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Panic attacks after almost withdrawed ...


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Hello, I am 32 years old male using BZD for about 15 years. I need you advice.

 

I started to use BZD at 18 years due to symptoms of social phobia, I tried virtually all the BZD preparations that were available in our country, but most of

 

the time I use diazepam and chlorodiazepoxide. Usage was unregular, I used them before the scaring event, this was 2-3 weekly at dosages equivalent to 10-20 mg of

 

diazepam. My social phobia did not dissapear, and after several years of such usage I noticed first symptoms of BZD withdrawal when I tried to stop using them abruptly.

 

I felt sick, usually it was lack of energy and a lot of dizziness, it began every day at the morning and continued till the evening and almost dissapeared in the

 

evening. After some time I noticed my symptoms dissapear after clonazepam or alprazolam dosage, and there were no other BZD capable of stopping the symptoms. Noticed

 

this, I began to use clonazepam at 2 mg daily and gradually lowered the dosage to 0.5 mg, as this dosage was capable to stop most of the symptoms. This lasted for 10

 

years till now, all this time I was on clonazepam, last 5-7 years I was on 0.5 mg daily. Year ago I decided to withdraw this drug and done it during a year by lowering

 

the dosage very very slowly. When the dosage became almost 0, I noticed symptoms of panic attacks, they happened several times. It happened to me without any warnings

 

at home and at work, the heart started to beat very rapidly in several tenths of seconds, I immediately felt the feeling of numb hands and legs, my body becomed cold,

 

there was a little nausea and shortness of breathing. After 30 sec or a minute I began to sweat and the symptoms quickly dissapeared. Last time this happened only once

 

at a moment, after this "attack" there were no signs of something bad till the other one after a week or so. Yeasterday I had terrible day, all began with a one attack,

 

but this does not ended, and I had 5 or 10 of them during the day, and all the time between the attacks I felt rapid heartbeat, dizziness and fatigue. One of attacks

 

ended with a vomiting, this happens for first time to me. After this attack I took 0.5 mg of clonazepam, and after 10-15 minutes there were no more attacks, only the

 

feeling of fatigue and rapid heartbeat all the time till now.

At this moment there is about 1 month I stopped using clonazepam after 1 year slow tapering.

Any advices are very welcome!

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Hi Fred and welcome to the forum.

 

Glad you've found this forum as it sounds like you could use some support to get through your panic attacks.

 

Let me see if I have this right.  You started with irregular benzodiazepine use which became regular with time.  You finished a slow taper a month ago and began to have panic attacks.

 

Yesterday you had many panic attacks and one bad one.  .5 of Clonazepam stopped it but your heart rate is fast.

 

First of all, it's very good that you tapered off slowly.  Anxiety is one of the side effects that can come with withdrawal.  To cope with this without drugs, new skills must be learned.

 

Here's a link to our Anxiety board:  http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?board=58.0

 

You may read about anxiety there and see if you can get some ideas to help with this.  If you wish, you can choose the blue tab that says 'New Topic' and write you questions and post them to the other members here so they can respond and help you.

 

When you log in again, if you click the sentence in the upper left that says 'Show new replies to your posts' you'll see your responses.

 

See you around, Fred,

Challis

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Thank you for a response, Challis!

You are right, after an unregular usage of multiple BZD during many years and using regullary 0.5 mg of clonazepam for 5+ years I decided to end with it and tapered 0.5 mg dosage of clonazepam during one year period. All the period seems to be quite good, without noticeable symptoms, but several months ago when I was on approx. still 0.1-0.2 mg of clonazepam daily I noticed panic attacks, they occured several times, never longer as several minutes and never one after another at the same time. Yesterday it was very intense with 5-10 attack peaks, one of them ended with vomiting. Between peeks and now I still feel very intense heartbeat, but there were no attacks after the last one yesterday. I took 0.5 mg immediately after this last attack, and all attacks dissapeared. But I dont want to start using the drug again, it was difficult to taper it after such a long usage ...

Thank you one more time for a help!

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I think that's a good decision, Fred.  There's no good in the long run with this type of medication.  The panic attacks can be a withdrawal issue.  I hope you find some good skills here with which to deal with them.

