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Misc Anxiety Medications

Alprazolam was the first benzo I was ever prescribed for anxiety (I'm diagnosed with panic disorder). Anybody who has experienced a full-blown panic attack understands that the benzos are the only drugs that really, really stop panic dead in its tracks. I have since been switched to lorazepam and now I'm on a low dose of clonazepam. SSRIs did nothing for me but turn my healthy sex drive into complete uninterest in sex. Sorry, but that's an unacceptable side-effect for a drug that doesn't even work in the first place.

YMMV. Benzos aren't for everybody. But they work for me. I use them as tool, because that's what they are. If you chase a "high" from benzos, you will find yourself addicted much faster than somebody that uses them as a medical tool for a very real medical condition. When my doctor asked if I wanted Xanax or Ativan (lorazepam), I chose Ativan because Xanax, well effective, makes me chase a high. I've had a handful of experiences with temazepam, and I can say that is quite euphoric. I could see the addictiveness in that benzo after one use.

I think kokaino's comparison with chronic pain patients is a good one. Yes, high dose benzo withdrawal is an order of magnitude worse than opiate withdrawal. But I don't see anybody telling me to "avoid opiates at all costs". I certainly know that nobody would say something like that if I had, say, a broke back or had just been in a car wreck. Well, a panic attack is a broken leg of the mind. They'll give you morphine in the ambulance for your broken leg and they'll give you lorazepam in the ambulance for your panic attack - but the second somebody talks about long-term benzodiazepine therapy...there's always a bad side to it. There's a bad side to chronic opiate use as well.

Which would you rather have? A life of pain or long-term opiate usage? A life of panic and anxiety or long-term benzodiazepine usage?
 
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NeighborhoodThreat said:
Alprazolam was the first benzo I was ever prescribed for anxiety (I'm diagnosed with panic disorder). Anybody who has experienced a full-blown panic attack understands that the benzos are the only drugs that really, really stop panic dead in its tracks. I have since been switched to lorazepam and now I'm on a low dose of clonazepam. SSRIs did nothing for me but turn my healthy sex drive into complete uninterest in sex. Sorry, but that's an unacceptable side-effect for a drug that doesn't even work in the first place.

YMMV. Benzos aren't for everybody. But they work for me. I use them as tool, because that's what they are. If you chase a "high" from benzos, you will find yourself addicted much faster than somebody that uses them as a medical tool for a very real medical condition. When my doctor asked if I wanted Xanax or Ativan (lorazepam), I chose Ativan because Xanax, well effective, makes me chase a high. I've had a handful of experiences with temazepam, and I can say that is quite euphoric. I could see the addictiveness in that benzo after one use.
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Same here, SSRIs make me asexual like a plant, when I stopped taking them, I became an animal again and satisfied I became. ;)
 
For all intents and purposes, opioid (narcotic) painkillers are far more addictive drugs than benzodiazepines and that is a fact that has been proven over and over again. Besides perhaps cocaine and amphetamines (particularly methamphetamine), I don't think any drug or group of drugs is even close to how addictive opioids are. Once addicted to opioids the compulsion to do them is extreme. Especially morphine's immediate family of substances - they are absolutely a nightmare to be hooked on - things like morphine/heroin (which are essentially the same drug), nicomorphine, dipropanoylmorphine, dibenzoylmorphine, and diacetyldihydromorphine. Other opioids that are related to, but not part of morphine's immediate family of drugs like hydromorphone, desomorphine, pentamorphone and oxymorphone are also tremendously addictive.

Hell, some of the codeine related drugs are addictive as hell. Heterocodeine (this one is on par with morphine and heroin), 6-Monoacetylcodeine, acetyldihydrocodeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone and others.

Poor old benzos don't even compare to the above drugs. Yes, the withdrawals may be horrendous but withdrawals from any of the above listed drugs are no walk in the park either. I think the withdrawal symptoms of benzos are always a little bit overstated here.
 
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NeighborhoodThreat said:
Which would you rather have? A life of pain or long-term opiate usage? A life of panic and anxiety or long-term benzodiazepine usage?
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I think this is a key point that a lot of people without severe conditions don't realize or consider. Even though both types of medications can have a very dark side to them, there are a fair number of people out there that do need to be on them long term.

