Benzos The Benzodiazepine MEGA THREAD - Direct Benzo Questions Here

[amapola]

^Sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having. Benzos really aren't a long term solution eh

 

[Cyc]

^ It may not be too fast now, it's when you get to the really low doses that you feel the drop in dosage more.

I just went from 1mg to .5mg, and that is halving the dose at this point. It's not too bad though, I find 3 weeks to be ideal at this point, and dropping by .5 once you get to 2mgs.

I did start to sweat a lot today, and I am not sure if it is from the lower dose of valium, or if I am legit sick. Anyone else experience sweating, along with loss of appetite from lowered dose of benzos?

You went from 1mg to .5mg of valium a day?

That's quite the sub-clinical dose of diazepam. The lowest I've ever seen prescribed is 2mg twice daily. It's surprising how potent even the weakest benzos can be in tiny, tiny doses.

I've been hovering at 1mg a day for almost 2yrs now. I've never increased or decreased my dose, but I can feel the empty dysphoria start to settle in if I haven't had my tiny little chunk of blue pill after about 3 days.

 

[Tommyboy]

^ Yea, the .5 is a damn low dose, I have taken 1mg on some of the days that I was too anxious. It will be another week or so before I get used to the .5 daily. I don't know how the taper will go from there. Doctors really don't mind scripting me the 2mg pills, after they see my chart and that I was scripted 3mgs of xanax daily for 5 years before tapering.

 

[euphoricc]

I have anxiety but im a recovering addict so no benzos honestly i use them on occasion when i can get them i suffer from anxity no drs will help me in my area i self medicate.i AM A QUALITY ENGINEER AT TYCO ELECTRONICS srry for caps but i take .5 mg of suboxone cant get off cause of anxiety so i buy every benzo i can in my area hell i drove 6 hrs away to get 50 bars but o welll.....just wanted to say that my anti anxiety dose is .5 mg xanax and .5 mg klonopin or the xanax as needed but my rec dose is like 2-3 mg xanax and 1-4 of klonopin sometimes my body acts weird and i need more thank u im on a benzo induced brain splAt now peaceee.........................................eup0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,will any drs prescribe me i need anxiety help shoul i jus say i never had a family dr i always say i been determined generalized anxiety but when they call they say o yea he been to or detox center hes drug seeking thats not fair anxiety drives me insane

 

[Sublimit]

Been 4 years on heavy doses. My memory recall is shot, I'm considerably less intelligent than I had been before this, and all this interferes with my social, scholary, and personal life. I am finally ready to get off the damn things. There are simply no beneficial effects to it once you've got that tolerance maxed out and the doctor (that is, if you're obtaining it legally) can't write larger scripts without the DEA on his ass. I have just as much, if not more, anxiety than I did when I started. I did manage to quit for several months but started up again. And despite me being adamant about quitting, I find some kpins missing from their baggie I put them in the morning after I went a bit overboard with drinking last night. Hopefully that will just be a one-time thing. Can't expect something as serious as this sort of predicament to be resolved without a good balance between optimism/hope as not to be cocky about it and being realistic as to not be discouraged.

^^^^
Yeah i'm worried about being on clonazepam for an extended amount of time. I really hope you get on top of your issues and perhaps consider a change of medication?? My GP isn't though. as i said a few weeks ago i'm scripted 50mg a week, but when i last posted i was reducing myself down to around 5-4mg a day. I went to see the GP again and we we're mainly talking about increasing my triazolam dose, and while i was using my persuasive skill to get him to script me the whole bottle of triazolam a week (we only get the .125mg here) i suggested that i'd consider to start reducing the clonazepam...... which i've been doing myself anyway, he immediately made it clear that he does not want me to go lower than 25 2mg clon's a week while saying that he wants me to remain stable. Although i could have insisted, i didn't need to as my goal was to get scripted 7 .125mg of triazolam at night. I've even given both to my ?GF? on occasions and managed to reduce myself down to 2 mg of clonazepam a day in the morning and out of the last 3 weeks i've used tirazolam probably only 5 nights. 10, as in 1.25mg of triazolam was the most i've tried, but i really do want to be off the clonazepam as i feel that it's blocking the true triazolam effect. I honestly thought it would be a lot harder to reduce on clonaz but i feel fine with just 2mg a day.

So my GP is essentially happy to keep me on a high amount of clonazepam, but not as comfortable with giving me the hypnotic at that dose, but he knows i'm going through a difficult time in my life so he's saying it's fine for now. After reading a lot on nitrobenzodiazepines i really DON"T want to permanently fuck my memory and other cognitive ability's so this is the reason why i am reducing myself and with the hypnotic i just want to save for when i'm completely off all benzo's. Clonaz is quite popular, but i hesitate to trade or divert them and if i do it's only minimal because i know they will come in handy later in life, i've only ever diverted some 4 a little weed but i'm trying not to smoke. Right now i just received a clean blood test and i know i have my health. for 3 fucking months i thought i was cheated out of it by someone and by being an idiot and using H for the first time in a long time.

