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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Benzodiazapines questions

M

Methoxetamean

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 4, 2017
Messages
23
Hi all,
If I take Benzodiazapines every second day will I build up a tolerance?
Thankyou
 
Its impossible to say since everyones dift and you didnt say what type of benzo and how much you take. People with panic disorder stay on the same dose of klonopin for yrs without a decrease in effectiveness whereas others will need continually increasing dosages. I think at once every other day no matter the amount you will at least create a psychological dependance with them over time.
 
Honestly, you probably would, but how long it would take to get a tolerance depends on which one you take. Some like alprazolam (xanax) have a short half-life, and others like diazepam (valium) have a very long half life. If you use super short acting benzo's (small half life) and only dose once-twice a day, that day off might be enough time for all of the benzo to metabolize and get out of your system before you dose again. However, if its a long acting benzo (long half life), the levels of benzo will build up in your system.

For example, Valium has a crazy long half life, and some of its active metabolites have half lives of 100-200 hours. So if you took a dose of Valium this Tuesday morning, bu the time Thursday morning comes around, you'll still have a good bit of Valium in your bloodstream, so if you dose the same amount Thursday as you did Tuesday, you would have (Thursdays dose) + (Remains of Tuesdays dose)in your system. If you kept up that dosing schedule, you would have ever increasing blood levels of Valium over time, so you'd build up a tolerance to it even though you take the same dosage every time with days off.

The thing that sucks is that many don't realize this is happening until they stop using long enough for all of the benzo to be excreted from the system. They get the withdrawals and then find that the regular dose they take is not sufficient to relieve the withdrawal. They get tolerance to the drugs due to the ever increasing blood levels of the drug.
 
Yeah to reinforce what others have said, the most important factor in the answer to your question is which benzo, and the half life.

Benzo WD's are the worst. So do your research. I'm scared to death of my clonazepam being cut off by my doc and doing a diazepam taper in a couple months. :(
 
Lobsterbutch's comments on halflife are spot on: if the effects of the benzo have a lengthy half life and bridge over your 'day off' then you're in effect constantly under the influence of the drug.
So roughly, for your 'day on, day off' regime on Xanax your body will experience some respite and a period of abstinence since it's half life is 20 hours max, but (as previous poster pointed out) on Valium which has a long half life your body is never free from the influence of the drug and physical dependence is more of a risk.
I'd also suggest that there is an accumulative effect of taking benzos over long periods and there's a significant risk of dependence even with a short acting benzo
 
So if i only dose once a week of 10mg on monday if i stick religously to that regime my tollerance will stay the same an not increase is that right??
 
Hi
With all these things there are never any hard and fast rules that consistently apply to everyone in the same way...
But, having said that, if you take 10mg on one day of the week only and rigidly stick to this regime, I would be reasonably confident that this wouldn't be sufficient- either in strength of dose or frequency of dose - to cause physical dependence.
But,...
the risk is you don't stick to the regime and resolve and discipline starts to slip...
 
Last edited:
It's an unanswerable question the way it's currently phrased. Which Benzodiazepine? Why are you using them? Are you making rules already because you realize you have an intense desire to take Benzodiazepines (important)?

If we're betting on horses here, I find the most likely result to be you attempting to stick to an every-other-day dosing regimen until you succumb to what I like to call "exception dosing" sometime between the first and second week of usage. My point is that creating "dosing schedules" and "rules" for your use is a Catch-22 in many ways, as it already implies that you have intense enough a desire to make the "rules" and "schedules" in the first place.
 
'Keif':
Yes, spot on...
'only Saturdays' becomes 'Friday night and Saturday' which becomes 'the weekend only', and eventually the weekend starts on Thursday nights
before you know it using on Tuesdays 'to break up the week' becomes normal and then necessary to avoid withdrawal
And this easily slips into daily usage

It's a slippery slope always
 
So if I only take Alprazolam every second I shouldn't have any issue because of the short half life?
I get what you're saying it will become everyday use but I can control my use of drugs.
 
As a rule of thumb twice a week is the max i would ever suggest if you want to keep tolerance low and avoid addiction. My tolerance builds so fast after being addicted a while back. I can go a few months without taking any and then the first low dose hits me really well but the second day i find i need more. Everyone is different but from past experience i took every 3 days and only once a day keeping the dose relatively small. It didn't seem to build too much however its easy to get silly and start upping your dose for a decent buzz as opposed to just the anti anxiety properties.
 
Sorry to piggy back off this topic but I also have a benzo question and just can't find the answer.

i used to take xanax or etizolam about 2 or 3 times a week, alternating them. Then, I went through a Tramadol binge where I was taking a benzo every day with my Tram. It was usually either .25 or .5 mg xanax or 1 mg etizolam, so not big doses, but it was everyday for 2-3 weeks.

I came off the Tram cold turkey (that sucked, though kratom helped) and my doctor prescribed Librium which I've been taking for 7 days at 3x 20 mg, so 60 mg per day.

I don't know whether this length of benzo use requires me to taper now or whether I can just CT. My doctor seems ok either way, but he isn't much of an expert on this. Yesterday I just skipped all the Librium and took 100 mg pregabalin at night and slept like a baby. But a friend warned me that the length of time/strength of my benzo doses were putting me at risk for withdrawal if I went Cold Turkey. I'd prefer to avoid seizures or anything that would disrupt my life anymore than I already just did with the trams.

I'm happy to taper either fast or using the Ashton method but I just haven't found a good source of information on which approach would be best. I could also CT and take pregabalin or gabapentin for a week too, and then taper off that.

Any experts out there think one strategy is better than the others?
 
^ i would reduce with librium and then use the gaba/pregab to smooth out the rough edges when you come off the benzos full-stop.
and bear in mind that pregab etc are addictive themselves ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽
 
Because you wont get higher, will probably destroy the drug and if you dont be inhaling shit you shouldnt.
 
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