So long as the benefit outweighs the side effects and you can avoid abuse I agree completely.
 
^ That's what I say. If the benefits outweigh the risks then go for it. I think for people who have PTSD (I do) among other disorders including borderline personality, benzos are godsend. SSRI's just don't do it for me (and for a lot of other people). I don't abuse the benzo I get scripted. In fact, I hate the benzo I get - alprazolam. I find no recreational value in it so I take it as prescribed. When I want to get high on benzos I go out and get temazepam and a buddy of mine right across the border from Detroit in Windsor, Canada gets 60 count 10 mg nitrazepam's a month which he always sells to me. I enjoy those a lot. Another benzo I will get for recreational purposes is diazepam. If I can find triazolam I'll take them, but that is not very common. I don't mind estazolam, but it sucks that it takes so long to kick in. Alprazolam though - no, not for me. It does great for my anxiety but I don't find it recreational.
 
kokaino said:
^ That's what I say. If the benefits outweigh the risks then go for it. I think for people who have PTSD (I do) among other disorders including borderline personality, benzos are godsend. SSRI's just don't do it for me (and for a lot of other people). I don't abuse the benzo I get scripted. In fact, I hate the benzo I get - alprazolam. I find no recreational value in it so I take it as prescribed. When I want to get high on benzos I go out and get temazepam and a buddy of mine right across the border from Detroit in Windsor, Canada gets 60 count 10 mg nitrazepam's a month which he always sells to me. I enjoy those a lot. Another benzo I will get for recreational purposes is diazepam. If I can find triazolam I'll take them, but that is not very common. I don't mind estazolam, but it sucks that it takes so long to kick in. Alprazolam though - no, not for me. It does great for my anxiety but I don't find it recreational.
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Yeah. After I first abused them and withdrew, twice over, I swore off the damn things like they were inherently evil. At some point I walked into a GP's office and started talking about how I'd felt for a few weeks; all I wanted was A) to vent, was in a rough patch; and B) get documentation that I'm not operating at full capacity here (good thing I did too, I get to retake some exams I had at that time). I wasn't done talking yet when she pushed a piece of paper at me with 10mg diazepam and 20mg temazepam. It was only at this point that I mentioned medicine for the first time, and said that if I was gonna be taking benzos I'd prefer clonazepam as an anxiolytic, having had that previously. I figured that if, for the first time, I'd walked in with no intention of getting any and had two scripts shoved right in my face, they may be useful in this situation - at least according to someone with a medical degree. They were a godsend that time; I don't know how I'd ever have gotten myself into therapy in the first place without them, as I was actually horribly averse to leaving my house, especially if it involved face-to-face confrontations with people. My problems were consequential and were resolved with therapy and time but I can see that few people actually want to waste their medicine for a potentially devastating condition, even if the medicine is kind of enjoyable, and they take it for years.

The two benzos I'd say I consider the most recreational are nitrazepam and lormetazepam. The former I have had on prescription but by the time that's broken out I can't waste them; they usually run the gauntlet of all other hypnotics, even offering neuroleptics as an alternative, before nitrazepam, so when I've had them I've desperately needed them for sleep. Lormetazepam a friend of mine occasionally procures here, which is just a great all-round chill pill.

This country has a pretty wide benzo formulary; in addition to what might be considered the usual, there's flunitrazepam, bromazepam, prazepam (which is a prodrug for) nordazepam, ketazolam, clobazam, medazepam, flurazepam, lormetazepam, brotizolam, and loprazolam.
 
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Although I can get pretty much any benzo online, I would love it if we had some of the stuff you guys have on the market. I also love nitrazepam and lormetazepam. I think both are mildly euphoric and great all around benzos. The only downside to nitrazepam is the horrible hangover the next day. It is a pretty intense hangover too, way worse than with diazepam or flurazepam. But I still find temazepam to be better. My top 5 are temazepam, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, triazolam and then lormetazepam. I like brotizolam also. Diazepam is good too as is loprazolam. Midazolam is good, but the time I tried it orally I was quite disappointed. Not until I did a higher dose did I enjoy it.
 
kokaino said:
Although I can get pretty much any benzo online, I would love it if we had some of the stuff you guys have on the market. I also love nitrazepam and lormetazepam. I think both are mildly euphoric and great all around benzos. The only downside to nitrazepam is the horrible hangover the next day. It is a pretty intense hangover too, way worse than with diazepam or flurazepam. But I still find temazepam to be better. My top 5 are temazepam, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, triazolam and then lormetazepam. I like brotizolam also. Diazepam is good too as is loprazolam. Midazolam is good, but the time I tried it orally I was quite disappointed. Not until I did a higher dose did I enjoy it.
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I haven't tried most of the stranger ones here, including brotizolam or loprazolam. Nitrazepam, lormetazepam and temazepam are what I consider euphoric benzos (to a very small degree, most benzos are just blatantly not), but it is the most mildly euphoric of those and otherwise inferior. I prefer clonazepam and alprazolam recreationally to temazepam as well, because of the anxiolytic, motivating effect they have on me.

Nitrazepam does have a remarkably strong hangover effect; it's not so much "residual tiredness" as it is "you're still on drugs". I'd have to take it a good 2-3 hours before bed (which I thought was a handicap sometimes, but usually a good excuse to spend 2 hours in the evening nicely buzzed!) so I got to enjoy recreational therapeutic use. I'd say my top five are... uhh, nitrazepam, lormetazepam, bromazepam, clonazepam, and alprazolam - strrange as though that may be. I'd probably like triazolam. At least I gave it a second try without remembering the first. I don't remember the second, either. Waiting for a third.
 
phatass said:
i would say the best non-benzo-med aganst anxiety is Hyroxyzine (Atarax), it's usually Rx as a first rx before benzos, its less effective than a good anxiolytic benzo, but way better than nothing... (there are also all tee SSRI type medications wich supposedely hep for GAD... don't believe they do help) and unlike the AD's for anxiety hydroxyzine (atarax) works immediately... just don' expect a benzo tye feeli ng... atarax comes in 25 an 100mg doses, you should ask your octor for 100mg 3 times per day..;.. i believe its the next best hing to benzos
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Yes. If hydroxyzine works for you, then I fully recommend just about anyone to go with that. Its side effects profile is much more benign and tolerance to effects does not develop.
 
phatass said:
agreed, i have never eard proof that alprazolam is any different, and allthough the tolerance to the anxiolytic effect of anxiolytic benzos is the last "effect" of an anxolytc benzo to be touched, you will eventual build a tolerance to the anxiolytic effect of benzos

i would presume that tolerance builds faster to the hypnotic effect of hypnotic benzos than the anxiolytic effect of anxiolytc bezos.... can anyone comfirm or deny?
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Yes, the tolerance to the sedative-hypnotic, muscle relaxant and to a lesser extent, anticonvulsant effects builds up rapidly. In one study comparing nitrazepam and temazepam, both drugs were effective on day 1 for sleep at 10 mg nitrazepam and 15 mg temazepam (even considerable side effects were reported with both drugs - like sedation, impairment of motor skills, and vertigo) but by day 7 those doses were no longer effective. So there is a very rapid build of tolerance to the hypnotic effects of benzos.
 
Yeah I've been taking temazepam forever and it still works great for sleep at 30mg.

Shit hit the fan when I tried to use alprazolam to zap PTSD and severe anxiety, eventually it just didn't work the same anymore and I guess I just kept going down that road until I realized it went nowhere.
 
I've been on Alprazolam for about 6 or 7 years. I'd definitely say I have an "addictive personality". With this drug, I can honestly say I have never gotten carried away with it. I mean, I take it every night to sleep and when I run out I definitely notice...one of the most uncomfortable things is that feeling that all of the muscles in my throat and neck are tight (almost as though I have a cramp in my throat/front of neck. Weird.)
I take it occasionally during the day as well.
Also very helpful during opiate withdrawal.
Anyway, I've never suffered extreme withdrawal from running out of my xanax. Guess it's just because I never got into taking high doses.
 
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