I need help and advice please

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Hi, im Bobby im 27, I've been dealing with anxiety and panic attacks for a year now. It has gottan worse and worse to the point to where i had to quit my job and move back in with my mom. I was prescribed 0.5mg Klonopin in July and was told by my psychiatrist to only take it if I feel like going to the ER. Ive only taken it maybe 6 or 7 times since then. Everyday I suffer with horrible chest pains that last all day and feel like I am about to have a heart attack at any moment. My mom cant stand to see me in pain and says she ll kick me out if I dont take klonopin everyday. I know that tolerance and addiction comes quick with benzos, and itll eventually add more suffering to my life. I try to explain to her about it, but she just thinks all info on the internet is complete garbage. How can i explain to her the dangers of benzos and whats the best way for me to deal with my chest pain so i am not in hell 24/7??

[Guest [ba...]]

How to explain to your mother?  Let her read some of the horror stories that get posted here daily.

 

Are you seeing somebody (e.g. therapist) to help you develop a non-drug coping strategy for your anxiety??

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Absolutely don't do it! Like badsocref said, find a therapist and work through the issues, use herbs and supplements if you want, but for Gods sakes, don't get addicted to benzos, it is a worse hell than you can imagine. I wish I had immediately taken time off from my job and seen a therapist instead of a psychiatrist when my anxiety and insomnia started, I would have been long over it by now, instead of trapped in benzo hell with symptoms way worse than what I took it for.

Have your mom read the stories on Benzobuddies forum, or have her read Baylissa Fredrick's book "Recovery and Renewal", or "The Benzo Book" by John Hobson-Dupont, you can get a free pdf download at benzo.org.uk

Good luck, stay strong, you will get through this.

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Thanks guys, yeah I was going to therapy, but after a while my therapist was giving up on me, then I had a massive panic attack that led me to be really agoraphobic. So I stopped going. My anxiety and panic was getting so bad even my therapist and doctor were saying I should just go ahead and take Klonopin everyday, but I know in the long run it will just cause more problems. Everyone always says "Oh if your not having a panic attack but you have lots of chest pain just take half daily, you'll be fine". But from the horror stories I read I'm sure taking half would still lead to addiction and tolerance.

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You are right, even small doses can cause big problems.

[Guest [ba...]]

fwiw - my therapist almost gave up on me twice.  She said that she didn't have the time to solve all of the problems that I had found with various people and with the world.  It was a big wake-up call for me to take more responsibility for the way that I 'held' things in my mind.  Initially, it was like she had hit me alongside the head with a baseball bat.  I was stunned for a couple of weeks.  It was like she didn't support me anymore.  In retrospect, she was doing exactly what had to be done.  It was time for me to grow up (to put it bluntly).  I needed to shift my perspective - feed the other wolf.  That started me on a new direction which has worked out very well for me.

 

Don't give up on the therapy thing.  It's way better than getting addicted to these stupid pills.  fwiw - there are probably situation in which there is no alternative to the pills, but I would certainly exhaust all conceivable efforts to deal with your anxiety without pills first.

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Long term benzodiazepines do not work well. They can cause a host of symptoms and tolerance can be reached easily, where doses have to being increased over and over, and at some point they may not work at all. That is what happened to me. They are meant to take very short term...under three weeks. Dependency can develop quickly. We have many members here who are struggling as a result of short term, low dose use.

[Guest [ba...]]

I completely agree with BRC! 

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I know its meant for short term. But what about an as needed average of once a month 0.5mg of klonopin? That shouldnt cause problems right?

[Guest [ba...]]

Theoretically, it shouldn't cause much of a problem (theoretically).

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Don't do it!

 

If you're concerned it's your ticker, ask for ECG/Stress testing/ECHO testing. Make SURE that you're well and it's not an underlying health concern, and then use that positive mental energy and adrenaline to go for jogs/swims/walks.

 

Actually having health problems sucks, as many of us can attest to, but coming off GABAergic drugs at the same time makes life very difficult to stomach. Ask anyone here. Quit while you're ahead, because it's not a long term solution. I know it's easy for me to say, but really, personally I would much much rather deal panic attacks (have had many) than those in tolerance benzo/alcohol withdrawal on top. Hit up an SSRI if you have to. ANYTHING!

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I suffered from extreme panic attacks starting at age 22 for years! I was prescribed klonopin and took a low dose for many years everyday because I believed my Doctor(I also got to the point of not leaving the house). I quit once before maybe 6 years into it and had no withdrawal and I took nothing for 2 years, since I didn't know about withdrawal I started up again thinking it would be easy like the first time. But it was not and now I am in the situation I am in. I have been tapering for over a year and guess what I have not had one panic attack. why? All I can think is the withdrawal is so bad it makes panic attacks seem easy. All the places and people that would trigger an attack has stopped.

 

I also went through those two years easily because I had therapy, back then was called "interpersonal therapy" for panic attacks. Why I went back is that I was unaware of the dangers and thought the pill was harmless, I had a loss and felt it was easier to take the pill thinking I would just stop later.

 

Not everyone has bad withdrawal, lots of people taper like I did the first time. I do think that going off and then going on and then going off has sensitized my central nervous system and that's why I had a hard time.

 

I would not give up about therapy. If it was not helping you then you can try another type, one will work if you work with it.