Emotional dysregulation

[[Ba...]]

Did anyone experience a change in emotional health while taking a benzo and in withdrawal?

[[PE...]]

32 minutes ago, [[B...] said:

Did anyone experience a change in emotional health while taking a benzo and in withdrawal?

Going through withdrawal causes symptoms that can mimic everything from migraine to psychosis. 

[[jo...]]

Yeah I find it hard to explain my emotions from one day to the next. It's usually not good lately. Very common to be emotionally unstable during this. Hoping for windows for everyone and that they stay open forever.

[[Cr...]]

How far off are you again Barbara? How would you best describe examples of how this has affected you?

You were on Klonopin for 23 years, so I imagine that some of your struggle is coming to terms with how intense your emotions can feel after they were supressed for so long. When you couple intense emotions with anxiety that can manifest in racing thoughts and can feel as though you are losing your mind.

Whether you are about ready to cry from just dropping a spoon or feeling strong rage at not being able to find your keys, it is a very common to have sudden emotional fluctuations and intensity spikes during withdrawal/recovery.

Along with anger and sorrow, you are also probably dealing with intense fear. Fear that this is permament. Fear that you are the only one facing this issue. Rest assured, it is common to have these fears and emotions. Many have dealt with them, myself included.

[[Ba...]]

Croon, can I ask you a tapering question. Along with stopping my klonopin 9 months ago after 23 years.  I am also started decreasing my trazadone. I dropped my dose by 5% about 3, ago. On the next drop,  I want to go down another 5%. Do I drop from my original dose or from the dose I am currently on?

[[Cr...]]

18 minutes ago, [[B...] said:

Croon, can I ask you a tapering question. Along with stopping my klonopin 9 months ago after 23 years.  I am also started decreasing my trazadone. I dropped my dose by 5% about 3, ago. On the next drop,  I want to go down another 5%. Do I drop from my original dose or from the dose I am currently on?

For benzos the general guideline is to do a % based cut on each remaining amount, not the original amount. For old ADs like Trazadone, there may be more room to work with before you reach the threshold where a cut badly affects you. What that means is you may be able to do Trazadone cuts either way depending on your goal.

If your goal is to get off of Traz more quickly due to the meds side effects, then 5% off original dose for each cut would be better. If your goal is to come off with little to no withdrawal no matter how long it takes then doing 5% based on each remaining dose is the better way to go. While trazadone is generally viewed as not as difficult to withdrawal from as benzos or other ADs, there are still lots of people that have issues with this med if they withdrawal too fast after having used it for quite awhile.

Are you on any other meds Barb?

[[Ba...]]

No im not on anything else   I was just thinking that I feel so bad now, why wait and have to do a separate withdrawal from trazadone   I m thinking get it over with.  What do you think?

[[Cr...]]

12 minutes ago, [[B...] said:

No im not on anything else   I was just thinking that I feel so bad now, why wait and have to do a separate withdrawal from trazadone   I m thinking get it over with.  What do you think?

That all depends on your own constitution and what you can handle. From what I have just read from people that had trouble withdrawaling from Trazadone, they often didn't feel the effects of major cuts (25% or more) until several weeks later (about 6).

So if you do decide to come off Trazadone with a 5% or %10, it seems you may know how tolerable the rate is about a month later.

Just listen to your body and make adjustments accordingly. Who knows, you may even see improvements in how you feel as you get lower.

The guideline i found on Survivingantidepressants.org suggests 10% cuts. Since you want to do half that I think you will do just fine.

[[Ba...]]

Thank you for answering.  I’m not sure what the right thing to do is.  All I want to do is feel better. I’m not even 1% better yet. So I have to think about this.