WEll my sleeping was getting rediculous and I was starting to get hypomanic........I jsut could not do it any more.
I saw my pdoc today, had not told her that I had stopped taking the ambien in may....but did tell her that I did not want to take it any more. I did not like the way I was feeling grogged in the morning...and I told her about my crazy night camping by the fireside story....
So she wrote me an order for klonipin to take as needed.
If I only take a small dose of klonipin every so often...surely I won't build up a tolerance right?
I vowed to never take benzos again....
but here I am....I have to get some sleep.
I gave it 4 months...
sigh
bizi

Dear Bizi,

Sleep is more important than any vow. We have to function.

And feel good about making a reasonable plan.

I forget how it works -- I think that a person could even take Klonopin for a few weeks before they become dependent on it. But I am not sure. A few nights in a row and then a break of a few nights sound reasonable.
What am I talking about?
I am making guesses here.

I guess I understand your need to not need the new/old med.

Mari

after hours of not sleeping I got up at 3 last night and took 1mg of klonipin...which is equal to 20mg of valium!
and slept great! so much that I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep and missed my pdoc appointment...they let me come late because she was behind sceduale.
She is prescribing .5mg tabs that I can cut into smaller doses and try to take the least amount with good results.
I am going to try the benadryl again some nights it worked before....
Why why why must I take something to sleep when I did not have to before?????? Did the medications permanently change my brain????
blah blah blah
bizi

I "caved" about a month ago and refilled the klonopin script too. Even with the benzo I only sleep about 4 hours a stretch, but its a heck of a lot better then no sleep.

At this point I am so far beyond caring what med it takes to get me some rest. I am probably close to being dependant on it, but so be it. The alternative is much worse imo.

I'm glad you are back to getting some rest at night. Insomnia is the worst. :(

I am so glad the klonopin is helping. Sometimes I take an extra two one m. at night but that doesn't put me to sleep. It helps with the restlessness. I believe that getting sleep is more important than fears of dependency on klonopin. I have been on it for seven years plus and usually take two m a day but sometimes four and sometimes one.
bobby

Last night I slept for about 6 hours, got up for an hour or so, and then slept for 1 hour. It was nice to be able to get back to bed for a 2nd try.

I learned the trick to this -- start the night early enough so that I can sleep twice before I have to be at work.

I get out of bed and move to another room the second I wake up -- goes back to my 8 (EIGHT) years of Cognitive Behavior Therapy about training the mind and body to see the bed as only for sleep and sex.
According to the rules of this therapist, if I was not sleeping, I had to be out of bed.

I don't know if it is a good rule, but that's I have done things for many years now and most of the time it feels right.


Mari

Glad that is working for you mari.
I slept like a log last night...hard getting up...that is always my complaint...not being able to get up in the mornings...feel so groggy.
will have to try a smaller dose to see if that helps.
maybe it is just me...I know that I am not a morning person...I hit snooze until I have to get out of bed and be somewhere soon and usually end up being late.
which doesn't sit well on many levels.
bizi

have slept the last 3 nights on the klonipin, last night it was just .25mg so that is doable for sure.
thanks for you support...now I must get a life and get out of these jammies!:o
bizi

I am not sleeping well on the .5mg....feel like having to go up on that...since I am bipolar1 every thing evolves around me getting enough sleep.
When I first started getting off of ambien it seemed like the equivalency charts made it look like it was only like .25mg of klonipin....well I can tell you it is much higher than that...probably more like 1mg of klonipin. I was off the ambien for 4 months floating in and out of hypomania all of that time getting horrible sleep at times getting reg sleep from exhaustion.
now it is about 4 hours last night which is doable.
So I will wait and see.
I had an episode on saturday where I became completly obcessed with the computer, was on line for 8 hours...this is manic behavior, mental masterbation so to speak.
I was a mess yesterday...could not get some paper work done, jsut froze up...finally had to call my twin sister and she talked me back to normal...sigh what ever that is but was finally able to do that paperwork.
sigh
bizi
thank god for sisters

(((Bizi))) You probably wish now that you had stayed in bed! :hug: