• 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

anxiety/benzo advice

homeydontplaythat

homeydontplaythat

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Messages
1,218
Location
LOS ANGELES
ive come to accept i need to add a benzo to my med regimen. ive been on lyrica for 3 months now and it does not work if i take it everyday. if i dont take it my anxiety gets so bad it is hard to carry out my activities of daily living. therefore i want to cycle between a benzo and lyrica.

im thinking clonazepam would be best as it is long acting. short acting bz tend to be more addictive and for panic attacks not GAD. dr's seem to be comfortable scripting it of all the bzs in the US as well. so im thinking .5mg TID. i would do 1 week klonopin 3 weeks lyrica every month. i may have to take breaks from lyrica more than 1 week. i dont know because ive never gone more than 4 days.

i dont have a car and so i need to find a shrink within town. i have medicaid. im pretty sure i should get a script. i have no intention of abusing the med. i dont use lyrica recreationally at all.

does .5mg TID sound optimal or would 1mg BID be better? thanks.

ive tried lexapro which was not satisfactory. anyone BESIDES captain heroin - does hydroxyzine do anything for you? any other meds that are good for anxiety? do not say buspar.
 
i think 1mg BID would work just as well as .5mg TID because of the long half-life..
but about the hydroxyzine.. i've been on that longer than i have been on my k pins and have said quite a few times on this site that for a alternative to benzos that works great IMO/IME is a hydroxyzine and clonidine combo. sedates you and kills anxiety just like a benzo would. it is deffinately something to look into i think. YMMV tho. Good luck with your anxiety, i know how badly it sucks (anxiety in general, not saying i know how badly yours is lol, only you know that).
 
I agree with a long acting benzo such as klonopin, or valium. However, I don't see why you would use it for one week on, three weeks off. I think you would be better off taking it only in extreme situations throughout the month.

I am guessing that you wanted to just take it for one week out of the month in order to prevent dependence, but I think that using it for a week straight will cause rebound anxiety when you try to stop it for the next 3 weeks, which may lead to you taking it for longer.

.5 should be a good dose.
 
^ for the 3 weeks off clonazepam he would be using lyrica for his anxiety. so he would still be using something for anxiety while avoiding using the benzo daily all month long.

but i agree with you on using the benzos only when needed to avoid dependence.. i wish i would have done that.
 
Yea, I feel that if you can go without them for 3 weeks, you should only have to take them in extreme situations.
 
so you think i would be ok using .5mg BID? i was taking 1mg BID and that worked incredibly well. however, that was when i was still using heroin and therefore as much as i tried to use it for theraputic reasons i ended up wanting a buzz just as much. if i can recall correctly i dont think i needed that much. so yeah i probably would be fine with .5mg a day.

the dr would only have to script that for like 15 days max out of the month too.
 
If a dose works really well, then take less. I was prescribed xanax for over 5 years, and am tapering off now using valium. Thats why I am discouraging against using benzos often. I wasn't even in the position to not take it in the beginning. It was either take it, or goto the mental hospital to get evaluated.

Anyway, I am down to 2mg of valium now, and I honestly feel anxiety relief from that low of a dose.... Either that or it is taking away the anxiety caused by withdrawal. Either way, you will feel alot more helpless if you are dependent on benzos, and trying to get off of them, compared to how you feel now.
 
i know, ive been avoiding benzos forever. they just help better than ANYTHING out there for anxiety. i do find lyrica to be better but it stops working with daily use. so i will have to add klonopin and probably do 1 week klopopin 3 weeks lyrica or half month klonopin half month lyrica.

im thinking ill start off with .5mg TID just in case BID is not enough. i will tell the dr exactly what i want to use it for and be honest. 2 week of a script is good enough for me.
 
^Please try valium first, it actually works quite well. I used to take 5mg's of klonopin a day. I know this is going to sound really lame, I mean really lame. But i'm going to say it. You dont want to go down that road. Try valium out, it's easy to get off of and works really good.

Valium gets rid of your anxiety in a nice way, and provides a slight uplift in your mood. Klonopin gets you fucked up and alot of people get paradoxial effects from it.

I dont want to get into it right now, but I wish somone told me about valium along time ago before I took xanax and klonopin. And I was just looking to have somthing to take as needed for anxiety also, I started at 1mg a day.

Give it a shot.
 
Tommyboy723 said:
I agree with a long acting benzo such as klonopin, or valium. However, I don't see why you would use it for one week on, three weeks off. I think you would be better off taking it only in extreme situations throughout the month.

I am guessing that you wanted to just take it for one week out of the month in order to prevent dependence, but I think that using it for a week straight will cause rebound anxiety when you try to stop it for the next 3 weeks, which may lead to you taking it for longer.

