[Nix]

If you take Klonopin (Clonazepam), do you take it as needed or regularly? My pdoc says he thinks a blood level is necessary so he wants me to take it regularly but it seems to me that some people here just take it as needed.

Also, does it make you tired? Do you take it at night? I take it during the day and I'm wondering if it contributes to being tired. What are your experiences?

[gayleggg]

I can take mine as needed but lately I've been needing it regularly to control the anxiety. I take mine during the day as that is when I need it. It makes me a little tired but it's better than the anxiety.

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[splitimage]

I take mine on a regular schedule. It makes me slightly drowsy.

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If you take Klonopin (Clonazepam), do you take it as needed or regularly? My pdoc says he thinks a blood level is necessary so he wants me to take it regularly but it seems to me that some people here just take it as needed.

Also, does it make you tired? Do you take it at night? I take it during the day and I'm wondering if it contributes to being tired. What are your experiences?

Well, I'm not sure what you're taking it for. The answer might differ.

If you have panic attacks, I don't think it's a very good drug to take "as needed", because it's fairly slow to act. It takes around 2 hours for it to give good relief for anxiety in my experience.

If you are taking it for anxiety, it's going to work better if you take it every day.

If I take it during the daytime, it used to make me very sleepy. (I have been taking it for 11-12 years, and it's only in the last year or so that it doesn't seem to do that anymore.)

If I was not already taking clonazepam and therefore heavily dependent on it, I would not start taking it unless there was no other option available to me for controlling my symptoms.

If it's going to be for short-term use (say 2 months or less), then that might be okay.

If a doctor wanted to prescribe it to me, I'd want to know how long he envisioned me taking it.

I know that I've added more here than what you've asked. I am trying to lower my dose of clonazepam gradually and finding it to be incredibly difficult, so I sort of feel a duty to point out what can happen long-term even if you take the drug exactly as prescribed.

[SingDanceRunLife]

I'm prescribed to take it as needed which happens to be daily, at night so I can sleep, and then up to 2 other times during the day if necessary.

If normal sleep meds worked for me I would take them instead of klonopin (klonopin was a last resort for me after Ambien, Lunesta, Trazodone etc. failed). I want to try and go back to benzos truly PRN, and have cut my dose from 2mg to 1mg at night, and I will probably try to lower it again once I'm back home and working with my regular pdoc again. I know it's possible because for a few months, I was taking 6mg daily!

I take it at night. Helps me sleep. Have taken for 10 years original dose was .5 mg. Im up to 2 mg now. I have conceded the fact that I Will never be able to stop taking it. I miss a dose and its hell.
My rx is not prn. It takes too long to become effective but if im feeling out of sorts through the day i take half a pill but it makes me very sleepy. Im extremely sensitive to meds so my experience isnt the norm.

[*Laurie*]

I've taken Klonopin regularly for 20 years. I am terribly physically addicted to it. Nearly a year ago, over many months, I dropped my dosage from 2mg to 1.5mg and had a breakdown that I think is partly attributable to the drop in K-pin. In desperation, I went back up 1/4 tablet to 1 3/4mg/day. I don't know how I will ever, ever be able to stop taking K-pin, the stuff is monstrously addictive.

If I were you I would take it prn (as needed only).

[ChipperMonkey]

It's not designed to be a drug you take constantly. It's designed to be a short term or as needed drug. Unlike other psych drugs, you'll build up a tolerance, needing more and more and more for the same effect. I was taking 1mg a day when it stopped working PERIOD. I quadrupled the dose and it did nothing. For the next month I was lucky to get 1 hour of twilight sleep a night. Some nights I didn't sleep at all.

Most American docs are idiots when it comes to benzos. They don't know how addicting they can be. Check out the benzo buddies website if you want to know the ins and outs of just how bad this drug can be. It's not a class of medication you want to take for long. Studies have revealed a link between benzo use and dementia later in life. I'm not trying to scare you. Rather, I was put on benzos without knowing how bad they would be for me when taken daily. The dependency was hell. I will never go through that again. It's just not worth it.