40 years of medication for sleep becomes a problem

[NANHAR]

For the past 46 years I have always had to take some medication in order to sleep to fly (bad childhood, anxiety etc). I have always tried to "not take pills", any pills at all, and to keep my sleep meds at the very basic minimum. I was taking .75 mg alprazolam (Xanax) every night with good results. Then in 98 when my husband had a stroke I started to drink a small amount of alcohol(wine) 1/2 glass with dinner which would make me drunk, but no one knew because the amount was so small. This was very effective but my driving was impaired so I gave up the wine and went to and complied with AA (2 years this june); however, giving up that small amount of wine caused withdrawal and consequently disrupted my sleep. Like my father I cannot handle alcohol because I do not have an enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Because of the sleep problem my psychopharm, who I have seen for 10 years, added .5 mg of Xanax XR in order to extend my sleep. In addition to this some negative family events have disrupted my sleep. Now I take.625 mg alprazolam along with .5mg Xanax XR to sleep and it is not working because the alprazolam stops working after about six hours and I start having agitated dreams and increased heart beat due to withdrawing from the alprazolam. My doctor told me to take .75 mg of klonopin instead of the alprazolam which I did and it didn't work so I had to take more of the alprazolam. I am very hung over this morning. What to do? I think that my doctor made a mistake. Should I go elsewhere. Thank you for any attention or help. Nancy  

[kalie1979]

i would go to another doctor, it never hurts for a second opinion...good luck

kalie

[ILADVOCATE]

First of all alcohol and benzos are a dangerous interaction. Going to AA for recovery purposes is a good idea but remember that you can never drink again for the Xanax alone. Now as for the suggestion your doctor made it was a good one as Klonopin unlike Xanax is longer lasting and can be taken for an extended period of time without as much of a potential for a person to build up a tolerance to it. I've taken Klonopin for 10 years. But you can't mix and match and take both at once. That is unsafe. Sounds like the psychiatrist isn't following up. I would reccomend seeing another psychiatrist as stated but make sure to be on only one of the two medications at a time and have your doctor make a referral to a new psychiatrist and reccomend that you follow his advice to change over to Klonopin. Sounds like he has some good ideas but psychiatrists not doctors should adjust psychiatric prescriptions so have him make a referral. He probably knows some psychiatrists he works with.

[lynn57]

Switching to the Klonopin was a good idea, but maybe the dose needs to be bumped up a bit. I don't understand why you were not put on this in the first place since you needed help long-term.