How often can you use therapeutic dosages of benzos without being afraid of withdrawa

[Renald]

Is once a week for a high potency benzo such as alprazolam or clonazepam enough to cause tooerance? I am speaking about therapeutic dosages, lets say, no more than 1-2 mg. If yes, how often used they are no more causing this issue?

 

[HeadHigh]

Once a week should be fine at those dosages, but try your best to stay to once a week. The second that you tell yourself it would be okay to take it twice a week is when you get into trouble. Not because twice a week would screw you over but because its the beginning of a craving

 

[Renald]

Thank you for your response! I am withdrawing benzos now, a tiny dosage, 0.25 mg of clonazepam daily for several months, and now take only 1-2 mg of diazepam daily. Seems I am on almost placebo dose and should withdraw in week or two.
My question is regarding the usage of anxiolytic dosages of these drugs, as I am interested in psychodelics and sometimes it would be necessary to take a larger anxiolytic dosage of benzo to stop anxiety associated with them. Even such a mild psychodelic as weed in low dosages causes me to panic. As i know I will do it once a week, I want to know will I be safe if every experiment with psychodelics went wrong and I needed to take benzo to stop the experience? Also I know stopping the experience or panic attack requires a larger dosage comparing to the everyday dosage I used.
Also, what about quetiapine for stopping psychedelic experience, maybe it is better to take it or another one antipsychotic drug, they are almost non addictive?

 

[PetalToTheMetal]

Have you ever considered talking to your doctor about a non-benzo drug like Buspar? You should be fine taking benzos to help calm a trip, as long as you keep your experiments spaced a healthy distance apart

 

[Renald]

I tired Buspirone years ago and didn't like it. I can't remember what it really was, but some side effects caused me to remember this drug and I am avoiding it. I am still thinking about short acting benzos and that they possibly are less dangerous to cause withdrawal (there was my topic regarding this on BL). Lets say I am stopping the trip and kicking myself to sleep with triazolam or midazolam, I will be drug free after a day, and I will not be drug free after a day if I took clonazepam or even shorter acting alprazolam. This idea do not leave my head till now.

 

[deos68]

buspar is the shittiest meds there is for ME when i first tried it nothing but dizzy spells right after another
plenty of other options i had success with lexapro and prozac

IME i have been taking xanax for over a yr on and off sometimes weeks or a month is between doses and no adverse effect whatsoever
the chance of building tolerance if truly using it one day out of the week is super low
better yet thats how benzos are suppose to be used once a week once a month or really when you do need it ....what a lot of people dont understand and dive in head first then rant about how shitty benzos are when they're WD

far as taking a benzo before a psychedelic all you're gonna do is ruin the effect meaning you wasted the psych for nothing
benzo should only be used when shit hits the fan while on a psychedelic sorta like an emergency stop button

another thing about WD people dont understand the WD becomes horrific when you are on high doses of a benzo not a tiny amount OP.....actually surprised you still take such a low dose of either one
why you dont try to talk to your doc to stop cold turkey or a rapid taper ......highly highly doubt youll exp nothing more than some rebound anxiety which isnt life threatening
i see doses at the level for a long period of time to be a placebo

 

[roryt10]

Exactly what headhigh said.or better yet don't even them! just.got clean from 18 month 4-10mg/1x a day habit w bars. Cold turkey only help i had was lamictal to.prevent seizures because I had a grand mal seizure quitting cold turkey a year ago.
stayed sober 4 weeks and here.I.am.back to square one..i rationalized taking k pins offered.to.me for free... just one time I thought.. 2 weeks later.1 to.2 days of bars left. Went thru 60 in 15 days. If you have an addictive personality like me or enjoy benzos don't even try to rationalize taking them "once in awhile" stay clear!

In fact your mind is likely already rationalizing taking them and being OK and that you're not going to get addicteded if you only take them once a week or twice a week etc.

So.like I said,.I'm 1-2 days from completely running out and I don't want to take them ever again.but i know.I'm.going to.go.through withdrawals AGAIN. and I'm scared s******* does anybody know how long I will and how bad my withdrawals will be after taking benzos for 2 weeks at high dosage compared to my previous three and a half weeks of withdrawal hell after taking benzos for 18 months?

Thanks

 

[HeadHigh]

Rory, from what i understand, sometimes drugs that affect the GABAergic system will sometimes have delayed onset of withdrawals. Meaning that you might not have any withdrawals for maybe a day or two after its out of your system, but this isnt guaranteed. Either way, your withdrawal will probably last about a week, maybe a week and a half. I would advise tapering if you can. Even taking 1/4th of your dose a couple time as you run out of bars would be better than nothing.

