I have a sever panic disorder and is it safe for me to just stop taking klonopin?
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at
6:35 am
I just started Klonopin on Wednesday and Saturday my mom made me stop taking it because she said I was acting blurred and sleepy! And I was sleepy, but the doctor said after two weeks he’d knock me down to .5 mg, if I still had these side effects. Anyway to convince my mom to let me back on them?
Tagged with: Disorder • just • Klonopin • Panic • safe • sever • Stop • taking
Filed under: Panic Disorder
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I have panic disorder too, but I only take Klonopin when I am really anxious. Maybe try a different medication that doesn’t make you sleepy. Ask your doctor about it. I found that Lamictal worked well for my anxiety, but it gave me headaches. I stopped taking it and am starting Topamax tomorrow. There are plenty more options out there fore you.
Since you have been on it such a short time, you should be okay to stop it. However; normally you should not abruptly stop taking a medicine such as klonopin. Did your doctor not explain to you and your mom that you would be kinda out of it for a few days to a week? You should call your doctor and let them know that you quit taking it, maybe they can call and speak with your mother. Klonopin helps with panic disorder as well as GAD but it takes time for your body to get used to taking it.
if the doctor tells you do then do it… but don’t have your mom do it she is not a doc. I would make a doc. appointment right away!
I’d take some sort of a dose daily anyhow, maybe half the prescribed dose and see do you hit the right balance. Amazingly, these types of drowsiness tend to fade after a week anyhow (tolerance) so on the drs. dose you’d probably lose the drowsy side effects eventually.
Its probably important to take them at this stage though as their main use I presume is to get you over a short period maybe 2-6 weeks while an antidepressant starts to work ( these meds take time to start working but your clonazepam works immediately). Thus clonazepam will stabilise you immediately and will be withdrawn(slowly) as the second medication eg lexapro/cipramil begins to work and reestablish calming pathways and anxiety damping pathways in your brain.
If you’re about to fall down a stairs with stupor I guess I’d try and reduce the dose a little bit but I wouldn’t do anything dramatic and I’d also phone your doctor just to tell him what you did.
No, No, No, No, and No :)
Negative emotions (like sadness, stress, anger, etc.) causes your Serotonin production to be low; when your Serotonin level is low, you are more prone to getting Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, etc.
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI – Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There’s this strange herb called “St John’s Wort” – it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John’s Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced… you have that “learned behavior” in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior – Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction… There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to….
Extracted from Source.
Panic disorder is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. These sensations often mimic symptoms of a heart attack or other life-threatening medical conditions. Panic disorder is treatable through ongoing interventions provided by a child’s medical practitioners, therapists, school staff, and family. These treatments include psychological interventions (counseling), biological interventions (medicines), and accommodations at home and school that reduce sources of stress for the child. Panic disorder is caused by the recurrence of attacks that subsequently creates an ongoing fear of having another attack. The ongoing fear then leads to extreme avoidance behavior of people, places and situations in order to prevent having another attack.
http://simplyfreenow.info/control-panic-and-anxiety.html