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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Does GABA receptors "burn down" after years of abuse?

delphinen

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
991
Location
Gensokyo
Hi guys, I'll try to be short.

Since my childhood, I had serious problems for sleep.
When I began doing drugs, I would use Diphenhydramine to fall asleep, until I discovered benzos (5 years ago or so).
I began with 2 or 3 Diazepam or Bronazepam, later Lorazepam, and would get sleepy very soon.
Later I discovered the big brother here, my favorite, Clonazepam, which I used both for sleep and as an antiseizure med. Because I loved Tramadol, I would take like 10mg Clonazepam easily to avoid seizures.
I also began taking Alprazolam, this one rarely for sleep, but for anxious at work, I would mix Pseudoephedrine/Caffeine pills with a 2mg bar taken with some Coke or Pepsi, things like that.

You see, here benzos are regulated but pharms sells you anyway, I tried to quit 3 times with meds like Lyrica but the max time I could hold without any kind of benzos was a week, time where I couldn't sleep, I wasn't hungry but kept gaining weight, couldn't go to the bathroom neither, etc; my system was totally fucked up. I went to a med and the dr. told me to forget going cold turkey, and my addiction slowly grow again.
I also began taking Clonidine with my benzos to achieve sleep.

Since the last 3 or 4 months, I began not being able to sleep, no matter the dose, kind of benzos, or how much Clonidine I take.
And the only way for me to get proper sleep (that would be, sleep 6, 7 hours deeply) was taking 1g of SOMA along with the other drugs.
Since SOMA is pretty expensive compared to any kind of benzos, there have been lot of nights I was out the drug and couldn't achieve sleep.

I also have an history of taking one or two liters of Coke almost every day, I work my ass off so I never cared about this, but could it be that I have too much Caffeine in my system? I don't think so, because my problem (call it Insomnia) began years ago I began taking Caffeine related products, but if today I don't get my bottle of Coke, my cups of Coffee, and my Pseudoephedrine with my Caffeine pills, I can stand being awake for a whole day :(

My question is then, I have been searching earlier here and found that some people says that the GABA receptors burns down after years of abuse, do any of you guys knows if this is true?

Thanks in advance.
 
Receptor concentration will decrease over time with continuous administration source

So the answer to your question is yes. It's a mechanism that promotes systemic stability. Until the input of chemicals stops, that is.
 
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Buy benzodiazepines aren't GABA nor "imitate" them, the mechanism of action of all benzos is open the GABA channel...
you just quoted that when receptor is overstimulated, the body recycles it, so, although the answer to my question keeps being yes, benzos don't "deplete" anything, like Cocaine with Dopamine, for example, right?

Thanks for your answer and sources Venrak.
 
I suggest cutting out the caffeine ASAP and see if that's the issue. For me personally, even low doses of caffeine were giving me extreme insomnia, anxiety, and headaches until I quit. Caffeine is a known stimulant and in my opinion probably isn't appropriate for people with anxiety.
 
Thanks for the info.
I'm gonna try to reduce my benzos intake to half (like 6mg Clonazepam and 2mg Alprazolam) with the aid of a single 350mg SOMA, some Lyrica, some Clonidine, and most importantly, 50mg Diphenhydramine.
 
Thanks for the info.
I'm gonna try to reduce my benzos intake to half (like 6mg Clonazepam and 2mg Alprazolam) with the aid of a single 350mg SOMA, some Lyrica, some Clonidine, and most importantly, 50mg Diphenhydramine.

Why diphen most importantly? That's quite a combo -- is histamine a problem for you?
 
Phenibut would be out of the question. you are already using so many gaba drugs and that one would suck to come off of.
 
After a certain level of tolerance, many benzo users report that benzos don't work very well no matter how much they take. And tolerance to benzos takes FOREVER to go away.

I might consider looking into NMDA antagonists to help lower (or at least control) your tolerance - there are a few threads on this.

Why diphen most importantly? That's quite a combo -- is histamine a problem for you?
Presumably because he's having trouble sleeping, and dph is used for sleep? That's the least harmful thing he's taking!

I'd switch to doxylamine succinate (unisom and generics, CVS has no generic, but walgreens does), though - it's a little better for sleep than DPH.
 
Right, I have been able to sleep well for 2 days mixing 350mg Carisoprodol (one pill) 2mg Alprazolam, 4mg Clonazepam, 2ug Clonidine, 75mg Lyrica, and 50mg Diphenhydramine.
It's still a lot of pills, but I have lowered my benzo intake a lot. I have Seroquel in case of "emergency", but that thing makes me sleep like 14 or 16 hours non stop no matter how much I take (20mg, 30mg, 40mg, etc.) and I feel like crap when I wake up. I can't give me the luxury of sleep so much. Just hope I don't develop tolerance to the Diphenhydramine soon.
 
Building diphenhydramine tolerance is the least of your worries. Learn to to try different things to induce sleep. Like a nice exercise near bed time, instead of shoving more pills down your throat.
 
I've been taking 1mg of clonazepam per day for over 10 years now. To me, it seems it still has the same effect as when I first started taking them. I still get adequate anxiety relief and they still make me tired. If there is a tolerance to them I don't feel it's a tolerance to their therapeutic effect.

That's all I can say based on experience.

To answer your question in a very elementary way; I don't think my gaba receptors have burnt out.
 
I'm taking less and less benzos every night for sleep thanks to DPH; Tonight I did 300mg DXM and had a smooth trip with insights about my life, future, an so on. Took my last Clonidine, I have to buy more ASAP, but I have lots of SOMA right now so I'm not anxious nor I have not taken any benzo during the trip.
I have to fix my time of sleeping tough.
When you work your ass all day, you'll end up sleepy like it or not, so I'll be more active while I fix my sleeping schedule and take a moderate amount of meds.
I think the balance for me should be 4mg Clonazepam, 1ug Clonidine and 50mg Diphenhdyramine, with 350mg SOMA if I have. I forgot how potent is DPH. I think I'm on the right way on this.
 
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