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Benzos Are you able to drink and take benzos perscribed???

LonE1

LonE1

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
674
Im going back on ativan, for very serious anxiety issues, and I was wondering: I do enjoy drinking beer and going out. When I was on xanax and klonopin, I made it clear to not even touch alcohol because I would black out.

Well I need to know if I go on benzos does that mean I can't ever drink a beer?? I enjoy having a few beers when I get off work, and occasionally going to the bar. Am I able to still do that or no alcohol at all. Thanks.
 
Alcohol and benzos are a pretty dangerous combo(duh right? ha) plus you just get straight sloppy ime. That's if you over do it though, you will still be able to enjoy some brew don't worry. Just don't take your medication right before you drink or take your medication with your beer or while your drinking it will intensify your drunk quite a bit possibly in a bad way.

When you get your new script just try to sip slowly on a brew and see how you feel, might need fewer beers actually. but never know until you try just start light see how you react like i said. I have tested some limits and drank quite a bit of alcohol on high doses of benzos and i came out fine a handful of times but that means nothing but you'll be fine if your just relaxing sipping a little brew slowly on your prescribed dose.

2c-gi
 
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i'm on klonopin and have been for 12 years... a few beers is fine. like two...MAYBE three....but in my experience you are just asking for it going any farther than that. sorry for the buzz kill. but i find in my life benzo's far outweigh the alcohol in terms of benefits to my life. sure i drink a glass of wine here or there but i've had enough blackouts to know when to say when. i've had and anxiety disorder since i was a teen so the kpins are a must have. good luck and be careful! (sorry it's the mom in me:)
 
Are you able to drink and take benzos as prescribed?

I would not.

You will also see on the package insert that mixing Ativan with alcohol is not recommended.
So you could therefore say that it is prescribed that you don't mix alcohol with this medication.

For safety and harm reduction I would not mix the two.
 
From my experience, when you're on benzos it amplifies the effect of alcohol. Normally one drink won't do anything for me but on benzos one drink feels like I've had two or three. It also leads to doing stupid shit (like drinking more than you should) and black outs are common.
 
You will actually be able to drink a great deal more. Since they are cross tolerant, on a steady dose of benzos, you'll be able to drink a lot more, however, there will be essentially no crossover into blackout. Sober or blackout. Basically.

Its more dangerous, but it can be done. The greater issue is the alcohol affecting your tolerance/dependence to the pills. Which leads to inter-dose withdrawal.

So go for it if you'd like, but there will be consequences.
 
I mostly agree with C.H., but I find that I can handle a beer or two and no more than that. Thankfully I'm not big on drinking anyway so that doesn't bother me in the least.

The problem with the combo is mainly you start out with good intentions like "I'll have two beers tops and just take 1mg of xanax" but by the time you start feeling good you trick yourself into doing more of either (or both). So if you can't stick to your own rules (and most of us can't) its best to avoid the situation all together.
 
ParappaTheRapper said:
You will actually be able to drink a great deal more. Since they are cross tolerant, on a steady dose of benzos, you'll be able to drink a lot more, however, there will be essentially no crossover into blackout. Sober or blackout. Basically.

Its more dangerous, but it can be done. The greater issue is the alcohol affecting your tolerance/dependence to the pills. Which leads to inter-dose withdrawal.

So go for it if you'd like, but there will be consequences.
Click to expand...

I can see that if you've been on benzos every day for a long time but OP said he/she is just starting on the benzos so I'm assuming minimal tolerance. And I doubt the occasional drinking session will effect benzo tolerance that much. That would be something you would have to drink multiple times a week at least. Really the issue is blackouts because trust me I've been there, more times that not benzos + alcohol leads to doing some really stupid shit and not remembering anything the next day.
 
LonE1 said:
Im going back on ativan, for very serious anxiety issues, and I was wondering: I do enjoy drinking beer and going out. When I was on xanax and klonopin, I made it clear to not even touch alcohol because I would black out.

Well I need to know if I go on benzos does that mean I can't ever drink a beer?? I enjoy having a few beers when I get off work, and occasionally going to the bar. Am I able to still do that or no alcohol at all. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I can drink when I'm taking benzos for anxiety, but this is not the case for everyone, and you really have to make sure it's just a set amount of beers - if it's "a few" then it's easy to venture into blackout territory. If you know you're going to be drinking, you can try to take a slightly smaller dose as the alcohol will amplify the effects of the benzo.

It would be much safer to not drink at all, but if you want to run the risk, then I would initially test your response to this at home. A couple of beers on top of a therapeutic dose is usually fine for me, but it's hard to know your limit without having exceeded it previously, and when you're drinking you'll probably feel as if you're completely sober, when in fact you're far from it.
 
Can people handle a couple beers here and there on benzos? Yes... but you don't know how it is going to affect you.. or even if you've been fine in the past, one night you could not be. The warnings are on the bottle for a reason... It doesn't take much booze to have you straight stupid and in danger when benzos are involved.

Not a good idea.
 
Sorry to go off topic, but you might want to look into kava and or L-theanine for anxiety. They are almost as effective, but aren't addictive and don't cause long-term damage.
 
Let's be real. Benzos + alcohol can end badly, especially if you have no tollerance for either. Now this doesn't mean that nobody takes both at the same time and is just fine. But since this is a harm reduction forum - don't do it mate.
 
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