I don't have anxiety issues in general, and the irony is that i've only ever had anxiety attacks when i smoke weed. I really don't need benzo's anymore now that i'm fine and know i've got the rest of my life ahead of me. My attitude to drugs in general has to change and it is. Theses last 3 months have been a living hell, but my affection for opiates and oxycodone in particular is strong, but thats another issue i hope to address soon. for now, and while this GP is being so generous, i will build up a stockpile and have already began to give my mother both clonaz and triaz to lock away in her safe.....as i do with my monthly OC script which she gives me on request when i switch from buprenorphine. I'm not trying to brag or gloat but i ''will'' get flunitrazepam off this GP, and i think i have the perfect argument to get it. we'll see, and there will be a picture on a fav album but for now i'm happy to be getting these vast amounts, and i'm happy that i don't abuse them.

I know a friend that i recently met through church (originally thru NA) and she is a lot older than me and suffers from anxiety and especially while she's giving up cigarettes, she's 37 and her gp won't even give her diazepam for fucks sake. I have given her 8 half tablets of clonazepam and one triazolam for night. she's benzo naive, not so much literally but she hasn't a tolerance, so i've strictly told her.... well i feel like a GP here, i told her how strong they are relative to diazepam and have just given her 4 2mg clonaz already cut in half, so she's to take 1mg in the morning, and i gave her 7 triazolam tabs, one to be taken before bed. I made it very clear to her and that was today so i'm hoping that it really helps her, and i only offered when she told me her story about how fucked her local GP is and it's only 1 weeks worth until she can sort out whether she thinks benzodiazepines are beneficial to her as she's not only trying to quite cigarettes. I'm also happy to refer her to a GP that will listen. Will either talk to her tomorrow or see her at church on Sunday and see how she's going

anyway i thought i'd brighten this thread up with a funny photo i took while counting my excess oh and 7 nocte m.d.u. i still dream of Orgonon

right now i'm very happy to be free and alive

 

[MrRoot]

I have been using diazepam 10mg twice a day for over a year and alprazolam 1mg twice a day + occassional weekend usage with double the prescribed amount. I can take few days off from both and not feel any withdrawals. How soon should WDs occur?

 

[amapola]

Hi MrRoot,

Withdrawals start once your body no longer has enough of a drug that you are dependent on it it. A good way of estimating how soon after you stop taking a drug you will feel withdrawal is by taking a look at the half-life of the drug you are consuming. The half-life measures how long it takes for half the current drug in your system to be eliminated and is a logorithmic function (well at least an estimate of one as biological processes can me much more complex).

I'd suggest checking out this wikipedia page List of Benzodiazepines which will have the information you are looking for.

 

[MrRoot]

So with 2mg per day alprazolam should be left in my system 24hours later about 0.125mg to 0.25mg which is so little amount that it should have been completely eliminated as the logarithmicism does not apply with small amounts?

As the diazepam has way longer half-life, it could build up in my body and therefore not cause WDs with being off for 48hours. It might also therefore mask my WDs from alprazolam?

Are there any studies about where in the body diazepam builds up? Fat tissues would be my guess. Also how much of diazepam can build up in body so I could estimate how long I should discontinue to use it to test if I get withdrawals from it?

And btw. thanks for the answer and link.

 

[Sublimit]

So with 2mg per day alprazolam should be left in my system 24hours later about 0.125mg to 0.25mg which is so little amount that it should have been completely eliminated as the logarithmicism does not apply with small amounts?

well it defiantly does apply but everyone's metabolism works differently and there will be differences in the exact half life the alprazolam gets metabolized for any individual. Wikipedia is good for HL information and what not, but if i was to take 1 triazolam tablet which is 0.125mg then i would expect to feel nothing at all because the other benzo i take, clonazepam, which i take in the morning has a long acting half life and even at 2mg of clonazepam daily tolerance would be enough for it to block that tiny dose of triazolam i would assume

As the diazepam has way longer half-life, it could build up in my body and therefore not cause WDs with being off for 48hours. It might also therefore mask my WDs from alprazolam?

absolutely, diazepam has a very long half life as we all know and 10mg twice a day will build and build and since you've been taking that amount for such a long time then it could be several days before you'd feel any withdrawal from diazepam and also i would assume that would easily cover 4mg of alprazolam on Saturday and another 4mg Sunday, having had your last 20mg of diazepam on a Friday hypothetically

Are there any studies about where in the body diazepam builds up? Fat tissues would be my guess. Also how much of diazepam can build up in body so I could estimate how long I should discontinue to use it to test if I get withdrawals from it?

And btw. thanks for the answer and link.

