Benzos Is going on and off benzos good or bad?

[morphineoxysbenzos]

Im taking low doses of benzos for my anxiety and i try to space it out. I was wondering if taking random breaks was a good or bad idea because I'd like to keep my tolerance/dependance low and not use them for long periods of time and get really bad withdrawals if I ever do quit.

I heard about kindling where withdrawals get worse every time you quit a drug so if i go on and off benzos would I be doing kindling and making it worse for no reason? Or does it only matter if you get severe withdrawals after quitting from years of use.

 

[negrogesic]

While people can play with benzos for a little bit without getting burnt, eventually there becomes a point where the free ride is over. When that occurs, you have to starting paying back for that anxiety relief at the price of rebound anxiety, and eventually withdrawal. And the interest rates become very high after a while. Since I have had very heavy benzo dependencies in the past, these days if I take a decent sized dose of benzos I'll be feeling like shit for about 5 days after. That is a heavy price for 8 hours of relief.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I don't know if this forum is exactly evenminded when it comes to benzodiazepine use. The kindling effect shouldn't be much of an issue, assuming that you aren't taking high doses for several years. It gets exponentially worse when people are chasing a high from it. Definitely not a very forgiving class that way.

The way you describe your use, doesn't seem to be that intense. If you're concerned, start taking data. See if you get rebound anxiety that wasn't there before between doses.

Heard bad things about xanax, could be true or not.

At this point if you think that small and intermittent use is effective, why not switch to something else with less drawbacks? All kind of adaptogens and herbs that can act as more realistic minor tranquilizers. Ashwaganda has been great for me. Skullcap, nettle, valerian, theanine, rosemary, lavender, and so on. Ask your doctor and otherwise make sure that you are getting the relief you need. Best not to pick something with complex mechanisms. All you might really need is an Na+ VGIC or GABA transaminase inhibitor. On that, other, non-addictive pharma chemicals like valproic acid might better suit you.

 

[morphineoxysbenzos]

I don't know if this forum is exactly evenminded when it comes to benzodiazepine use. The kindling effect shouldn't be much of an issue, assuming that you aren't taking high doses for several years. It gets exponentially worse when people are chasing a high from it. Definitely not a very forgiving class that way.

The way you describe your use, doesn't seem to be that intense. If you're concerned, start taking data. See if you get rebound anxiety that wasn't there before between doses.

Heard bad things about xanax, could be true or not.

At this point if you think that small and intermittent use is effective, why not switch to something else with less drawbacks? All kind of adaptogens and herbs that can act as more realistic minor tranquilizers. Ashwaganda has been great for me. Skullcap, nettle, valerian, theanine, rosemary, lavender, and so on. Ask your doctor and otherwise make sure that you are getting the relief you need. Best not to pick something with complex mechanisms. All you might really need is an Na+ VGIC or GABA transaminase inhibitor. On that, other, non-addictive pharma chemicals like valproic acid might better suit you.

I don't really feel anxiety aside from my just normal anxiety when I stop. I actually feel better because i had a few days with no stress and sleeping better and then i give my gaba receptors some time to recover from the benzos and try to get working back to normal but i know that really takes about 2 weeks.

 

[Xorkoth]

Once you develop dependence and experience withdrawals, it will become much easier to become dependent again, which is what is called the kindling effect. Taking breaks is very important, you should seek to avoid ever becoming dependent. It is possible to use them for a long time and never develop serious tolerance or dependence but you have to be very careful because once you've gone there, the "free ride" is over and it becomes increasingly difficult to use them at all without falling back into dependence. The key is to keep your doses low, and keep your frequency as low as possible. If you are able to keep using the same dose whenever you use them, and can stop without experiencing withdrawal, you're doing well. Many people end up falling into an ever-increasing usage and dosage rate eventually, but it is not a foregone conclusion that you will. You just have to remain vigilant.

 

[morphineoxysbenzos]

Once you develop dependence and experience withdrawals, it will become much easier to become dependent again, which is what is called the kindling effect. Taking breaks is very important, you should seek to avoid ever becoming dependent. It is possible to use them for a long time and never develop serious tolerance or dependence but you have to be very careful because once you've gone there, the "free ride" is over and it becomes increasingly difficult to use them at all without falling back into dependence. The key is to keep your doses low, and keep your frequency as low as possible. If you are able to keep using the same dose whenever you use them, and can stop without experiencing withdrawal, you're doing well. Many people end up falling into an ever-increasing usage and dosage rate eventually, but it is not a foregone conclusion that you will. You just have to remain vigilant.

