Benzo tolerance

[bookina]

Hi, I read a bit about benzos and I am wondering how to avoid becoming tolerant. I am prescribed Lorazepam for anxiety (0,5mg PRN, I think, maybe 1mg?), and I almost never use it (once a month? and just one tablet) because my doctor's speech about tolerance and addiction scared me (and because here they really don't like prescribing them, so I nearly had to beg to have anything beside "you should learn how to cope with your anxiety") except it means that I don't really get help with the anxiety most of the time. I was wondering whether taking one once a week would create tolerance?
Because I am 1)not very enthusiastic about becoming more tolerant to it, 2) and my doc will never prescribe more, so it would be better if I did not.
(I have never taken any other benzo or drugs, just antidepressant (welbutrin) as prescribed).

Thank you.

 

[keeping]

your tolerance will always increase to a certain extent, but tolerance and addiction are two different things. if you were to only take one lorazepam once a week you would not become addicted, but keeping it to just once a week is what many of us struggle with..

 

[HeadHigh]

Yeah, i agree with keeping. It is very difficult not to use something like that every time that we want to. I would advise using it only when you have no other means of calming yourself, and no more than once a week if you can.

 

[nobenzo25]

On a side note - Can anyone recommend a beznzo for nightly sleeping that won't garner an addiction?

 

[Ilove2nod]

I don't think something as weak as lorazepam at such a low dose once a week is going to cause you to form a habit and become super addicted, also it probably wont mess with your tolerance much unless you start taking more of it each week, even then, I think you'd be fine. It sounds like you have pretty good self control when it comes to your meds, if you normaly only take one lorazepam a month. Its when you start taking it everyday that you need to worry about dependence/addiction with benzos.

nobenzo25- I don't know if there is a benzo you can take everynight and not worry about addiction. But I believe the least addicting benzo that would be best for sleep, imo, would be low dose valium. However, it is habit forming like all benzos if you take it every night, but since it has a very long half life, its not as addicting as something like Xanax would be. I have been taking klonopin for insomnia and general anxiety for nearly 4 years now, and I can say that also works wonderful for sleep, but also I am now dependent on it and when I go without it I get terrible withdrawl symptoms. Honestly I wouldn't recommend taking benzos just to sleep, there are so many other non-habit forming sleep meds out there that work just as good or better than benzos if you just need something to help you sleep. A lot of them are OTC to so you don't need a script. Melatonin, Sleepinal, Unisom... those are just a few that are over the counter and work great for sleep. Only if you have such bad anxiety everyday that you cant go to sleep because you are constantly worrying, would you need something like a benzo to help with sleep and anxiety.

 

[bookina]

Thank you all for your replies! For now I have been good at being really super reasonable (partly thanks to my doc who prescribes very few pills at a time, so I would not be able to abuse it anyway, but I actually also have a "stock" of pills I have not used, but I prefer using it as little as possible), so I hope I will keep doing that, but I'd appreciate if I was able to use the medication a bit more often without having it becoming less efficient. Maybe I'll try once a week for a month and if it becomes less efficient I'll stop until my tolerance decreases (it works that way? I'm sorry, I'm not really med-savvy).
Thank you all.

 

[2cAlex]

I'd recommend Valium personally for sleep. I'm very experienced with benzos, I usually take 1/3rd or a half of a xanax bar for sleep, and a slight buzz. Or 1mg klonopin or ativan but a 10mg vailum works perfectly.

I would take it about 2 hours before bed instead of about 45 to 70 minuets or so before bed with other benzos. But no morning hangover at all.

But your goal is to not get addicted, so I guess take them all and just go with whatever you like the least? It's not really a smart thing to do, but your doing it.

 

[HeadHigh]

As mentioned above, i would HIGHLY advise not using a benzo to sleep every night. You WILL become dependent and possibly even addicted. Benzos, in my opinion, are one of the worst drugs to use on a regular basis just because the withdrawals are so long and difficult to manage.

 

[KidneyStoneMaker]

I think your doctor is crazy or trying to scare you. I used to be prescribed 4mg of Klonopin a day for anxiety. But thats because its a slow release.

Now Im only on 1mg a day for anxiety. If you dont take Klonopin it everyday its not going to prevent panic attacks.

For lorazepam aka ativan I think thats supposed to be a fast action release to stop it when it happens. Take as you need it. As long as you arent doing it to get high, you shouls be fine.

If you build a tolerance then your doctor should give you a higher dose or something else. Maybe an antidepressamt to go with it.

 

[HeadHigh]

I have to slightly disagree with kidneystonemaker here. Only in cases where people are having panic attacks every single day multiple times a day should you take a benzo daily (or at least, this was the original intention behind these long-lasting benzos).
Also, even if you arent taking just to get high, your tolerance will still increase regularly, and an addiction can still sometimes form, though its not as common.

 

[Johndoedoe.junk]

To the OP my best advice would be to take the Ativan as little as you can manage. If you aren't taking it all the time then that will help delay tolerance, however in my experience tolerance will build if you are taking it on any kind of regular basis, even once a week. I think the farther apart you space your doses the less quickly and severely tolerance will build. I mean if you were taking it once every six months or a year then tolerance would likely never build but the point I'm trying to make is ANY drug you take on a regular basis your body will eventually get accustomed to and adjust to compensate hence tolerance.

In your situation I wouldn't worry too much as you are swimming in the absolute most shallow end of the benzo pool. You mentioned your doc will never prescribe you more, does this mean you got one script only or do you mean the doc will never up the dose?

 

[Keif' Richards]

Everything that you are indicating regarding your current usage of Benzodiazepines is the way it should be. The prescribing guidelines for Benzodiazepines pretty clearly state that they should only be used on a short-term basis, generally not excluding a couple of weeks, however, in practice, they are prescribed at a much higher frequency.

By using them only sporadically or when needed, you can avoid the issue of dependence/tolerance and maintain the same level of effectiveness with your medication. So to answer your question, taking Lorazepam (Ativan) once a week is certainly not going to be enough to induce dependence or even tolerance. The week interval between dosing is going to be more than enough time for your body to regain homeostasis.

Good for you for being responsible. Sedative/Hypnotic addiction, including Alcohol, is a pitfall you really do want to avoid.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I have taken clonzepam for almost 7 years off and on for ptsd. When I took them daily I was addicted and went through detox hell. I'm odd though,I never had my tolerance increased during that time . Now I take them(.5 at bedtime if needed) when I really can't calm down. Example- fireworks coming up labour day. My ptsd from service in the Middle East has made fireworks something I can't deal with by any breathing exercise and a benzo is the difference of baracading myself in my house with a loaded weapon and being around people I care about.
Take them when nothing else works , but frequent use will build tolerance