About 6 months ago, my anxiety was really bad. I had two bad panic attacks two days in a row, which was unusual. My agoraphobia was so severe that I didn't plan to go to work or even buy groceries in the foreseeable future. I knew I needed to do those things eventually, but I was living in this awful panicked state where it was hard to imagine how I would ever go to work or the grocery store again.

I called my psychiatrist on the phone, and he gave me permission to start using Klonopin (clonazepam) on a chronic and continuous basis. I already had a bottle which I was using as needed. He told me to take 0.5 mg when I woke up and 0.5 mg 8 hours later, for a total of 1 mg per day of Klonopin.

For the first 6 weeks, it was like utopia. My anxiety was down 90%, my nausea was down 90%. My acne even got significantly better. I gained weight, I caught up with responsibilities at my job. I cleaned my bedroom. I took two trips out of state (only about 110 miles), but they were the least terrifying trips I had taken in my whole life. I have always hated traveling, I even hated field trips in elementary school.

Then after 6 weeks, I had my first panic attack on Klonopin, and it was a bad one. That immediately eroded my confidence and abolished some of the placebo effect.

Now I have been on 1 mg per day of Klonopin for the past 6 months, and I think it is still helping, but I am honestly not sure. I have definitely gained some tolerance.

My psychiatrist (the one who writes my prescriptions) is very opposed to giving me a higher dose of Klonopin, but a number of psychiatrists whom I know socially say that I clearly respond very well to Klonopin, and it is time to up the dose to combat tolerance. Klonopin tolerance is not infinite, it does not grow without bound. They say that maybe I would be stable and happy on 2 mg per day.

I have very mixed feelings. My sister is an oncologist, and she is strongly against the idea of me using more Klonopin. I feel like if I take more than 1 mg per day, I will probably be stuck on it for the rest of my life. But I have certainly had anxiety for my whole life, and I really don't foresee it going away ever.

Is anyone else on chronic and continuous benzodiazepines? What drug and what dose? How do you feel about it?