Benzos Benzos and sleep eating?

[llama112]

Oh wow! Tons of great info!
This has never really been a problem in the past, at least not that I know of. Only twice within the past week and a half and only once was he on benzos.
I've heard stories of people doing crazy things while on benzos and just not remembering them. This makes me a bit scared of benzos. I've never taken much at one time (myself). I think 20 mg of Valium was the most. We usually taken benzos to sleep (so maybe 2-3 times a month). Always after partying on 4-FA and occasionally after MDMA, Adderall, or just recreationally. I'm a bit OCD so I notice if anything has changed in the apartment and there has never been anything.
Is there a way to stop this so that he knows what he is doing on benzos?

I'm mostly concerned that he could do something dangerous or illegal. There are just so many possibilities. I'm not so much worried about him eating a lot of things or even spending money. But leaving the apartment could be dangerous. Doing more drugs (possibly something that is bad when mixed with benzos) would be dangerous. Going out onto the balcony ... I don't want him to fall off! Or like, opening my hamster's cage and letting her escape. There are so many things that could happen.

Are benzo blackouts kind of like GHB overdoses? My boyfriend has had those a few times. It's where his body is awake and his mind is asleep. He does weird things and has no recollection of it. This has happened a few times but I've always been awake to monitor him. He mostly just gets annoying and wanders around the apartment and complains so there isn't much to worry about. But benzo blackouts seem to be a lot crazier.

If you run into someone (like say, a neighbour), while you're in this benzo blackout stage, do you know what you're doing? Will the neighbour notice that you're on something? Like if they strike up a conversation or something?

I don't know a whole lot about benzos but I feel like I should be doing a lot more research! I thought they just helped me fall asleep and helped me relax but there is so much more to them!

 

[Hear Me Roar]

I had something similar on zolpidem(ambien), except instead of sleep eating, id take more zolpidem in my sleep, waking up late the next day with a bad headache. Needless to say I stopped taking them and moved onto zopiclone.

Even hiding my pills didn't work. Sleep me was real good at finding them. Id take 2, then take 6 in sleep. Got out of hand and dangerous.

 

[shreddedlettuce]

As I have said before.
Take your sleeping pills, get into bed and turn off the lights.
(that would cut out all those nasty "zombie" adventures by 99% )

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I've found the best way to stop me from doing things I don't remember is to go to bed right away and stay there. But personally I've never done anything very crazy I couldn't remember, as far as I know at least.

I don't think a benzo blackout is quite like a GHB overdose. When I've seen people who took too much GHB they were often almost in a type of catatonic state, where I couldn't communicate with them at all and they would be doing random, often repetitive, stuff like banging their head against a wall or constantly brushing their hair, and perhaps saying something that made no sense and didn't seem directed at me.

With benzos it's more similar to when you have a black-out after drinking too much alcohol, like the person might seem kind of out of it or drunk at the time but they will still respond to you and do relatively normal seeming things, they just don't remember it afterwards. This has been my experience witnessing GHB blackouts and benzo blackouts in others at least.

When I've had amnesia after taking benzos people told me I had been having conversations with them, although occasionally what I was saying was admittedly a little bit strange or misunderstanding things, it was still based in reality. Whether or not a stranger would perceive you as being on something probably depends on how much you took and how out of it you are. I think it tends to look like the person is drunk. They may have slower or even slurred speech, be sleepy, have impaired balance/coordination, reduced inhibitions, somewhat erratic behavior, decreased alertness and concentration, decreased impulse control, might be extra happy or extra angry/irritable, etc. In general I think that being on benzos is very similar to being drunk except often drowsier and with a higher incidence of amnesia, like I've had times after taking benzos when I couldn't remember things and upon asking my boyfriend he said I didn't even appear drunk/high or "out of it" at the time.

Perhaps using benzos in huge amounts or for certain types of come-down could make you seem crazier though. I've only really "overdosed" once, when I was a teenager (but IIRC I don't think I lived with my parents at the time) and I came to hours later on the other side of town with my mom and had no recollection at all of meeting up with my mom or how I got there. I had also apparently done more drugs during the time I can't remember. I would say hiding your drugs is a good idea if you're going to take a lot of benzos. Aside from that time though I've don't think I've ever taken more drugs without remembering, but I never use benzos recreationally anymore and don't have a huge amount of experience with them, I've mostly just used them for things like sleep, anxiety, sedation for dental work, etc.

Sorry this is so long, just trying to be detailed

 

[llama112]

Thanks SwimmingDancer! Thanks for the long and detailed post!! Yeah it seems like a GHB OD is way different than a benzo OD. From what I've experienced, that's exactly what a G OD is like. Doing repetitive weird things, sometimes dangerous. I have very little experience with alcohol (I've only actually been drunk once in my life and it sucked lol) so I don't know what that is like. I do hear about people blacking out on alcohol and doing dumb things though.

That's so crazy that things like that can happen on benzos! I didn't realize it was like amnesia.
But like, my bf only took 20 mg. And he was lying in bed too so you'd think he'd be content there? But it's pretty normal for him to wake up and go to the fridge and get something to eat. Although when he's in a normal sober state, he usually gets something like a carrot lol.

There's so much more to benzos than I thought! I wonder if sleeping pills with diphenhydromine are better for after stims like 4-FA. Or a different type of benzo.

Oh that would be so bizarre to meet up with your mom and not remembering it, especially if she had no clue about your drug use!

But yeah, I'd be scared that he would use more drugs that interacted badly with the benzos. I don't think this is likely to happen again. He took 10 mg, couldn't get to sleep, so took another 10 mg. Maybe just going up by 5 mg would be better next time. Hmmm.

 

[Thomas29]

I never had any black outs really just odd behavior but I live life with NO regrets even on Benzos.

 

[bronson]

^ I hate to say it, but that's likely just because you haven't done anything truly regrettable yet.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

There's so much more to benzos than I thought! I wonder if sleeping pills with diphenhydromine are better for after stims like 4-FA. Or a different type of benzo.

Oh that would be so bizarre to meet up with your mom and not remembering it, especially if she had no clue about your drug use!

But yeah, I'd be scared that he would use more drugs that interacted badly with the benzos. I don't think this is likely to happen again. He took 10 mg, couldn't get to sleep, so took another 10 mg. Maybe just going up by 5 mg would be better next time. Hmmm.

Yeah a lower dose is probably a good idea.

I'm pretty sure my mom knew I was on something on that occasion.

Diphenhydramine is good for sleep, but it doesn't force you to sleep, you have to lie down and relax and then it is quite effective. It is actually recommended for people who may need to wake up for something, like on-call workers for example, because you can still wake up to an alarm and won't be all out of it. Less is more with diphenhydramine, the sedative effects are more pronounced in lower doses. Unfortunately you can build a tolerance to the sedation quite quickly so it's not something you want to take nightly. If you take too much diphenhydramine it becomes a SNRI, so another reason to keep doses low, especially if you were taking it after a serotonin releasing agent like 4-FA. I've never heard of anyone getting serotonin syndrome but I'd err the safe side with it. There is no point to taking higher doses for sleep/relaxation, because diphenhydramine has a higher binding affinity for histamine receptors than serotonin/norepinephrine receptors, so if you take more of it more will bind to S and N receptors, making you feel more awake and effectively canceling out the sedation. You just want a dose that is enough to strongly block the histamine receptors but not enough to strongly inhibit serotonin reuptake. It's the histamine blocking that makes you able to sleep.

 

[tricomb]

^ I hate to say it, but that's likely just because you haven't done anything truly regrettable yet.

Lol, so true.