clonazepam and me

[ECadet]

Hello everyone im new to This forum and Have been struggling with seizures and Aldo much anxiety for a long time. I Have a very hard time remembering names expériences and so on and i think This started before This medication but obviously it hasnt benefited me in This regard.

The main problem im having is now that ive moved to a different province i cantfind a family doctor that is willing to prescribe The medicine and ive been having an awful time having to run to walk ins Every two weeks for a remedy. Ive been hospitalised after having a rather bad seizure falling on my Head and severe panic attacks.

I cant even bother to go into a doctors office now because im immobilised and really distraught. Im getting to discouraged to do it anymore and i shake constantly. I think if This continues im gonna be critically incapable of living my life.

Well i just like to talk with other people who have similar problems and to get encouragement. Thanks if you visited my thread and god bless.

 

[jyearta]

Hi ECadet and welcome to CWE.

I am also taking clonazepam (klonopin)

I'm taking 0.5mg 1/2 tablet every 4 hours (around the clock) except at 10:00Pm I take a whole one.

This also helps with panic attacks and anxiety for me.

I have been on this medic. since 2004, was put on it by FP for sleep. Then my neur. increased the dose (every 4 hours) instead of adding a third medic.

I too have had shaking, however I found (through this forum) some was a result of caffine, and also part of the reason I was not taking my medi. every 12 hours.

If you don't mind me asking. How much do you take? Are you on any other med. along with it?

 

[ECadet]

No I'm not on any other meds which is why im frustrated. I've been on it a long time and i need it to control my symptoms. The doc who originally prescribed it had me on .5mg twice a day(morning and night). Over the years its increased to 2 mg in the morning and .5 at night. A seizure i was hospitilised for happened when i moved from b.c. To nova Scotia and once againwas without medical support. Now im in southern Ontario residing and have no support again. I literally have to go to several walk ins a week just to get enough meds to last me a month. The dispensing fees take a big chunk of my budget as im not covered in this province and have to pay out of pocket x.x

 

[ECadet]

Sorry for the double post im on a cell phone and it messes up once and awhile.

Anyway I think the reason my original doc chose clonazepam was because as you say it controls my generalized anxiety and seizures all in one. I now realize in some provinces they classify it as a narcotic(even though its non narcotic but habit forming). I wish I could be on a lower dose of it and on a different med for my seizures. Some comparison of different meds that can be taken with the one im on would be of great help as it might be easier to get on a lower dose of clonazepam with another med then to rely soly on the one med.

Thank you for the warm welcome i like this forum already. Have a great day

 

[Ruth]

Hi Cadet,

I am on 1 mg. of clonazepam 4 times a day. I am on 4 other medicines for my epilepsy, as well.

Be sure and take Complex B vitamin once a day. Medicines deplete the B vitamin out of our system.

This is a great forum. It was made out of love by Bernard for him wife Stacy. That love permeates throughout the whole forum. You get the support and help you need. You have found the best forum for epilepsy in the internet.

If you double click, you will post twice. I have learned that a single click is what we do here to prevent that from happening.

 

[jyearta]

Ruth, I so glad you brought up the B-complex. ECadet this is very important.

I had been complaning of feet going numb, fatigue, etc. to my doc. -he would set there and said MMM

Then when my feet starting go numb and the fatigue I complained of since 2007. It was early in 2010 that my Neur. said O this could be B-12 deficiency.

I give myself the shots every week now (NEW NEUR.) at a low dose. I can not handle the shot at full strenght.
About two weeks ago, I was sick and tired or feeling sick and tired, I got in car, not knowing where I would wind up. I NEEDED HELP. And these Dr. don't listen.

My 1st. stop was town Pharm. they told me to also take the B-complex, if he hadn't help me I don't know what I would have done.

It was on this forum that I read about diff. people taking Vit. B

Yes clonazepam is habit forming, and I have had a Dr. to refuse to see me because I was on it.

I told him that I will be on med. for the rest of life for E. and that NOW I was already addicted and at my age, I am not willing to change.

