Benzos Librium VS Clonazepam

[ivorymoon]

My old doctor used to prescribe me 3mg of Xanax a day. It worked wonderfully for my severe anxiety/panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I moved to another state and therefore starting seeing a new doctor. She wasn't willing to give me Xanax due to the fact that I also take Suboxone but she did prescribe me 1mg of Clonazepam a day.

I desperately wanted (and needed) it to work for me but it just doesn't. It hardly touches my anxiety, even when I take it sublingually. 1 mg is the maximum dose she's willing to prescribe to me. I also take Lexapro (depression/anxiety), Lamictal(depression/anxiety), Clonidine (anxiety), Elavil (sleep), and Vyvanse (severe exhaustion/improved mood/concentration/focus).

Since the Klonopin isn't working for me, I was thinking of asking her to switch me to the equivalent dose of Librium, which I've read is 50 mg.

However, before I ask about switching, I was curious about others experiences with Klonopin and Librium.
Which one worked better for managing your anxiety?
Which one did you find you developed a tolerance more slowly to?


Thank you so much in advance. I'm just desperately trying to get my anxiety to a point of being manageable rather than crippling/paralyzing.

 

[Mizotlangval]

It must have been hell dropping from 3mg xanax to 1mg clonazepam.I have serious lifelong anxiety disorder too so i can understand the Fears .
The only thing i know about librium is it takes forever to kick in ,so if you're used to anticipating your level of anxiety and take a pill accordingly, librium might not be very good at that,but it has a very long half life.If i were you id prefer the clonozepam and try to convince your doc to up your dosage .

 

[Nicomorphinist]

What exactly was the doctor's stated rationale for not giving you Xanax? From what I hear, clonazepam is the most popular benzodiazepine for potentiating opioids including making a given amount of opioid last longer. 1 mg of clonazepam is quite a step down from 3 mg of alprazolam. What a quack.

I do know of someone who used difenoxin, clonidine, and clonazepam to make her one days' worth of Dilaudid (16 of the 8 mg tablets) last for eight days, sort of like the Maccabees with the lamp oil in the second temple in Jerusalem back in the day.

 

[MJ420]

What exactly was the doctor's stated rationale for not giving you Xanax? From what I hear, clonazepam is the most popular benzodiazepine for potentiating opioids including making a given amount of opioid last longer. 1 mg of clonazepam is quite a step down from 3 mg of alprazolam. What a quack.

I do know of someone who used difenoxin, clonidine, and clonazepam to make her one days' worth of Dilaudid (16 of the 8 mg tablets) last for eight days, sort of like the Maccabees with the lamp oil in the second temple in Jerusalem back in the day.

Oddly enough in my country Canada clonazepam is the first benzo you would get if on methadone. Im on .5 3x a day on methadone but my doctor wouldn't switch me to lorazepam or a shorter acting one because she said they were not safe with methadone. They also hand lyrica like crazy to people on methadone. Most doctors know f all about the drugs they prescribe .

 

[Zeketgw]

My old doctor used to prescribe me 3mg of Xanax a day. It worked wonderfully for my severe anxiety/panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I moved to another state and therefore starting seeing a new doctor. She wasn't willing to give me Xanax due to the fact that I also take Suboxone but she did prescribe me 1mg of Clonazepam a day.

I desperately wanted (and needed) it to work for me but it just doesn't. It hardly touches my anxiety, even when I take it sublingually. 1 mg is the maximum dose she's willing to prescribe to me. I also take Lexapro (depression/anxiety), Lamictal(depression/anxiety), Clonidine (anxiety), Elavil (sleep), and Vyvanse (severe exhaustion/improved mood/concentration/focus).

Since the Klonopin isn't working for me, I was thinking of asking her to switch me to the equivalent dose of Librium, which I've read is 50 mg.

However, before I ask about switching, I was curious about others experiences with Klonopin and Librium.
Which one worked better for managing your anxiety?
Which one did you find you developed a tolerance more slowly to?


Thank you so much in advance. I'm just desperately trying to get my anxiety to a point of being manageable rather than crippling/paralyzing.

They are similar drugs because of their long half-lives but there are some differences. Klonopin claims to have a duration of action of 6-12 hours. Half life is up to 50 hours. The difference between the duration of action and half life is duration of action tells how long you feel the effects of the drug. Half life describes how long it takes for 1/2 of the amount taken to leave your body. I cannot stress this enough - half life DOES NOT imply how long you will actually feel the medication - that is the duration of action. I find it lasts about that. Librium claims to have a duration of action of 6-8 hours so needs to be taken more often. Its half life is 5-30 hours for the primary drug but has active metabolites which can last up to 200 hours. Background finished.
I have found that librium is quite amazing at controlling anxiety. 25mg 3 times a day works well but 25mg 4 times a day is ideal. I know the conversion from clonazepam to librium at your dose puts librium at 50mg but I have never found a doctor willing to prescribe that does unless you're being treated for severe alcohol or benzo withdrawal. Given you doctor's unwillingness to prescribe more than 1mg of clonazepam it's more than likely she'll probably give you 25mg once a day or if you're lucky 25 twice a day. After 2 or 3 days 25mg twice a day might just hold you. Not may docs prescribe it anymore because it's an old med and you know, newer is better (rolling eyes). I hope this helps.

Good luck to you.
S.

 

[evo4ever]

1mg of Clonazepam isn't gonna work as well as 3mg of Alprazolam, u could even go into WD. ur doc should be matching ur Alprazolam dose with 3mg of Clonazepam.