honeywhite
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2012
- Messages
- 90
Someone who *is* me suffers from infrequent periods of anxiety/hysteria, sometimes brought on by overwork/things not going as I wanted (NASDAQ goes down, writers block, poor marks on Tax Law paper, etc), sometimes idiopathic. I've tried a few anxiolytics, most prescribed, three unprescribed but legal (ethanol in the form of absinthe, diethyl aether, and hydrate of chloral). What I need in an anxiolytic is this:
a) Lysis of anxiety (it's in the name of the thing!).
b) Lack of hypnotic effect (VERY important).
c) Long duration of action.
d) Not required to take daily (SSRI's, I'm looking at you!)
e) Lack of sexual side effects. I'm a man; the most important organ in my body is my, erm, joystick, and I won't have it out of commission.
The anxiolytics I have personally tried, in order of desirability, are:
a) Phenobarbitone sodium. - Disadvantage: lethal in overdosage.
b) Ethanol. - Disadvantages: possible emesis and risk of stomach-ache. Can't wander about drunk all the time.
c) Diazepam. - Disadvantage: hypnotic. Advantage: The most efficacious.
d) Pentobarbitone sodium. - Disadvantages: lethal in overdosage, difficult to obtain (the chemist doesn't always have it, hard to get from doctors), shortish-acting. Advantage: Just as efficacious as diazepam.
e) Aether. - Disadvantages: ultrashort-acting, HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE (I smoke 5 packs a day, this is not tolerable), risk of stomach-ache, SMELLS. Advantages: comes on fast, like ethanol.
===== Undesirable =====
i) Alprazolam. - Disadvantages: short-acting, hypnotic occasionally. Advantage: comes on faster than Na-phenobarb.
j) Chlordiazepoxide. - Disadvantages: inefficacious, hypnotic at effective dose. Advantage: long acting.
k) Lorazepam. - Disadvantages: ULTRASHORT-ACTING. Lasts me an hour or two. That's not what I need. Also nearly always hypnotic (not enough to put me to sleep, enough to make me tired).
l) Fluoxetine. - Disadvantage: droopy cock syndrome which persists after cessation of use; must use every day to be efficacious. Advantage: all outweighed by the DROOPY COCK SYNDROME.
m) Chloral. - Disadvantage: inefficacious, causes stomach-ache every time like clockwork.
n) Amfebutamone (Zyban). - Disadvantage: inefficacious. Advantages: Good stimulant (but that's not what I wanted it for!), reduces urge to smoke (also not why I want it!). Slight boost in mood, a bit like very toned-down Desoxyn.
At the moment I am on phenobarbitone. After being warned to keep its use to a minimum for reasons of overdosage and habit prevention, I can manage with 50 mgm. once or twice a week. It's quite gentle and doesn't put me to sleep. Has a tendency to whittle down my verbal filter in an odd way. Not like morphine/other opiates (which simply make me less critical of my own writing) - I tend slightly to overestimate how appropriate my words/actions are. I've managed to learn to walk on it properly - this was important because it used to give me ataxia (stumbling around as if I were drunk).
Still, I've heard from multiple places that it's habit-forming. My doctor doesn't appear to be overconcerned but was a bit shocked when she heard about my misadventures on it (i.e. taking 1/2 gm. or more as a single dose). The maximum human dose, apparently, is 300 mgm. and that is for refractory insomnia. Her words: "Don't you ever do that again - unless you want your problems gone in a most spectacular fashion!"
Any thoughts on a better medicine? I like how pheno lasts a long time but don't like its lethality. Valium is all right if it didn't make me so sleepy - it's allegedly safer and 100% can be reversed with flumazenil.
EDIT: Opioids have a slight, and I repeat slight, anxiolytic action. The first and foremost reason I take them is reduction of pain, so they don't figure on the list. I also remember briefly using Lyrica but it makes my feet swell up something awful and it has oxybate-like (i.e. Xyrem) effects at effective dose. Doctor advises continuing pheno, on the basis of "let's not try to fix what's been fixed already".
a) Lysis of anxiety (it's in the name of the thing!).
b) Lack of hypnotic effect (VERY important).
c) Long duration of action.
d) Not required to take daily (SSRI's, I'm looking at you!)
e) Lack of sexual side effects. I'm a man; the most important organ in my body is my, erm, joystick, and I won't have it out of commission.
The anxiolytics I have personally tried, in order of desirability, are:
a) Phenobarbitone sodium. - Disadvantage: lethal in overdosage.
b) Ethanol. - Disadvantages: possible emesis and risk of stomach-ache. Can't wander about drunk all the time.
c) Diazepam. - Disadvantage: hypnotic. Advantage: The most efficacious.
d) Pentobarbitone sodium. - Disadvantages: lethal in overdosage, difficult to obtain (the chemist doesn't always have it, hard to get from doctors), shortish-acting. Advantage: Just as efficacious as diazepam.
e) Aether. - Disadvantages: ultrashort-acting, HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE (I smoke 5 packs a day, this is not tolerable), risk of stomach-ache, SMELLS. Advantages: comes on fast, like ethanol.
===== Undesirable =====
i) Alprazolam. - Disadvantages: short-acting, hypnotic occasionally. Advantage: comes on faster than Na-phenobarb.
j) Chlordiazepoxide. - Disadvantages: inefficacious, hypnotic at effective dose. Advantage: long acting.
k) Lorazepam. - Disadvantages: ULTRASHORT-ACTING. Lasts me an hour or two. That's not what I need. Also nearly always hypnotic (not enough to put me to sleep, enough to make me tired).
l) Fluoxetine. - Disadvantage: droopy cock syndrome which persists after cessation of use; must use every day to be efficacious. Advantage: all outweighed by the DROOPY COCK SYNDROME.
m) Chloral. - Disadvantage: inefficacious, causes stomach-ache every time like clockwork.
n) Amfebutamone (Zyban). - Disadvantage: inefficacious. Advantages: Good stimulant (but that's not what I wanted it for!), reduces urge to smoke (also not why I want it!). Slight boost in mood, a bit like very toned-down Desoxyn.
At the moment I am on phenobarbitone. After being warned to keep its use to a minimum for reasons of overdosage and habit prevention, I can manage with 50 mgm. once or twice a week. It's quite gentle and doesn't put me to sleep. Has a tendency to whittle down my verbal filter in an odd way. Not like morphine/other opiates (which simply make me less critical of my own writing) - I tend slightly to overestimate how appropriate my words/actions are. I've managed to learn to walk on it properly - this was important because it used to give me ataxia (stumbling around as if I were drunk).
Still, I've heard from multiple places that it's habit-forming. My doctor doesn't appear to be overconcerned but was a bit shocked when she heard about my misadventures on it (i.e. taking 1/2 gm. or more as a single dose). The maximum human dose, apparently, is 300 mgm. and that is for refractory insomnia. Her words: "Don't you ever do that again - unless you want your problems gone in a most spectacular fashion!"
Any thoughts on a better medicine? I like how pheno lasts a long time but don't like its lethality. Valium is all right if it didn't make me so sleepy - it's allegedly safer and 100% can be reversed with flumazenil.
EDIT: Opioids have a slight, and I repeat slight, anxiolytic action. The first and foremost reason I take them is reduction of pain, so they don't figure on the list. I also remember briefly using Lyrica but it makes my feet swell up something awful and it has oxybate-like (i.e. Xyrem) effects at effective dose. Doctor advises continuing pheno, on the basis of "let's not try to fix what's been fixed already".
