Klonopin stopped working after 1 week use

[Thinktank]

I've been using 2mg klonopin at night for 1 week but the last few days it seems to have stopped working or giving me a completely different outcome when using it.
The first week i got at least 8 hours sleep while using it and as a very nice side effect it alleviated my brain fog somewhat due to it's neuroprotective mechanism?. I felt calmer during the day, quite "normal" so this drug was a big "wow" for me.

2mg now just doesn't do anything or keeps me awake instead of sending me off into deep sleep.
I tried 0.5mg last night, a lower dose gives me a very mild sedative effect but i wake up after a few hours and have to take xanax to get back to sleep.

So what's going on? Are my receptors already satiated? Does a lower dose versus a higher dose give a completely different effect after X time, just like with LDN (low dose naltrexone?)

I can use another sleep agent but i prefer klonopin for it's neuroprotective mechanism and the fact that it made me feel more "normal" the first week.

 

[Sushi]

Thinktank

From my experience 2 mg is quite a large starting dose. I believe many take about .25 - .5 mg but to get the effect again you might have to stop for a while, get it out of your system (it has a long half-life) and start again at a lower dose.

Best wishes,
Sushi

 

[Thinktank]

Sushi,

Yeah that's what i thought. The psychobabble doc didn't know anything about the use of it for CFS or it's neuroprotective properties so he just prescribed me the standard dose for sleep which is 2mg here in Thailand. I'll do some more reading on the use of klonopin for CFS and it's mechanism. I'm wondering if there are any other drugs that might have the same effect on brain fog.

 

[Sushi]

Sushi,

Yeah that's what i thought. The psychobabble doc didn't know anything about the use of it for CFS or it's neuroprotective properties so he just prescribed me the standard dose for sleep which is 2mg here in Thailand. I'll do some more reading on the use of klonopin for CFS and it's mechanism. I'm wondering if there are any other drugs that might have the same effect on brain fog.

Klonopin is my "emergency drug" for neuroprotection (manifests as chest pain and confusion in me) though I rarely need to use it any more during the day. I am a chronic insomniac but a low dose of klonopin right before bed works as well as 10 mg of ambien for me--and (for me) without ambien's negative effects. Some patients seem to get "tolerant" of klonopin, but it hasn't happened to me at low doses.

There are many suggestions here on the forum for brain fog--both drugs and herbals. You can do a search with the google site search in the forum menu.

Good luck with this!

Sushi

 

[xchocoholic]

I use 1 - 9 mg of melatonin and 50 - 300 mg 5htp in combination with klonopin for sleep. Melatonin and 5htp
are natural chemicals that directly affect our body's sleep function. Stress, even the good kind, or caffeine require
me to take higher doses. fwiw, only Natural Factors 5htp has worked for me.

Fwiw. You may want to be careful going from 2 mg to .5mg. That big of a change in this med
could cause problems. I've been on and off klonopin several times in the last 23 years and have
to slowly lower the dose or else I feel seizure like. I'm taking the .125 subligual and like the
way it works.

Tc ... X

 

[heapsreal]

i would switch to something else now and maybe in the future try it again in lower doses intermittently. Tolerance occurrs quickly to benzos and the only way to over come it is to increase the dose which is not a smart idea or to take regular breaks. Maybe due to the short length of time on klono you could just stop but probably best to taper off over a week maybe.
reading lithium orotate i found it has neuroprotective effects, so maybe what your looking for???

 

[Vince50]

Klonopin is my "emergency drug" for neuroprotection (manifests as chest pain and confusion in me) though I rarely need to use it any more during the day. I am a chronic insomniac but a low dose of klonopin right before bed works as well as 10 mg of ambien for me--and (for me) without ambien's negative effects. Some patients seem to get "tolerant" of klonopin, but it hasn't happened to me at low doses.

There are many suggestions here on the forum for brain fog--both drugs and herbals. You can do a search with the google site search in the forum menu.

Good luck with this!

