Benzos Clonazepam has stopped working - will it ever work again?

[Sailor_Saturn]

I take Clonazepam for help with anxiety; a maximum of 3 mg daily (3 mg can be taken at the same time). I only take the drug once a week - I have been doing this since February 2016. My doctor and I have tried other drugs, including other benzodiazepines (I have a prescription for Ativan, which is the one benzodiazepine that works for almost anything) and found that, except for Ativan, they would make me sick, even at the lowest dose. We tried other anti-anxiety drugs but I would either have bad side effects or be allergic.

My doctor decided to switch me to Clonazepam last year, but I take it as needed, and that is usually once a week. I have a extremely high anxiety level and he felt the Ativan wasn't doing much for it - this would happen when I would have to deal with anything medical, including medical appointments (such as blood tests).

Even though I only take Clonazepam once a week (and have not taken any other benzodiazepine other than Clonazepam; I am saving the Ativan for a dental appointment on May 29, 2017) I assume I built a tolerance to it, since I took it today but still had a panic attack. I am wondering if it is possible for the drug to stop working completely and for your body to reject the drug; I even increased my dose to see if that would help but it did nothing - it was as if someone game me a placebo. I had eaten the night before than took the pills twelve hours later so maybe the food was still in my stomach. Once I felt the drugs weren't working I got something to eat then a little while later decided to take some more pills but still found they did not work. I was not looking to get high, I just wanted anxiety reduction.

So if anyone could tell me if my body now rejects the Clonazepam and it won't work anymore that would be great; I don't want to bother getting any more prescriptions for a drug that doesn't work. I understand nobody has my body therefore cannot say for sure if it is rejecting it but if they have had experiences like this it would be great to know that I am not the only person dealing with this and worrying that the pills won't work - the Clonazepam has worked in the past for medical appointments, such as ophthalmologist appointment - I took Clonazepam and still panicked but did not try to leave the room - if I had not taken anything I would have probably left; I have done this in the past when I had a medical appointment that made me nervous. I have another ophthalmologist appointment in July 2017 and found the Clonazepam worked for it - except this time it is with a neuro ophthalmologist and is more invasive (this appointment will be in July 2017). I would like to take a sedative to help relax me for that but Ativan tends to work for a short period of time but Clonazepam tends to work for a longer period of time - the neuro ophthalmologist appointment is supposed to be a long appointment so that is why I was hoping the Clonazepam would work but because it has not been working lately I am afraid it will not.

I don't know if I will take any Clonazepam for my appointment in July and I will take Ativan May 29, 2017 so I will be free from using benzodiazepines during the month of June. Does anyone think this may reduce my tolerance to Clonazepam or has my body built a permanent tolerance to it so it will never work again?

 

[katddr02]

You've probably built up a tolerance. Also check the expiration date on the pills. Maybe ask the doc if you can increase the dose or switch back to ativan. I always found ativan worked better as well. Why did your doctor think ativan wasn't helping when you said above that it worked for almost anything? It could also be a mental thing, like you're feeling anxious and worrying that it won't work so it doesn't work. If I were you I would ask your doctor to get another rx to ativan since it is more affective. Hope that helps, best of luck.

 

[Stillwaters]

If you're taking it once a week, its probably not a tolerance issue. I'm weaning off a benzo binge and I take 8mg a day and I still feel it. For like three months now

 

[LaGaFàNi]

According to my psychiatrist and from what I understand about neuropsychopharmacology, benzodiazepines only moderately work at suppressing panic attacks/anxiety, as they don't solve the problem which is often related to DA, SERT and NE receptor that are over-sensitive to stress. They only "dull" out anxiety by being sedative and acting as GABA-ergics, which is indeed related to calm and well-being, but that doesn't stop your stress from possibly becoming overwhelming.

I'll explain it metaphorically: stress is a little fire constantly present in some part of your brain; sometimes it gets very very big and burns everything else. Benzodiazepines are like a firefighter suit, they can protect you from the toxic fumes and heatburns for some time, to some degree, but if you completely get caught up in the fire, the firesuit won't be enough; you'll still get burned as the fire becomes too big, and the suit will be ineffective.

Now you should know that there are other medications that actually prevent the fire from becoming so big, or that can act as extinguishers; these are often DA, NE and SERT antagonist (reverse effect), which keeps your stress away by not permitting it to attain the neuronic receptors that translates it into anxiety, paranoïa or panic attacks (those being caused by a too big release of sympathomimetic neurotransmitters like adrenaline - due to stress - into the synapses (where the receptors are)). Look into aripiprazole or other atypical anti-psychotics, but some of them are very underwhelming, and are totally different from benzos.

You should try and talk about your symptoms to a good psychiatrist - by telling him how they manifest themselves, how you feel prior to these stressful moments - either "happy", stimulated, restless or "sad", feeling down and having a lack of motivation - and for how long your anxiety remains after it being caused by an appointment for example. If it subsides rapidly, or if in the contrary it takes you a few days to get calm again, the medication and diagnose could be totally different.

Keep in mind that your benzo IS working, just not the way you would expect it to. A big part of the "anti-anxiety" that comes with benzos is only due to how they calm heart palpitations, relax muscles and give you a "drunk" feeling, putting you in a different state of mind that may help with un-easiness due to a lack of inhibition during social settings, but in no way do they act directly on the source of your anxiety, that being your DA and NE receptors (mostly).

Hope this helps you understand what pathology you might be dealing with, and sends you into the way of recovery.

 

[Sailor_Saturn]

Thanks so much for your help; I appreciate it. I am not taking any more benzodiazepines until May 29, 2017 and that will be Ativan for a dental appointment. I took 7 mg of Clonazepam (which is a high dose that I only took once before and when I took it once before it made me fall asleep) on May 4, 2017 and it didn't do anything - nobody knew that I took 7 mg because I appeared fine to everyone and usually if I take a high dose of something it will be obvious so that's a sign that I need to take a break. I am on anti-seizure medication because I am epileptic so there is no worry about me possibly having a seizure because of quitting cold turkey - I have done this a few times before in order to lower my tolerance and the longest I would go would be 31 days; after that I would take the dose I normally take but would fall asleep quickly instead of just being relaxed - this was with Ativan and my normal dose is 6 mg; Clonazepam is stronger so I usually take 3 mg of Clonazepam.

I didn't start taking Clonazepam regularly until 2016; I had tried it before but found it ineffective; however, I discovered this was because I had eaten too soon before I took the pills - I realized that, like Ativan, I need to take Clonazepam on an empty stomach. Since figuring this out I find Clonazepam works better on an empty stomach. I have six 1 mg Ativan pills for the dental appointment - I think that I will take 4 mg for the appointment since I once tried 4.5 mg after going 27 days without taking any benzodiazepines and I was told off for taking drugs for a dental appointment - apparently I appeared really out of it. I know 2 mg doesn't work; I also tried 2.5 mg which didn't work either, so I doubt any less than 4 mg will work - I thought about trying 3.5 mg but I don't know if it will work since it will be 24 days without taking any benzodiazepine (the last time I took a benzodiazepine would have been May 4, 2017 and that was the 7 mg of Clonazepam).

It takes at least two hours for Ativan to work, even if I do it sublingually. What would you do if you were me? Would you take 3.5 mg and then if two and a half hours have passed and there are still no effects take another 0.5 mg? Or would you just take the 4 mg all at once to make sure you get some effect from it?