 

[ranDumbNumb-er]

Quetiapine withdrawal can be very bad. My "friend" whom I met on twitter, not IRL, is doing it now. She's in constant frantic misery and rarely sleeps.

If you get free and clean of benzos the best thing would be to never touch one again. With alcohol and nicotine that has been completely true for me. I was so messed up on Abilify with restless legs/akathisia that I was out of my head and would have eaten raw snails or given up a finger to make it stop. So 1 beer, and bowl of tobacco and 5 years later I have spent about $18,000 since hooking myself back on. That's two trips around the world, plus a decent used car. I like menthol ecigs so much that I don''t even want to quit.

 

[Mycophile]

Once a week should be fine at those dosages, but try your best to stay to once a week. The second that you tell yourself it would be okay to take it twice a week is when you get into trouble. Not because twice a week would screw you over but because its the beginning of a craving

Damn man, you are telling him that he can't take more than 2.0mgs of Klonopin A WEEK and that more than that he's asking for trouble?!?!

I am prescribed 1.5mgs of Klonopin and my doctor suggests I just don't take it more than 5 days a week to avoid addiction, but speaking from personal experience I actually took 1.0-1.5mgs of Klonopin EVERY day for 11 years and although I was VERY stupidly taken off it cold turkey which probably SHOULD have been dangerous I stiil had no WD.

Now I realize I'm a HUGE anomaly in that regard and NO ONE should EVER stop a benzo cold turkey or use it EVERY SINGLE day like I did, but saying someone can only take 2.0mgs ONE day a WEEK or they are asking for trouble is just plain ridiculous in terms of being WAAAAY too strict.

OP: I'd say don't take more than 2.0mgs--3 days a week never two days in a row and you should be ok.

Really, everyone is different in this regard and there's no one correct answer here to how much you can or can't take to avoid WD.

If anyone is proof that this is something that WIDELY varies from person to person it's me.

 

[Renald]

buspar is the shittiest meds there is for ME when i first tried it nothing but dizzy spells right after another
plenty of other options i had success with lexapro and prozac

IME i have been taking xanax for over a yr on and off sometimes weeks or a month is between doses and no adverse effect whatsoever
the chance of building tolerance if truly using it one day out of the week is super low
better yet thats how benzos are suppose to be used once a week once a month or really when you do need it ....what a lot of people dont understand and dive in head first then rant about how shitty benzos are when they're WD

far as taking a benzo before a psychedelic all you're gonna do is ruin the effect meaning you wasted the psych for nothing
benzo should only be used when shit hits the fan while on a psychedelic sorta like an emergency stop button

another thing about WD people dont understand the WD becomes horrific when you are on high doses of a benzo not a tiny amount OP.....actually surprised you still take such a low dose of either one
why you dont try to talk to your doc to stop cold turkey or a rapid taper ......highly highly doubt youll exp nothing more than some rebound anxiety which isnt life threatening
i see doses at the level for a long period of time to be a placebo

I used benzos previously for about 10 years, this was mostly clonazepam at 2 mg daily at first time after some time I managed to down the dose to 0,5 mg daily. I felt nothing from a drug, but I cant stop using it because of withdrawal symptoms. After I withdrew, I begin experimenting with different psychedelics and begin to use clonazepam again, this time in low doses. Seems I can manage the doses without increasing them, as benzos are not euphoric to me and I have no psychological addiction to them, only physical.
I dont want to stop abruptly even my 1-2 mg of diazepam, which is almost placebo, because of psychological discomfort and possible panic when I realize there is no drug taken for a long time. It is just calmer for me to wait 1-2 additional weeks by titrating the dose to zero decreasing it slowly.

 

[Renald]

Damn man, you are telling him that he can't take more than 2.0mgs of Klonopin A WEEK and that more than that he's asking for trouble?!?!

I am prescribed 1.5mgs of Klonopin and my doctor suggests I just don't take it more than 5 days a week to avoid addiction, but speaking from personal experience I actually took 1.0-1.5mgs of Klonopin EVERY day for 11 years and although I was VERY stupidly taken off it cold turkey which probably SHOULD have been dangerous I stiil had no WD.

Now I realize I'm a HUGE anomaly in that regard and NO ONE should EVER stop a benzo cold turkey or use it EVERY SINGLE day like I did, but saying someone can only take 2.0mgs ONE day a WEEK or they are asking for trouble is just plain ridiculous in terms of being WAAAAY too strict.

OP: I'd say don't take more than 2.0mgs--3 days a week never two days in a row and you should be ok.

Really, everyone is different in this regard and there's no one correct answer here to how much you can or can't take to avoid WD.