Now saying that, I don't know what is going to come my way.

 

[sexyguy]

here for a friend

Hi I have a friend that has seizures and thats on clonazepam and has anxiety just looking to under stand more and learn to help him if I can and I hope i can thanks

 

[Endless]

If you feel anxiety or are having panic attacks, anxiety meds are important. Anxiety could be a seizure trigger. It could also be a result of the seizures, or the meds. Hard to tell.

Clonazepam (Klonopin) is not the best choice for daily long-term treatment because the body does become dependant upon it, even more so than other anxiety drugs. Other anxiety meds are also anti-depressants, which will do double-duty. Ask your doc for something other than the Klonopin.

Lots of people in here use Klonopin as a rescue med for anxiety, and use it 2 times a week or less. I've heard that that amount of usage usually doesn't result in dependency.

http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/reports/depression_anxiety/59-1.html

 

[elizzza811]

I feel for you. I was on Klonopin for anxiety for probably close to 15 years, almost non-stop. I think I was up to 1mg twice a day? Back in 2005 though I ran into some problems finding a doctor willing to prescribe it, at least finding a doctor willing to prescribe it without a counseling stipulation. In other words, go to counseling and we'll give you Klonopin, otherwise have fun with your anxiety! So I got tired of begging for it and feeling like a drug addict, said screw this and came off of it on my own, kept trying to convince myself that what I was feeling was just 'Klonopin withdrawal', only to realize last December (when I ran my car off the road) that the 'Klonopin withdrawal' that had not gone away in almost 6 years was actually a seizure disorder.

I'm still not sure if I had an underlying seizure disorder all along and that's why Klonopin helped so much, or if coming off this medication pretty abruptly on my own (to hasten the hell of withdrawal) created a seizure disorder. I either forgot to ask my neurologist or asked her and forgot her answer. But does anybody know? I know that coming off Klonopin abruptly might cause seizures. But would it cause a life-long seizure disorder? Sometimes I honestly think that I still need to be on Klonopin...this teeth-clenching of mine has persisted for 6 years now and is outright unbearable. But I never ever want to go through the humility of having to beg haughty doctors for this medication again. I thought it was cruel for my doctors to have left me hanging with a medication they had prescribed for so many years, a medication known to cause dependency. I also don't think my doctors even realized there was a distinctive difference between dependency and addiction because they were all just too ready to nail me to a cross.

 

[jyearta]

I am sorry to hear what you are going thrown.
I didn't know that people have so a hard time getting needed medic.
I am also on clonazepam 0.5 mg a total of 2 1/2 tablets a day.
I was 1st. given this by my FP 1 tablet for sleep. I had been on Tranaze(spelling) before that.
I did not know that it was addictive, nor did I know that when my neru. added 1/2 tablet every 4 hours.
I have tried to slowly come off, only for that to throw me into a MESS that was horrible.
My thinking is that I will be on seiz. medic. for the rest of life. and now that I am addicted, why stop. I'm going through enough with E. and medic.

Reading you post, it sounds as if you did not seizures before, just anxiety. I don't know if it could cause to start having you seizures.

I can see why it could, being that is for anxiety, and anxiety can be a trigger, then adding to that stopping a drug like this.

Can you call another Dr. or get an appt. with a Neur?
You really need to know what you are dealing with.

 

[elizzza811]

I'm seeing a neurologist right now because of my seizure disorder, but I'm afraid to even suggest Klonopin to her. I've tried asking other doctors for it (back in 2005 anyway, after that I gave up) and none of them would bend on the counseling stipulation. Thing is I never abused this medication. In fact, at times I'd even miss a dose and forget until the next one was due. I never sold it either. And all of this could have easily been investigated had there been any suspicion.

I'd never been required to see a counselor to obtain this medication before this in all the years I'd been on it. I almost regret telling a doctor that I thought I'd become 'dependent' on it, that every time I'd tried to come off of it my anxiety and other symptoms would escalate to unbearable proportions. From that point on they'd treated me like a drug-seeking drug addict, even to the point of using the term 'doctor-hopping' in my records. One doctor even had the audacity to write 'drug addict' in my medical records outright.

