Endless Benzo/z-drug PAWS

[nznity]

I already did, and as Im back To them... Never again. Even the low potency benzos help me a load so I see only positives To using them.

Well, like anything in this life you're not gonna notice the bad side fx until a decent amount of years have passed. Anyway, idgaf either they make me feel better so I take them everyday too. I don't care if I suffer from dementia at 70 years old, I don't wanna live that long either xD

 

[SpiralusSancti]

I suppose it's possible. I'm not a medical doctor so I can't say for sure. It just seems like a rather unlikely outcome.

Here’s from wiki -
“Even though pregabalin is a depressant and anti-convulsant it can sometimes paradoxically induce seizures, particularly in large ovedoses.”

It’s not like I know a milion people taking pregabalin so 3 having seizures could have been from who knows what. Exactly as I thought as I felt 0 WD’s and was on 0 benzos for far too long to not consider pregabalin as main cause for seizure. So I and other guy had it just after smoking weed. If third person also smoked weed with it than it’s a huge no combo.

Be careful as this is not as harmless as high it causes.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I used prescribed z-drugs (ambien, lunesta) and benzos (temazepam) for insomnia for 16 years. My doc never told me that these drugs were problems and I was so naive.

I stopped using them 6 years ago.

Been in hell ever since. Burning skin. Tight painful muscles. Out of control anxiety.

Can't take this any more. Been everywhere looking for a solution and tried everything I can find. I think I'm fucked for life at this point. Anyone got any out of the box ideas? It's starting to dawn on me that I probably ain't coming back from this one.

Low dose chlordiazepoxide.

Bacopa Monnieri (herb) to rebalance GABA receptors.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Unfortunately regular benzo use is associated with developing cognitive deficits and dementia.

But, since my quality of life is nil, that's on the table as well. I was just hoping to find another solution. I've watched a several people go through dementia and I have no desire to end up on that path.

Not really. Here is the actual data, not a headline.

The link below shows that never use and any or always use of benzodiazepines does not significantly change cognitive decline.

Benzodiazepine use and cognitive decline in elderly with normal cognition

Benzodiazepine (BZD) use may be associated with dementia. However, differing opinions exist regarding the effect of BZDs on long-term changes in cognition. We evaluated the association between BZD use and cognitive decline in the elderly with normal cognition ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[smokeymcpot42088]

This is the reason why I'm never gonna quit clonazepam till I die, I don't ever wanna experience benzo wds.

I feel the same way. Have been scripted em since i was 17 which means ive spent more years takin em everyday than I haven't. However I am staring at a long long stretch. On the brightside I am officially down to my prescribed dose! (after about a decade long taper.....that continues, but 0 is never the goal...lol)

 

[nznity]

I feel the same way. Have been scripted em since i was 17 which means ive spent more years takin em everyday than I haven't. However I am staring at a long long stretch. On the brightside I am officially down to my prescribed dose! (after about a decade long taper.....that continues, but 0 is never the goal...lol)

Man,
I take from 2-8mg a day depending on how stresssful the day is. Thank god, benzos are otc in my country.
I haven't missed a day in 4 years and was using on and off for 10 years.
I only started to feel mild wd once after not taking it for 2 days, took 2mg and I felt relaxed asf. Love my benzos

 

[psychnauticmage]

Actually pregabalin is an anti-epileptic. Pregabalin and gabapentin withdrawal can cause seizures.

There are reports that both gabapentin and pregabalin raise levels of gaba acutely after administration. Gabapentin and pregabalin however, do not act at the GABAA or GABAB receptor with any appreciable effect.

Gabapentin withdrawal presenting as status epilepticus - PubMed

A 34-year-old male with lumbar disc disease and surgery was placed on gabapentin daily for chronic back pain. He remained on a steady dose of 8000 mg/day for 9 months, almost doubled what is considered therapeutic. He ran out of medication, was unable to refill his prescription for 2 days and...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And both gabaergic and gabanergic are correct with respect to drugs that interact with the GABA system. There is an N.

Yes but he didn't say he was withdrawing from pegabalin or gabapentin. He said he was withdrawing from benzos. Then he said he took a large dose of pregabalin + weed and experienced a seizure.

