[vanillasky]

#1059577

I am currently taking Klonopin (clonazapam) 0.5mg 3x a day. That is max I can go according to doctor. This med was given to me by primary care. On good days, I take only 2 and sometimes just one.

My endo at Cleveland feels this is not a good drug for anxiety. He said I should see a shrink to determine what I should take.

He said Xanax is also not good and very addicting as I know all benzos are.

Any suggestions?

I cannot take depression pills. Have tried Zoloft (dizzy spells) Lexapro, Paxil (vomitting) and Effexor which made me sweat and hallucinate. This is what he recommends. but I don’t feel I tolerate these well. They give other symptoms worse than anxiety. I’d rather be nervous than throw up or hallucinate and God knows, I do enough sweating on my own.

Karen

[WWWI2]

#1175907

Vanillasky,

I’m sorry I can’t provide you with any suggestions as to what to take instead of benzodiazepines. But as one who is at the tail end of a very long almost 2 year taper from benzodiazepines after over 10 years of prescribed use, I have to strongly concur with your endo.

This link is one of the best resources for information on benzodiazepines, what they do, why they are a problem and how to safely withdraw. If for some reason this link doesn’t pass muster, please look up the manual written by Dr. Heather Ashton. She is a pioneer in the study of helping people safely withdraw from these drugs.

WWWI2

[Kimberly]

#1175909

@vanillasky – I would recommend following your doctor’s suggestion and seeing a specialist who can make a recommendation that is personally tailored for *you*, based on your personal medical history.

Here is some info from the Mayo clinic; as you can see, there are lots of options, so it would be extremely important to discuss risks and benefits with a professional:

(Note on links: if you click directly on the following link, you will need to use your browser’s “back” button to return to the boards after viewing, or you will have to log back in to the forum. As an alternative, you can right-click the link and open it in a new tab or new window).

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/anxiety/DS01187/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

@WWWI2 – That particular link came from an individual, rather than an accredited institution. She obviously has good credentials, but it’s also important to note that if you look at her home page, she has been retired for many years and specifically states that she is not able to answer questions about her protocol. I would question whether the information is still valid all these years later. If you can find similar information from the Mayo Clinic, American Medical Association, or another well-established institution, please feel free to post.

[snelsen]

#1175908

to vanilla sky-I’d reflect Kimberly’s comments. Not sure if this is an RX because are hyper right now, and being treated. Don’t recall. Or if this is unrelated to Graves’, and a long standing issue for you. Seems more like a long standing issue.
The docs who really know these meds, are psychiatrists. One option is for you to consider this option.
You are correct, that the benzos, antidepressants, and all these meds certainly have their con, side effects, and big problems with withdrawal…as well as pros.
I am hoping that you will end up in the future, not needing or wanting any of these meds.
Shirley

[Khadijah]

#1175910

My personal opinion (confirmed by a friend who was a doctor at health and human services) is unless you are bipolar etc. anti depressants tend to be overused and not always necessary especially since they pretty much all have bad side effects. I highly recommend finding a good class or DVD for doing some Pilates, yoga, or meditation. The endorphins from meditating and exercise are real! It does take a little practice but not too much of a learning curve. However, if you are in the hyper phase it will take longer because obviously you aren’t as stable as you could be. But, don’t despair you will be better soon. Sounds like it’s the hyper talking. Remember how anxious I was just a few weeks ago.

[WWWI2]

#1175911

Kimberly, I certainly understand your reasoning. I am not going to be able to convince you the value and necessity of her work.

But I will say this, that despite the fact that she is retired, she has and continues to provide much needed support regarding this topic. She still works as advisory to the House of Commons, Parliment – London as noted here: http://www.appgita.com/index.php/2012/05/professor-ashtons-comments-on-the-latest-draft-of-the-consensus-statement-15-may-2012/

I recognize this is somewhat off topic. However, considering that Graves’ is one of the leading causes for misdiagnosis of Anxiety disorders and that Benzodiazepines are often inapppopriately used as long term therapy for Anxiety. For someone to find themselves iotragenically dependant on a drug that is inappropriate for them but find they are unable to take themselves off this drug, or at worst who suddently remove themselves from the drug at great risk to themselves, I feel this is not entirely off topic.

I simply am trying to provide resources for anyone finding themselves in this situation. There is very little help out there for this and yet it can devastate peoples lives.

Ok I’m off the soap box now.

WWWI2

[Kimberly]

#1175912

WWWI2 wrote:

Kimberly, I certainly understand your reasoning. I am not going to be able to convince you the value and necessity of her work.

WWWI2 – I am certainly not qualified to pass judgment on the value or necessity of this individual’s work…as I mentioned in my previous post, she obviously has very good credentials.