Challis

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Hi Fred,

 

Although in all likelihood your rapid heart rate is related to your withdrawal, it might be a good idea to get checked out by a doctor to make sure there's nothing else going on.

 

I hope you start to feel better soon. Panic attacks can be so frightening.

 

 

Hope

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Hi Fred,

 

Although in all likelihood your rapid heart rate is related to your withdrawal, it might be a good idea to get checked out by a doctor to make sure there's nothing else going on.

 

I hope you start to feel better soon. Panic attacks can be so frightening.

 

 

Hope

 

 

Just measured my body temperature, it is 38,1 C (100.6 F) and rising. I think this is the cause of rapid heart rate and feeling sick today, but I measured body temperature yesterday, and it was normal. I was quite surprised to see quite high hyperthermia, because there were almost no feeling of the temperature during the day. Only now, when the temperature reached 38 C, I feel it.

May panic attack and BZD withdrawal be the cause of such elevated temperature? May it be panic attack concurred with some infection disease, so the symptoms are such untypical?

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A fever should definitely be checked out by your doctor, Fred.  It can cause an elevated heart rate, too.  Can you call him today?

Challis

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Fred,

I'm new to this forum, call me Brian. Something that I have done over the past three weeks is to start a chart. Date, and time of symptoms. It helps me  find patterns and not rely on memory. I don't know if a rising temp. could be associated with a panic attack, but it doesn't sound like something to fool with. Did your temperature go back down? Definately something to check with your Dr.

 

Brian

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A fever should definitely be checked out by your doctor, Fred.  It can cause an elevated heart rate, too.  Can you call him today?

Challis

Thank you, I'm a doctor by myself, a dentist, so I know a little bit about medicine. This was very surprising to me when I measured the temperature and it was elevated such high!

Just took acetaminophen, the temperature is lowering, I feel a little better :) Lets hope it is just something infectious or maybe food intoxication, not a real panic attack. Thank you one more time, will write in several days as quick as the temperature became normal.

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Fred,

I'm new to this forum, call me Brian. Something that I have done over the past three weeks is to start a chart. Date, and time of symptoms. It helps me  find patterns and not rely on memory. I don't know if a rising temp. could be associated with a panic attack, but it doesn't sound like something to fool with. Did your temperature go back down? Definately something to check with your Dr.

 

Brian

 

Brian, you are also withdrawing from clonazepam?

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The elevated temp could be withdrawal, Fred.  When I visited my doctor during withdrawal, she found I had a temperature of around 100, even though I felt perfectly okay.  My body temp is usually around 96, so that was a significant elevation.

 

Never know for sure with this...

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Took atenolol for palpitations, there were to difficult to be several days at 90-100 bpm pulse at bed. Took today 25 mg of the drug, the pulse till now is 60 bpm, I feel much more comfortable now. Looks I will need to visit my psychiatrist again to ask for an advice...
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Fred,

Welcome to BB. I can see you're already getting some good advice. And it sounds like the beta blockers are helping a bit.

 

I know everyone's experience is different, but I also had an elevated heart rate (as high as 140 bpm) and periodically elevated body temperature (99.5, when my normal is about 97.5-98.0) during my early stages of klonopin withdrawal. Both went away over time.

 

Good luck to you. I hope you get good support from your doc and from the folks here on this Forum.

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It is interesting for me, that I had no adverse effects of my slow tapering all the year, and after I just finished I got such a terrible effect and almost need to come back to the drug. Is this experience usual, how much of you have severe withdrawal effects after fully withdrawed and how long do they last?
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Ok, this is my progress. At first, my doctor prescribed my xanax 0.5 mg to stop panic attack, it works perfectly, after 2 hours there were no signs of the attack. After this I went to psychiatrist and he told me I will be able to withdraw it in several weeks. He prescribed diazepam at 3 times 5 mg daily with a reduction to 0 after 2 weeks and changed my SSRI paroxetine to mirtazapine.

I'm a little worried about such short times of withdrawing.

Also, mirtazapine makes me dizzy even at 7.5 mg and at the next day. How quickly will these symptoms dissapear?

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