.5 should be a good dose.
Click to expand...

yeah. with my xanax i just take it when needed. and if i have a few extra i might have some fun with them. but mainly only take them when needed. effects will be much stronger
 
well im newly prescribed klonopin .5mg twice at night for anxiety and i must say my moderate social anxiety has considerably improved. i commend it and defiantly recommend it! the half life is incredible also
p.s. lexapro blows like a placebo i know how you feel
 
Yeah, I was considering a long acting bz. Klonopin is what the Dr will want to use, I just know it. Valium is the other one I was considering. I just think it will be harder to get the dr to prescribe it.

Do you think .5 bid is ok or should it be 1mg bid? This is for kpin
 
well just go talk to them about the regimen you would like to be put on and see what they say. they'll probably start you off with .5's taken at once and judge your progress from there
 
Klonopin has worked the best for me, though I was never on Valium for a long enough period of time to really get a feel for it.

If your anxiety is bad like mine was you may need to take it everyday, obviously it's better not to because nobody wants to be dependent on benzos. Only you'll be able to tell if you'll need it everyday or not.

Klonopin works best when it's built up in your system over a period of time. So I'd suggest the lowest amount possible that is effective, remember that it will work better after you've been taking it for a couple weeks if you have bad anxiety. Well, that's my experience anyway, obviously everyone has a different reaction.

I've never felt fucked up off Klonopin at all, Xanax made me feel more off between the two.

Klonopin allowed me to get off Xanax completely which I am very grateful for.

Just try and seriously figure out just how bad your anxiety is interfering with your life, you really do want to use the smallest amount possible, I learned this lesson the hard way.
 
anxiety is the ONLY thing that is interfering with my life, and christ on a stick does it interfere. im not sure anyone knows how horrible it is to not be able to look people in the eye, to not want to be around people, to fucking get so nervous that you feel like people dont respect you cause you are so fucking sketched out all the time.

i hate it so much.

im not going to take it every day. it would be 1-2 weeks out of the month with lyrica filling in the gaps(other way around really). wow, using a keyboard is so much nicer than typing from my droid.
 
dont even start on clonazepams cause yull be upping in no time.and the WD suck big time.im on 8 mg daily ontop of a list of other things .
I agree with the post about "IF" you realy feel the need to take a benzo at least give valium a try.
You should just go for 5 mg tabs and only use them when yer actually haveing an attack or sever stress.
Theres no need to be useing clonazepams unless a shrink evaluates you and decides thats the best course.
at least with the valiums ya wont crash like ya do with k pins ,cause i can almost garantee you will be useing more than ya need to in no time .
Yes they work great for anxiety.but valium will work to .
If yer getting floored by anxiety attacks then i would say yes go to a shrink and you'll probably get scripted clonazepams,but once yer dependant on them its a bitch getting off them no matter what you may think..
You start out thinkin okay one week on 3 weeks off ,,believe me that attitude will change.
Then yull want a higher dose ,or need a higher dose then yer on yer way../
Do the 5mg valies first ,by the sounds of it yer not haveing full blown anxiety attacks so ya shouldnt need anything more than a 5mg tab when yer feeling some anxiety...
But thats just my opinion..
And many others on high doses of k pins will say the same...
dont bother with drugs ya dont realy need ,,
im not judgeing im warning ...
play it safe ...
besides yull get a better feeling off the valiums anyway with no worries about WDs...
 
homeydontplaythat said:
ive come to accept i need to add a benzo to my med regimen. ive been on lyrica for 3 months now and it does not work if i take it everyday. if i dont take it my anxiety gets so bad it is hard to carry out my activities of daily living. therefore i want to cycle between a benzo and lyrica.

im thinking clonazepam would be best as it is long acting. short acting bz tend to be more addictive and for panic attacks not GAD. dr's seem to be comfortable scripting it of all the bzs in the US as well. so im thinking .5mg TID. i would do 1 week klonopin 3 weeks lyrica every month. i may have to take breaks from lyrica more than 1 week. i dont know because ive never gone more than 4 days.

i dont have a car and so i need to find a shrink within town. i have medicaid. im pretty sure i should get a script. i have no intention of abusing the med. i dont use lyrica recreationally at all.

does .5mg TID sound optimal or would 1mg BID be better? thanks.

ive tried lexapro which was not satisfactory. anyone BESIDES captain heroin - does hydroxyzine do anything for you? any other meds that are good for anxiety? do not say buspar.
Click to expand...

I call hydroxyzine my 'functional' drug. It does wonders for decreasing anxiety, acts as an antihistamine, and taking 2-3 will knock me out for the night. I have never experienced euphoria from it (although a case can be made for a full nights sleep being euphoric in its own way:).) The only downside to it is that it makes me gawd-awful thirsty. Cotton mouth.
I don't believe you need to see a shrink for it, I was first prescribed it for allergies by my general MD.
The first time that you take it make sure you aren't driving and don't have any plans for the next 8 or so hours.. one knocked me out.
Best wishes & Be well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top