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Clonazepam (Klonopin) stops my symptoms almost completely

Replenished

Senior Member
Messages
247
As the title suggests. The Benzodiazepine medication Clonazepam, almost completely eradicates my symptoms.

I was first prescribed the medication many years ago when I had severe anxiety/panic attacks, before developing ME/CFS like health issues. I don't take the medication often now as my anxiety is typically under control/manageable, but I do have some spare in the case of emergencies if my anxiety gets to much to bear. I maybe take it 3 or 4 times a year at this point. That's just for one dose on those occasions.

I had noticed on previous occasions in recent years when I've been unwell, when I took clonazepam for anxiety, there was also a reduction in physical health symptoms.

Specifically today, I had been feeling really crappy, unwell, fatigued, depleted and couldn't stop dumping out clear urine along with being very thirsty. The dehydration type symptoms were the first that arose when I developed this condition and remain one of the main symptoms when I'm having a bad period. Today after all morning urinating clear urine non stop and feeling completely dehydrated and depleted, I took a Clonazepam, just one tablet 0.5mg. Partly because I was just so fed up and hopeless and wanted to numb myself to the pain of life with this condition, but also to see if it may help my symptoms.

30 mins later, I started feeling warm, after feeling cold all morning, my urination literally stopped, my appetite came back, and despite feeling a little slowed/relaxed from the medication I had an increase in energy and even went for a little walk listening to music.

I've read a couple of other threads here of people having success with this medication. I'm not saying it's something I can take every day or long term, because I know the dangers of dependency. But there must be something in this and why it causes a massive reduction in symptoms for me and many others. How can we harness this?

Of all of the theories around what causes CFS. The one that always seems to make most sense to me and matches up to how mine developed, is 'Autonomic nervous system dysfunction'. And now after finding clonazepam massively reduces symptoms, could it be that the medication is essentially calming an over alert and dysfunctional nervous system, which alleviates the symptoms? Only until the medication wears off unfortunately.

Clonazepam increases gaba and slows the activity in the nervous system. So it all seems to make sense.

Is there anything that could be done to somehow use this logic to find a way to regulate/calm the automatic nervous system, without an addictive drug such as Clonazepam?

I know there are a few programs/courses for ME/CFS that focus on the automatic nervous system idea and these now seem more appropriate for me. But if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this, please do share. :)
 

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
Do you mean Clonazepam causes vagal nerve stimulation? Struggling to find much information on this.

No- you had asked for alternatives that slow/calm some inappropriate activity of the autonomic nervous system. When the sympathetic nervous system is too a tive and the parasympathetic too inactive, stimulating the vagal nerve can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which then turns off the sympathetic nervous system (under the see saw model anyway- one up whikst the other down) I have autonomic dysfunction too with too much sympathetic activity.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
As the title suggests. The Benzodiazepine medication Clonazepam, almost completely eradicates my symptoms.

I was first prescribed the medication many years ago when I had severe anxiety/panic attacks, before developing ME/CFS like health issues. I don't take the medication often now as my anxiety is typically under control/manageable, but I do have some spare in the case of emergencies if my anxiety gets to much to bear. I maybe take it 3 or 4 times a year at this point. That's just for one dose on those occasions.

I had noticed on previous occasions in recent years when I've been unwell, when I took clonazepam for anxiety, there was also a reduction in physical health symptoms.

Specifically today, I had been feeling really crappy, unwell, fatigued, depleted and couldn't stop dumping out clear urine along with being very thirsty. The dehydration type symptoms were the first that arose when I developed this condition and remain one of the main symptoms when I'm having a bad period. Today after all morning urinating clear urine non stop and feeling completely dehydrated and depleted, I took a Clonazepam, just one tablet 0.5mg. Partly because I was just so fed up and hopeless and wanted to numb myself to the pain of life with this condition, but also to see if it may help my symptoms.

30 mins later, I started feeling warm, after feeling cold all morning, my urination literally stopped, my appetite came back, and despite feeling a little slowed/relaxed from the medication I had an increase in energy and even went for a little walk listening to music.

I've read a couple of other threads here of people having success with this medication. I'm not saying it's something I can take every day or long term, because I know the dangers of dependency. But there must be something in this and why it causes a massive reduction in symptoms for me and many others. How can we harness this?

