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Benzos How can I reduce my benzo tolerance to baseline?

R

Roachmon95

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
79
So I'm prescribed 1mg of Klonopin as needed for anxiety. My problem is, I foolishly made the mistake of trying to chasea high with this drug that from what I understand, doesn't really exist. I've taking up to 4mg in a day before. I'd like to know how I can reduce my tolerance because I truly need this drug to counteract my anxiety and panic attacks and Id like my prescribed dose to be sufficient enough to do that. I plan to take at least a month long break, but is there anything else I can do to get my tolerance back to where 1mg is sufficient for anxiety relief?
 
The only way to lower your tolerance is by lowering your dose slowly and try to go without when you can. Talk to your doctor if 1mg isn't enough, he might put your dose up. Be careful taking benzos as they're addictive.
 
Benzo tolerance can be pretty sticky. About all you can do is take less, or none at all- but that may not be practical, as you need some form of anxiolytic.
I'd talk to your doc about getting your prescribed dose upped to something effective- and then be careful about driving tolerance up again.
 
I alternate benzos every month or so... etizolam, diazepam, lorazepam, bromazepam, clonazepam, alprazolam. They are cross tolerant of course, but not entirely and this definitely helps keep my doses reasonable, they are all a bit different. As soon as my dose starts increasing with one of them I just switch to another one, which seems to help, and since I started doing this my daily doses are much lower. I'm not sure if that's because I just have less anxiety than before though but I do believe in switching it up. Besides variety is the spice of life. Not the best solution but I don't believe in suffering extreme anxiety and panic attacks like I did for so long, that's no way to live.

I abused them at first too, because I had been off a gram of seroquel a day which had driven me completely psychotic (and they call it an antipsychotic lol). I was taking like 10 - 15mg of alprazolam a day at that point, now I can easily get by with 4mg or maybe 3. But I haven't touched alprazolam in ages for that reason, I took so much of that stuff and got sick of it. I'm sure I'll cycle with it in a little while.
 
In my experience benzo tolerance can be hard to get rid of, I doubt a month would make a big difference if you have a good benzo tolerance. That being said, how long have you been chasing the high? If it was only for a few days, then you wouldn't have grown too much of a tolerance in the first place. I was able to abuse benzos for quite a while before they lost significant potency. Somewhere around 2 months almost daily I think; it is hard to remember since they're benzos haha.
 
I'm also RX'd 1mg of Clonazepam, its to taper me off of Xanax and Valium. The best way imo is, to taper down slowly.

Example-

If you're on 5mg of Clonazepam a day, do this.
1st 2 weeks, do 4 1/2mg a day.
Following 2 weeks, do 4mg a day
2 weeks after that, 3 1/2mg a day.
etc, etc.

That's going down 1/2 a mg every 2 weeks, which is what im doing to get off of benzos completely.

MY taper, is like this, (I was taking either 6-10mg Xanax/daily, or 80-120mg of valium/daily for 6+ months)
So the lowest dose I can go in a day without going into w/d, is 6mg of Xanax. So my taper is like this- (using clonazepam)

1st 2 weeks
5 1/2mg daily

following 2 weeks
5mg daily

2 weeks after that
4 1/2mg daily

That's where im currently at now, 4 1/2mg daily. I take 2 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, 1 more 2 hours later, and a 1/2mg before bed.
Its working really well so far...
 
well im not addicted per say, physically at least. I've just abused them and I want to know how long I should wait to reduce my tolerence. Like I said, I take them as needed so its not like I dose everyday but I've been using up to 5mg throughout the day lately and I want to get it back down to where 1mg provides anxiety relief and 2 or 3 mg gives me a nice little buzz.
 
Daily exercise. Like, actual exercise where you are panting and sweating. At least once a day if not more. Running is good so is the gym. None of this panzy 20 sit-ups on your bedroom floor bullshit. I want to see you sweat and your muscles scream.

It's a double whammy too, exercising (a good workout) releases endorphins, and not only makes you feel good and lifts your mood, but for some people it can help stave off drug cravings a little bit, for me personally it reduces anxiety greatly for about 2-4 hours after a solid work out, and helps me sleep much easier at night.

