Posted by Krissy P on April 5, 2003, at 23:52:46
In reply to Re: Any risks with Klonopin (Clonazepam)??, posted by bretbe on April 3, 2003, at 10:48:23
Doesn't addiction involve the use of a mind-altering substance to feel fully functioning, and if cannot function-they may be "addicted"??
Tolerance=the need to take more and more of a med to get a once achieved desired affect at a lower dose.
Am I making sense? lol
just some thoughts,
GREAT TOPIC!!
kristen> The risk is NOT addiction, but dependence which is different. In addiction, one starts to seek it in higher and higher doses due to bulding tolerance and it become a distructive force as one obsesses about the next "fix." Whereas, dependence, as it relates to Klonopin, means you won't want more of it, but it may become extremely difficult to get off of it should you want to quit taking at some time in the future (body/brain has difficulty functioning without presence since it got used to it being in system resulting in withdrawel symptoms, e.g., higher anxiety, dyshporia, etc. trying to get off). This seems more difficult for some, like myself and I have had to accept that I will take it for life...like taking insulin for diabetes. Some people find success in tapering off over 1 to 2 years. But the key here is whether it will help you. If you need it, then by all means don't let it scare you away. Just realize it may be a life-long "friend."
>
> Klonopin and other benzodiazapines are definately the most effective meds for anxiety...no doubts. But since they can cause dependence, some argue to try other meds with anxiolytic properties for SOME individuals. This would include Buspar, and a number of SSRI's like Paxil. Yet many people, like me, find these meds make their anxiety worse. Depending where you are in your trial and how willing you are to suffer longer while you experiment, you may try the others first. But if you want some immediate relief to your anxiety, Klonopin will make a dent in it within a day.
>
> I'm not sure max dosages but I take 1mg and, like someone else said above, it has an anti-depressant effect for me as well perhaps (speculating) because my anxiety is driving my depression. It all depends on the type of anxiety, the type of depression, etc. and as many people can attest to on this board, the words "anxiety" and "depression" are often used to describe a wide range of different kinds of maladies experienced subjectively since we can't put probes into our heads and say, "hey, you're a 9.5 out of 10 on anxiety sub-type II." Besides no probe existing, unfortunately science has not yet broken down anxiety and depression by it's sub-types either. So in the mean time, like all of us here on this board, our brains have become pharmacological play grounds for experimenting psychiatrists purporting to be specialists while having no more knowledge about what will work than the drug rep dropping off a box of samples...that's my experience anyway.
poster:Krissy P
thread:215674
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030402/msgs/216577.html