Posted by Ivy on October 7, 2002, at 17:01:58
I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder 10 year ago, but I have been anxiety ridden my whole life. I was first put on Prozac and Klonopin 10 years ago. The Prozac gave me such bad side effects, but I was only 18 and I was not aware of which drug was doing me harm, so I just stopped both of them, which sent me into one of the worst panic attacks of my life, so bad that I was hospitalized. I was not well educated on my medications at that time, so I just went off everything. I suffered with panic attacks often and did not want to leave the house even to go to the store or the library, and going to work was the hardest thing for me. This way of life lasted for 4 years. I tried every different kind of anti-depressant, even old fashioned ones, that are hardly used anymore, but I always experience every side effect on the print outs even the weird ones. I didn't want to go back onto klonopin, because at this point I had been doing research and I knew that klonopin would work well for me, but I didn't want to get addicted. I also tried every non-addictive anti-anxiety drug and none of those were strong enough for my level of anxiety, so I went onto the klonopin which I have been on for 4 years. I take 3/4 mg in the morning, 1/4 mg in the miidle of the day, and 1/2 at night, 1 1/2 mg all together, I used to take 2 mg a day, but i've been trying to cut down, because I don't want to be addicted (which I am) to it and in the next 3 years I want to be able to become pregnant with no problems mentally and physically (for the baby). But, it has been 5 months and I can't move down to 1 1/4, which would be my next step. I thought nmk sounded promising with the Ativan, but then Phil sent the info about birth defects in rabbits and that scared me. NMK, may I ask what your diagnosis is and how many mg of klonopin were you taking and for how long? If anyone has had experience with the disorder I have and what other options I have that would be great. I also heard that if I would go onto Valium and then slowly go off of that it would be easier to go off the drugs all together, or for at least as long as I had to. Sorry this is so long.
poster:Ivy
thread:122689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021006/msgs/122689.html