Sushi

Wow, I am on 10mg ambien and also clonopin10mg and it feels like NOTHING!.(I try never to take 20 unless im totaly over-caffienated which forces me to take 20mg just to get to baseline normal) But its funny that today I went to my new primary doctor for 3rd visit in 2 weeks (my doctor of 4 yrs just retired and my new one is very anti drug,even for acute pain) with me complaining to him that the ambien ive been on only a year(was on temazapan-much better and stronger imho) and even 1 and-1/2 pills lost its effect. I also told him my backup drug of OTC benadry is now causing my sleep apnea to scare the hell out of me by not letting me breathe thru my nose and also clogging up all my passages. He knows of my chronic fatigue. His words of wisdom............"This is whats happening: all your years of drug use is catching up to you."NO KIDDING! He wanted to pull me off any anti-insomnia med altogether and I told him that if he did that Id have no quality of life at all as I have not ever gotten to sleep without a pill for more than 2 days straight in 25 yrs. Im 53 now. He went "oh ok, I will give you amitriptaline just this once but I want you to see our staff psychologist.. Oh--I didnt know therapists-were able to cure CFS and acute insomnia along with sleep apnea and horrible pain from herniated discs. I guess I'm just stupid. And yeah, Ive seen more therapists than I can shake a stick at. My problem I truly believe is in the blood or neurological as I started to be unable to sleep without wearing a sleep mask and earplugs since age 25 when my life was the most STRESS-FREE!
And he just cut my pain pills in half after not even asking how long ive been non them(3 yrs) The scariest thing is this bozo thinks he is going to take me off of ALL my pain meds(tramadol)and I am not going to suffer huge depression, sweats, super fatigue and heroin like withdrawals from an opiate mimicking drug. He will either kill me, or I wil have to go to one of those pain clinics and pay a fortune for TOO powerful meds.) Day of reckoning is coming. Last time I tried to come off of any pain med either slowly over months or in a detox was a bad experience and I may never come off them. And last 2 times I tried to quit any tranquilizer like vallium( cousin of clonopin) I would up in the emergency room with shortness of breath and chest pain and panic that lasted hrs until I put the bezos back in my system. Have had chronic fatigue since my childhood...over 40 yrs!!! Even tried IV vatamin therapy and adrenal cremes and testosterone supps from a medical doctor, all to no avail.
Hi all, This is my first post here. Didn't get the chance to introduce myself yet. But is there a favored protocol that everyone here is using or its just a mixture of constantly evolving new and old things like pro-biotics, herbs,supplements,sound therapy, magnets,fasting,juicing,raw foods,etc.????? Maybe I should post this as my intro as I got abit carried away here. Sorry. -)

 

[taniaaust1]

I've been using 2mg klonopin at night for 1 week but the last few days it seems to have stopped working or giving me a completely different outcome when using it.

as another said, some of us see that as a large dose. When used for ME/CFS usually small doses are trialed before something like that

Are my receptors already satiated?

The benzos can be quite dangerous drugs. One can develop tollerance only after 5 days with some of them. I'd think if it was working and now isnt, that yes you could of gotten a tollerance to it. From my own experience once a tollerance has happened to a benzo drug, even after stopping it for 5-8mths and retrying again, the tollerance I'd developed before was still there (and that was with taking a low dose one short term).

Nowdays if I take any benzos.. I alternate them with other drugs and will only take one about every third day (if needed), by doing this I havent developed further tollerances. (I developed a tollerance to Temazapam in only 2-3 weeks). Take care.

Try to find other drug groups or "combinations" of things for sleep, with those of us with bad sleep issues, we often need to be taking a combination of things at once. eg my melatonin wasnt enough but combined with another thing which wasnt great by itself, I had success

From your post.. are you on Valium as well?

If there is such a thing as a favored protocol here.. I'd say it was the methylation protocol http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...ation-protocol-august-25-2012-revision.19050/ (Fredd also has one of those protocols which is a little different to the one in the link). But its a case of everyone trying anything they can which could help and I think that most are doing more then the methylation protocol by itself.

 

[Sushi]

Hi Vince50

We could chat about this. Do you ever sign into chat?

I have had to take some kind of sleeping pills for untold years. I was very suspicious the the years on 10 mg of ambien was one of the causes of the atrial fibrillation I was getting. So I tapered off it in about 6 weeks but then off course couldn't sleep. I had been taking a bunch of sleep supplements too.

I've now found a combo that is working pretty well for me but it has been a struggle. Most of us do seem to have awful sleep problems. If you feel like it, open a chat with me some time.

Best wishes,
Sushi

 

[Vince50]

Hi all,

Oh no, excuse me! I meant I take 1mg of clonopin and occasionally twice a day for 2mg. Im thinking of when I was on vallium and was on 10-20mg a day. Sorry. And I already feel Im in trouble to get off clonopin or any benzo. Vallium at least peaks after about 2 hrs but clonopin can last 1/2 a day(for me anyway). And so I can feel even now I cant go more than n48 hrs without it or the least bit of yelling or exertion or anger gives me sweats. This combined with the tramadol painkillers led me into both a detox center for 10 days and also an outpatient treatment program which couldnt get me off of either trams or vallium in 5 months of titrating down. I also should mention I live alone here in Florida and as some of you have expressed here....all my friends seemed to drift away. I have no family and am truly alone. I d never try going off both of those things without solid support I mean a serious friend or wife or whatever. If I ever went into seizures which both of them can produce by going off them, Id have no one to call and Im 53 and not one friend in the whole state. Very isolating feeling. Almost as much fun as being in solitary i must be for inmates. -) And Ive been unemployed last 3 yrs since my mom died so I lost a very important ave of social interaction. No...NA is not for me. Tried it, been there. Sure sushi, id love to chat with you. Im going to bed in about 10 min but if you see me online we can chat a bit. Thanks guys!

