Does anyone use benzos like I do?

[Reefers]

I've abused benzos in the past. In particular, diazepam. I lost a good few months out of my life, and yet still managed to go through 2 days of horrific withdrawals despite diazepam's long half life. Somehow my college grades were still very good, even though I don't remember much,

I've since smartened up, and now just take benzos for the anxiolytic effect. Doc gave me 40 0.25mg alprazolam tabs a month because he told me is he uncomfortable prescribing them, and that I need to see a psychiatrist.

I take benzos mostly to take the edge off of stimulants, namely desoxyn (even though it is less anxiogenic than other stims) and caffeine (which is more anxiogenic than any other substance I use). Anyways, I find that 0.125mg alprazolam will take off the edge when dosed sublingually. If I have a coffee AND 5mg desoxyn, then 0.25mg alprazolam will alleviate the anxiety (and even make me feel a little bit stupid).

I wonder how the hell some of the people on this board take 2mg+ at one time. I think that's crazy, unless you have super tolerance.

So, what kind of dose do people usually take of any given benzo, who use them therapeutically rather then to get "high." I wonder if I'm the only one who takes such a low dose... Have a bunch of etizolam coming (1mg) and I guess I'm going to have to chop em up, which is such a pain in the ass.

 

[painenduser]

I take them therapeutically infact, I'm kind of a downer because I really don't take any of my meds recreationaly, albeit, I do enjoy the feeling I get from them, but in answer to your questions, what's considered a low dose verses a high dose is clearly in the eye of the beholder because when you convert one meds dosage to another meds dosage there can be a stark difference. Example. .25 of alprazolam (xanax) when converted to Diazepam (valium) is 5mg's. So someone may say wow you take 5mg's of valium isn't that a high dose? Well no it's really not as its equal to .25mg's of xanax, For me personally I have a very high tolerance to benzo's so for me 2mg's is a medium dose for me, and if I were to take that before I went to bed it would put me right to sleep, but if I were to take it in the middle of a day where I'm running around energy flowing, it just mellows me out. And I don't even take benzo's on a regular basis. And to keep that into perspective with the same conversion 2mg's xanax is equal to 40mg's valium. So as you can see what may seem like low does of one benzo may appear to be a high dose of another and it certainly is different from one person to another, some are more sensitive to one benzo while others are more sensitive to others.

You mentioned that you were about to be taking Etizolam 1 mg, however it's hard to compare this drug to other benzo's as this is not a straight Benzo, this is known as a thienodiazepine drug which is a benzodiazepine analog. The etizolam molecule differs from most other benzodiazepines in that the benzene ring has been replaced by a thiophene ring. I am not sure how this differs in its reaction within an individual but from what I can gather on Etizolam 1-2mg's would be equal to about 10 mg's of valium, which is you followed my first example that would be about equal to .50 mg's of xanax.

I am not sure how much if any this helps you, but in any event you atleast got an education on bennzo's

Let me know if there is anything more you are looking for and I'll try to clear it up for you.

-Pain

PS I thought this may be useful to you when comparing benzo's however it does not include benzo analogs, just straight benzos. Benzo Calculator


PSS, please let me know if I missed the entire point of the question, my intent was to be helpful and provide as much info as I could, but after have reread the question and also the answer from tripman, I am not sure if my answer really addresses your question so if someone could let me know what I am missing here, I may just get to learn something as well Thanks!!!

 

[Tripman]

Hi reefers. I too have benzodiazepine abuse in my past. I lost a good few years of my life however. My main problems were my scripts for alprazolam 12mg, valium 120mg and flunitrazepam 2mg daily. I'm now clean and wouldn't ever consider using them again.

I'm glad to hear that you have managed to cut back your use so drastically.

I guess the main reason we use more that 2mg at a time... I was dosing 12mg-30mg xanax at a time because my tolerance was at the point where those doses had the same effect as I used to experience with 2mg. I wasn't even getting "high" however, I was using them therapeutically, however to a negative effect in the end as I was stuck in the cycle of dependency and addiction.

 

[painenduser]

Tripman, I certainly don't doubt you for a second but 12+MG's of xanax?? That's like 240mg's valium!!! Holy gee willickers! How did you function, tolerance or not! lol WOW Your like a Benzo god lol I'm certainly glad your not on that mess anymore!

 

[Tripman]

Eh, I was prescribed by my professor as I said, 120mg valium, 12mg xanax and 2mg flunitrazepam daily. So I was refilling a script for 5mg x 50 valium every 3rd day, a script for 2mg x 50 Xanax every 9th day and a script for 1mg x 50 flunitrazepam every 25th day...

If I could remember how I functioned I'd tell you . The last two years have sort of all blurred together. I lost several jobs. Dropped out of uni etc. I was living off a disability pension.

 

[painenduser]

I don't even want to do the math on your total benzo usage in a day because I would wind up questioning how you are still here today and I really don't want to know. The good news is, you are still here and you made it through it and thats enough to make me happy! Im just glad you wont have to go through that again!

 

[Doug2113]

Apparently the lethal doses of benzos is retardedly high...like hundreds of times the therapeutic doses...