Well, I haven't read any medical literature that called it GABA-N-ergic. Also type "gabanergic" into google and you'll get autocorrected to "gabaergic". Not saying google is the end all be all, but gaba-ergic is far more prevalent.

Ergic means:

-ergic in American English
combining form. a combining form with the meanings “ activated by,” “ sensitive to,” “releasing,” “resembling the effect produced by” the substance or phenomenon specified by the initial element.

There is no such equivalent definition for "nergic" so it would make no sense to say GABA-nergic.

 

[psychnauticmage]

Here’s from wiki -
“Even though pregabalin is a depressant and anti-convulsant it can sometimes paradoxically induce seizures, particularly in large ovedoses.”

It’s not like I know a milion people taking pregabalin so 3 having seizures could have been from who knows what. Exactly as I thought as I felt 0 WD’s and was on 0 benzos for far too long to not consider pregabalin as main cause for seizure. So I and other guy had it just after smoking weed. If third person also smoked weed with it than it’s a huge no combo.

Be careful as this is not as harmless as high it causes.

Yep it's certainly possible but like I said, everyone is different. You cannot predict with absolute certainty how a drug will affect someone.

I'm not doubting what you experienced and I am sorry you had to go through that. I was just sharing with you my experience with pregabalin.

 

[burn out]

What issues are you left with?

Extremely sensitive nervous system, tinnitus, a mood disorder, emotional problems and I'm not sure how to describe the rest, as my other issues are intertwined with the benzo damage plus issues from abusing a whole pharmacopia of other substances.

For example, going through years of protracted benzo withdrawal at a young age stunted what should have been a crucial time for my development. As a result I wasn't able to pursue much of a career or development social relationships. I was always walking around carrying a tremendous amount of pain in my mind, not just psychological pain but the benzo withdrawal made my nervous system hurt pretty much all the time.

 

[Fertile]

It may interest you to know that the UK still prescribes barbiturates because people who got hooked after being prescribed them in the 1960s are considered to hard to get OFF barbs that they just keep giving them.

Similarly, the antialcohol drug Heminevrin (clometiiazole) ended up needing a specialist treatment centre in Cambridge who got off alcohol and hooked on them... and what did they do, swap them to barbs and keep on prescribing.

They are SO cheap that cost is not an issue. But doctors are still taught dependence is bad.

So the OP may well have a kindling effect which means his brain chemistry has been altered over 16 years and only benzos will restore that balance.

Whoever said etizolam was right. It's a VERY safe option with far fewer dangers than other benzos... I do not know where to order them but I know that India produces most of it.

Here in the UK diazepam is preferred and it's also very safe. It's twice as potent as temazepam so if you got 20mg for sleep, a single 10mg diazepam taken in the evening should be enough

It's worth knowing about the 'Ashton Manual' for benzodiazepine dependence.

benzo.org.uk : Benzodiazepines: How They Work & How to Withdraw, Prof C H Ashton DM, FRCP, 2002

I might add that I had a spat with her. I noted that clobazam works at different receptors so you cannot convert a clobazam dependency to a diazepam reduction. I was very polite and humble but she HATED the fact that I had got so many references to prove her wrong... that she actually had to rewrite her manual. Ego is bad - if someone corrects you, it makes you better informed. But she had got so much praise that someone pointing out a MAJOR fault really made her nasty. But it's still the best work on the topic. But do factor in her arrogance. Check with other sources.
and I hope this helps.

 

[PainGodTodd]

Whoever said etizolam was right. It's a VERY safe option with far fewer dangers than other benzos... I do not know where to order them but I know that India produces most of it.

Why is etizolam safer? Because it is a thienodiazepine? Does it bind to different subunits?

I assume because of this:

In a study that compared the effectiveness of etizolam, alprazolam, and bromazepam for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, all three drugs retained their effectiveness over 2 weeks, but etizolam became more effective from 2 weeks to 4 weeks.[21] Administering .5 mg etizolam twice daily did not induce cognitive deficits over 3 weeks when compared to placebo.[22]

Isn't the very short half life problematic? Unfortunately it appears that all of the approved thienodiazepines share the short half life of etizolam.