If anyone is proof that this is something that WIDELY varies from person to person it's me.

Lets see from pharmacokinetic point of view. 2 mg a week (I am sure I would not need 2 mg dose this time, as even 0,5-1 mg works now for me) with a T1/2 of clonazepam being 1-2 days means you may still have 0.15-0.2 mg of a drug left in your system after a week (if you are "unlucky" [or lucky] person with T1/2 of 2 days). The next week you will add to this amount (I am lazy to do the precise math), and you will be approaching the concentration, what is twice the previous, what means you may have 0.3-0.4 mg of clonazepam in your body all the time at least. This is an equivalent to 5-10 mg of diazepam, what is not very small amount, and people are withdrawing from this amount.
These calculations regarding clonazepam do not leave my head, and I still think it is better to choose at least alprazolam or lorazepam for these issues in equivalent dosages, not long acting clonazepam.

 

[Renald]

Quetiapine withdrawal can be very bad. My "friend" whom I met on twitter, not IRL, is doing it now. She's in constant frantic misery and rarely sleeps.

If you get free and clean of benzos the best thing would be to never touch one again. With alcohol and nicotine that has been completely true for me. I was so messed up on Abilify with restless legs/akathisia that I was out of my head and would have eaten raw snails or given up a finger to make it stop. So 1 beer, and bowl of tobacco and 5 years later I have spent about $18,000 since hooking myself back on. That's two trips around the world, plus a decent used car. I like menthol ecigs so much that I don''t even want to quit.

My psych says me quetiapine is absolutely non-habit forming. I am not believing doctors anymore (I am a doctor myself and I know sometimes we tell patients something, what is not based on precise science or what science do not now still, only our personal opinion, what have almost no scientific value), and want to get information by myself. Have very little experience with quetiapine and cant tell nothing from my subjective feeling about long term usage of this drug.

 

[Mycophile]

Lets see from pharmacokinetic point of view. 2 mg a week (I am sure I would not need 2 mg dose this time, as even 0,5-1 mg works now for me) with a T1/2 of clonazepam being 1-2 days means you may still have 0.15-0.2 mg of a drug left in your system after a week (if you are "unlucky" [or lucky] person with T1/2 of 2 days). The next week you will add to this amount (I am lazy to do the precise math), and you will be approaching the concentration, what is twice the previous, what means you may have 0.3-0.4 mg of clonazepam in your body all the time at least. This is an equivalent to 5-10 mg of diazepam, what is not very small amount, and people are withdrawing from this amount.
These calculations regarding clonazepam do not leave my head, and I still think it is better to choose at least alprazolam or lorazepam for these issues in equivalent dosages, not long acting clonazepam.

I don't think that kind of math matters once you are below like 0.4 mgs of Klonopin or whatever IMO which is a seriously tiny amount for me personally.

I personally have used so much of it for so many years that I am used to almost always having a very small amount of it in my blood stream which is something that people who don't use it seem to have some kind of issue with for some reason.

It's just a natural staple of my life, like saying that I always have some amount of caffeine and some amount of Lexapro in my system.

I am always on these 3 drugs and Klonopin has very few side effects for me except SOME tiredness but that's not present on a small dose.

To have less than 0.5mgs of Klonopin in your system is IMO irrelevant but it's your body so if that idea bothers you then don't use it.


Wait, did you just say you are a doctor in one of your posts???

Why are you asking for mostly non-medical opinions on this if you are a doctor??

 

[Renald]

I don't think that kind of math matters once you are below like 0.4 mgs of Klonopin or whatever IMO which is a seriously tiny amount for me personally.

I personally have used so much of it for so many years that I am used to almost always having a very small amount of it in my blood stream which is something that people who don't use it seem to have some kind of issue with for some reason.

It's just a natural staple of my life, like saying that I always have some amount of caffeine and some amount of Lexapro in my system.

I am always on these 3 drugs and Klonopin has very few side effects for me except SOME tiredness but that's not present on a small dose.

To have less than 0.5mgs of Klonopin in your system is IMO irrelevant but it's your body so if that idea bothers you then don't use it.


Wait, did you just say you are a doctor in one of your posts???

Why are you asking for mostly non-medical opinions on this if you are a doctor??

For me <0,5 mg of clonazepam is not an extremely tiny dose and seems I have withdrawal symptoms by stopping even 0,25 mg abruptly.
Yes, I am a doctor (dentist), but there are almost no doctors I can speak with about recreational drug usage or drug usage for self analysis. Most doctors are against this and are narrow minded. Also, most do not have such a theoretical information I can find here, when discussing advanced topics.