Yeah I use weed as my only daily drug and it helps me stay off the harder stuff lol

 

[Pickledlemons]

IME if you want to not become dependent you really have to use only twice a week or less. Even every other day can become problematic after a time.

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Kindling comes in to play the more often a drug is used. If you can take breaks you will be doing yourself a massive favor. Benzo addiction is no joke, best to only take them as needed

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah I use weed as my only daily drug and it helps me stay off the harder stuff lol

Man I wish weed still did it for me. Over the years it's become anxiety-producing unless I only use it occasionally for doing stuff like seeing live music, and it doesn't tickle the drug itch for me anymore. It's a bummer.

 

[Pickledlemons]

Man I wish weed still did it for me. Over the years it's become anxiety-producing unless I only use it occasionally for doing stuff like seeing live music, and it doesn't tickle the drug itch for me anymore. It's a bummer.

See thats what weed always did for me, anxiety and way too much introspection. People would see me not smoking and think I was straight-egde, but really I just stuck to hard stuff.

 

[Branggen]

While people can play with benzos for a little bit without getting burnt, eventually there becomes a point where the free ride is over. When that occurs, you have to starting paying back for that anxiety relief at the price of rebound anxiety, and eventually withdrawal. And the interest rates become very high after a while. Since I have had very heavy benzo dependencies in the past, these days if I take a decent sized dose of benzos I'll be feeling like shit for about 5 days after. That is a heavy price for 8 hours of relief.

Is that even with a lot of clean time in between?

 

[negrogesic]

Is that even with a lot of clean time in between?

Yeah thats even with a few months in between doses. I usually end up finding a need or adequate reason to take a benzo about once every 6 weeks or so. Preferably less. A medium sized dose (say 2-3mg of alprazolam equivalent) will have me feeling some after effects. A few days of that dose will have me very dissociated and anxious.

In some ways severe benzo withdrawal never really ends. You never really get back to a pre benzo state, with a generally higher baseline anxiety level.

Heavy use of benzos seems to change the associated receptors are expressed and makes them potentially permanently less sensitive to the effects of GABA. Benzos dont bind directly to GABA-A as an agonist like barbiturates, instead it make the receptors extremely sensitive to endogenous GABA, so much so that these receptors decrease in density out of an attempt to self-regulate their new found sensitivity to GABA. Problem is, when in the absence of something that enhances GABA's effect (ie, after stopping benzos), they are re-expressed, but they are expressed differently, namely being less efficient. It's as if through some self-protective mechanism they forgot how to do their job as they once did. This may be permanent depending on the doses and durations involved.

 

[Xorkoth]

I kicked up a slight dependence to benzos once after many years of using them occasionally for sleep and drug comedowns, it happened when I ran out of etizolam and tried using clonazolam like I used etizolam. Had withdrwals for like 10 days and then for a couple of months even a single use of etizolam caused serious rebound anxiety, but I seem to have escaped that and can use etizolam again sometimes without issues. But I never had a serious dependence. People I know, like negrogesic, who have had a serious benzo addiction period get rebound anxiety and a return of withdrawal symptoms pretty much any time they use a benzo, seemingly forever.

You could try dabs. They are Much more concentrated ! And work real good for end of the day chilling and winding it down. ♡♡♡♡♡♡

Anyway I'm off to my shift at work. 🕊

Dabs make me even more anxious. Although using a dab pen, so I can get just a tiny little hit, is much more doable. Even that sometimes gives me anxiety. Taking a full dab out of a dab rig is way too much for me.

 

[morphineoxysbenzos]

If I've been doing around 1mg of etizolam here and there should i take like a .25 or good to just straight stop for a minute?

 

[Xorkoth]

If it's not been daily or almost daily then you should be fine to just stop. If you stop and start to feel intense anxiety or start to get tremors or anything, then you will need to taper but it shouldn't be a problem. At worst you might have some difficulty sleeping for a few days.

I take etizolam at 1-2mg for sleep fairly regularly but almost never 2 days in a row and I'm fine when I don't have it, I've been doing this for a couple of years, with regular longer breaks. I often have insomnia which is the reason for this.