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← Return to No sleep or sleep meds
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Sleep Health | Last Active: Nov 24, 2023 | Replies (111)
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My psychiatrist told me years ago, when he first prescribed clonazepam, that I should never take more than 2mg in a 24 hour period or I should stop it. I took him seriously and took 1mg - occasionally a .5mg if I was wide awake at 2 or 3am. I set that boundary. When I moved to GA from FL and got a new doctor, she lectured me profoundly on the risks of benzos. She challenged me to decrease my Rx, which I did. Eventually, she moved out of state and the new doctor refused to prescribe them. Sent me to a psychiatrist - young and just out of med school and he was on a mission to get me benzo free. It has been a long road and not pleasant.
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Yeah, well I took 3, got to sleep, I’m still alive and sick and tired of all these fresh out of school doctors who think they know what’s good for me. Obviously I didn’t tell my doctor I was taking all 3 of my rx at once and I’m not going to. I wish they’d get over this addiction/dependency issue. I also am on pain management for degenerative disc disease and I take 2. - 7.5 hydrocodone a day. I don’t think I’m addicted to that either because sometimes if I lay around all day and don’t exert myself, I don’t experience pain so I don’t take it at all. When I had my knee replaced, that hurt like hell and I was on 2 5mg oxycodone for the pain. After two months, the pain was a lot less and I went down to 1 pill each time I needed it. When the pain subsided completely, I stopped taking them. I have never had a problem with these drugs. However, I read something on the internet recently that said people become addicted because of the euphoric effects. Well, I’ve never had a euphoric effect- just a cessation of pain. Maybe that’s why I don’t get addicted because I haven’t taken more of the pain killers than the doctor prescribed and promptly stopped once I noticed the pain was gone. Back to the sleep issue, that’s a tough one. I did take more than the doctor prescribed but I slept without side effects or any drugged feeling upon waking with the clonazapam. I have been on it for years but once the nurse practitioner reduced my dose when the doctor was on vacation and I had a temper tantrum, ripped up the prescription and threw it on the floor and left. Since this was when I was on ambien, I didn’t experience any sleep issues and I also had no problem going without clonazapam for over 4 months other than a return of my anxiety issues. After that time I returned to the doctor and he put me back on the clonazapam at my regular dose. If the ambien had continued working, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now to get sleep. I have tried literally everything since my sleep issues have been doing on since my 30s and I’m 73 now. I wish the ambien still worked.