so I recently had a therapy session in which my therapist said that low vitamin d levels can cause anxiety attacks and depression? I don’t know if I believe that’s I am low on vitamin b and d and took those vitamins on and off and don’t recall them helping me.
Anyone feel better after raising their vitamin d levels?
also can anyone recommend a good mood stabilizer for possible bipolar and unstable mood swings that doesn’t have major side effects like anger and weight gain?
olanzipine caused me major anger issues and irritability from just one sample
Thank you
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reinventingmyself36
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"I don’t know if I believe that’s I am low on vitamin b and d and took those vitamins on and off and don’t recall them helping me."
I don't claim to be an expert on vitamins, but I do know that Vitamin B6 and B12 is good for anxiety, and I do take Vitamin D daily. (the latter due to doctor recommendation)
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If anyone (especially new users/lurkers) are thinking about starting B6/12, I'd suggest starting low, and seeing how your body reacts to that first, before going on the higher dosages.
Because sometimes vitamins can affect your meds. (if you are already taking meds)
I see. Thank. They both help? I sometimes take 2mg-3mg at once which is like overdosing right since anxiety attacks are so severe. Does lexapro help with anxiety too? Sorry to ask so many questions
Any time I hear someone is taking Klonopin, I feel I have to chime in due to my own experience with it. It was prescribed to me more than a decade ago for panic attacks primarily, but I kept taking it for generalized anxiety. I kept taking it for that long because I figured the doctor treating me knew best and didn't question it. It might have helped initially, but for many of those years I don't think it was really helping at all. Then I finally decided to learn more about it, and found that it's only supposed to be prescribed short term. I had already been on it for years at that point.
I finally decided to taper myself off of it after all of those years not really knowing what I was doing as far as a tapering. It turned out to be a disaster, to the point I was feeling as if I was going to lose my mind, and felt I was on the brink of having hallucinations. I really didn't know what was going on but I knew I had to go back on it to stop how I was feeling, and finally found another doctor that prescribed it for me. So I went back on it for many years again, not because I felt it was really helping my anxiety, but just to keep from feeling like I had.
Fast forward, about a year ago I decided to try tapering again, but this time with the help of a doctor. I got down to a certain dose, at which time the doctor said I could quit. About 4 days after doing so, I started to experience the same withdrawal symptoms again that I had many years before. I told the doctor I wanted to go back on a small amount because of how I was feeling. She told me there was no way I was having withdrawal symptoms after being on such a small amount for as long as I had been before quitting, and wouldn't prescribe them for me again. This told me that even some mental health professionals don't know how sensitive some people can be when trying to quit. Needless to say, I found another doctor that prescribed them to me. Looking back I don't know whether that was a blessing or a curse.
Fast forward to 6 months later, I once again was determined to taper off with the help of the same doctor that had been prescribing them for me. I was determined this time, and began a taper that lasted months before finally quitting. I was successful this time, but I've still paid a price and had to go through some tough times with increased anxiety. I still think I'm adjusting to quitting about a month and a half ago.
I found there's many support groups for people trying to quit not only Klonopin, but other benzos as well. One is Benzo Buddies. I've learned that trying to quit benzos can be more difficult than opioids. Something else I learned along the way, is you can generally taper off a larger dose fairly quickly, but it's the last small amount that can cause the real problems.
With all of that said, what people may experience when quitting benzos can be on a spectrum. Even though I went through some rough times with withdrawal symptoms, I consider myself to be lucky because trying to quit without tapering slowly can cause a whole host of problems, much worse than I experienced.
I'm certainly not trying to play doctor here, but after what I've been though I feel I have an obligation to others that may be taking it, and tell my story. As with anything, YMMV. I wish you luck finding something that helps your anxiety, and at the same time isn't something you may pay a high price for down the road.
Thank you Mofro for sharing that. I used to be on Klonopin and I tapered off of it and it was the best thing I ever did. I have been free of the benzos for 6 years now. My heart goes out to everybody still struggling with this. I took Klonopin for anxiety, and found out a benzo addiction can be far worse than anxiety.
