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Benzos Benzo tolerance and dependance confusion

Ashley

Ashley

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Messages
1,000
Location
NSW, Australia
Hi all, my partner and I have a couple questions. We are long term benzo users, using on and off when we can get them, both xanax and diazepam in high doses. Generally 10-20mg of xanax and up to 125mg of valium. After a good 3 week break we had 10mg each of alprazolam and got spannered eventually passing out. Next day we shared 25 2mg xanax in one dose and felt nothing. Took a day break. Just consumed 20mg of xanax each about an hour ago and feel absolutely nothing. What is going on? Its incredibly frustrating. :(
 
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Although I personally find that disgusting, I will inform you that I think you have messed up your brain chemistry to a point that it will take more than a day break to get any results from benzos. I'd say 2 to 4 weeks, maybe 6 weeks. The fact that it takes over 10mg to catch a feel off of xanax should be a hint that you're doing it wrong.
 
You have probably increased your benzo tolerance to a point where it probably won't return back to normal, unless you take an exceedingly long time off of it.

Even then, you may still need a really high dosage to feel much off of it.
 
20mg is an incredibly high tolerance to benzos. You'd have to avoid them for a very long time to reduce that tolerance if it's even going to ever go down. Think months, but most likely years, to get it to go down.
 
:-o

If you're using daily be prepared for some pain. As noted, your tolerance has grown significantly. 50mg of alprazolam between two people with no effects? I'd have blacked out for days, possibly waking up in my own excrement a week later.
 
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bdingalu said:
20mg is an incredibly high tolerance to benzos. You'd have to avoid them for a very long time to reduce that tolerance if it's even going to ever go down. Think months, but most likely years, to get it to go down.
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To most benzos, yes, but some benzos are considerably less potent than alprazolam. Temazepam, for instance, is commonly taken at 15 to 20 milligram dosages. This is typically with little to no tolerance.

For alprazolam, this is exceedingly high, yes.
 
Yea tapering would be ideal due to there high tolerance, if they developed a dependence. Since abrupt cessation on benzos can cause seizures, respiratory problems and psychotic breaks.
 
We don't have a habit on benzos, only opiates. We just use them sporadicaly, and we've always needed high doses of xanax to get smashed. At the very least 5 2mg bars, sometimes 6, 7 or 8.
 
Also, is there anything we can take to help repair any damage done? I think benzos work on GABA yes? I just don't understand how 10mg of xanax after a 3 week break got us smoked yet the next day 24mg did nothing? We're both on subutex maintenance 12-16mg daily for a heroin addiction, are there any interactions between the two substances? And to whoever finds this disgusting I'd like to ask why?
 
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Another thing to consider is the source of the benzos. If they are legit Rx than nevermind, but if youre ordering from an "online pharmacy" or something, they often will have bunk or weak pills.
 
Ashley said:
Also, is there anything we can take to help repair any damage done? I think benzos work on GABA yes? I just don't understand how 10mg of xanax after a 3 week break got us smoked yet the next day 24mg did nothing? We're both on subutex maintenance 12-16mg daily for a heroin addiction, are there any interactions between the two substances? And to whoever finds this disgusting I'd like to ask why?
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I find it hard to believe you don't use alprazolam that much and are not feeling the effects of 24mg. This is ungodly high. As mentioned bunk pills could be to blame. If you're picking them up from a pharmacy or know they're legitimate, tolerance has to be to blame.

No opioid is contradicted for blocking the effects of benzodiazipines as far as I know. Many people take comparatively low (really low in contrast to 20mg) doses of therapeutic benzos on buprenorphine. And in people naive to either drug, chances of respiratory depression and death is far increased.

Whoever finds that disgusting obviously hasn't experienced dependence or addiction and should be ignored by you. It's a really high dose of a drug but so it goes for tolerance building substances.
 
My Xanax tolerance at its highest was around 10mg in an evening, back in the "recreational" days. I have also eaten around 70mg clonazepam at once on one occasion (don't try, obviously). My tolerance came back down after both occasions.

