Zoloft and Klonopin for anxiety

[Theresa2]

I am a 49 yr old female. Started having anxiety attacks 8 weeks ago after severe stress dealing with my 81 yr old mother having health issues (visiting nuring home everyday and hospital 3 weeks out of two months). I live 1000 miles away.Went to emergency when visiting my mom in icu.They gave me .50 zoloft and .50 klonopin. Came home, saw my dr, said to continue on same dosage. Still wake up with anxiousness, think zoloft is giving me these symtoms. Dr wanted to switch me symbalta (looked it up--said it was for bi-polar). I requested to try to go off zoloft. She said to take one every other day for two weeks and then quit. Keep taking Klonopin. Now I see Klonopin withdrawal and side affects are bad and maybe I'm getting symptoms from that too? This is the first morning I was to not take zoloft but heard tapering slowly is better, so took half (will do for two weeks) and then down to .125 for two weeks, now I wonder if I should get off klonopin first or what to do. Should I request a referral to a dr skilled in psychiatry that know these medicines better than my family dr?  Dr has now put me on klonopin tapering over 6 weeks with buspar substitution. Will this work?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

finding the right combination of medications for each person   requires trial and error. Although seeing a specialist might help, your doctor's advice seems quite sound to me. If you don't want to continue with Zoloft, then try to stay on Klonopin which is a medication that targets anxiety symptoms quite well, and can be weaned off of over a three week period without problems. Zoloft sometimes has a stimulant effect which can increase anxiety.

[Jessi63]

I love zoloft and klonopin.  They have worked for 7 years for me.  Everyone is different.  You shouldn't give up on them so soon.  It can take a month to 2 months to see a difference with the zoloft.  My shrink says if you have never really had any addiction problems in the past not to worry about getting off the klonopin.  Recently I have had to start taking it on a regular basis, twice a day and sometimes three.  The cymbalta is not only for bi-polar patients.  I would suggest to make an appt with someone specialized in the mental health field.  I don't know about the buspar substitution?  I'd feel more comfortable if a psych doctor treated you and tapered you off  the medication.  Although I really don't think you have give it enough time.  Any questions just let me know.  Jessi