I'm in pharmacy school and my drug book says for anxiety disorders no more than 4mg/day is recomended and no more than 6mg/day for panic disorder. This is not to say if you take higher it will put you in the hospital or anything. If for some reason you need more you can probably take more it will just increase the side effecs, the chances of addiction or physical dependancy and it will be harder to get it prescribed to you.
I take 4.5 mg per day for panic disorder. To kill the possibility of dependence (been there its no fun) my doctor and I decided to just switch between Xanax and Klonopin every few months.
Joined: May 06, 2008 Posts: 139 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:03 am Post subject:
I don't need to take Xanax everyday because I don't have panic disorder like others on here do. Dependence is not an issue for me but tolerance is. I'm taking the 2mg 'bars' now, even then I need to take a few at first then one every hour or so. This has got me and my psychiatrist worried as the Xanax doesn't seem to last long in me (eg 30min to 45min). I was okay when I started taking Xanax, 0.25mg was well and truly enough but after taking it say 80 times I went from taking 0.25mg to 1mg to 2mg over the course of 6 months. I'm now on Rivotril (Klonopin in the US) which is working okay except for some memory lapses. I've also tried valium but they didn't work.
I dont mean to thread jack but since the original post asked for such simple information...
How would you all who have been on ativan as well compare that med to xanax or klonopin? I have just started ativan and while it eases my general anxiety levels it also makes me mentally slow and feel like a dumb ass. My cleverness/ability to participate in a conversation is waaay down and this tends to bring my social anxiety induced depression waaay up.
I tend to have this effect from meds which raise gaba. I believe klonopin and xanax do the same thing however.
Xanax is the strongest and the most addicting of the three since it's the only one that gives you a euphoric type of feeling. However, most people only feel effects for 2-4 hours.
Klonopin ranks second in potency, and I say that because it doesn't really give you the happy buzz that Xanax does, but it calms you down and relaxes just as good in my opinion. It also lasts a lot longer; at least 6-8 hours.
Next comes Ativan, which never really made me feel much of anything. It didn't even reduce any physical symptoms either like palm sweat and fidgeting, both of which Xanax and Klonopin help a lot for me.
As for Valium, I've never been prescribed it so I have limited experience with it (5 or 6 times), but it had very little effect on me and I would say the experience seemed a lot like Ativan. Valium, per mg, is also much weaker than the other three benzos I've mentioned here. Xanax, Klonopin, and Ativan have starting dosages of .5 mg, while Valium's starting dose is 2 mg.
It also brings back my sex drive/ ability to feel physical attraction a good deal but at the expense of this mental blankness. Ugh, it never ends.
I really wish I could just have all the meds lined up so I wouldnt have to wait a month to pay 35 bucks every doctors visit just to try a new med (plus the cost of the med).
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
92 guests
17 members
Forum FAQ
Search
Profile
Private messages
Log in