Nowadays, I don't really view benzos as a good choice for recreational intoxication, and doses of 1mg or less are nice for relaxing.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
Do you mean tapering?
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Yeah tapering, kindling is like when you stop using GABAergics and when you use them again you discover your tolerance went up.

sniperhavoc said:
Yea tapering would be ideal due to there high tolerance, if they developed a dependence. Since abrupt cessation on benzos can cause seizures, respiratory problems and psychotic breaks.
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Exactly what I think, even if you don't feel the withdrawals you MUST taper only because of the risk of a seizure.
Switch to diazepam and then lower your dose a bit (.25mg or more if you feel you can) every week.

Ashley said:
Also, is there anything we can take to help repair any damage done? I think benzos work on GABA yes? I just don't understand how 10mg of xanax after a 3 week break got us smoked yet the next day 24mg did nothing? We're both on subutex maintenance 12-16mg daily for a heroin addiction, are there any interactions between the two substances? And to whoever finds this disgusting I'd like to ask why?
Click to expand...
To "repair the damage" you must take a break and taper in case you have used for more than 10 days (in your case as you take +20mg).
I always recommend seeing a doctor to get Lyrica (Pregabalin) or Neurontin (Gabapentin), they are great for withdrawals and your tolerance will lower. Theanine is also good, but is always looked down on.
You may also want to try another benzo, probably clonazepam, and look how to potentiate it. Be very careful with this though, for you'll be playing with your liver.

Regards!
 
abrupt benzo stoppage can be extremely harmful, especially when you're talking about coming down off that monster dose you're on. 10mg of xanax might be half of what you were doing, but its still a huge dose.

just be cautious. benzos wd is no joke.
 
Yeah, I very rarely am one to tell people their drug use needs to be re-evaluated and I am also someone who used to abuse benzos in high amounts. Still, I never took as much as 20 mg alprazolam and certainly not without feeling it.

Benzos cause some very serious long term changes to brain and the amounts you are talking about OP, are off the charts. You should find another GABAergic drug.
 
Ashley,

I've been prescribed Clonazepam, Alprazolam, Diazepam, and Oxezapam consistently for 2 years now. I began with a .5mg dose of Clon and I'm now up to 4mg, which is the DEA cap. At a very very low point in my life, knowing it would not harm me, I took 66mg of Xanax during a panic attack. I barely felt anything. I didn't even lose my balance.

I'm offended by the sentiments of disgust because some people really DO need this medication but benzodiazepines are the most dangerous medication despite having a nearly non-existence death rate. They are highly addictive. Tolerance builds quickly within days but doesnt subside for weeks or months at those doses. Do not take more to achieve a high. You really need talk with a specialist to get you down to a lower dose using something with a longer half life like valium, librium, maybe even klonopin.

That also said, Temazepam like other benzos have the same tolerance development and addiction potential. If there is a difference, its insignificant. They all work on the GABAa receptor.

Don't stop cold turkey. You can have a seizure after those doses. Speak to a specialist.
 
I have had a number of grand mal seizures in the past after having us both gone through several bottles of 50mg without a break for around 2 weeks if my mind serves me correctly. The last seizure happened around a month ago or so. And you're right, I felt no other withdrawal effects, why is this? I was given a letter to take to my doctor for a referal to a neurologist, at the hospital, I have yet to make the appointment as I have to find a new doctor who is not so adverse to benzo scripts.

Since this last incident we took a 3 week break and then took 50mg of diazepam each and got a nice result. After taking another 2 and 1/2 week break we bought 30 2mg alprazolam tri-score tablets off the street. Had 5 (10mg) each and felt great. My partner fell asleep while laying on the couch as did I, about an hour after having taken them. We woke up both aware that we had slept off the drug. My partner has told me on a number of occasions not to lay down as everytime we do we seem to fall asleep and wake up very nearly sober. We took the dose for some relief from our withdrawal from Subutex and though after waking up the enjoyable effects were gone but we still felt okay, for example we were not experiencing ANY withdrawal effects whatsoever. Could it be that after the afformentioned breaks we have reduced our tolerance? We redosed another 6mg each to no avail. Meaning we didn't any effect whatsoever.

I'm accesing Bluelight on my mobile and I can't find how to quote previous replies in the thread otherwise I would have. Cheers, Ashley.
 
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