I don't know if I had any seizure disorder before all this. I know I'd experienced what I'd been referring to as 'dizzy spells' (spells which just so happen to occur just prior to the seizures I know I'm having today). And I know I had one 1-hour EEG back then that had come back 'normal', but even after crashing my car 6 years later it had taken a 3-day EEG to confirm any seizure disorder.

 

[jyearta]

Oh this just makes me see RED...

YOU ARE NOT A DRUG ADDICT.

Clonazepam is listing on the internet as a medic. to treat epilepsy.

can you get a copy of your medic. records? If you go to a new neur. they can request your records, then you will not have to pay for them.

How Can they call themselves doctors and treat someone like this.

They know these drugs, why do they give them to us to begin with.
It's not we watch a TV commer. for it and went in asking for it.

knowing that is addictive (i do hope no one else goes on it) having said that it has help me w/ depression, sleeping.
What are they going to tell us about the other medic. long term use.

If I don't make sense, - I typing as fast as I can. --I am so mad at this DR.

I don't know if it was in this post where i said that one neur. refused to take me on as a new patietn. unless I agree to go into hosp. to be taken off clonazepam. I refused. Then as he was leaving the room, he looked back at me and said "you even have swollen ankles, I wouldn't touch You."

Why would they even thing you were selling this?
It looks like something should be done to this dr. I mean jerk

I'll shut up

 

[Endless]

Klonopin is a benzodiazapine, and is a seizure rescue medication that works well for myclonus and absence seizures It is less effective against partial seizures, and isn't indicated for that use. If you have partial seizures, that's probably why your doc won't give it to you for seizure control. For that reason, and for the reason that it creates a dependancy on the drug, and that's one more thing you have to deal with. But your doc probably would give it for an occasional anxiety rescue med, if you asked. But then again, there are better drugs for that which don't create as much of a dependancy issue.

How well does Clonazepam work?

Indications for clonazepam
http://www.epilepsy.com/medications/p_clonazepam_indications

Clonazepam is useful alone or as an adjunct in the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (petit mal variant), akinetic and myoclonic seizures. In patients with absence seizures who have failed to respond to succinimides, clonazepam may be useful.

Other uses for clonazepam
http://www.epilepsy.com/medications/p_clonazepam_other

Clonazepam is indicated for the treatment of panic attack, with or without agoraphobia, as defined in DSM-IV. Clonazepam is sometimes used off-label to treat movement disorders such as Tourette syndrome.

In a few rare cases clonazepam can actually bring on seizures:

Alvarez N; Hartford E, Doubt C (April 1981). "Epileptic seizures induced by clonazepam". Clin Electroencephalogr 12 (2): 57–65. PMID 7237847
Ishizu T, Chikazawa S, Ikeda T, Suenaga E (July 1988). "[Multiple types of seizure induced by clonazepam in an epileptic patient]" (in Japanese). No to Hattatsu 20 (4): 337–9. PMID 3214607.

 

[elizzza811]

I'm equally as angry at the doctors who refused to continue this medication without counseling, especially since they knew the dangers of my discontinuing this medication on my own - something I was outright and angrily threatening to do.

One of my family doctors (way back when), who had noticed my neurologist had put me on this medication long term, had actually asked me if I'd needed refills at my one appointment. I forget what the maximum amount of refills is on this medication (1 + 5 refills?), but that's what he gave me - the max number of refills. I remember walking out of his office that day thinking...wow, glad I'm not a drug addict, as I still had like one refill left from my neurologist. I wouldn't have been able to get any of these filled sooner or gotten multiple scripts filled at once, but his willingness to openly offer me refills without question led me to believe he trusted me.