You don't have to go do a 15 mile sprint, or swim the atlantic ocean. But just a real solid workout every day. Get your metabolism up. Drink fluids.

You'll thank me later.
 
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I am prescribed Klonopin 4mg x day. However, I do not take these medications on a daily basis due to the fact that they simply don't work effectively any more. I used to sell my whole script ,but now sell some and use the rest for stimulant comedowns.

I have used all of the common benzos in the U.S. (alprazolam, diazepam, lorazepam, and clonazepam) for recreational and therapeutic effects and have found clonazepam to be my favorite for both purposes. I have to take at least 15mg to feel the desired anxiolytic "high".

Having taken multiple three-month-long breaks, I still only felt a slight reduction in tolerance, if any. I am an avid athlete and eat relatively healthy. I'm sorry, but IME a large benzo tolerance is stuck with you for life. Or at least many years.
 
The fact is: if you want to be able to use benzos without succumbing to tolerance and addiction, you CANNOT take them every day for longer than a couple of weeks. It's just impossible. Self-control is key.

It's pretty disturbing how in this day and age doctors are still instructing people to use benzodiazepines as a crutch for everyday life (knowing full well the risks)... no wonder these drugs get such a bad rep. I just hope they don't suffer the same fate as methaqualone and barbiturates.

Personally, I've been using valium recreationally for about 3 years now (with a couple of 1-2 month breaks here and there).
I take valium once a week, occasionally twice (and NEVER more than 3 times in one week). 15-20mg gets me just as high now as it did when I first started taking it. I love this stuff but I refuse to let it get the better of me.
 
I don't think you guys are understanding were I'm coming from. I don't take klonopin everyday, and I'm not physically addicted. I just made the dumb mistake of popping obscene amounts of the drug trying to look for a "high" not realizing how FUCKED UP I ALREADY was. I've taken them to the point of blacking out and not remembering shit the next. But I've only done it a handful of times. I just want to get my tolerance down so my prescribed dose provides the anxiety relief.
 
Only way it's going to go down is to deal with hell week on your normal dose unless you were abusing more often than you realize in which case your tolerance may not go back down to baseline without a taper from the average of the doses you were taking. Even then it's not guaranteed. You can try NMDA antagonists like memantine but those aren't generally going to reduce benzo tolerance without total abstinence from the benzo. Klonopin is a weird one, if it was Valium or Xanax I'd have a better answer for you but I was on Klonopin for years for panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder and my doctor started me at 4mg. I dropped down to 3mg almost right away, then a few years later I dropped to 2mg a day then one day it stopped working completely at doses up to 6mg, switched to Valium and tapered that down to 20-30mg a day and was comfortable with that then ended up in a situation where I had to take Klonopin again because I moved and Louisiana doctors don't like giving out benzos and 2-3mg of Klonopin worked fine again.

I'm now on Valium again tapering off hopefully for good.
 
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Benzo tolerance is tricky. The only way I've been able to is extended breaks (at least 1-3 months) and daily exercise. I'm kinda in the same boat as you; I've never been physically dependent on them but (stupidly) abused them and fucked up my tolerance.
 
Soulgasm said:
and daily exercise.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Exercise and cigarette smoking. It will get it out faster, and your receptors will normalize much faster. Fuck this taper shit (unless there are physical damage problems that could occur) I wont go into detail because Ill be flamed.

Stop smoking cigs the moment you want your RX'd does to start working. The cigs will help clear you out faster to baseline, but you don't want them once you're ready to start dealing with your prescribed doses again.

NDMA antagonists are known for helping bringing back tolerance are they not? Would that help?

MagicalKat if you take them for bad anxiety, why are you bothering to taper or change meds? If the anxiety isn't that bad or there is something else at play, just cold turkey. It sounds like your dose wont cause any seizures or anything. Just shitty anxiety and cravings for a week. Like I was sayin exercise is the BEST for this. I was on 2mg of Klonopin + 1mg of Xanax daily for 5 years, on top of that I went on benzo binges too. And those RXs were for very bad anxiety, so bad in fact I spent 2 years vomiting from 5 AM to 1 PM because of a GAD related thing.

