Coping with Anxiety After Klonopin Rehab
A Klonopin addiction can be especially distressing for someone who struggles with anxiety symptoms. As a commonly prescribed treatment for anxiety disorders, prolonged use of Klonopin places users at high risk of addiction.
Counseling can help you cope with anxiety in your Klonopin addiction recovery.
While Klonopin rehab can greatly benefit those who become addicted to the drug, anxiety problems not only return, but are often worse than they were before taking the drug. Even in cases where a person didn’t take the drug as an anxiety treatment, anxiety problems may still become an issue after completing Klonopin rehab.
According to the University of Maryland, Klonopin belongs to a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines produce a sedative effect by altering GABA neurotransmitter chemical levels in the brain. While the early stages of Klonopin rehab help to restore normal chemical levels in the brain, ongoing Klonopin rehab treatment can help a person better cope with anxiety problems down the road.
Through ongoing psychotherapy, Klonopin rehab helps recovering addicts better manage anxiety symptoms. For people who struggle with severe anxiety problems, Klonopin rehab programs can administer certain medication therapies designed to alleviate anxiety symptoms.
Klonopin Addiction
Whether taken for medicinal purposes or used recreationally, taking Klonopin for six months or more places users at risk of physical dependency and addiction. In effect, the brain becomes increasingly tolerant of the drug’s effects, so users must keep taking larger doses over time.
These conditions create a physical dependency that gives rise to withdrawal effects when needed amounts of the drug are lacking. Withdrawal effects may include –
- Memory loss
- Persistent drowsiness
- Fluctuations in appetite
- Dehydration
- Swelling
- Heart palpitations
Users continue taking Klonopin to relieve uncomfortable withdrawal effects. Meanwhile, brain chemical processes enter into a deteriorating state of imbalance that grows even worse with continued drug use.
Psychotherapy
Once addiction sets in, getting and using Klonopin becomes the driving force behind a person’s thoughts, emotions, motivations and behaviors. While Klonopin rehab goes a long way towards eliminating the body’s physical dependency on the drug, the damage done to brain functions sends anxiety levels through the roof for many recovering addicts. Under these conditions, it becomes that much easier to fall back into old drug-using behaviors.
According to the University of Pennsylvania, thought patterns and belief systems form the basis for feelings of anxiety to develop. Psychotherapy treatment helps a person identify anxiety-producing thoughts and beliefs that trigger anxiety symptoms. In the process, recovering addicts learn to replace these thinking processes with more realistic thoughts and belief systems. Over time, a person is better able to manage and control anxiety symptoms at their source.
Medication Options
People who’ve taken Klonopin as an anxiety treatment may have an especially hard time coping with anxiety symptoms after completing Klonopin rehab. When warranted, treatment programs may administer anti-depressant medications to help alleviate anxiety symptoms.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, medications most commonly used in this regard include –
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
- Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
These drugs work to restore normal neurotransmitter chemical levels by stimulating serotonin and/or norepinephrine secretions in the brain. Overall, medication therapies combined with ongoing psychotherapy work best for people who continue to struggle with an anxiety disorder after rehab.