His colleague was one of the doctors who, years later, refused me this medication and was requiring I 'remain active in counseling' to obtain it. Thing is I'd never been in counseling to 'remain' in it. I tried to get around his colleague by asking this first doctor to prescribe it as he had done in the past, but nope, he supported his colleague in his decision to require counseling as if I'd imagined his writing me 6 months worth of prescriptions in the past, pretty much at every visit, as if he was handing out candy.

 

[ECadet]

not feeling good about being on such a high dose of clonazepam after reading that everyone else is on 1/2 mg 1mg etc. i went into the docs shaking furiously, i couldnt stop the shakes. so now i got a full month script. But i asked for another med and to lower my dose if he could get me on less addictive anti seizure meds; and he wasn't willing.

It should be illegal for docs to deprive patients of there meds when you have been on it so long. I actually lucked out in getting the script as they hardly ever prescribe a months supply in walk-ins, other words i would have to take seizures. I have heard that it is far easier to get a script for percocets and other opiates than it is benzos. Really is frusterating and senseless.

 

[Nakamova]

Can you find a different doctor? Your current one sounds less than helpful.

 

[jyearta]

Has anyone had to increase their clonazepam over the years.

I know that this medic. is for annxiety, and it has BEEN doing a good job. However the anxiety, that I'm going threw now (was bad yesterday) I felt like I couldn't take it, there had to be something I could do to help myself. I took a extra fouth of a tablet of my clonazepam, and that seem to help.

My memory and concentration are bad already. When reading inform. on the internet, I'm having a hard time grasping what it is saying. --so saying that I understood on the internet that after taking clonazepam for a long time, you need to increase to get the effect that you got in the beginng.

I know I have a Dr. to ask- however I'm in the middle of changing AGAIN for the 10th time. He put me on an depression med. that has only been on the market since the 1st. of this year. and the infor. on it said that if you have reactions to it. THAT you would have bad withdrawals getting off of it. The (few) reviews I read, the people didn't like it. Causes insomnia, which if a trigger for me.

I am already addicted to this medic. and it has helped me when other seiz. medi. did not. Boy do I hate that word ADDICTED.

 

[elizzza811]

I used to be on Klonopin...it helped a lot, and yes, I did need to increase it over the years...I think I was on like 2 or 3mg daily at the end there? I cold-turkeyed it back in 2005 because doctors refused to prescribe it unless I agreed to counseling. In fact, my records read 'drug addict' because I was stupid enough to walk in there and tell them that I thought I'd become 'dependent' on it...every time I'd try to wean my anxiety would go up.

I wouldn't say you're addicted though...you're 'dependent' on Klonopin, and it's a crime that doctors don't make that distinction. My neurologist thinks that the reason Klonopin helped my 'anxiety' all these years was because I had an underlying seizure disorder all along. I really think Lamictal isn't doing all it should for me...they had to increase it recently. And it's certainly not helping anything near what Klonopin did. I guess I have to 'grand mal' for them to consider putting 'drug addicted' me on Klonopin again though...

 

[ECadet]

im on frisium now and 1mg clonazepam.

it's helping better and i'm getting a new mri in two weeks(finally got a doc that listened).

anyone else on frisium? it's a benzo to but not sedating i feel alot less lethargic. (clobazam is the generic).

 

[jyearta]

As you have read in prev. post of my, I am also on clonazepam.

I am on a total of 3 1/2 daily. I take 1/2 tablet every four hours but at bedtime I take 1.

I have been reseaching anti-anxiety drugs and found that they can cause someone to have hostility and rage, aggressive behavior.

These are the exact things I am going through. I have blame these issues on the B-12 shots, they show up right after my shot.

However these are the same side effects as I have found with B-12 deficiency.

So, I don't know what I'm dealing with.

________________

How much clonazepam did you take? Are you having a hard time reducing your dose?

I tried reducing clonazepam every 5 hours a few months ago, hoping this would help with my fatigue. I was reducing daily intake only 1/2 of a tablet a day. Boy was the worry thing to do-- didn't work at all. Sent me into a DEEP depression.

I hope you have good luck with Frisuim.

Let me know if that works for you.

Sorry for the long post.