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I am currently taking mirtazapine for sleep and appetite which works well for both. I am also taking luvox for obsessive thoughts not working as well. I get some relief from my obsessive thoughts with klonopin, but am afraid to get addicted. Can anyone give me advice?

I can just tell you from 12 years of klonopin use and recently trying to go off cold turkey it is addicting even at low doses over prolonged periods however having said that it is the treatment regiment prescribed by the Mayo clinci in conjunction with elavil for people with sleep disorders and panic disorder who don't do well will SSRI tx so having said that I will never try to go off of it again!

Punky, How often and how much were you taking over the 12 years. My anxiety has been horrible lately and i'm dealing with a deep depression. My docs prescribed the Klonopin before bed to help with some of the middle of the night/early moring painc attacks i'm having. I take only .05mg, but two at night. One during the day if needed. This is all a temporary measure until the SSRI kicks in....hopefully.

I'm currently taking 1mg. of klono 2x daily after becoming habituated to xanax and then ativan. When I talked to my pharmacist, she said that klono. is slower, stronger, and longer acting, therefore taking the body longer to metabolize.

I agree completely about cold turkey. I tried that with ativan and it was sheer hell.

Has anyone tried the new Rx Rozerem(sp?). It's worked for me (though I'm currently taking Ambien CR) and it's supposed to be non-habitforming.
fischee

I take Klonopin on an as needed basis .5mg and my doctor said its more a "mental" addiction than a Physical addiction also tried rozarem and had a really bad reaction - it made me more anxious but I tend to have weird reactions to drugs!

My blood pressure dropped too low when I was using the Klonopin so had to stop. I don't recall any side effects or withdrawal effects when I stopped. I had only been on it a few months though.

12 year of klonpin use + cold turkey = insanity? punky you are lucky you are alive? why didn't you do a taper schedule? klonopin is a very safe drug and does work well. it's not meant to take in emergencies. it's not built to work that way. ativan and xanax are. but klonopin is a maintanence drug. dosed twice a day at .5mg 12 hours apart within 2 weeks it will accumulate in the blood plasma and stabilize. this means. NO panic attacks at all or VERY less intense ones and less occurances of these weaker panic attacks. that with lucinda's program is the key out of all this.... but when whe says exercise daily..do it! when she says eat right do it! lessons 2 and 3 mixed with all the above will eventually bring you back to life. not your old life. a better one!

This seems to be the popular method of Doctors right now. Anti-Depressant with the Klonopin and then stopping the Klonopin when the Anti kicks in.

I love clonazepam. I take 1mg 2x/day.

Has anyone tapered off their anti-depressant and then the anti-anxiety? I'm on both klono (1 mg BID) and 100 mgs. zoloft. I've been off and on zoloft (even quit it cold turkey- no significant side effects), and I don't know why I even started taking it again; I really don't feel like it does much of anything for me.

I'm really curious to know if anyone has had success going this route.

fischee