Feel tormented.

[Jamesaustin81]

I have been off of klonopin for almost 5 months now after about 17 years daily use. I believe my two hardest symptoms are the insomnia and the constant mental torment or just feeling like i am loosing my mind. I started taking effexor to hopefully ease some of my symptoms. I feel very over stimulated and hope this feeling goes away. Has anyone else had any experience with this med?

[Shazamataz]

I wonder if you came off the klonopin too quickly? 17 years is a long time to be on it. I've been on diazepam about 8 months and got halfway through tapering off (very slowly) and my anxiety came back worse than ever so doctor has suggested leaving it where it is for a bit.

I also started Effexor XR on saturday. 37.5 for a week, then 75, then 112.5, then 150.
So far it hasn't made things any worse like the SSRIS did so I feel hopeful.

How long have you been taking Effexor and what dose?

What do you mean by 'medically assisted detox'?

Hope things calm for you soon. I am constantly agitated and it's not much fun combined with total exhaustion.

I've just looked it up and that's quite a high dose to be on. klonopin .5 is equivalent to 10 mg diazepam/valium so 2-3 is like up to 60 mg valium. My understanding is that it would take many months to come down from this dose safely. People are sometimes put on diazepam equivalent and reduce from there at 1mg a week or so. This is all in The Ashton Manual. Others may have a better idea than me.

[Bearinmind]

Are you still on detox? Are you dealing with some withdrawal symptoms? For how much time have you been taking Effexor?

I never have been through detox, but I never had daily use of benzodiazepine either, so I don't know how much my experience can help you.

But when I do have insomnia, what helps me to sleep is not fretting over about it. Like, if I get too focused on going to sleep or getting to sleep I just can't sleep for the life of me, even if I try to bore myself to death. So what I do is just forget about getting to sleep, I go to bed, but not with the purpose to sleep, I go to bed to do something else other than sleep, like turning off the lights and watch something mildly interesting while lying down and relaxing or playing something on my phone. Not with the purpose of sleep, just relaxing a little. Then the sleepness comes naturally in some hour or two. Not exactly fast but at least I manage to sleep (there have been times I just tried to put myself to sleep real hard and still saw the sun rising for another day).

The feeling of losing my mind usually goes down when I try to savor something fully. Like some good food, trying to focus my mind on the good feelings of a good stimulus. Or simply going to procrastinate on a comedy site full of memes so I can have some quick stupid laughs.

Also, not much of an use now, and I don't now how you deal with benzodiazepines like Klonopin now, but here my suggestion for the Klonopin issue: See if you doctor can prescribe to you some very little amount of Alprazolam.

I have used Klonopin sometimes and I hated it, the effects are too strong and too long lasting, that's why a I never used daily. What I use is Alprazolam, another benzodiazepine like Klonopin, but much weaker, with less side-effects and shorter effect duration (11 hours of half-life, compared to 36 hours for Klonopin). I use only 0,25mg and I also always cut the pill in half and only take one half, I only take it to stop a very strong panic attack that I can't deal on my own. With that program, I never got addicted to the drug and I still use it when I need it.

See what you doctor says about small amounts of alprazolam as emergency drug for when you can't stop a panic attack on your own.