 

[Fertile]

Why is etizolam safer? Because it is a thienodiazepine? Does it bind to different subunits?

I assume because of this:



Isn't the very short half life problematic? Unfortunately it appears that all of the approved thienodiazepines share the short half life of etizolam.

It appears to have little a1 affinity so it will not cause the major side-effects of most benzos and it can be metabolised by the body via a number of enzymes so in overdose your body can still clear it. It also seems to induce less dependence than most benzos.

It seems very similar to pyrazolam which was similarly designed.

A long time ago when I was young and dumb, someone sent me 100mg of etizolam powder. I snorted the lot and went about my day. A dumb thing to do BUT it makes me believe that like pyrazolam it's a2/a3 selective i.e. it will produce anxiolytic action without sending you to sleep. I'm sure the affinity data is known and I'm pretty sure (or I wouldn't have done such a reckless thing) that it will confirm a2/a3 selectivity.

I mean, don't forget that brotizolam is chemically the closest to etizolam which shows you just how different replacing the 7-ethyl for a 7-bromo makes the stuff.

 

[TheBookBurner]

That sunburn feeling is weird isn't.it. Mine lasted for a year. I was taking 10 to 12 xanny bars a day for about 6 years. I stopped cold turkey and almost died but it was worth it, that was 2 years ago. Whew what a mind fuck that shit was.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I still think I have PAWS from benzos, but not as bad as it was at least

 

[Fertile]

That sunburn feeling is weird isn't.it. Mine lasted for a year. I was taking 10 to 12 xanny bars a day for about 6 years. I stopped cold turkey and almost died but it was worth it, that was 2 years ago. Whew what a mind fuck that shit was.

My goodness - I ended up using 24mg of diclazepam a day. It took 360mg of diazepam to stop withdrawal and then took me an entire year to get down to nothing. But I DID and with no lasting issues...

Apart from now benzos don't work for me... or, rather, 1,4 benzodiazepines don't work for me. There are some medically used examples of 1,5-benzodiazepines. Works at different sites so no cross tolerance.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

It appears to have little a1 affinity so it will not cause the major side-effects of most benzos and it can be metabolised by the body via a number of enzymes so in overdose your body can still clear it. It also seems to induce less dependence than most benzos.

It seems very similar to pyrazolam which was similarly designed.

I hope I’ll have chance to try pyrazolam (or anything that comes close to etiz) some day.

Ime etizolam was very recreational, followed by big gap before few slightly/sometimes recreational benzos and than by bunch of benzos that are more or less the same when dose is adjusted but not recreational at all.

If I got insane amount of diclazepam instead insane amount of etizolam I might have avoided a lot of problems in my life and years of draw-back from bigger picture/plans. Diclazepam was nice and mellow (kinda like more potent lorazepam) but not really recreational, not at all compared to etizolam but I think I would not get addicted to..will never know but I think so. Even if I got addicted to it I can’t really imagine doing insane stuff on diclazepam, same as I don’t do stupid things on diazepam (some do tho).

 

[lowt87]

Man,
I take from 2-8mg a day depending on how stresssful the day is. Thank god, benzos are otc in my country.
I haven't missed a day in 4 years and was using on and off for 10 years.
I only started to feel mild wd once after not taking it for 2 days, took 2mg and I felt relaxed asf. Love my benzos

What country ? Not Many places left. Still some serbian small a Pharma and egypt

 

[lowt87]

But more and more illegal stuff…

 

[nznity]

What country ? Not Many places left. Still some serbian small a Pharma and egypt

Perú, South American pride. Lulz

 

[kreativsniks]

I still have my benzo problem, but about a year a go when I was using much more than now, I managed to quit for about 2-3 months before relapsing again. What I did was simple, I did taper dosage down until I could get by with 10mg of diazepam without starting withdrawals (took me a couple of weeks), then I got some pregabalin and used that 300mg for first week, then 150mg for second, and then 75mg for third week.

I believe pregabalin helped me that time with kicking benzo habit, I didn't particularly enjoy it's effects (cloudy/dreamy/hard to explain), but I did turn off my anxiety about not having/using benzos.