You should ask your doctor for specifically what you should do, but here is what I did. I began cutting the pills into pieces. I put myself on a schedule and systematically and gradually tapered off of it. If I remember correctly, I was taking 1/16 of a pill in the end (which is nothing). People talk a lot about withdrawal, but for me, that was dealt with by tapering off so gradually. BUT ALWAYS ASK YOUR DOCTOR before doing this because some extended-release pills should never be cut up.
I take propranolol for PTSD "adrenaline" anxiety, and it seems to help, but you should be careful and ask your doctor how and when to take it. In all honesty, I still have lots of anxiety. But after dealing with Klonopin and its depression causing effects, I decided I would rather just deal with the anxiety. It is not easy. But I am trying to teach myself to treat myself easier. I am also trying to learn to let go and trust in the Power of Good. But sometimes it can be real difficult.
You might also ask your doctor about THC-free CBD. Don't just start using it though without checking with your doctor about interactions with your meds. There are also herbal teas like damiana which help my anxiety sometimes. But again, ask your doctor. Best of luck to you. Sending peace and healing light.
You have amazing patience and strength in tapering off this med. I didn’t realize it causes severe depression which I have. I took propanol long time ago and it didn’t nothing for me. I guess I’m not willing to really treat my anxiety with natural methods yet. Thank you for telling me how you did it. I hope your anxiety gets better. I will def ask my doc how to taper off. I don’t know that I want to but know in long run I will suffer for not getting off of it. Thanks again
thank you for sharing your experiences with this med. I have become addicted to it even though it doesn’t help much. However when I’m off of it I go crazy. Insane trembling, heart racing etc… hearing your story scares me because I’m not ready to give it up. None of the other drugs help me in decreasing my anxiety or in stabilizing my mood.
Maybe I’m stupid for staying on it for over 7 years now but each doc keeps prescribing it to me since other anxiety meds don’t help. I don’t know how to function without it. What are you taking to help with anxiety now?
The symptoms you describe mimic some of how I felt when I tried to taper too quickly, and I would start having withdrawals/rebound anxiety. As Stippler suggested, seek advise from a doctor in tapering. This can become a leap of faith, or it was for me after experiences I had with some doctors. Mainly the one that prescribed it for me for over a decade, and another I turned to for help tapering. Unfortunately, I found that she wasn't very informed about what can happen for some when tapering too quickly.
Even though I agree it's a good idea to consult a doctor, I also think you should educate yourself about it, so when you go to a doctor you'll have a better idea if they have a clue. I found a good way is online forums where they help each when trying to discontinue using benzos or other drugs . Another way is good old YouTube "university" where you can do a similar search.
To me, one of the ways I learned to taper slow enough, was to be very in tune to how I was reacting each time I tapered down. From my mistakes in the past, I knew what to look for and whether things seemed to be getting stable over a set period of time, or if the anxiety was getting worse. If worse, I would try not to go back up in dosage, but keep taking the same dose until things started to stabilize. The key is to not get in hurry and take as long as you need to have a better chance of succeeding. Even though I was working with a doctor, and we devised a tapering schedule, once I started I would monitor how I was doing each day in a notebook. If things were going as planned, I would keep tapering down. But, if I felt I needed to continue the dose I was on longer than planned, I would do that on my own. Doctors may have a general knowledge of tapering off of benzos, but they're not the ones that have to actually go through it.
A couple of things I'd like to add from my own experience. As I stated in an earlier post, I've found that the last fraction of Klonopin is where things can start getting rough. It didn't make sense to me that you could taper off a larger dose fairly quickly (generally speaking as everyone is different) but getting off the last small amount can often be harder. That was my case anyway.
