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what to do about the clonazepam
My daughter is 16 and weighs 135 lbs. Last June her doctor put her on Prozac 20mg for anxiety and to help with her pulling out eyebrows and eyelashes occasionally. After 3 weeks on Prozac she started hearing voices and started becoming paranoid. We discountinued. It gradually got better. She then was put on Yaz for her PMDD. Which helped remarkably. 5 months later her doctor tried her on 10 mg of Prozac again, it started with the paranoia, so we discontinued. He then put her on Clonazepam .5mg once at night. She seemed to do ok. 2 months into it, her doctor tried her on Buspar 7.5mg 2x per day, increasing by 5mg once a day until 15mg 2x a day. We only made it to 15mg once per day with 10mg in the afternoon. She started with the paranoia and we went back to the orginial dosing of 7.5 mg twice a day. 2 weeks ago she started hearing voices, we discontinued the Buspar and the voices gradually subsided but she started seeing shadows after several days. She is gradually getting better. She still sees shadow people walking around occasionally yet. She is a very naturally upbeat girl who is very close to her parents, she tells us everything. She is not suidicidal nor is self harming herself. Our concern is that she has been on Clonazepam for almost 3 1/2 months and we would like her to discontinue. With her given background, how should we discontinue?
THANK YOU! I am taking her to her primary care provider to do a full medical work up. We visited with her psyciatrist yesterday. She was told to just stop them cold turkey. I asked why. Told that .5 mg too small a dosage to cause any withdrawl symptoms. Her therapist, pharmacist and primary doctor all agreed to do the .125 reduction each week for four weeks. Thank you again so much for your support. Patty
Thank you so much for letting me know she is not alone. At 16 I find it unacceptable for her to have to take meds for the rest of her life. I find it unacceptable for psychiatrists to throw meds at kids. I was not informed that clonazepam was that addictive and that hard to get off of. If I would of known, I would not have put her on it. Her auditory hallucianations have gone away, although she still has random visual hallucinations. But they too are starting to subside. We started last night to slowly ween her off the clonazepam. She had a very bad night of sleeplessness. But she is so tough. She told us she wants off this drug badly, and she'll do it! She's been in therapy for 7 months now and that seems to help. We have learned a lot of techniques for stopping the anxious thoughts. I found some wonderful information about Benodiazepine withdrawal syndrome, and it says it can take from 2 months to a few years for your brain to withdrawl from it and that your anxiety will gradually get better over time with out the benzo. I hope you the best. As for us, we are going the drug free way. wish us luck.
I seem to have some similiar experiences to your daughter. I started taking Paxil at the age of 15 for extreme anxiety, and it made me manic. At 20, I was given Klonopin as well as a very high dose of Effexor. I tapered off both of them, and had horrible hallucations, delusions, fevers, etc. I am back on Klonopin now and I can't seem to get off it, my anxiety is sky high because my body/brain can't deal with anything now without the drug. I really hope they find out what is the matter and she's well again soon.
Are you folks seeing a psychiatrist? If not, you need to. If your daughter were just dealing with OCD and anxiety, the SSRIs and the Buspar wouldn't cause hallucinations as a side effect. They're exacerbating an underlying issue..
Honestly, given my experiences and others, your daughter could be experiencing a BP psychotic break. The ADs could be triggering these in a big way or they could just be manifesting themselves now. The teens is generally when BP disorder starts to peak through.
Also, I agree that she shouldn't be on Klonopin, but she hasn't been on it long enough to be going through any sort of withdrawals. .5mgs is NOTHING with Klonopin, I take three times that dose and that's lower than a standard dose here in the U.S.
The nasty, benzo withdrawals that cause psychosis generally pop up after someone has been abusing them for a very long time. Or they're trying to taper off cold turkey. But, I would be very, very careful with the Klonopin and taking her off of it; if she's experiencing any sort of schizophrenic or BP disorder symptoms, they need to be dealt with first. I seriously, seriously doubt that the Klonopin is causing the problems; it's just too small a dose and she hasn't been on it for very long..The withdrawals she would be experiencing at that small a dose would just be a raise in anxiety. But tapering her off before figuring out what the actual root cause of the situation is WILL cause problems.
Honestly, given my experiences and others, your daughter could be experiencing a BP psychotic break. The ADs could be triggering these in a big way or they could just be manifesting themselves now. The teens is generally when BP disorder starts to peak through.
Also, I agree that she shouldn't be on Klonopin, but she hasn't been on it long enough to be going through any sort of withdrawals. .5mgs is NOTHING with Klonopin, I take three times that dose and that's lower than a standard dose here in the U.S.
The nasty, benzo withdrawals that cause psychosis generally pop up after someone has been abusing them for a very long time. Or they're trying to taper off cold turkey. But, I would be very, very careful with the Klonopin and taking her off of it; if she's experiencing any sort of schizophrenic or BP disorder symptoms, they need to be dealt with first. I seriously, seriously doubt that the Klonopin is causing the problems; it's just too small a dose and she hasn't been on it for very long..The withdrawals she would be experiencing at that small a dose would just be a raise in anxiety. But tapering her off before figuring out what the actual root cause of the situation is WILL cause problems.
Yes I am very worried about her seeing shadow people walking around. And yesterday she also had a hallicanation in the school bathroom of blood running down the wall and a little girl w/ blonde pigtails, but no face, the face was all swirly. standing next to the wall, crying. She knows it is not real, but it is very scary.
