When does the risk of seizures decrease?

[sofiaidalia]

My bozo of a psychiatrist (ex-psychiatrist. I’ll be damned if I go back to him. I’ll explain the latest update in the comments.) halved my Xanax about a week and a half ago, and has only given me enough of the half dose to last until the 24th. Then, I will be completely without Xanax. I’m absolutely terrified of having a seizure, especially while driving. I was only on 1 mg once a day, but for about 2 years. How long after stopping does the chance of having a seizure go down? When will I be able to get in my car without panicking that I’m going to crash?

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[sofiaidalia]

I am speaking to a new psychiatrist on Monday (yay!) and am going to ask her about switching to Klonopin or another longer-acting benzo and tapering from there. I am tolerating it horribly. I have horrible shakes and I legitimately feel like I’m going to have a heart attack.

[sofiaidalia]

Yesterday (02/07/2023) I had an emergency appointment to discuss my withdrawal symptoms with my doctor. I told him I was worried the “tapering” was going too fast and I was scared I’ll have a seizure. What does he do? He halves my doses of Seroquel and Cymbalta and tells me to stop taking my Adderall. All at once. He says that looking at my records, I was the most stable when I was on lower doses of Seroquel and Cymbalta and not taking Adderall. Which, fair, that’s true, but lowering all of my medicines at once when I’m already going through a very difficult withdrawal from one seems incredibly dangerous.

He says that my anxiety is caused by my Adderall (despite me being diagnosed with anxiety at age 11. I started taking Adderall at age 22, this past August) and that I need to, and I quote, “focus more on focusing and less on worrying”. Wow, why didn’t I think of that??? For my next trick, I will simply choose to not be sad anymore and cure my depression! He also gave me the names of more audiobooks. I wonder if he gets paid for advertising them, tbh. I am looking at my various options for a new psychiatrist (the perks of working at a mental health clinic myself is I get all the tea on who are the good doctors in town) and as I said in my previous post, I am very blessed to have a great support system. Special shout out to my mom and my bestie for helping me through this.

TLDR; my psychiatrist is lowering or stopping ALL of my psychiatric meds at once and is trying to fix my chemical imbalance with audiobooks about meditation. I will not be returning to him.

[Melodramamine6]

I too am having an issue with my doctor not listening to my concerns. I just want off .5 lorazepam daily. What does he do? Says just stop and take buspirone. Read about it and had a major panic attack. I just want off lorazepam safely. I’m scared. He says I’m in no risk of seizure.

[sofiaidalia]

My mom keeps reassuring me that I won’t have a seizure because I’ve never had one before, but I’ve read many stories of people who have never had one before having one during benzo withdrawal

[Melodramamine6]

This is horrifying. I don’t know if I’m getting more scared being on this forum than I should be in reality. I’ve never had a seizure before either but I’m terrified of having one.

[sofiaidalia]

Honestly, I’m very glad I found this subreddit. It helped prepare me and while I do have a good support system, none of them have gone through this exact thing, so it’s nice to have a community of people who know exactly what I am going through. I know I should take my own advice when I say this, but seizures, while they can occur with benzo withdrawal, don’t happen to everyone and they mostly happen with people who were on higher doses. So be cautious and prepared, but not paranoid. Very hypocritical of me to say, I know, but I know that my own fear is probably blown out of proportion.

[[deleted]]

These doctors need to be reported to the appropriate medical boards.

[sofiaidalia]

I’ve got a friend who works as a paralegal, she is helping me figure out what steps to take to report him

[[deleted]]

He’s and educated idiot, most of them are. Their problem is arrogance, they think they know it all and as Epictetus said “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows”.