Hi, I was diagnosed with PMDD and GAD. I am a mother of twin boys that just turned 3. I was on Paxil CR for 2 years and was just taken off of it. My doctor has me on Xanax 0.5mg once a day and Klonopin 0.5mg twice a day and they do NOTHING to calm me down. I really do not know what to do, why are they not working for me? Any advice would be great. Thanks for reading.

I don't understand why you are on both. That makes no sense at all to me and I have never heard of that before. I woudl think that one or the other would be better. Problem is you have two different drugs in doses that are too low to provide the relief you need. Your liver can easily break down the small amounts and none of it is getting into your blood system where it needs to be to help. I would seriously get another opinion on your drugs. I take 1.5 mg of Xanax and it almost eliminates all anxiety. I am going up to 2 mg this week hopefully, so that should help through the times that are still rough, but I know for a fact that such a small dose is rarely effective. Now, i qualify that statement with: everyone reacts different to drugs, but honestly the double drug treatment really makes no sense.

klonopin increases anxiety because it has been said to increase deppression in some patients.

Tell your doctor you dont want it anymore and that he needs to up your dose of xanex. most docs dont wanna do that because they think its addictive., whatever. whats worse is klonis. make you fall asleep and dont do anything for your anxiety because they make you sad.

Thank you for the reply you two! I just wrote down what you both wrote and i will bring that up with my doc. What is really sad is that my doc is out of the country until this friday (which is my big appointment day) and i had a pretty big crisis yesterday and the covering dr NEVER called me back! Talk about increasing my anxiety, i couldn't even sleep last night cause i felt so abandoned. If that makes any sense.
And yes the klonopin does make me feel sad! That is so funny you said that.
thanks again!
And taking both meds i thought was also strange, it should be one or the other. hmmmm i am going to research a new doctor today, i have not had any luck with this one, obviously. :(
Take care

How sad that doc never called you back. You can bet I would have kept calling until he did! I agree, both meds together make no sense. Some people have a higher tolerance for meds so the dose of xanax you're at probably isn't enough. Also, xanax is short acting. They say 6-8 hours but for a lot of people it wears off after 4-5 hours so you definetly need to be taking it more often for it to control the anxiety. I take it 4 times a day. Right now I'm at 1.5 mg day but may increase it as my doctor told me to see where I'm comfortable at - not too sleepy but relaxed(he wrote the script for 1mg 4x daily). Klonopin made me depressed and soooo sleepy, kind of foggy in the head and I couldn't make simple decisions or remember things so I quit that after a month or so. Xanax is the only med that has ever worked to control my severe anxiety and panic attacks. Talk to your doctor, if he refuses to allow you to up the xanax and quit the klonopin then find a new one who will. Is it a regular doctor you see or a psych?

Good luck!
Tori

I have an almost 2.5 and a 3.5 yo old. My son and daughter are less than 15 mos apart so anxiety is ever present these days. I'm on Buspar and don't have any added info about your meds but I wanted to offer my support. I just started my Buspar 6 wks ago and it's not doing anything. I was so tensed up yesterday, it actually hurt. Since I weaned my DD over a year ago, my sleep has been horrible and so has the anxiety. I wonder if it's hormonal since I had two kids after 40 and, for my first child, I did fertility treatments. The hormones didn't affect me then but I haver MAJOR PMS now and anxiety is constant. I know the demand of two young kids is a lot but I've been under a lot of stress before. I'm just can't handle it like I used to.

I wish you luck with this. I'd look into another Dr. based on what the others have said and the fact that he didn't call you back. That's uncalled for...

Hi me too!
Some of your anxiety could be from raising twins, or even a lot of your anxiety. My daughter has twin girls that just turned 3. I have been their granny nanny for the past 3 years helping her every day. I am now sick with anxiety and depression again and can't help as much, but I was well when she needed me the most for the first three years. Twins are magical, but they also are a lot of work. My daughter is not on medication, but she comes close to the breaking point every now and then. She also has a 6yr. old and runs her own business, so is even more stressed trying to raise those darling little twins.:)

I know a friend who is on Klonopin and one of the older antidepressents, the tricyclic Pamelar, I believe and is doing great. She is however much older so I don't know if the side effects of tricyclics are so good for younger women.

She is my psych dr and how you explained how the klopopin made you feel, is EXACTLY how it makes me feel, and i have twin 3 yr olds that depend on me! My short term memory is basicly gone! I have to write down everything. I had a pretty severe anxiety attack this morning and called the dr again and of course the receptionist said the same thing yesterday, but i kinda went off on her (oops) and then he called in like 2 minutes (no joke) His reason for not calling me back was "I was behind with patients" BS! So anyway,
He basicly told me to come see him today, WHILE i was having a major episode, i told him i did not have a ride there (my hubby has the car) and he said well come after he gets off work. I said ok, but then asked, what can you do for me now? He said "nothing, i can not call in or increase your xanax if i have never seen you before" So i almost snapped. He expected me to drive to his office during an episode with my 2 kids!!!! So i told him i would rather go to the ER then to see him. Awwww i am so offended and hurt. And this is the covering dr. for the dr i have been seeing for over a year now!
I can't even write anymore my hands are shaking. Thanks for listining and for your reply. Take care.

