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Tapering off clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: Mar 30, 2023 | Replies (236)Comment receiving replies
Hi Jim...thank you for your reply it makes so much sense that yes for 27 years everything has been just fine...I was me again. The reason I want to wean off it is because I am a nurse and had a seminar about 1 year ago and there is evidence now that being on these benzo's they are finding causes dementia, and I have been a manger of a dementia unit for 3 years and trust me if you work with it you NEVER want to live that life, Its really scarry to think that you could end up that way and have to be that way so I wanted to get off it but after reading your post I think that if I can live in peace and good life then when i am older and it happens to me at least I lived a good life while I still could and do things that I otherwise would have to go through this miserable stuff for who knows how long or if myself will ever come back that I may have to live with the withdrawls for the rest of my life...which is worst ? I thank you dearly for your response for it really got to my thinking why not have say 70 great years and then possibly get dementia due to it or live from now to end of life miserable and still get the disease due to taking it for so many years....you are very wise and have no idea how you have opened my eyes to what makes sense....I cant thank you enough!!! You already have made my day better just by your wisdom, please keep helping people for you really do have a great outlook on this!!! Thank you,thank you~~ Mary
Replies to "Hi Jim...thank you for your reply it makes so much sense that yes for 27 years..."
Hi, Jim is right. Living your best life is the goal of any treatment. If you read the studies done on benzos and dementia you will find that at this time, they don't have any concrete evidence that they cause dementia. There is no direct link because there is a missing piece about the question of whether people started on the benzos later in life because they were already in the beginning stages of dementia. For example, ten years ago my mom started having anxiety issues at age 73. Her doctor put her on xanax .25 3 times a day. This is a very low dose and she usually only took it twice a day. In hindsight, the anxiety was being caused by the onset of dementia/alzheimers and the xanax was added to combat those symptoms. At age 73, the xanax did not cause the dementia. The studies they are currently referring too are having the same difficulty...what came first the chicken or the egg? In the future, they may prove that there is a connection to some of these medications ie: benzos, statins, beta blockers, but for now there is a lot of speculation. I hope you ultimately live your best life in this moment. I have been taking Klonopin for about 15 years 1 mg at bedtime. It has really helped and I too have occasionally tried a slow wean thinking that being off of them is better for me. I always end up back on my 1 mg and am comfortable there, no side effect and no panic attacks at night.
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@mmussak- Speaking from my heart is what I know and this morning when I opened Connect your post was the 1st I saw.
I knew I had to speak into your situation. Thank you for your kind words of assurance! Have a blessed Christmas season.