Of all of the theories around what causes CFS. The one that always seems to make most sense to me and matches up to how mine developed, is 'Autonomic nervous system dysfunction'. And now after finding clonazepam massively reduces symptoms, could it be that the medication is essentially calming an over alert and dysfunctional nervous system, which alleviates the symptoms? Only until the medication wears off unfortunately.

Clonazepam increases gaba and slows the activity in the nervous system. So it all seems to make sense.

Is there anything that could be done to somehow use this logic to find a way to regulate/calm the automatic nervous system, without an addictive drug such as Clonazepam?

I know there are a few programs/courses for ME/CFS that focus on the automatic nervous system idea and these now seem more appropriate for me. But if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this, please do share. :)

Have you tried alternatives that could be used more frequently? Lyrica and gabapentine come to mind, both are in the anticonvulsant class of meds that can reduce anxiety and help with a dysfunctional nervous system.
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,997
The interesting thing about clonazepam is that its the best medication for REM behaviour disorder (acting out ones dreams)
Which is common in Parkinsons disease though occasionally comes up elsewhere as well.

Have you tried alternatives that could be used more frequently? Lyrica and gabapentine come to mind, both are in the anticonvulsant class of meds that can reduce anxiety and help with a dysfunctional nervous system.
I am currently on 300mg/day of Pregabalin, no effect on the ME or anything else :(
It seems like a placebo in my case.
 

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
Messages
4,461
Location
Great Lakes
Last edited:

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
I am currently on 300mg/day of Pregabalin, no effect on the ME or anything else :(
It seems like a placebo in my case
Thats a reasonable dose. You dont feel sedated or relaxed on it at all, wow. Show how different everyone is. My sister was on 25mg twice a day for chronic pain and stopped because she was too sedated.
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,997
Thats a reasonable dose. You dont feel sedated or relaxed on it at all, wow. Show how different everyone is. My sister was on 25mg twice a day for chronic pain and stopped because she was too sedated.
Yikes, i can't tell i am taking it.
Wish i knew why.

Not sure if i should ask for higher dose or to discontinue it.
 

LINE

Senior Member
Messages
832
Location
USA
Benzos present problems in the long run. The issue is too much glutamate in the cell and not enough GABA. Source Naturals sells GABA lozenges which you let dissolve under the tongue. This will provide the GABA you need to stop the anxiety. Anxiety = low GABA. Easy fix.

Magnesium is also needed in the synapse along with B6.
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,997
I think at that dose if you at noticing anything id stop it and move on to something else.
I was thinking something similar, apparently 450mg/day is the max dose recommended for fibromyalgia, i was thinking of trying that and if it doesn't work then tapering off.
Need to make an appt with my doc to get the higher dose.

Benzos present problems in the long run. The issue is too much glutamate in the cell and not enough GABA. Source Naturals sells GABA lozenges which you let dissolve under the tongue. This will provide the GABA you need to stop the anxiety. Anxiety = low GABA. Easy fix.

Magnesium is also needed in the synapse along with B6.
GABA doesn't cross the blood brain barrier. A few sources like to claim natural source can but both types being molecularly identical it makes no sense.
That said there are other ways to raise brain GABA, with some success.
 
Last edited:

Living Dead

Senior Member
Messages
199
Am I correct in thinking programs such as the Gupta program, ANS rewire....and I can't remember the name of the others, are essentially based on fixing Autonomic nervous system dysfunction?
When I bought the Gupta programme, it contained a normal meditation, a mantra meditation, a visualization of health, and the stop-stop-stop technique. And a technique called "the accellerator".
It has been redesigned (but doesn't seem to contain more content), at a higher price. It is expensive for what you get.
 

ljimbo423

Senior Member
Messages
4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
Am I correct in thinking programs such as the Gupta program, ANS rewire....and I can't remember the name of the others, are essentially based on fixing Autonomic nervous system dysfunction?

Yes they are.

I think Gupta's program is very much tied into ME/CFS researcher Jarred Youngers' theory that ME/CFS is caused by "primed" or "sensitized" microglia in the brain.

Gupta says that stress from life, infections, etc. "sensitizes" the Amygdala, causing symptoms, and the symptoms cause more stress, which further sensitizes the Amygdala. I think this "sensitization" he's talking about, is the same as what Jarred Younger is talking about.