 

[Vince50]

LOOKING INTO B-12 INJECTIONS:
Tank, I will look more at that link, thank you. But i just bought some injectable b12 I am starting to give myself. And I cant get excited about anything else in the multi vit. dept. because Ive wasted thousands in supplements from all over the world and Ive taken them in a way almost no one has the opportunity to do intravenously for several weeks. Tons of vits and minerals and it did nothing! Ive also spent a fortune on sublinguals of every type vit,mineral and herb. Heck, I once took 1/2 bottle of vallerian root juts to see if I could get a buzz anywherre like vallium. Nothing! Even after weeks. But let me read more on it and read some good testimonials. thank you.

 

[physicsstudent13]

where can you get klonopin? I've gotten it from neurologists but they are not really willing to prescribe it.
I think klonopin has helped my sleep a lot and I wake up feeling less rough and sometimes even rested on the asv. maybe it helps these white tangles on MRI that you get from sleep apnea.
I still have some short term memory problems but maybe it's not even from klonopin and from sleep apnea instead. anyway I wish I could have my health and young brain back.

 

[Sushi]

where can you get klonopin? I've gotten it from neurologists but they are not really willing to prescribe it.
I think klonopin has helped my sleep a lot and I wake up feeling less rough and sometimes even rested on the asv. maybe it helps these white tangles on MRI that you get from sleep apnea.
I still have some short term memory problems but maybe it's not even from klonopin and from sleep apnea instead. anyway I wish I could have my health and young brain back.

All the ME/CFS knowledgeable docs I've seen have been willing to prescribe klonopin. I know that most docs who are not familiar with this illness are hesitant. So the next question might be how to find such a doc? Maybe others here could suggest someone in your area.

Best,
Sushi

 

[physicsstudent13]

klonopin seems to consolidate sleep time and stop awakenings which may cause drops in oxygen during sleep that can be bad- fragmented sleep can lead to all kinds of problems. klonopin is 2nd generation after barbituates, but I've tried 3rd generation ambien and sonata and they seem to be less effective

 

[Fredricktoo]

2 mg's of klonopin will put me to sleep every time and I'm 6'6" and 300 pounds. I'd be concerned that the medicine I was getting might not be full potency if it didn't put me to sleep. I'd have some serious doubts about the the pills I got from the pharmicist. Maybe a discussion with the pharmacist?

 

[physicsstudent13]

I only take max 1mg klonopin, 0.5mg may be better

 

[Thinktank]

I'm finally off the prednisone and have lowered the dosage of clonazepam to 0.5 mg, that knocks me out for 8 to 9 hours.
2mg clonazepam gives a completely different effect than 0.25 or 0.5mg in me, whereas a high dosage relaxes me and relieves my brain fog a little bit, a low dosage just makes me drowsy and gives me a good nights sleep without waking up a single time.
The only negative side effects i notice from low dose clonazepam are a bit of a drowsy feeling in the morning and no remembrance of dreams, probably because clonazepam suppresses REM sleep?That's something i want to look into because i don't think that's a good thing.

 

[camas]

I seem to dream, or at least remember my dreams, quite frequently on 0.5mg of clonazepam, but maybe that's because I've been on this dosage for a long time and have adjusted to it?

 

[Fredricktoo]

I've always had the most surreal, vivid dreams after taking klonopin, usually .5mg. Amazing how these drugs and supplements affect us all so differently.

 

[Thinktank]

A little update, 0.5 doesn't seem to do the trick anymore. My body now needs at least 1mg or 0.5mg in combination with alcohol otherwise my mind won't stop racing... I've been really stupid and mixing a few beers or diluted vodka with 0.5mg klonopin the last 3 weeks to stay calm. I've had a few panic attacks and mood swings so i've decided to quit.

What's the best way to taper-off without getting too much withdrawal effects?

Some say to taper off slowly from 0.5mg to 0.25 to 0.125 mg, others say to switch to diazepam because it's an easier taper.
What should i do? I NEED something to calm my racing mind at night.

The things i have laying around are:
Clonazepam 2mg tabs
Clonazepam 0.5mg tabs
Diazepam 2mg tabs
Xanax 0.5mg tabs
Loads of different anti-histamines

Other sups i have:
Melatonin slow release tabs
Magnesium
ZMA
L-Theanine