The reason the link was removed was that the site did not fit in to the guidelines for posting links here, as explained in the “New User? Read This First!” thread in the announcements section of the forum:

“Posted links must come from a well-established, peer-reviewed medical journal (New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Thyroid, etc.) or from a recognized medical association or governmental entity (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Thyroid Association, National Institutes of Health, etc.).”

I left the other link up, as it appeared to be more of a news-type item.

I agree with that this subject matter is not off-topic, as you are correct that many Graves’ patients are initially misdiagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, etc.. I just need to make sure that any information posted comes from established sources that meet the GDATF’s posting guidelines. As I said previously, if you have links on this subject that come from sources that *do* fit within these parameters, please feel free to post.

[WWWI2]

#1175913

I just want to say Kimberly, you have a hard job and you manage it with much grace.

Thank you.

WWWI2

[Khadijah]

#1175914

But don’t worry you can pm people the links. That is allowed. At first I thought it was a bizarre rule but it does keep things “clean” but feel free to announce that you have a link about something and people will let you know if they want the link as well. Of course you may have to post It a few times.

[Kimberly]

#1175915

@WWWI2 – Many thanks for the kind words!

@Khadijah – Honestly, I would not suggest using the PM option to get around the guidelines that our Board of Directors has laid out. There is a reason that those guidelines are in place, and I really hope that people will respect that.

[vanillasky]

#1175916

Thanks you guys for the answers.

I am pretty sure I am a benzo addict already. I discussed this with new endo and he said if you start out with .05 mg, you’ll end up taking more and more to get the calm that you need to achieve.

I don’t want to end up on Dr Drew’s rehab show.

How this all started was, as someone said misdiagnosis. I was told a few years ago by gyno that I had “Generalized Anxiety Disorder.” And what happened was, my guess is it was a cominbination of Graves’/Menopause together.

Menopause causes anxiety. Anxiety causes an adrenaline dump as he described. When I get upset, I get very, very warm. It takes a long time for me to stop the heat and the sweat short of using ice cubes.

the other day, we were coming from my husband’s doctor and some stupid woman blew the horn at us. It startled me and I got very warm after using a few choice words to her because it was uncalled for. But you know you get crazy this time of year with Xmas traffic.

Initally I was given anti-depressants because of hot flashes as a substitute for estrogen therapy. They did not work for me so I went on estrogen and that doesn’t work either. Since then, I have been trying to wean myself off the estrogen (not easy!
and take less Klonopin. I’ve been splitting my .05 in half but I can feel the anxiety coming back full force and I’ve been out of control all week. Today, I used 1mg (2 pills) and felt much better.

I don’t like shrinks. Went to one last year. She concluded it was menopausal issues that caused my anxiety and told me to go back to gynocologist. I did not know at the time I had
Graves’ disease.

[Kimberly]

#1175917

Hello – I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with the prior psychiatrist, and I can understand your reluctance to repeat the experience.

However, now you have a referral from your doc at the Cleveland Clinic — *and* a specific diagnosis of Graves’ disease. Hopefully, this time around, you would be able to connect with someone who will take the time to review your specific case…and help you with a recommendation that will ultimately improve your quality of life.

[Khadijah]

#1175918

I am not trying to get around anything I could have sworn I read that you or someone said it was allowed and suggested that it be done that way.

I do feel the rule limits sharing of information and people can decide for themselves what is credible or not. Granted if you do not want it shared here then people should link privately direct via personal email not the pm on this site.

Clearly, I completely misunderstood and was not trying to break the rules. I even said “it was allowed” meaning that was my understanding.

[Kimberly]

#1175919

Khadijah – I believe the comment I made in another post was that we couldn’t *control* what was sent via private messaging…unless we received complaints that a specific poster was sending people unwanted private messages.

The major concern is that our Board wants to make sure this is a site where people know they can get credible information.

Also, since we live in such a lawsuit-happy society, there is concern that someone could read something from these boards that did *not* come from a credible source, have a negative outcome, and then sue the Foundation. I wish we could go about our business and *not* have to worry about this, but unfortunately, it *is* a concern.

We do encourage people to share things like comments about specific physicians and personal contact info via private message, rather than sharing those details on this public forum.

Take care!

[jaqeinquotation]

#1175920

A Suggestion and NOT a referral

Talk your doctor about Cipralex and whether or not it may be the right fit for you. I noticed the side effects were not like effexor-felt like shocks through my body. Cipralex helped me with anxiety but I stopped taking it when I started Tapazole. I still suffer from anxiety and I will be talking to my doctor about restarting the Cipralex

[Author]

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