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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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Curious, how much klonooin do you take? I take maybe 3 mg a week and wonder sometimes if it can be an addiction.
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2 ReactionsNo question about it, you can become dependent (which is a form of addiction, but the legal kind) on klonopin after use of only a few weeks. This drug was only intended for short term usage, around 2 weeks but just like proton pump inhibitors docs kept prescribing it for those it helped. Thats why its so hard to ever get off of this drug if one wants to, it's because your body becomes dependent on it. No different than nicotine etc., hard to break that habit as well. But for those it works for, it seems to be good for them. Wasn't for me. Old docs never understood this, younger ones are taught this!
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4 ReactionsI take 1/2 that amount daily. I have developed a tolerance to it but I do have increased anxiety if I don’t take it. I don’t believe I am addicted because in 18 years I have never increased the dose I take daily and my anxiety is controlled with this dose.
Yes, you can become addicted to it.
The new grad providers don’t have the experience, the empathy and the time to really gather a history and understanding of their clients’s issues. My first provider retired a year ago and he had experience and a great knowledge of which medications would work with my diagnosis. And we had a rapport unlike any other I’d had in my 40 years of depression and anxiety. The two young nurse practitioners I have met and been refused to do anything but taper the Clonazepam are business like and are following theFDA suggestions. I hope the one I see on Tuesday is more understanding.
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2 ReactionsI wouldn’t expect nurse practitioners to be anything but cautious.
As I said before look for a new Doctor who specializes in treating older patients. My experience is that they are more concerned about your overall health and wellbeing.
If you have been on anything for 18 years for anxiety and depression and have never increased your dosage I go back to what I always say. “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it”
People in their late 60’s and 70’s have enough to deal with these days.
A good Doctor should understand that and just encourage you to eat healthy and get in some form of exercise every day.
For me exercise is the key to feeling better. I empathize for me.
Good luck to you.
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3 Reactionsit seems like such a low dosage, I cannot imagine it helping anxiety problems very much.
i was on 6 mg. lorazepam ( 2mg. 3 x per day) for 20 years. my psychiatrist retired 1.5 years ago and I was assigned to a nurse practitioner. seems that her main goal is getting me off lorazepam. I'm now down to 4 mg. per day split 3 days. i am petrified everytime I have to meet with her. i have definitely felt some major anxiety. i have been tried on all the ssris also cymbolta, trazodone and cannot even remember the rest, so many. none of them work for me. i have explained this to her but
she is hell bent on tapering lorazepam. the only drug that has helped me with serious anxiety and panic disorder. i have no idea what to do except suffer through .
my former psychiatrist put me on this medication . it was not something I ever took before or requested specifically.
I'm 71 years old and feel that she should leave well enough alone. i do not have any balance problems or falling.
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1 ReactionI am wondering if records are kept for which physicians prescribe what and how much, and it is now a matter of practicing their license or paperwork needed to justify their prescribing. I get the sense that resistance is self-protective for providers because otherwise it makes no sense to me. I cannot see a liability threat when someone has been stable for years on a med.
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1 ReactionI agree. All I know is that it still can be prescribed just like opioids. I believe it is the discretion of the provider and the practice they are in. That is why I enjoyed going to my psychiatrist of 18 years….he did what he thought was therapeutically needed. It only took the provider I chose, who was not forthright in telling me her goal was to taper, that has thrown me in a tailspin.Ativan seems to be the drug of choice these days because it has a shorter half life
The big problem is finding a psychiatrist. Believe me I have tried. Thanks for your input……I agree with you!
We have an acute shortage of mental health professionals in this state and around the country.
Good luck and try to find someone that actually talks to you and gets to know you. It helps if they can prescribe medications.
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