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.
You're right, librium takes 1-2 hours to reach peak levels.
Elimination half-life
5–30 hours (Active metabolite desmethyldiazepam 36–200 hours: other active metabolites include oxazepam)
But remember half life of a drug has nothing to do with how long it lasts and you feel it. If it did weed would be the most popular and arguably the only drug people would use. Its half life is at least 30 days so if half life were an indicator of duration of action / active life / duration of effects you'd be stoned for at least a month after using.
Typically, the therapeutic effects of Librium can last anywhere from several hours to a full day, depending on dose, individual metabolism, and other personal health factors. As for the dose, I'm speaking from years of experience and at least 10 stays at an in-patient medical detox unit, you're unlikely to get a GP or psych to give you a script for 50mg of Librium. The max dose is 25mg 2-3 times a day. In the hospital for alcohol or benzo treatment I was given anywhere from 25mg tid for moderate alcohol withdrawal up to 50mg every 4 hours for severe benzo dependence.
Who knows though, maybe you'll get lucky but probably not with the doctor you described.
Best of luck to you! As I said I know what you're going through. 1mg Xanax tid to 1mg of Klonopin a day sucks. Klonopin works orders of magnitude better than Librium but you'd be better off on 25mg of Librium tid than you would on just 1mg of Klonopin. You might try asking for 1mg (2 is better but your doc sounds like a stickler for what she reads and not personal experience,which is the worst. I never have a second visit with those doctors) of lorazepam bid or tid. It kicks in pretty quickly and the effects last 10 hours. Maybe 12 depending on your body. I went to an addictionologist for 12-15 years and he had me on 1mg Klonopin tid, 6mg Suboxone 5 times a day for pain, 25mg Adderall IR bid then switched me to Vyvanse 40mg , 50mg hydroxyzine every six hours, Orphenadrine 100 bid, Baclofen 20mg tid, and Citalopram 40mg daily. Sooo there are doctors who don't just regurgitate what they read. Before that doc I saw a psych for 3 years. She had me on - - clench your ass - - 2mg Klonopin tid, 8mg Suboxone bid, 30mg Adderall IR bid, 40mg Citalopram, and 10mg Valium tid. It was great until I couldn't remember what happened on a TV show the previous week or had for dinner the night before and sometimes didn't remember conversations I had earlier in the day.
NOT COOL!
That's probably a lot more than you bargained for but I like to be thorough especially when it comes to benzos. If you can get by with Vistaril (hydroxyzine pamoate) not Atarax (hydroxyzine hydrochloride). There is a long held belief that Vistaril is better for anxiety and Atarax for allergies. Though if you look it up you will find that individuals will say it is true and doctors will say that it is just an urban legend but I've had both before I looked it up because I was given Atarax once and it didn't seem to work as well. I asked my pharmacist about it and she said that they are not the same medicine. Since that's their wheelhouse I went with her interpretation. Sorry for the long tangent. You can find countless websites with info saying that Vistaril is just as effective as lorazepam for mild to moderate anxiety though you said yours is severe but perhaps you could adjust? You can also find a ton of abstracts from US govt sites such as the NIH which show the same. Also, I'm not sure if we can name sites but a site that rhymes with bugs.com will let you compare meds side by side in the user reviews section. Since you went from 3mg Xanax to 1mg Klonopin you have some idea of what trying to get off them is like and you
DON'T want to be where I was years ago. It was truly a living hell that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
All the best to you. I hope things work out in your favor.
S.