Closest I ever got to going off on benzos was there were a couple weeks I was going through those ONAX bars like candy, taking 3-5 per night around thanksgiving of last year...

Now I will rarely use them. Maybe a 4-bar used THROUGHOUT the day...I have to do it slowly though cause mildly-moderate (if that makes sense) doses make me pass out...

If I take more than half of one of those things at once I'm out...

 

[Tripman]

The LD50 for Alprazolam is considered to be somewhere between 15,000-20,000mgs...

I think my biggest, and most irresponsible, dose was around the 100mg mark.

Most people die from mixing benzo's with other substances or from doing stupid things with lowered inhibitions.

Dangerous drugs in high doses IMO.

EDIT: Dangerous in most doses actually when I come to think of how badly they effected my life

 

[Alex000]

I take 1 mg Klonipin twice a day for therapeutic reasons + 1-2 mg Ativan as needed for anxiety, usually take ~ 2 mg Ativan daily. This gets me no where near "fucked up", and just fairly calm. I've been on benzos for a year, though, and have a tolerance. Xanax (1-2 mg) doesn't do much for me personally, yes it will calm me down but no more than the Ativan. BUT there are those who take super low doses of benzos and report sufficient anxiolysis. You aren't the only one, but that shit don't work for me.

 

[Viciouswhisper88]

I totally agree! How did you funtion at all? I remember the first time I took a zbar, I took 2 2mgs and I was working at Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, CA. We were busy as hell, all the food was coming out late & I was chill as F! The freakin' building could have been on fire & I couldn't have cared less, that's how chill I was. Unfortunately I have now moved to a "red" state, I live in Austin, Tx and even though it's supposed to be very liberal here, doctors here are incredibly stingy on ANY benzos. I have suffered from anxiety since childhood, (mostly trama, rape, your standard "I'm screwed up in the head b.s.) but anyway, back home in CA they give benzo's out like candy, here I can hardly get them. No sourcing.

Tripman, I certainly don't doubt you for a second but 12+MG's of xanax?? That's like 240mg's valium!!! Holy gee willickers! How did you function, tolerance or not! lol WOW Your like a Benzo god lol I'm certainly glad your not on that mess anymore!

 

[Oxide]

When I was being treated by my doctor for anxiety, she jumped me from 4 / .5mg alprazolam a day to 2 1/2 / 2mg alprazolam in the first month. Shortly after that she was also prescribing me 1 / 30mg temazepam and 3 / 10mg valium. Needless to say I was pretty strung the fuck out on benzos.

I did a lot of stupid things, and forgot even more of them. I fell asleep at the worst times, including while having sex (more than once.) I don't know what the doctor was thinking, but I wasn't going to turn them down. I was only 17 at the time, I was pretty much in pill heaven. I don't know how I functioned really. Then one day, I get a letter in the mail saying the doctor is closing her practice and moving out of town. I freaked out. The new doctors she switched me to cut me off pretty much instantly.

At first I starting supplementing my habit on the street, but it was unsustainable. Pretty soon all the options dried up and I was withdrawaling. I woke up in the middle of the night the second night, and my chest was paralyzed. I couldn't breathe in! I gasped and gasped, crawling around on the floor trying to just suck in some sweet, sweet oxygen. I was surely going to die right there on my floor, gasping like a fish out of water.

Suddenly a cool wave burst into my chest, and I was breathing again. That happened a few more times, along with a couple of grand-mal seizures. I eventually broke down and went to the ER, and pleaded my case to the doctor on call. He took pity on me and cut me a script for 30 / 1mg clonazepam and I was able to use the pills to taper down to a much much lower dose.

Now though, a much lower dose has all the anxiolysis I need. I can skate by on .5mg of lorazepam or so, but I don't really have much access to benzos anymore anyway. (no health insurance, or sources.) It's for the best, though. I can't be trusted with a bunch of them.

In conclusion, yes OP people do use benzos like you do.

It's when you start relying on them more than once in awhile that your tolerance builds and you need more to achieve the same effect.

 

[Allein]

I build tolerance to Diaz really quickly, its only been over the last year or so that I've been using on and off with tapers in between, but I've but up at then over 200mgs daily mark quite few times. Given the tabs are illicit its difficult to be really accurate but I'd never dose under 30mgs so if you work may be 3 doses in the day like that and then a couple at 50or60Mgs in the evening its easy to get to stupid levels really quickly.
I seem to function reasonably well, which makes it worse really, on a taper now and on 80Mgs a day at the mo which I split into to one early and one late evening dose.

I'm hoping I can stay off after this taper, the whole thing just getting boring now, it wouldn't be so bad if you could just face the stuff down cold turkey and be done with it but obviously thats not an option.

 

[GarageFlower]

I just use every once in a while with some bud to relax

 

[Pilll_head]

Yeah, I'm with Garageflower. I take a 2 mg Xanax bar to chill out but I do that no more than once a week and I make damn sure I don't have to go anywhere that evening or do anything important because it makes you black out. 2 mg doesn't hit me too hard, just a gentle high that calms me and give me the nod. But I have to take 12.5 mg Ambien every night to sleep so I probably have some cross-tolerance to benzos.