Cognitive difficulties on Valium?

[KatnissIparis]

Hi -

 

I'm new here as a poster, but I've been reading for awhile. Wondering if any of you have some insight into what I'm experiencing. 

 

I've taken Xanax IR prn for years. I changed pdocs just recently, and he convinced me to try Valium because we both agreed that I needed something longer acting with the current frequency at which I am experiencing panic (sometimes multiple times per day) with a constant level of heightened anxiety due to my current life situation.

 

The Valium does an okay job of controlling my overall level of anxiety, but not so much on the panic side. In any case, my main concern is that cognitively, I'm slow on this med. I'm having trouble focusing. And I'm having to exert more effort to communicate verbally. It's taking me longer to compose coherent thoughts when I try to have a conversation with someone. I'm stumbling over words. I'm sometimes combining two words or mixing syllables of different words as I'm speaking. And I'm rambling. Badly. I'm an extremely articulate person, and I'm finding this new quirk of mine to be very embarrassing. Is this normal??? 

 

As you can see, my written communication is still fine. But at work I need to be sharp verbally as well for what I do. So much so that I'm afraid to take my full dose of it (or at all) during the week. Weekends don't concern me as much if this is just a temporary side effect.

 

I never experienced anything like this while taking Xanax, or even while I was taking temazepam nightly for awhile a few years back for sleep. Those are the only two other benzos I've been prescribed to compare to.

 

Should I ask my pdoc about trying something else? He asked if I had a preference between Valium and Klonopin at our last meeting, and I didn't, so he picked for me. Maybe I can see about trying Klonopin to see if it's any better?

 

I see him a week from tomorrow. 

Edited June 24, 2014 by KatnissIparis

[mcjimjam]

Sounds like he would be open to trying Klonopin instead. Hopefully that will be effective without the cognitive difficulties. I have memory problems on Valium. I'm not really sure what I did yesterday, things like that.

[MiaB]

When are you taking it, and how much are you taking?

 

I take my diazepam when I get home from work in the late afternoon, and it helps knock through the anxiety I'm inevitably feeling by then.  My dose ranges from 5mg to 10mg, depending on where I'm at.  One thing I wouldn't do is take it during the day, because of the concerns you mentioned above.  I also need to be high functioning and articulate at the office, and I'm too wary to risk what might happen if I popped one while at work.  The closest I've come to doing that is at a very, very high crisis period, and even then I didn't go above 2.5mg.

 

Hence my questions above. It may be that your starting dose is too high, and it may be that if you're taking it during the day, you're taking too much and it's screwing with your cognitive functioning.

 

I can't speak about klonopin, because I've never taken it.  The only other benzo that has helped immediately with panic attacks during the day is sublingual Ativan.

Edited June 24, 2014 by miab

[KatnissIparis]

The dosing is 5-10 mg at my discretion twice daily. I did the full 10mg twice a day (which pdoc strongly recommended but ultimately left it up to me if i felt 5 was enough) over a weekend and experienced what I've described as well as few other nasty side effects. Nothing too unusual for starting a new med - nausea and stomach upset. So I tried cutting the dose. At that point all but the cognitive side effects disappeared but the anyloxitic effect was greatly diminished.

It doesn't seem to matter if I skip the daytime dose either, which was the next thing I tried. If I take only the evening dose then it is better, but my verbal communication and thought processes are still impaired for the morning after.

Edited June 24, 2014 by KatnissIparis