Can skipping klonopin doses cause hormonal/mood swings?

[Intenselife]

Hey, ok so I have been prescribed klonopin for over a year now at 2mg's a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. However ever since it hasn't worked as good for me (like the first 6 months) I started to skip doses here and their. I also did that was because I felt like I couldn't go to job interviews, classes at school and other important things without having a few extra klonopins. So because I didn't wanna increase my tolerance etc, I would skip doses once in awhile and have extra saved up which I rarely use these days. However i'm starting to notice that even as a male I have a lot of emotions and mood swings similar to when a girl is pmsing. Physically I get cramps, real tired at random times of the month, and like today was in a pretty good mood earlier in the day, and then I started screaming about how much I hate my father to my mom for like 30 minutes and even knocked over something before I finally just forced myself to get away.

Anyways it never occured to me that some of these body aches and extra mood swings/random increases in depression etc could be because I have been skipping my evening doses probably 3-5 times out of the week to just 1mg instead of 2mg! Now I have heard that is a good reason and very possible for how I feel sometimes since my body is used to and dependent on 2mg's and while skipping a day here and there won't hurt but skipping 3-5 weekly will sure. But I can't no for 100% sure if it's because of my hormonal imbalances from extreme long term depression that I have, or because of skipping my evening dose of klonopin frequently or a bit of both?

Someone help.

 

[St3ve]

Klonopin works by binding to GABA receptors in your brain which act to inhibit other brain cells from firing. In other words they tell the hyperactive areas of your brain to shut up and in that way prevent anxiety and facilitate sleep. If you take them over a long period of the time the brain will "realize" there's more GABA activity than usual and as a result will start downregulating GABA receptors, if you then skip doses of klonopin there's a sudden big loss of GABA activity or inhibition. Spontaneous activity in your brain will be higher which can result in irritability and mood swings.

A quick google search told me that klonopin can cause hormonal imbalance but does so only in a very, very small minority. I don't think it's got much to do with your hormones being out of wack. Instead I think you are experiencing a mild withdrawal symptom from skipping doses... Maybe talk to your doc about upping the dose?

 

[Intenselife]

I took my second dose as I'm prescribed today after skipping around doses for a few weeks now. I feel terrible because I was screaming about the slightest thing that pissed me off, and then went to a rage about the things in my life that have or are happening that piss me off. I screamed, and blah blah i've been like this for over a few weeks and mild abdominal cramps that come and go. I think already after taking the second dose, some part of my brain is kinda shut down or toned down, otherwise I'd probably be still sitting here in my room having hot flashes about how depressed and miserable I am.

I think i've been putting myself in a frequent state of minor withdrawal by skipping around the evening dose on most days, so i'm going to do my best to only skip a few times a week because I am assuming this is the reason for some of the weird behavior physically/mentally/emotionally that I have been experiencing for sometime.