I also found, from trying to quit a couple of times before succeeding, that when I took my last dose and discontinued, it would be around the 4th day before I started feeling withdrawals. From my understanding this is because Klonopin has a long half life, compared to something like Xanax. It takes a while to get out of your system. This is why it's so important to taper as slowly as it takes.
I did something different at the end of my taper this time, which I didn't do when I failed before. After tapering to the smallest dose I could, I would and stay on it for a specified time. If i didn't feel I was getting worse, I would go on to the next phase. Instead of discontinuing like I had before, I would go from taking the same dose once a day, to every other day. I would continue doing this until I felt I could take the next step. Then I would go every third day taking the same dose. I did this until I felt I could go on, and then discontinued. At that point I closely monitored myself, watching for any signs of withdrawal symptoms. I believe taping that slowly made it possible to quit after more than a decade taking it. For some, it may take an even slower taper.
This is just my story which I hope may help yourself and others, when they feel it's best to get off Klonopin. BUT, everyone is different.
As far as what I'm doing now? I wish I could offer you something that might help, but honestly I'm still struggling with anxiety every day. A large part of that is because of a situation I've been in for far too long, but I'm hopeful that when it changes my anxiety will get better. As I've tried to make clear, my primary reason for wanting to quit Klonopin was I hadn't felt it was really helping my anxiety for years. After becoming more educated about it, I learned that it's generally prescribed short term although there's exceptions for everything. I also learned how it could affect me cognitively if I continued to use it, and knew the longer I took it the harder it would be to discontinue. It helped that I was super motivated this time, after failing two other times in the past. Since discontinuing six weeks ago, I honestly think my mind and body are still trying to get back to eustasis. It may take a lot longer, but now that I'm finally done with it I'll never go back.
Hope this helps in some way. I empathize with your feelings about discontinuing. I was the same way. It sounds as if you feel it's doing something for you, when I didn't. You've also experienced some withdrawal symptoms when you haven't been taking it, which can be scary. I know that's the main reason I stayed on it for so long, even knowing it wasn't doing anything for me. I wouldn't say you're stupid for being on it for this long, but rather the doctor's that have prescribed it to you for this long. For me it came down to deciding whether it was doing more harm than good.
Thank you for sharing such a detailed experience that you had with Klonopin.
I think my anxiety is also due to the situations I’m in which I can’t resolve for now. If those situations would be resolved the anxiety would decrease and I could start to slowly taper off drugs. Your right doctors don’t know what it’s like to taper off or from my experience what meds can help me regulate my moods and anxiety.
I will consider everything you shared and find the strength soon to try to taper off by educating myself first and talking to the doc before I do so.
Thank you for your support and great advice!
I hope your situations resolve and your anxiety disappears.
That really is correct about how so many medications differ in how they effect different people. I have a list of around 10 different psych meds, mostly antidepressants that I tried before I got on several that are somewhat effective. That was years of trial & error. It won't necessarily help to change your doctor unless you don't like this one for other reasons. All they can do is trial & error. It would be the same with any new Dr. Every single medication reacts differently for each person.
In regards to the vitamins, B & D3 are extremely important for mood. D3 is especially helpful if you live in a place that gets darker in winter or has long winters. It's the "sun" vitamin. You might take it & not be able to feel any difference but it could still be worse if you weren't taking it. B vitamins also help regulate mood. I'd suggest starting by having your Dr request a blood test for you because they can measure whether or not you're low on D3. I think that's included with any comprehensive blood test. My D level turned out to be low when I had my annual blood test. In fact any Dr should be ordering blood tests for you each year. There might be other factors that could affect mood.
