Clonazepam has strange effect on me - ideas?

[DavidSWP]

Hi,

I've taken Clonazepam at quite low doses (1/2 - 1mg a day) for periods of several months on about 5 seperate occasions.  I've noticed that when I'm taking it a number of physical symptoms I have always disappear.  For example I've always had very bad chapped lips but when I'm taking Clonazepam they always clear up within a week.  I also feel much less tired and fatigued when I'm taking the med which is odd because its a sedative!  When I'm not taking it I generally feel very tired and fatigued a lot of the time even if I have a good nights sleep.

Having said that I don't really want to keep taking it because I find that it dulls the senses a lot and makes me lack motivation.  I wonder why it is curing these physical symptoms and think if I could find out it might point me in the right direction to discover what the root of my problem is.  Has anyone experienced this or have any ideas?

[bosnianworrier]

I dont know about chapped lips but Klonopin takes away my dizziness, tiredness, headache and so on. It's because my root cause is anxiety. Your lips could be co-incidence, idk.

[amish1979]

As far as feeling more refreshed when you are taking it, I'll take a crack at that one.

In my case, no matter how much sleep I get I still feel pretty fatigued as soon as I wake up and it carries through my whole day.  My belief is because of my anxiety my body is always in "fight or flight" mode (which is why I have the tunnel vision, short of breath, dizziness all day long every day).  I can only assume that this carries over into my sleeping as well, so I am never truly "resting" when I am asleep.  I take ativan as needed, which is rarely, and it seems to take me out of the fight or flight mode, at least for a few hours.  My guess is that the klonopin may be doing the same for you, allowing your body to actually rest when you are sleeping.

[DavidSWP]

Yep you could be right.  I also tend to grind my teeth when asleep when I'm not taking it, and also sleep more lightly.  I suppose the chapped lips could just be a result of generally being 'run down' when I'm not taking it.

As for anxiety, I did originally start taking it for that but I'm not taking it right now and am not feeling anxious, unless its perhaps some kind of low grade chronic stress that I'm not particularly aware of.  I do tend to reach for the bottle (alcohol) every 3 or 4 days so I guess there's some kind of stress building up.  I've only got the tunnel vision, shortness of breath etc. when I've had a full blown panic attack - the last time that happened I thought I was dying and called an ambulance!  Fortunately I've only had two or 3 in my entire life, once a few years ago and acouple when I was a kid.