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I have been in Clonazepam 0.5mg TID for 18 years
My psychiatrist retired and I was left to find a replacement. It seems there are a majority of nurse practitioners these days taking patients as providers, many do not take insurance. I found a nurse practitioner with a very good educational background. I saw her in person and she renewed the medications I was in for 6 months. Next month we had a zoom meeting and she told me she wanted me off the Ambien and Clonazepam because I would get dementia or Alzheimer’s with long term use. She insisted I start tapering against my will. I had school phobia in grade school, began having depression symptoms in my 20’s, and in my late 20’s had two major panic attacks. I have been depressed with anxiety most of my adult life. I have been hospitalized twice because of this. I have never asked for an increase in dosage of Ambien or Clonazepam fur 18 years after I found a wonderful psychiatrist who was so good at medication management.
Now, tapering Ambien and Clonazepam I have started self mutilating by picking my fingers raw until they bleed. I can’t sleep at night, I have become socially phobic. I have become isolative and often think of suicide with no plan. I am 73 years old and I think it is so cruel to put me through this when all I want is to have quality of life, not quantity. I live with my husband in adult senior living which I have not adjusted to. Taking these meds away has decreased my desire to exercise and my endurance is decreasing. My new provider told me if I didn’t want to taper my medication that I should find a new one provider. I did manage to taper the Ambien but I am down to half of the Clonazepam and feel like I can’t go on. Please help me. I am on Paxil and Wellbutrin for depression but it is anxiety and insomnia making my life miserable. I am not the same person I was a year ago.
I feel miserable, she has destroyed any quality of life I had. I really don’t want to live anymore.
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I didn’t have any choice but to switch to a cash only physchiatrist and I live in a large city. Good luck!
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2 ReactionsI do not agree with the provider that told you your body knows how to be calm. This for me has been a learned new skill set that I always work on. The amgydala in the brain is linked to the fight flight fear fawn response. The process to calm the brain and body can be complex. The constant trauma and stress from the current events are not normal yet we have been socialized into go go go. I like deep breathing meditation reading books nature sounds especially blowing wind. I was tapered of klonopin in 2018 with success but I was learning mama new coping skills. One of my primary ones is the ability to say no.
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2 ReactionsPropranolol is one of my regular blood pressure meds.
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1 ReactionI understand. It is a very hard thing and I’m still adapting.
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1 ReactionI am on Metoprolol for skipped heart beats. I would have to talk to my cardiologist first.
Thanks for the ref to Mendelson!
All I keep saying is if it works keep using. I have spent 40 years looking for an antidepressant that works. No luck, I keep trying. But the clonazapam helps. No way I'm stopping it. Dementia and all that I don't believe is caused by this. A chance maybe, but how many get it anyway. Tired of suffering now!!!!!! Could pass tomorrow, right!!! I was tapered for only 6 days. Now I have permanent balance issues and tremors.
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3 ReactionsI hope my new provider will prescribe it as previously. The taper ‘s most annoying side effects are feeling short of breath, chest discomfort and palpitations. Shortly after I take it, about 1/2 hour, I feel fine.
Permanent balance issues and tremors don’t seem likely after a 6 day taper, maybe a rapid cessation of benzos? Certainly a response to a fast taper rather than a very slow, gradual one that is advised. It sounds like you might now be taking clonazepam again so hopefully those issues resolved for you. I had balance issues that I didn’t realize were due to clonazepam until I was off it. No falls in over a year. Good luck on keeping a doctor in the loop with prescribing it for you.
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2 ReactionsHow horrible for a doctor to change your med after all those years! I’m so sorry… Can you choose your doctors? Call first .. straight out ask if they have issues with prescribing clonazepam. Some do and some don’t.