when will side effect of klonopin go away?!!

hey everyone,
so for the past for months ive been taking .25 mg am/pm of klonopin. i started to not feel the effects anymore so i increased my dosage to .5 mg am/pm. today has been exactly a week. im so tired. i cant stay awake. i dont know what to do. im ready to go back to bed and it only 8:30 am! i have such bad sleep disturbance too. is this ever going to go away or is it something that i'll just have to deal with?
help please :)

[nursegirl6572]

Hi there!

First...did you increase the dose yourself, or did your doctor recommend the increase?  Klonopin doesn't lose it's efficacy like other benzos (ie Xanax, Ativan)...not to say that dosage adjustments aren't needed at first...to find a dose that works best for "you"...but generally speaking...you shouldn't have to increase the dose b/c of a "tolerance" issue.

Definitely speak with your doctor about this.  If the dose adjustment was needed...it just may take some time to let the drowsiness effect start to improve.  Any time you change your dose, your body has to adjust the levels...so a week is actually not too long....you may not see an improvement for another week or so.

Keep following with your doc until you become well maintained on the Klonopin.  You may also want to ask your doc about altering the dosing times a bit as well.

Good luck..let us know how you're doing!

[km88]

well it was prescribed to me at .5 mg 2x a day..i just never felt that i needed that much untill i started feeling panic/anxiety again. i was on the lowest dose and i think thats why i needed to increase my dosage and im very stressed out right now. i just need sleep!!! haha. hopefully my week 2 i will start to feel like myself again?! maybe...

[Jikan]

Namaste,

I agree with everything nursegirl6572 stated, yet you still haven't mentioned getting with your doctor concerning your dosage change. You may need to go back to 0.25 mg or have a different benzodiazepine prescribed.

Although I'm not a supporter of it, your doctor may also prescribe sleep medication short-term to get you through.

Make sure you follow up on this.

Michael

[nursegirl6572]

It is possible that the 0.25 mg dose wasn't quite enough for you....just be sure to let your doctor know these issues and that you went up to the original Rx dosage.

Hopefully you'll be feeling less drowsy soon.  Until then....just be careful driving, etc.  Ya know...no operating heavy machinery?  ;0)  I always chuckled at that when reading my own Rx bottles...while it certainly is very important to mention...it just never applies to me.  I gave up my jackhammering a LONG time ago.  ;0)