Hi Mermaid,

Yes, any benzo will make you "feel stupid," i.e. short-term memory loss, problems remembering words when you used to be a walking thesaurus/dictionary, etc. What I don't get is your doc having you take it every four hours--its one of the longest lasting benzos available. I take 0.5 mg in the morning, 1 mg eight hours later and 2 mgs before I go to sleep. No problems with that dosing schedule.
As far as what your doctor is saying about the addictiveness of the drug--it definitely is true. Those with shorter metabolic half-lives like valium or xanax are very addictive, and should really only be used for short periods of time; while klonopin can be taken for long periods (seizures and PTSD), quite safely, but still need a tapering period if you are going to stop taking them.
How long have you been taking clonazepam? It should only take a week or two for all the side effects to go away, like the tiredness and feeling spacey. And remember--doctors don't know everything; especially if their medical training was in the 60's and 70's---I've had to explain what some of the newer drugs and what they were for to 'old docs.'
This is not a drug to take your entire life--just until the seizure disorder calms down, or six months of PTSD counselling finally works. Unless its insulin, nothing should be taken your entire life!
word,
Lolo