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Clobazam vs clonazepam

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
Hi all,

I'm dealing with severe light and sound intolerance. The only thing that helps me (significantly) with this is clonazepam. Now, we are going to have construction at our house in the coming months and its going to cause a huge amount of noise. I wanted to take clonazepam to get through this period, but it isn't deliverable at the moment in my country. My pharmacy gave me clobazam as a replacement.

Now, the property that i think causes the clonazepam to relieve light/sound intolerance is that it slows down the processing of stimuli in the brain. Most other benzos like Xanax dont have this propertyand thus dont do the same for me. Does anyone know whether clobazam would have a similar effect and is similar to clonazepam?

On another note, I know benzos are dangerous and I'm aware of the risks but I feel this is an exceptional situation. I've already decided I'm OK with taking them for a limited period.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
Are you able to try Ativan instead?
I am very noise intolerant and Ativan really helps me with it.

Thanks so much for your reply. That’s really helpful info. I actually took Ativan for the past 4 months but only for sleep, 1mg at night. Been tapering it off in the past couple of weeks to prepare for clonazepam. Never noticed it doing something for my intolerances, but maybe that’s because I didn’t take it during the day. I did notice my intolerances getting slightly worse lately so maybe that’s because of tapering off.

Do you take it during the day or only at night? How much do you take per day? And did you notice it helping light intolerance too - or do you not have that?
 

Jessie 107

Senior Member
Messages
291
Location
Brighton
I take it during the day, I only take it occasionally like when I am in a crash or I have to tolerate any appointment.
I take 1 1/2 mg, it helps all of my symptoms including noise sensitivity, I don't have light sensitivity.
 

SlamDancin

Senior Member
Messages
521
I’m actually really interested in this distinction because supposedly Clobazam is less physically addictive than Clonazepam and other classical benzos. Benzos are incredibly helpful for me but i would stay away from any of the other ones.
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
I’m actually really interested in this distinction because supposedly Clobazam is less physically addictive than Clonazepam and other classical benzos. Benzos are incredibly helpful for me but i would stay away from any of the other ones.
Yep, me too. They are really helpful to me too and actually needed currently too. Unfortunately I haven’t found anyone with ME with experience with clobazam yet
 

SlamDancin

Senior Member
Messages
521
Are you in the US? Doctors here don’t really prescribe benzos and Clobazam is only approved for one epileptic syndrome. There’s probably not too many people who have tried it.
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
Are you in the US? Doctors here don’t really prescribe benzos and Clobazam is only approved for one epileptic syndrome. There’s probably not too many people who have tried it.
I'm in the Netherlands, you? Here they don't prescribe benzos easily either but my GP is very relaxed. I decided to go with Ativan BTW and it's working pretty well albeit less than clonazepam
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
I’m in the US. Very jealous, I would love an Ativan right now. Glad it’s helping!
That's surprising. I was under the impression that doctors in the US are very lax when it comes to prescribing benzos.

And yeah, they are pretty great! Feels like a 2-3 month course could turn around my situation in a big way
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
@Bergkamp Be careful though, as I’m sure you know, it’s hard to make real gains on benzos if used too often, and that’s very easy to do
Thanks for the advice, you’re definitely right, I’m just gonna go on them for the next 6 weeks or so just to get through the construction at our house. Then just have to see what I’m gonna do afterwards. Maybe I’ll switch to topiramate which my doc suggested and apparently also helps against light/sound intolerance and the migraine that goes with it
 

SlamDancin

Senior Member
Messages
521
There are a few anti epileptics that work on GABAA. They absolutely do not feel anything like benzos in my opinion. 6 weeks is long enough to develop real dependency. Is it possible you could use them only 2-3 times a week?
 

Bergkamp

Senior Member
Messages
145
There are a few anti epileptics that work on GABAA. They absolutely do not feel anything like benzos in my opinion. 6 weeks is long enough to develop real dependency. Is it possible you could use them only 2-3 times a week?
Do you know which ones? My doc mentioned topamax as an anti-epileptic which I’ll probably try in the future but I don’t think that works on GABA.

I sort of accepted that I’m going to be dependent on them for a while and will have to taper off if I decide to get off them. With this construction work here and the noise it produces I won’t be able to handle it without clonazepam. Don’t really feel like I have much of a choice