Recovery lamotrigine and benzo addiction

[pharaoh]

Recently I was prescribed lamotrigine. I was scared off of using it because someone close to me died after some kind of lethal cocktail and he was on it. I was told that it interacted with benzos but I don't think this is true. Over the holidays, I've lost control of my benzo use and I am trying to get back to 30mg per day of diazepam. I'm probably on approx 50mg, sometimes less or mores and I've also gone through clonazepam over the last few weeks. So I want to stabilise my benzo use. I looked into this lamotrigine (prescribed as a mood stabiliser) and realised that it raises the seizure threshold - could that possibly mean that it could help me cut down on benzos and maybe even help on tapering off completely, which is my plan? Otherwise, I just don't know what to do. The stress of the holidays was too much and I was eating pills without thinking and drinking here and there too, heavily but I've stopped that. But I don't feel 100%. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[BadBoy377]

Hey, fella.

I hear you, mate. I really hope you find something that works for you.

You say any advice so...

I'd be really careful about offsetting benzo usage with lamotragine. I honestly don't know enough about it but I'd say that this is probably something you really need to discuss with your doc. My gut instinct is that it sounds sketchy. I think you'd be better trying to stabilise on the benzos and starting to cut back on that alone would be safer.

Stay off the booze, it's not your friend. It's just gonna destabilise you. Well done on stopping.

Maybe do some exercise. It's gonna take a few weeks before you start feeling better but exercise helps.

Drop me a message if you want to chat.

Best of luck with everything,

BB

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

Agreed: Stabilize at a dose on the benzo and come up with a reasonable taper plan custom to your needs.
You only binged over the holidays? Maybe it won't be so bad, really. Hopefully. I would drop back down from the 50 +/-mg to 30 and see how it goes. I feel some binges are easier to get leveled back out but it also seems how long I let the binge go.
Maybe drop to 40mg for a few days and self assess?
I also agree that this optimally involves a case for a healthcare worker but know we rarely go that route unless we are in extreme situations.
Also my best on this,
J

 

[pharaoh]

Thanks for the advice folks. Keeping a log of the diazepam usage and trying to cut down to 40mg to start with.

 

[Eryximachus]

I quit benzos almost 14 months ago (Dec 1, 2022), and carbamazepine is really what made it happen for me. It actually DOES increase GABA levels and quickly. It stabilizes mood extremely well - completely destroys the withdrawal anxiety, agitation and perhaps anger. It also increases liver enzymes that over time reduces the quantity of benzos in your blood, so it really helps get you clean in a way nothing else does. I strongly credit carbamazepine for helping me get clean after a 7-year addiction.

I've tried lamotrigine twice over the past 14 months, and it increased anger and aggression a lot each time and did not go away despite waiting 6-8 weeks.

 

[paranoid android]

I took lamictal with clonazepam for years. It wont really help benzo wd at all ibn my experience so don't really on that.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Do you feel like you might be self-medicating?

 

[Beoul]

high dose of B1 vitamin does wonders for stress.
i did about a six month taper using the Ashton method for my 5 year benzo use. but nothing really helped with the fogginess and general feeling of unwellness and anxiety during the taper and after until i adopted the keto diet. then almost overnight i felt more stable and healthy. lately i've transitioned to a less strict keto diet, that is, a healthy low carb diet of only whole foods. my diet, especially processed foods and bad oils and sugars in foods made the withdrawal more painful than it needed to be. i'm not saying the transition to a healthy diet and quitting smoking and drinking came easily but they were the things that consistently worked for me and still do. and alot of sunshine -- has a lifting affect