Klonopin-- I feel ill

[vegancupcake]

I'm just going to say ahead of time that my brain is in chaos right now and I apologize times a million if this post doesn't make sense.

I was prescribed Klonopin to control my GAD, and I took 0.5 mg for the first time last night. I woke up feeling fine, but as the day progressed I began to feel inexplicably sad and tired. And then I had the most horrific panic attack I've had in a really long time. I haven't had a panic attack in 6 months. But the day after I take klonopin, my body decides it's about time to have one. I'm still feeling the aftershocks of it and I feel completely miserable and irritated by everything and I want to climb into a hole and hide forever until this feeling goes away. My computer is being slow and I want to smash it. Things like that.

I've skimmed through other posts about Klonopin causing depression and rage etc. But can it totally backfire and make your anxiety go out of control?

[tryp]

It's rare, but you can get what's called paradoxical agitation. It is also possible that you had the panic attack when the Klonopin wore OFF.

How have you been on other benzos? Have you ever had this problem before? I see from your signature that you have also tried xanax.

[vegancupcake]

I take xanax for panic attacks, and I've never had a problem. I just feel so confused. I was doing so well yesterday, and I have been doing well since lamictal has started working its magic. My anxiety levels have been low, but I have several stressful weeks coming up and I wanted to test out the klonopin ahead of time. And now this. I've had another panic attack since posting, and I feel totally out of control. Klonopin is the only thing that's changed. But it was such a small dose, and I'm sure it has worn off by now. Either way, I'm worse off now than before I took it. I haven't had a panic attack in six months, it's a lovely coincidence that they'd decide to start up again now.

[tryp]

I mean, you could try taking half of the dose and see what happens, or you could keep trying the full dose, or give up.

I had bad side effects from both benzos I tried but one was way worse than the other, so it's possible that Klonopin just doesn't agree with you.

[vegancupcake]

I'm not going to take another dose of it tonight and hope that I'm back to normal tomorrow. I just took a couple xanax to help me calm down... I was avoiding it earlier because I didn't want to overdo it with the benzos. Thanks for replying!

[melissaw72]

Can you try taking 2 small doses (as opposed to the one bigger one) on a regular schedule and not PRN? It would most likely get a steady steady state of it in your blood, and might even itself out given time for it to build up in you. I am on 0.25 AM and 0.25 PM, none PRN, and it keeps me at a calmer state in general. I still need xanax for breakthrough anxiety, but the klonopin on a PRN basis really doesn't work well for me.

[crtclms]

I got Klonopin Rage. It happened two hours after I took a dose. I only stayed on it for 3 days, it was clearly making me worse.

[vegancupcake]

Can you try taking 2 small doses (as opposed to the one bigger one) on a regular schedule and not PRN? It would most likely get a steady steady state of it in your blood, and might even itself out given time for it to build up in you. I am on 0.25 AM and 0.25 PM, none PRN, and it keeps me at a calmer state in general. I still need xanax for breakthrough anxiety, but the klonopin on a PRN basis really doesn't work well for me.

I was intending on taking the klonopin on a regular basis, but I don't know that I feel comfortable trying it again yet. My anxiety level is slightly better than it was yesterday, but I feel like my depression has hit rock bottom. This isn't unusual for me, unfortunately, and it could have nothing to do with the klonopin. Lately I've been cycling through moods around twice a month, and it might've been a coincidence that I felt better for two weeks after starting lamictal. I'm also having another deal-breaker side effect that I'm not comfortable mentioning on CB, but I'm not sure if it's the lamictal or klonopin that triggered it. My fingers are crossed that it was the klonopin and that it'll go away by tomorrow.