new to group and need answers

[[Jo...]]

Hello everyone...to make a long story shorter, I have been on 2mg Xanax XR divided dose every day for at least 16 years.  I felt great for 11 of those years.  Then I suddenly became anxious, tired, and depressed.  When I told my psychiatrist how I felt, he insisted I needed to take an additional .5 around 2 p.m.  I did and felt much worse.  Finally I had to leave his practice because he wasn't taking my insurance any longer.  I found a new psych doc. this past December, 2016.  When I told him what I was taking and how badly I felt, he wasn't surprised.  His comments ran from "who ever put you on this high a dose at your age (81) to "it's the Xanax that's making you feel so anxious".  WHAT??  How could that be? But he convinced me that 2mg. daily was too high a dose for me.  We discussed going off the Xanax XR whenever I was ready...I decided I was ready and off we went.

 

I decided that I wanted to go the compounding route.  However, the compounder, doctor, and I agreed to get a genetic swab test done first to see what psychological meds my body could metabolize without any problems.  Unfortunately the test came back that Valium was not good for me.  Since the XR type of Xanax could not be compounded, they decided to put me on Klonopin as a subsitute for XanaxXR.  That took about a month, starting off a high dose and weaning down to 1.5mg. Klonopin. 

 

I've now been on the Klonopin dose steadily for three week and though it's been that long I still have some pretty bad days...feeling anxious, night sweats, palpitations, rapid heart beats, etc.  I have one more week to go.  On the 21st they will slowly titrating me down from the Klonopin by .125mg a day.  How many days or weeks I will be on that dose before we go lower I don't know yet.

 

Here's my question...has anyone gone this route and can tell me what to expect?  I've felt lousy for so long that I can't remember what it feels like to feel good.  I would appreciate hearing from anyone that can give me something to hang on.  I'm anxious and scared. 

 

Thanks,

litlmom