I find a combination of looking up specific benzo's on Wikipedia sufficient and then finding expansive knowledge from their references and sources and should be click-able links leading to specific studies, otherwise i'm sure there are plenty of people here that know way more about benzo pharmacology than me, or even Wikipedia itself, but Valium and Xanax pharmacology would be well covered in Wikipedia i assume

all in all you really need to know your own body to get a proper an accurate as possible answer. I find it to be satisfying doing some self experimentation with regards to what you want to do. and the test is easy, just takes patience and a bit of willpower welcome to BL

 

[MrRoot]

Thank you for your kind answers and warm welcome. I will discontinue the use of diazepam and take 0.5mg alprazolam four times a day instead of current 1mg twice a day starting from monday and then wait for a week and then stop taking alprazolam and see what happens. I just want to know if I am addicted to these two medications so I can decide what to do. Maybe I switch to clonazepam and stop using diazepam and alprazolam on daily basis. Only for weekend fun time with oxycodone

I think my psychiatrist would be pleased to hear that I would want to switch from two benzodiazepines into a one? What kind of daily dosage would be competent when comparing to those two. Maybe 4-6mg of clonazepam maybe divided in three doses?

Anyone else done that kind of change before?

Oh btw. is it better to use active ingredient when speaking of drugs or brand name here? If I would use brand name I would have to double check them to get the international or US names since for example Xanax is Xanor and Klonopin is Rivotril here. Streetname for Rivotril is raivotril here which could translate into Ragetril as we Finns tend to get aggressive while taking alcohol with it.

I started venlafaxin today so I think that it could help with depression related to benzo withdrawals.

 

[amapola]

Hey Mr Root,

Benzos have very similar mechanisms of action and therefore are pretty cross tolerant. So it may help to not think of withdrawing from alprazolam and diazepam separately but just benzos in general. You are correct that the diazepam is having a much more of an effect than alprazolam due to it's half life and build up in your system. As for switching between the two the Benzo Equivalence Chart in my signature may help.

You are correct that diazepam is lipid soluble which accounts for it's long half life. Calculating how much builds up in your system is finding the eventual steady state and requires some mathematical work with series. Here is a good course on it if you are interested. http://www.boomer.org/c/p4/. Anyways the visual representation of what is happening is below.

To find the maximum level as dosages reach infinity...

mass_max=dose/(1-(e^-(ln(2)/half_life)*time_between))

dose=10mg
time_between=12h
half_life=4days(96h) [a guess]

This comes out to about 120mg or so right after you take your 10mg dose.

edit: We definitely prefer you use proper names over brand names however you can say something like suboxone or adderall instead of listing all the active ingredients every time.

 

[MrRoot]

That makes sense for me. Thank you for the answer.

Lets see what happens next week.

 

[MMMMKAY?!]

Whats ur guy's top benzos? mine are
1.Ativan
2.Xanax
3.Valium
4. Klonopin
5 Roches or Ruphies


I think klonopin kinda sucks though cause it seems to me if you take 8 mgs and pop 4 more you wont feel different. Anyone agree?

 

[MMMMKAY?!]

Dextroamphetamine and Klonopin is a pretty shitty combo huh? :/

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

^It is indeed, I do enjoy dextroamphetamine mixed with lorazepam (Ativan) about the same, maybe even a little more. I find that clonazepam is a bit more sedating than lorazepam in equal doses for anxiety relief. They're both very, very good at anxiety relief, though.

 

[waketheeffup]

fuck benzosssssssss!

"i am a prisoner behind xanax bars"

Anything you have to "taper off of" is pretty whack imo

 

[Captain.Heroin]

fuck benzosssssssss!

"i am a prisoner behind xanax bars"

Anything you have to "taper off of" is pretty whack imo

You don't "have to" taper off of Xanax, especially if you don't abuse it.

 

[bignbrown]

Ive had an odd experience, yesterday whilst with a nasty hangover i took 40mg of valium over the day felt great, no anxiety and the hangover dissappeared, ended up going to bed at my usual time (2/3am atm) fell asleep easy , but woke up 4 hours later, and almost felt like a panic attack was coming on, was shakey as hell and my heart was pounding, had to take 20mg more valium to calm me down and got back to sleep for another 2 hours, but still today i feel uneasy for some reason.

With valium lasting so long im not sure how this could happen i wasnt planning on taking anymore for a while as i never want to be dependent on them again (was hell to come off), so ive got 60mg of diazepam in my system but still feel uneasy/anxious, weird. Maybe i just need to get out and do something to take my mind off it all.

 

[mrflowers00]

i'm freakin out cause my doc wants to cut me off my xanax
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pegasus]

^Well he shouldn't do it all at once if he is a good doctor (assuming you are dependent). Even if he does, there are surely other doctors that you can visit to help do a reasonable transition off of benzos. When I moved across the country with only a few mg clonazepam that turned out to be not nearly enough to taper smoothly, the first doctor I visited was eager to help me as I was obviously experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Most doctors do understand that benzos and related GABAnergic drugs are addicting and withdrawal from them is dangerous if not controlled properly.