There is a genetics test you can take called "Gene Sight". They have an interesting website. It actually uses your individual genetics to help determine what types of antidepressants might be most effective for you. You can get it & take it through your medical provider. The site says that many insurance's cover it & if you're uninsured it doesn't cost horribly much, maybe around $300.00 which could still save a lot when you consider how much trying different antidepressants costs. (disclaimer, I'm no medical person) It's just something I've read about.
thank you so much for all great and supportive advice! I am def very low on vitamin D and do take the once weekly up to 50,000 mg but stopped. I’ll look into gene testing. So true other docs will prob use trip and error and I’m tired of going thru cycles of changing meds. Hope your doing well
Hey again, the thing that actually helped my mood issues the most was when the provider I was seeing at that point added a med called Abilify. It's an atypical anti-psychotic which sounded scary at the time but it turns out this is fairly common, that those types of meds are added with antidepressents. That was around 14 years ago. I got extremely frustrated with what I assumed were side effects (weight gain mostly) and stopped taking it w/o tapering. The result was a disaster, the bottom slid out from under me so intensely I ended up being admitted to a psych unit for a week while starting back on it. Very strong SI. Sooo. I learned not to do that. Then about a year & a half ago I began developing symptoms of TD, Tardive Diskanesthia, (spelled way wrong) It's when you can't control movements in your facial muscles & for me also my fingers. It's very uncomfortable. I was hoping it wouldn't get worse so this time I told my NP & she suggested a "fast taper" over2 weeks during which she added on Vraylar. I stopped the Vraylar after a week because it felt like it was poisoning me. Just bad. So then after a couple more weeks off the Abilify I again fell into the worst ever depression, way more intense than usual. Finally I was fixating on SI so much my NP said I should go to the ER. One of the hospitals in my city has an actual Psych ED. It's extremely difficult to go & check yourself in. I brought a small bag of things in case I was admitted. I spent 24 hours in the psych ED, very uncomfortable. I did get admitted for about 9 days. The psych unit at that hospital is pretty decent I think, having never been to any other, I ended up with a really helpful & kind psychiatrist. So we added the Abilify back again but in a much smaller dose & it's actually been more effective! I wish I'd tried the smaller dose years ago. Unfortunately I'm still having the TD symptoms. I've tried 2 meds that are specifically for those symptoms & they haven't helped much. I don't dare go off the Abilify again though.
So now for quite a few years I've been on 3 meds for depression, Vibryd, Abilify & Lamictal. I think Lamictal is sometimes used for bi-polar which I haven't been diagnosed with but it seems to help. Vibryd is a newer anti-depressant, I always forget if it's an SSRI or an SSNRI.
I've asked about taking the GeneSight test but I don't think they do it at the clinic I go to. I'd really like to take it, my insurance would cover it.
I've also been on Klonopin for around 20 years. I started on a fairly high dose, I really had no idea how habituated you could become on it. Years later one of my NP's tapered me way down, very slowly which I really appreciated. She took a year to help me taper to a third of what I'd been on, now I'm on half that. A couple of recent providers wanted to take me off, it would not have been my choice to go off completely. There has been a lot of turnover at my clinic so each provider I've had has different opinions on it. For now I'm "safe" with a very small dose as needed. I used to take them regularly. It helps with the TD symptoms slightly. It can be hard to find providers who actually prescribe benzo meds anymore. I highly recommend finding a provider who will help with an extremely slow taper if you need to go off it at some point. It is an extremely addictive med.
You mention taking up to 2-3 milligrams at a time, I can't imagine your provider prescribing them that way. Just be super careful with them! If you do end up changing providers you may end up with one who won't continue prescribing them so keep that in mind.
Apologies for the length of this! Hopefully some part of it might be helpful.
wow I’m so sorry you have gone thru such traumatic things with these meds and going to psych wards. I can’t imagine the pain you’re in. No he didn’t prescribe me taking clonopin like this. I’m supposed to take it 1mg per every 8 hours but it does nothing at that mg so I take more which I shouldn’t. I don’t wanna go on those meds like abilify and zyprexa since weight gain is a huge issue.
Thank you for being so supportive and sharing your experiences. I hope you don’t experience them again.
Have you ever had a vitamin deficiency test that told you that you were actually low on any vitamin? It can be true what your therapist told you, but if you haven't had a test that backed that assumption up, it's only theory.
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