and calms forte too soon after taking the viagra on the weekends with my girlfriend who dumped me yesterday after 4 months due to my inability to get up to Denver an hour away to see her enough. Then the big one came one night when I was driving up to see her on October 25th I had to go see her during the week right after work I didn't have time to eat dinner and my stomach was hurting so I took tagamet then I took one half of a 50mg viagra tablet(my normal dose because I felt the other medications were giving me erectile dysfunction) on the freeway half way to see her and I started trembling I pulled over at a gas station and was shaking all over and my heart and breathing were out of control, I took a 1mg lorazepam to try to calm down and it didn't work so I called 911 and took my first trip to the ER with a panic attack they just monitored me and ran tests and everything came back normal and I was released 2 hours later after I calmed down. I picked up my girlfriend and she was mad that I was three hours late but we had a good weekend after she got over that. She can be very demanding both about seeing her and about sex multpiple times because she has a way higher sex drive and is half my age. So then everything was ok until Wednesday when I had an appointment to see my regular GP FP doctor in the afternoon and I was to see my daughters that night for visitation. Well I was in there telling my doctor what happened to me with the viagra and I had a panic attack right there in front of him in his office he had me take a 1mg lorazepam monitored me prescribed higher doses of buspar, more lorazepam some xanex and clonazepam and sent me to radiology to go get tests on my heart and lungs which all came back normal but I missed visitation with my daughters that night. I didn't like the way xanex and clonazepam made me feel but I kept taking the lorazepam then I started keeping a diary of what meds I was taking and how I was feeling and here it is:
11/9 - morning 1mg clonazepam,5mg buspar,1mg lorazepam
Afternoon - .5 clonazepam, 2.5mg buspar, .5 lorazepam
Evening - viagra 50mg
Bedtime - lunesta,1mg clonazepam,5mg buspar,1mg lorazepam
Feeling - ok
11/10 - morning 1mg clonazepam, 5mg buspar
Afternoon - 5mg buspar, .5mg clonazepam
Bedtime - lunesta,1mg clonazepam,5mg buspar,1mg lorazepam
Feeling - ok
11/15 - bedtime 2mg lorazepam, 1mg clonazepam, 3mg lunesta, 10mg ambien
Feeling - ok
11/16 - morning nothing
Afternoon - 1mg lorazepam .5mg clonazepam
Bedtime - lunesta
Feeling ok
11/18 morning 1mg lorazepam,.5mg clonazepam,5mg buspar
Bedtime - lunesta
Feeling ok
11/19 morning nothing
Night time - .5mg lorazepam,.5mg clonazepam,lunesta
Not feeling well panic attack drove myself to ER they monitored me and gave me nothing and released me in 4 hours
11/20 morning - nothing
Bedtime - .5mg lorazepam,.5mg clonazepam,ambien 10mg
Feeling ok
11/21 morning - .5mg lorazepam, .5mg clonazepam
Bedtime - .5mg lorazepam,.5mg clonazepam,ambien 10mg
Feeling ok
11/28 morning, afternoon and night - 1mg lorazepam, .5mg clonazepam, 10mg ambien
Feeling ok
11/29 morning, afternoon and night - 1mg lorazepam, .5mg clonazepam, 10mg ambien
Feeling ok
11/30 trying no lorazepam and 1.5mg clonazepam morning and 1.5 mg clonazepam bedtime with ambien 10mg
Feeling ok
12/1 trying no lorazepam and 1mg clonazepam morning and 1mg clonazepam bedtime with ambien 10mg,unisom,melatonin and calms forte because sleep on Ambien and clonazepam alone has been waking up every two hours hard to go back to sleep and waking up too early in the morning impossible to go back to sleep
Feeling ok
12/4 trying no lorazepam and .75mg clonazepam morning and .75mg clonazepam bedtime with ambien 10mgThere are gaps in my medication diary but I think in the gaps I was just continuing with the same regiment
Gregory Masley
gregmasley@adelphia.net
Posted by blueberry on December 8, 2005, at 17:56:34
In reply to benzodiazapenes and panick attacks/insomnia, posted by GregMasley on December 7, 2005, at 16:46:16
Maybe a serotonin med like zoloft. Maybe a low dose antipsychotic like seroquel or zyprexa. Maybe a mood stabilizer like depakote.
I used to have panic attacks. 2.5mg or 5mg zyprexa, or 50mg seroquel, would prevent them without the need for my usual xanax.
On the natural side, magnesium glycinate could do wonders. Magnesium itself is very calming, but the glycine part of it amplifies it. If it is too much, then magnesium citrate.
Whatever, it just seems to me the whole benzo route is proving to be an indirect and ineffective means of targetting whatever the real underlying chemical problem is...like not enough serotonin, or too much dopamine, or something along those lines. I would look to totally different classes of meds if I were in your shoes.
Posted by gregmasley on December 8, 2005, at 20:30:27
In reply to Re: benzodiazapenes and panick attacks/insomnia, posted by blueberry on December 8, 2005, at 17:56:34
How often and when in the day would you take the seroquel and what were the side effects? Where do you buy magensium glycinate and magensium citrate at?
> Maybe a serotonin med like zoloft. Maybe a low dose antipsychotic like seroquel or zyprexa. Maybe a mood stabilizer like depakote.
>
> I used to have panic attacks. 2.5mg or 5mg zyprexa, or 50mg seroquel, would prevent them without the need for my usual xanax.
>
> On the natural side, magnesium glycinate could do wonders. Magnesium itself is very calming, but the glycine part of it amplifies it. If it is too much, then magnesium citrate.
>
> Whatever, it just seems to me the whole benzo route is proving to be an indirect and ineffective means of targetting whatever the real underlying chemical problem is...like not enough serotonin, or too much dopamine, or something along those lines. I would look to totally different classes of meds if I were in your shoes.
Posted by Declan on January 4, 2006, at 13:35:06
In reply to Re: benzodiazapenes and panick attacks/insomnia » blueberry, posted by gregmasley on December 8, 2005, at 20:30:27
The benzos don't help your sex drive or capacity (at all)and Viagra is pretty rough IMO, and may aggravate panicky unwell states, although you don't take it enough for that to be a problem.
What's more benzos reduce melatonon synthesis, or so I've heard, and may aggravate insomnia.
But what to do?
Declan
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