I had no problem cold turkeying it and dealing with with when need be. Sounds like you just want the best of both worlds? I dont wanna come off as a dick, I know how gnarly benzo addiction can be. But I mean.... I believe in you! I'll cheer you on dudestar!
 
Methacodone i wanna talk to this guy

I curentle take 30 -60 mg temazepam 12xanax .5s (prescribed) 6 1mg Lyryca whichi is worse than the benzoes, methadone oh and 6 mg clonazepam and ativan See for three of these I womyn..now old ladies have been brining their scripts.. ..probably die w/out them..AND I am a functioning single father of 3 lovely girls....Im believe one forfeits his/her right to suicide once you have kids..ANYWAY WHERE do I start, who do I come clean with...I was going to wait till the kids were grown to get help...I HATEb taking them , they make me nervous now, except if I dont Ill get sick...Which i n 30 years I still havent gone more than 18 hrs w/out HELP IAM IN HELL it feels exponetinetially worrse each day. any advice appreciated and needed...please I am not exagerating or looking for attn ...1st time ive logged in 2 1 of these places
 
Ok, here's my method for getting back to baseline because I've suffered from the same exact issue for years, when I was on the streets in Oakland all my friends would get real annoyed at me, had no sympathy for my benzo problem, because I always said I was going to just maintain and then take upwards of 10-16mg if I'd get the chance, basically I was never on a stable dose it all depended on how much extra money I had leftover that wasn't being spent on heroin. I was hoping that (the OP) was taking clonazepam, because although this is painful, it works better with clonazepam due to the super long half life, I've noticed that when I've gone on binges using over 2mg I can usually feel fine, in fact I'm still loaded for 48 hours, make it to 72 hours and I'm feeling miserable and 1-2mg takes away all the withdrawal symptoms. Right now I have my mom dispensing my 2mg of clonazepam every day, and I'm pretty happy at that dose.

Now don't do what I say if you find yourself getting the shakes or anything, any major benzo withdrawal symptoms and say fuck it dose yourself, but if you're just experiencing that cracked out overly emotional accompanied by massive headaches symptoms, than try to push through to at least 48 hours.
 
You can also try to switch to a non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic for a while. Such as Hydroxyzine.
 
I was up to being able to take 40 -52mgs of xannax after going through major depression while having access to unlimited free bars. My tolerance went from a half a bar (1mg) with major euphoria for only 4 days.within 3 months I was eating 3month supplies of 4mg a day xannax topped with a 3 month supply of 60mgs or so mgs clorazepate(tranxene, which is very weak but lasts much longer so I would use it to still feel decent when the zans wore off. Surprisingly I found phenibut at a local shop finally and got a reliable connection on 75mg lyrica and my withdrawals were finally easy enough to deal with and I ended up getting the same doc who was prescribing them to the dude giviing me the lyrica, and got insane doses prescribed explaining in full honestly that I've tried lyrica at low doses while trying to quit Benzos and it actually not only limited withdrawal symptoms, but also really alleviated my terrible anxiety disorder. So I took 150 mgs every morning at 5 a.M. ( it lasts forever!) then took 300 mgs a night for sleep effectively replacing my seroquel 100mgs for sleep. .....so to answer your question. I attempted 30mgs alprazolam after being 3 months off Benzos and felt absolutely nothing. About a full year later I gave it another shot with 20mgs...........I was out cold on a park bench for four hours.everyone is different, but lyrica and phenibut may really help! Just take glutamine supps with the pheni so it can more easily cross the blood brain barrier. The effects are very similar to ghb or gbl at high doses and an incredible anxiety suppressant at semi lower doses. Its like baclofan more than anything else though. Hope some of this helps! Good luck bud.
 
Dr has put me on 150mg twice a day of Pregabalin to come off Klon......Although I am starting off with only 50mg a day as they are strong!
 
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