Brenndo Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I have had sleeping difficulties for quite some time now and I eventually posed to my psychiatrist today that I really would like something to help with sleep. I left with a script for 1mg of clonazepam. I just took it for sleep, he said to take it an hour before bedtime. I took Xanax for anxiety and paranoia, mainly during my depressive episodes but I've never taken any other benzo, and I've never taken it for sleep. He says to take it every night. Is it safe to use a benzodiazepine frequently on a regular basis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired tammy Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I suffer chronic insomnia and was at crisis point with anxiety as well. (October, 2013) My doctor prescribed .5mg of Klonopin to take about 1-2 hrs before bedtime. By December I had self-tapered to .25 mg at night and then it just PRN. I had no problem with the med or the self-taper. I was advised to restart the nightly med and doctor said i could start at either .25mg or .50mg when sleep/anxiety issue resurfaced and I have had no problems. Good luck with your sleep-it makes life easier when you can get some! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterJoshua Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I have been taking 1 mg of klonopin expressly for sleep for over a year now. (Previously I have taken up to 6 mgs a day for anxiety.) I don't take it every night, just on nights that I can feel the anxiety creeping up in the evening. When I took it daily for anxiety, the effect eventually wore off and I had to up my dosage. Some people have had a really tough time coming off klonopin, but that has never been my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillBytes Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Same here with chronic insomonia. None of the over the counter stuff works in fact even the prescriptions most don't. benzos alone will help me fall asleep at the right dosage but not keep me asleep, same with ambien. For me it requires a combo of seriquel and benzox or ambien. The benzos help me fall asleep and the seriquel help me stay asleep. I've been taking benzos off and on for as long as I can remember. Been on klons for almost a year, xanax slightly less. I am able to stop cold turky often not by choice but because if finances. I've had no problems. I understand for some they experience a withdrawl. Benzos were introduced in the 1960's to replace barbetuates. Benzos are a lot safer then barbs. With barbs it was very easy to OD and they really were highly addicting with opiate like withdrawl! Benzos were proven to be much safer because it was much more difficult to accidentially OD on and they are not any where as addicting as barbetuates. Doctors welcomed benzos with open arms! I don't understand the sudden benzo phobia we see these days. As long as you do not abuse them they are reasonably safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 He says to take it every night. Is it safe to use a benzodiazepine frequently on a regular basis? For me it is. I have been on xanax and klonopin together without a problem for about 10+ years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillBytes Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I like klons better then xanax. Klons last longer. Xanax is very good for panic attacks as it kicks in a lot faster but also wears off faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacelizard Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Yeah. Unless you're allergic to benzos or have a paradoxical reaction to them, you should be fine. You just have to understand that if you're taking it every night, eventually you'll develop tolerance to and dependence on them and your doctor may have to increase the dose. If the dose gets high enough and you eventually want to stop taking it, that's where it become tricky/dangerous. Because if you taper down too quickly, aside from increased anxiety, you're at a greater risk of having a seizure, which is obviously bad. So don't just stop taking them. Talk to your doctor and if you need to, he can set up a taper for you to slowly ween you off. Any idea why they didn't try a non-benzo first like Trazadone or Remeron or Seroquel? Most doctors don't use a benzo as a first-line treatment for insomnia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenndo Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 I'm allergic to trazodone and he said because I'm on Risperdal, seroquel would be redundant. And in all reality, klonopin is working great. I love it, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Unless you're allergic to benzos or have a paradoxical reaction to them, you should be fine. You just have to understand that if you're taking it every night, eventually you'll develop tolerance to and dependence on them and your doctor may have to increase the dose. If the dose gets high enough and you eventually want to stop taking it, that's where it become tricky/dangerous. I have been on 2 benzos at the same time for over 10 years, and have not developed a permanent tolerance. I depend on them to sleep, but the dose stays relatively the same throughout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacelizard Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Unless you're allergic to benzos or have a paradoxical reaction to them, you should be fine. You just have to understand that if you're taking it every night, eventually you'll develop tolerance to and dependence on them and your doctor may have to increase the dose. If the dose gets high enough and you eventually want to stop taking it, that's where it become tricky/dangerous. I have been on 2 benzos at the same time for over 10 years, and have not developed a permanent tolerance. I depend on them to sleep, but the dose stays relatively the same throughout. Hmm. Weird. Never heard of that before. I would think even if you were using one, you'd develop a tolerance to it pretty quickly and eventually have to bump up the dose. And then with two, even more so. You know, kinda like if you drink alcohol, it can effect the efficacy of benzos since they're both processed similarly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crtclms Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Unless you're allergic to benzos or have a paradoxical reaction to them, you should be fine. You just have to understand that if you're taking it every night, eventually you'll develop tolerance to and dependence on them and your doctor may have to increase the dose. If the dose gets high enough and you eventually want to stop taking it, that's where it become tricky/dangerous. I have been on 2 benzos at the same time for over 10 years, and have not developed a permanent tolerance. I depend on them to sleep, but the dose stays relatively the same throughout. Hmm. Weird. Never heard of that before. I would think even if you were using one, you'd develop a tolerance to it pretty quickly and eventually have to bump up the dose. And then with two, even more so. You know, kinda like if you drink alcohol, it can effect the efficacy of benzos since they're both processed similarly. This is not uncommon. There is a lot of fear-mongering surrounding benzos. I've been on the same dose of Xanax (paradoxical reaction to Klonopin) for 8 years, and have never gone up in dosage. I also take Ativan a few times a month for really bad migraines, with the approval of both my ndoc and pdoc. It is true that some people have to keep bumping it up. But I actually don't hear about it as often as you might think. Which is not to say no one here has experienced it, I just haven't see a lot of posts about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Equivilency Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I was on ativan for almost 3 years 3x a day w no problems going on or coming off. I take 2mg klonopin to keep me from waking up at night. I personally don't find benzo's dangerous at all - when taken as prescribed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiet storm Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I'd like to think ever increasing tolerance is uncommon. Never take more than you need and be very careful with cross tolerant things like alcohol. Dependence is totally different than tolerance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtac Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 My pdoc also wrote me klonopin for sleep, 1-2mg as needed. I have problems with insomnia, but I find 1mg relaxing enough to fall asleep when I want to. 2mg will heavily sedate me and generally leaves me hung-over the next day. I was on 10mg valium daily for over a year with no tolerance issues. I've been on klonopin before, for a couple of months, and I didn't notice any tolerance issues from taking it daily. Benzos just have a bad rap, and I think some of it stems from the heavy usage when they first hit the market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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