Last June all she had was anxiety and ocd (pulling out eyelash & eyebrows). We can live with that! She never had any psychosis until the prozac, after being off for a month, it went away. She hasn't had pychosis or paranoia until the Buspar/ Clonazepam. These were only given to help with her anxiety. Upon checking on different websites, Clonazepam can cause a protracted withdrawl syndrome that resembles psychosis and schizo. She has been seeing a phyciatrist since aug, 09 and has been in cognative therapy since aug. 09. She was doing great, just not sleeping very well.
Now she, along with us, wants to get off the clonazepam and go it alone with out any meds, besides the Yaz. and therapy. We talk to her therapist and her pysciatrist today. Her pysciatrist thinks she is just very sensitive to any of these types of drugs. I just want her to be better!!!
Last June all she had was anxiety and ocd (pulling out eyelash & eyebrows). We can live with that! She never had any psychosis until the prozac, after being off for a month, it went away. She hasn't had pychosis or paranoia until the Buspar/ Clonazepam. These were only given to help with her anxiety. Upon checking on different websites, Clonazepam can cause a protracted withdrawl syndrome that resembles psychosis and schizo. She has been seeing a phyciatrist since aug, 09 and has been in cognative therapy since aug. 09. She was doing great, just not sleeping very well.
Now she, along with us, wants to get off the clonazepam and go it alone with out any meds, besides the Yaz. and therapy. We talk to her therapist and her pysciatrist today. Her pysciatrist thinks she is just very sensitive to any of these types of drugs. I just want her to be better!!!
I am bipolar and when they put me on Buspar, I became very, very agitated. It's a medication that can exacerbate BP disorder, as are the SSRIs, and most ADs, for that matter.
It might be something to look into; it's pretty easy for mild BP disorder to be missed.
As far as the Klonopin goes, she's not on a very high dose of it, nor has she been on it for very long. I don't imagine that it'd be a problem to get off of it. Ask the doc to switch her over to a comparable dose of Valium and taper down from there. It's the best way to get off of Klonopin and don't let any doc tell you different. The problem is, she's on such a small dose, there's not a whole lot you can do with the pill itself. You can try cutting it into quarters or something like that, but it's hit or miss. When weaning off of the benzos, you really don't have a whole lot of leeway; a few milligrams too much or too little during the tapering process can cause problems. Switching over to Valium and going down from there is safer and can be adjusted much more easily.
It might be something to look into; it's pretty easy for mild BP disorder to be missed.
As far as the Klonopin goes, she's not on a very high dose of it, nor has she been on it for very long. I don't imagine that it'd be a problem to get off of it. Ask the doc to switch her over to a comparable dose of Valium and taper down from there. It's the best way to get off of Klonopin and don't let any doc tell you different. The problem is, she's on such a small dose, there's not a whole lot you can do with the pill itself. You can try cutting it into quarters or something like that, but it's hit or miss. When weaning off of the benzos, you really don't have a whole lot of leeway; a few milligrams too much or too little during the tapering process can cause problems. Switching over to Valium and going down from there is safer and can be adjusted much more easily.
Strange thoughts are very common with ssris. The poster who said this doesn't happen with Prozac is wrong. It doesn't usually happen, but your daughter is unique, as we all are, and responds how she responds. Some people get violent thoughts, some people become numb emotionally, some people experience no change whatsoever. Buspar isn't actually known for doing much of anything, so no reason to take that one anyway. As for the klonopin, this must be tapered off if you wish her to go off it. At that age, why not just try therapy for awhile and see if it takes?
Yeah. One of the less told horrors of Prozac, or maybe all SSRI's....
I've have two very close friends that went on it, and soon after the symptoms of more serious conditions emerged. I'm not implying that Prozac is to blame, but the timing did seem oftly coincidental in their cases (they showed no signs of psychosis or schizophrenia prior).
Both were in the age range of 15-18 when this occurred.
I've have two very close friends that went on it, and soon after the symptoms of more serious conditions emerged. I'm not implying that Prozac is to blame, but the timing did seem oftly coincidental in their cases (they showed no signs of psychosis or schizophrenia prior).
Both were in the age range of 15-18 when this occurred.
I don't know that I would take her off of it right now. I have to agree with alostcause, there is more going on here which needs to be addressed by a child psychaitrist. Either way, you need to speak with her prescribing doctor to determine if now is a good time to take her of fthe Clonazepam, and how to do it. She is a complicated case, and I would work very closely with her doctor when it comes to her medication. Best of luck and take care...
I just got a prescription for Prozac, haven't tried it yet. Antidepressants aren't for everyone. I experienced mania and hallucination type things on Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor. Trying to come off Clonazepam is very very hard. I got hallucinations, fevers, vision problems and other side effects while trying to withdraw. Make sure she does it very slowly, ask the doctor how slow she should taper off and go half as slow as that.
Aren't you concerned about the fact that she sees shadow people walking around? Prozac and Buspar would not bring on side effects like hallucination and paranoia. Those are symptoms of psychosis, and it's important that you act quickly. Has she been to a psychiatrist?
As for discontinuing Clonazepam, perhaps she should stay on it for now. Generally you need to taper off it over the course of weeks to avoid withdrawal.
Take her to a psychiatrist.
As for discontinuing Clonazepam, perhaps she should stay on it for now. Generally you need to taper off it over the course of weeks to avoid withdrawal.
Take her to a psychiatrist.
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