• BASIC DRUG
    DISCUSSION
    Welcome to Bluelight!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Benzo Chart Opioids Chart
    Drug Terms Need Help??
    Drugs 101 Brain & Addiction
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums
  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Addiction to both alcohol and benzos?

B

behindblueeyes

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Messages
89
I am only in my mid 20s... but take benzos during the day (equal to about .5-1mg klonopin) and drink at least a 6 pack of beer almost every night. Keeps my horrible anxiety at bay. Have been doing this for close to a year. Have no health insurance, and obviously know not to stop cold turkey.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
klonopin... I get them prescribed to me, 2mg a day for a month, with refills.

And I obviously know I am quite tolerant... as I took klonopin earlier today and had 4 wine coolers and 2 and a half beers in 3 hours and feel awake and sober.
 
I'd say its still possible for you to reduce your tolerance down via a taper. I am a nearly daily user of benzos and alcohol as well so I can sympathize with you there.

I'm not that experienced when it comes to tapering but I do know there's hope for you. The best advice I can give you is try to cut down on the alcohol consumption first.
 
yeah, I'd start with the alcohol and then an slow taper with the benzos. If you try to get off them both it's going to be hell, and if you quit the benzos first, you're going to end up raising your alcohol tolerance. It's really too bad you don't have health insurance, but if you have the cash, I'd look into getting a prescription to gabapentin or pregabalin. Both have been shown to greatly reduce the withdrawal effects of alcohol and benzos
 
Yeah I know the alcohol can cause a lot of damage down the line but I wouldn't mind being on benzos for life. It's the only thing that helps my horrible anxiety. I just like the alcohol bc while the benzos "sedate" me, the alcohol actually makes me feel happy and sedated. Although it takes more and more over time. Tolerance is a bitch.

I was looking into gabapentin for benzo withdrawal if needed. it's a generic. lyrica obviously isn't though and I've heard that was better :(
 
NeighborhoodThreat said:
I'd say its still possible for you to reduce your tolerance down via a taper. I am a nearly daily user of benzos and alcohol as well so I can sympathize with you there.

I'm not that experienced when it comes to tapering but I do know there's hope for you. The best advice I can give you is try to cut down on the alcohol consumption first.
Click to expand...

So you do the same thing I do? I don't feel so alone then

I actually don't mind it besides the tolerance fact and the fact it screws your cognition big time.
 
do you want advice on how to get off alcohol and benzos? at least not dependent?

i am just going to assume so. and i am going to give you advice that holds true with me, but i do not know about for everyone.

stop drinking alcohol. you cannot use it during your taper. it cannot and does not need to be part of the taper. it will lead to you failing and ruining your taper schedule. it will make your withdrawal symptoms worse as soon as it starts wearing off, and make them more apparent even before then. and it will make you crave the other piece of the puzzle, benzo.

from there it is picking a taper and sticking to it. i do not feel comfortable giving advice about a taper schedule, sorry. but others will, and there are threads about it, i think.

but trust me, when trying to become not physically dependent on benzos, alcohol is a HUGE no-no. it does not help.

you can pretty much forget about the alcohol and pretend you are only dependent on benzos, because a benzo based taper will work for both. plus, and i say this hesitantly, i do not think a 6pack a day for a year causes significant physical addiction. sure wouldn't in me. but that plus 1mg of kpin with no days off? might need a taper.

to sum this post up: do not drink during your taper--my #1 piece of advice to you.

edit:
maybe like another poster was suggesting: get rid of the alcohol first (while maintaining your benzo dose), then start a benzo taper.

edit again:
also, even though it was for a year, .5-1mg of kpin is a low dose. do not build this up in your head too much. you are nipping this in the butt, and should not have a big problem. unless it was truly everyday, no breaks, 365 straight days, i doubt you even have a physical dependence. if it was, or was close to, you have a relatively (emphasis on "relatively") easy taper ahead of you. good luck.
 
Last edited:
^Lorazepam, clonazepam, and temazepam. I've got lots of beers of choice. That's not the point though

I would take hydroazuanacaine's advice seriously, however. She's right about cutting alcohol out first. :)
 
hydroazuanacaine said:
do you want advice on how to get off alcohol and benzos? at least not dependent?

i am just going to assume so. and i am going to give you advice that holds true with me, but i do not know about for everyone.

stop drinking alcohol. you cannot use it during your taper. it cannot and does not need to be part of the taper. it will lead to you failing and ruining your taper schedule. it will make your withdrawal symptoms worse as soon as it starts wearing off, and make them more apparent even before then. and it will make you crave the other piece of the puzzle, benzo.

from there it is picking a taper and sticking to it. i do not feel comfortable giving advice about a taper schedule, sorry. but others will, and there are threads about it, i think.

but trust me, when trying to become not physically dependent on benzos, alcohol is a HUGE no-no. it does not help.

you can pretty much forget about the alcohol and pretend you are only dependent on benzos, because a benzo based taper will work for both. plus, and i say this hesitantly, i do not think a 6pack a day for a year causes significant physical addiction. sure wouldn't in me. but that plus 1mg of kpin with no days off? might need a taper.

to sum this post up: do not drink during your taper--my #1 piece of advice to you.
Click to expand...

Thanks... I don't mean so much as "6 pack a day" I mean a 6 pack after work in the course of 2 hours before I go to sleep, following up with a klonopin in the morning. If I drank alcohol all day... oh wow, muchhh more than a 6 pack.

But if I was to get off the benzos, could I taper off klonopin, or would valium be a wiser choice?

NeighborhoodThreat said:
^Lorazepam, clonazepam, and temazepam. I've got lots of beers of choice. That's not the point though

I would take hydroazuanacaine's advice seriously, however. She's right about cutting alcohol out first. :)
Click to expand...

Agreed. I would definitely cut the alcohol out cold turkey and just focus on the benzos if I decided to come off both. Thank god they are cross-tolerant.
 
You can taper using clonazepam for sure, some people have better results with diazepam (Valium), however.

Most doctors prefer Valium because of its longer half-life.
 
There's gotta be drugs out there to minimize benzo withdrawal discomfort. I will look for that as I work full-time and can't go through that.
 
^i understand. "the other piece of the puzzle." alcohol + benzo is a drug greater than the sum of its parts.

still, lots of people would be mixing and still running out early. you've had better self-control.
 
Cut the alcohol out straight away if you can you wont get withdrawals from it with daily clonazepam in your system, or if its too hard try and stop rapidly over week (one less beer each night), then just focus on the benzo taper, which may be long and quite tough at times as long as its smooth and slow it shouldnt be a problem though.
 
bignbrown said:
Cut the alcohol out straight away if you can you wont get withdrawals from it with daily clonazepam in your system, or if its too hard try and stop rapidly over week (one less beer each night), then just focus on the benzo taper, which may be long and quite tough at times as long as its smooth and slow it shouldnt be a problem though.
Click to expand...

Thanks :) sounds like a smart way to do it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top