I agree, I was on Xanax .25 twice a day, for about 5 days, and I got anxiety worse than ever. You have to find the right meds and right dosage.

Thank you so much for your replys. Today is a month that i am off of Pxil CR and Klonopin. After that big episode i had my dr has me on xanax 0.5mg twice a day. But the worst is yet to come. My PMDD this month will be interesting. My Dr says she will only go up to 1mg a day on the xanax, and if it isn't working she wants to put me back on Paxil. I said NO WAY! I can finally feel. GRRRR why dose there have to be side effects????
BTW i am going to be looking into finding a new Dr. And i would love for them to also have twin toddlers so they can relate.
Potty training 2 is sooo frustrating and i want to be the calm mom that i should be. I Have no help what so ever. My parents (that i am best friends with) live 3000 miles away in FL. great now i am emotional. :(
Thanks for your time everyone.

metoo22,

Find another doctor. There are studies everywhere that prove that Xanax is the most effective anti-anxiety med out there and you are on the absolute lowest dose given. You need to increase the dosage to get the desired effect and your doctor is not hearing that. Time for a second opinion. You can take up to 4 mg per day and have a 95% chance of getting off the drug with minimal side-effects. If you go above 4 mg and it can be prescribed up to 10 mg per day for people with severe panic and agoraphobia then it may be more difficult to stop, but anxiety dissorder is a life long disease, and you may want to consider the fact that meds may be required for the rest of your days. I am resigned to the fact that I will probably have to take Xanax until the day I die. Suddenly withdrawl becomes a non-issue and Xanax has very few side effects. Find another doctor and get your dose increased. I am on 2 mg per day of the Xanax XR and it is working well for me. I am not as impressed with the XR as the regular though, so do't spend the extra money if you don't need to. Also, take the dose you are supposed to take every day and divide it into 4 doses. For instance if you are taking 2 mg per day, take .5 mg 4X per day. This keeps a constant amount of Xanax in your blood throughout the day and gets rid of the rebound anxiety you probably feel right before your next dose.

Find a better doctor. SSRI's can cause horrible side-effect for some people, myself included and I will never take another anti-depressant again.

Good luck.

whre are these studies that are everywhere that prove that xanax is the most effective anti-anxiety med???
i've also read plenty suggesting that xanax is the most addicting benzo with the most severe withdrawl symptoms...

it's great that YOU haven't suffered any of the side effects of taking, or weening off xanax, but there are a LOT of people who have stated just the opposite and how difficult taking them or weening off of them can be...

everyone's different...
we all need to explore the different avenues available to us in dealing with this...
different meds, different modes of therapy, different tools for different people...
just my $0.02

Unfortunately I can't point you towards some of the info I have dug up on the web due to posting rules. I don't know if it is the most addictive Benzo, but I do know that most all meds for anxiety dissorder are going to have withdrawl symptoms. My mother can't get off Paxil and Buspar at all. She has an intense reaction and can not stop even the tiny doseage she is on.

As for what I can offer is if you do a search on this forumn for Xanax, you will find a long list of people who have been able to take it long term and find relief wheras, most other drugs have not provided long term benefits without the side-effects that can sometimes be very difficult to wheather. I don't disagree that others may find a gem in another medication, all I can do is discuss what I have learned over my experience with the different drugs out there.

I totally agree as well that meds should be taken in conjunction with some sort of CBT, whether it be meditation, relaxation techniques etc. as well as better overall health. Some people may even find short-term benefits from just the latter, but most of the time the anxiety will come back.

I have experienced the Xanax withdrawl first hand due to my doctor not telling me that you need to slowly taper and one day I felt really good and decided to stop taking it. Within 24 hours I had anxiety that was worse than any I had expereinced prior to taking the drug, but it does work, and I fully expect to take it long term because anxiety is a long term illness.

Whatever path you all take, I hope you find peace. Mine took twenty years to find and I just hope to save some people the time it took me to get to this point.

Take care.

OCD thanks for the reply. I have tried Paxil, Effexor, Klonopin, Neurontin, ativan and now xanax. I do not suffer from depression, i was diagnosed with GAD but i thought that it was not hereditary. My mom has severe anxiety and panic attacks. So i have no clue what my diagnoses would be. Anyway Xanax 0.5mg twice a day for me is not enouph, but like i said before my dr will only go up to 1mg a day. I spoke to a Dr yesterday and he said he does not write for xanax. *i shook my head* then hung up. I am having the hardest time finding a dr. and it just adds more frustration, and i am noticing i am taking my frustration on my twin 3 yr olds. And that is not good. A friend of mine told me about pamalor (sp) i am going to research it and see what i find. Until then i am on a mission to find a dr who wont have me come in 3 months from now. grrrrr :dizzy: