Benzo Dosage Strategy

[Luman]

I've had tinnitus since July 2017, it got worse in August, then normalized a bit. There are times, usually late in the evening, once or twice a week, for an hour or two when it is either unnoticeable or silent.

I obtained a Rx for Clonazepam from my MD (a general practitioner) on Monday, two days ago. He gave me a 3 week supply, 2X a day, totaling 42 pills. He said that if I could get by with one a day that would be better. He does not want me to get addicted, which I understand. I took my first one yesterday, actually a half of a 1 mg pill, in the morning, and my symptoms were practically gone for over 12 hours, I was not hearing anything most of the time, and was very relaxed. When I woke up today, the symptoms were back to normal, but not worse. I did not take any more of the Clonazepam today.

I'd like the opinion of some of our experienced members, as to whether I should take this every day, or perhaps take it every other day, or only as needed. If a daily regimen would best, and would speed up habituation, I don't want to eschew that. I do think that I can handle the T symptoms OK without the drug most of the time, but it was extremely relaxing, empowering and uplifting to be practically symptom free yesterday, due to the drug's effects.

I'm sure that this isn't a cut an dry question, a lot depends on the individual and his needs, but I am concerned that perhaps I should follow the doctor's directions and take it every day. My main concern is the risk of having to increase the dosage to get the same effect, and/or running out. On the other side of the argument, perhaps my nervous system needs a few weeks of total relaxation to help me habituate. Things are getting better, albeit very slowly, and I'd like that to keep happening.

Any opinions would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Bartek]

Hi
I was a benzo addict clonazepam exactly for alomost 7 years got T during withdrawal but still would advise you to take it for a week and see how it helps you ? try taking smallest working dose as possible dont worry if the second pill/half pill wil not work as the first the first one is always the strongest dont worry about addiction after one week imposible to get addicted
good luck

 

[Luman]

Hi
I was a benzo addict clonazepam exactly for alomost 7 years got T during withdrawal but still would advise you to take it for a week and see how it helps you ? try taking smallest working dose as possible dont worry if the second pill/half pill wil not work as the first the first one is always the strongest dont worry about addiction after one week imposible to get addicted
good luck

Thanks very much. I'm leaning towards taking it every other day for a couple of weeks, just so that I can work on calming myself on the "off" days, naturally. If I reduce the symptoms a lot with the drug, as in every day for several weeks, I don't know if I'd be motivated to do anything positive to deal with habituation. It's a hard nut to crack, any way you look at it.

 

[Bartek]

Write after a week how you fell. Habituation will hapen if you like it or not . Im still not fully habituated but every day is little bit better. So dont worry

 

[Luman]

Write after a week how you fell. Habituation will hapen if you like it or not . Im still not fully habituated but every day is little bit better. So dont worry

Thanks. I had a breakthrough insight as to the nature of my particilar case. Like many who are new to T, in the beginning, I obsessed about it. I listened for it, compared, etc., and this made it worse.
I now have to change this behavior.

 

[Mkc28]

@Luman, that's great your doctor gave them to you. I was taking a low dose of .375 mgs. before bed and my T was almost gone till late afternoon the next day. Then the T would get louder and I would take another one. I would have taken the whole .5 mg to see if I could have got 24 hour relief, but my new doctor didn't give them to me and I needed some to taper off. So what dose are u going to take every other day .5, 1 or 2 mg? If it's not loud and keeping you from falling asleep, I would only take the .5 mg. It's hard to stay calm or not obsess about it in the beginning. It's scary! In a couple of days my anxiety was so bad my T which was only in my left ear, went to a loud noise in my head. Thx goodness the clonazepam helped stop that and most of my anxiety. When I got off of it I was less anxious and my T has been fading ever since. So I wouldn't worry about habituating because if you are already having unnoticeable or silent days and the clono. helps you stop listening for it, I think your T might fade away. I think habituated is when you can still hear it but you get use to it and it fades in the background. My husband has that. If he listens for it, he can hear it. But my T is fading away and when I listen for it in a quiet room it's not there. And if it doesn't totally go away I'm already 95 percent of the time ignoring it. So I guess I've habituated or close to it!

 

[david c]

Glad to hear that Clonazepam has made a difference for you - it has been proven to significantly reduce tinnitus sound. Sadly in terms of being prescribed this medication you are one of the lucky ones- very few patients get it for tinnitus as it is not on the "indicated medications list" - something which in itself has certainly led to many patient deaths.

That said of course Benzos can be addictive so I would avoid taking it no more often than you have to - when tinnitus is particularly severe- that way you will avoid building up tolerance and the medicine will be more effective.

 

[Luman]

@Luman, that's great your doctor gave them to you. I was taking a low dose of .375 mgs. before bed and my T was almost gone till late afternoon the next day. Then the T would get louder and I would take another one. I would have taken the whole .5 mg to see if I could have got 24 hour relief, but my new doctor didn't give them to me and I needed some to taper off. So what dose are u going to take every other day .5, 1 or 2 mg? If it's not loud and keeping you from falling asleep, I would only take the .5 mg. It's hard to stay calm or not obsess about it in the beginning. It's scary! In a couple of days my anxiety was so bad my T which was only in my left ear, went to a loud noise in my head. Thx goodness the clonazepam helped stop that and most of my anxiety. When I got off of it I was less anxious and my T has been fading ever since. So I wouldn't worry about habituating because if you are already having unnoticeable or silent days and the clono. helps you stop listening for it, I think your T might fade away. I think habituated is when you can still hear it but you get use to it and it fades in the background. My husband has that. If he listens for it, he can hear it. But my T is fading away and when I listen for it in a quiet room it's not there. And if it doesn't totally go away I'm already 95 percent of the time ignoring it. So I guess I've habituated or close to it!

Hi! Thanks for your reply, it's always very good to read posts and stories that are positive and uplifting.

I think I'm going to try to use 0.5mg every other day or so. I took my second dose this morning, and went to Manhattan on the subway. I was calm and T free for about 5 or 6 hours. However, on the way home, I fell asleep on the train for 5 minutes and when I awoke the T was back, not terrible, but noticeable. I have come to understand, in the past 24 hours, that the "white noise" I hear upon waking in the morning is nothing more than what I used to have, just normal circulation sounds that I never really noticed, but now they're amplified many times over. This is a relief because now I know what is happening. On a normal day, the morning roar will lower after a couple of hours, and I'll go outside, but this brings about some more T that is more like high frequencies which abate somewhat by about 11 PM to midnight, when a much lower version of what I call the white noise returns until bed. The end of the day is almost normal sometimes, without any drugs. There's other ear/hearing symptoms, things that I always have had for decades but they're much more pronounced now. I believe that by obsessing about this, and listening, it's caused everything to get worse, which ignited anxiety and, on occasion, panic. I'm hoping that the more knowledge I gain, the less threatening this will become, thus aiding my eventual habituation. This board, and it's knowledgeable members, has made this much more tolerable, and I'm very grateful.

 

[Luman]

Glad to hear that Clonazepam has made a difference for you - it has been proven to significantly reduce tinnitus sound. Sadly in terms of being prescribed this medication you are one of the lucky ones- very few patients get it for tinnitus as it is not on the "indicated medications list" - something which in itself has certainly led to many patient deaths.

That said of course Benzos can be addictive so I would avoid taking it no more often than you have to - when tinnitus is particularly severe- that way you will avoid building up tolerance and the medicine will be more effective.

Thanks, David, for that information. I didn't know that Clonazepam was not on the list of meds for tinnitus, which is a disgrace. Yes, this drug is habit forming but when properly administered there should be no major difficulties for most people. My doctor was not aware of it being better than others for T, but when I told him it was he said he had no problem giving it to me, on a limited basis only. Even if I had unlimited access to this drug, I'd be very careful not to develop a habit. With a slight or moderate addiction, it's possible to slowly wean yourself off by reducing the dosage until it's not needed anymore, as others on this board have successfully done.