Benzos Benzo Withdrawal?

[insomnofat]

OK so over the last 3 months or so i have used alot of benzos... pretty much every one you can think of, but mostly temazepam, oxazepam and lorazepam. Basically there hasnt been a night in the last 2 months that i havnt had one benzo or another. Usually id have anything between 20-50mg temazepam, 2.5-10mg lorazepam or up to 90mg ox.

The thing is i only ever use it after work, never in the morning or during the daytime.

My question is if i stop cold turkey, will i withdraw? Obviously my rebound insomnia is going to be a bit nasty, but will i have other symptoms? If so, does anyone have any suggestions to avoid them?

I tried replacing the benzos with lyrica recently, but i felt like i was drunk until 3pm the next afternoon.

Any help is welcome

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

Shifting to Other Drugs from Anonymous posting...

 

[im a keystoner]

If you were using them everyday then in a time period of 3 months your body will have most likely developed a physical dependance on them. If you are looking stop cold turkey, be ready for w/d symptoms which can actually be pretty serious, including seizures, nausea and vomiting, and extreme craving for them etc.

If you want to quit benzos and you are physically addicted then you should develop a taper schedule. Example: Take your prescribed dose and slowly decrease over a period of time to reduce the amount of withdrawal if any your body would go through. I am also physically addicted to benzos and dependent on marijuana for a variety of reasons. I also used to be an alcoholic and oxycontin addict. I am also only 18 years old (just giving some background as i am a newly registered poster, but i have been reading these forums for at least 2 years).

Withdrawal is a bitch, but if you want to feel better with your life and keep from using drugs then it is inevitable that you will have to go through it. Good luck.

 

[Dr.Strange.Love]

I would watch out. Here's my experiences with benzos:

First off: worst drugs in the world. Evil. Will ruin your life.

Now off my pulpit.

I've gone through benzo binges that have ended none too pleasantly. I can tell you my experience, and then you can gauge yours from mine maybe. The longest I ever took benzos daily was about 1.5 months (about 5 weeks). I took first 2mg lorazapam every evening, then it was 2.5mg xanax every evening. Just like you, it was always in the evening, never during the day time.

I finally flushed the rest of my xanax down the toilet and waited to see what would happen after those 5 weeks of benzos every night. The first 2 days were fine. Felt a bit anxious, but nothing else. Then I started getting sweaty all the time, VERY nervous and anxious, sleep became laughably impossible. No way in hell could I sleep. I was constantly moving in bed. I got muscle spasms in my arms, so when I held a cut of water it would flop around and some would spill out. It was nothing noticable, and it didn't interfere with anything else except trying to hold cups of water.

But the wierdest thing was the mental/pscyh stuff. I became very aggitated and somewhat psychotic for only 2 days. I was confused about a lot of things.

The strangest thing that happened was for about 2 minutes one day my vision went into tunnel vision, I stopped heaing, and I became totally disoriented. It was scary. But it went away.

I was fine and back to baseline in about a week. I'd say the worst part was the insomnia. I could handle the anxiety and wierd psychotic stuff because I knew it was just the withdrawls.

So take that as you will. If you stop cold turkey, judge your own body's reactions. I'm not an expert, but I don't think seizures are the first thing to happen. I think if you are going to have seizures, you will have already been experiencing some withdrawl symptoms first. BUT I COULD BE WRONG ABOUT THIS! I would say see how your body does cold turkey. If it gets unbearable, that means you need to taper. If all you experience is anxiety and insomnia, maybe you can do it cold turkey.

Like I said, I'm not an expert so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

[thugpassion]

Yes if you stop all at once you will feel real bad(you were taking more than a little). Nothing has had made me more anxoious and riddled with fear than bezo wd . That shit is worse than stopping a Heroin habbit.

 

[StaffWriter]

I've been on therapeutic doses of either Xanax or Klonopin for over 10 years. Sometimes I might take upwards of 4-6mg of Klonopin or Xanax in a night, but that's pretty rare. I've ran out as early as 2 weeks before my next doctor's appt. and have had to deal with some withdrawal. But honestly, it wasn't that bad. I was anxious and could not concentrate. I'd also have these "myoclonic jerks" and muscle twitches day and night, but after about a week, I felt alright, except for the muscle twitches. I feel so much better on them, but I didn't have too much problems sleeping and functioning during the day. My guess would be that I just haven't taken extreme doses and haven't felt a need to binge on my benzos. I've been an opiate addict, but the benzos were used generally for sleeping and anxiety. I'm sure it varies from person to person.

 

[burn out]

if you haven't begun experiencing "tolerance withdrawals" yet (that is, withdrawals during the day from your night time dosing) you're probably not in too deep water.

 

[NoOneKnows]

yea you will w/d should have saved some of those benzos to ween off for atleast a week or two from what you were doing.

 

[gtown301]

I would definitely try to get a hold of some Kpins, and a few opiates. Opiates work great for the anxiety, sleep, muscle aches, and the general IDGAF attitude that comes with a opie buzz.

K pins will give you at least 2 days of non WD, maybe 3. Then start breaking em up in 1/2s then 1/4s.
Givin that these Kpins would be 2mg.

 

[InHerOwnWrite]

^^^
uh, that advice may be a bit dangerous if taken the wrong way.
while one poster in this thread said that coming off of benzos is worse than coming off a heroin addiction, i would strgonly advise against substituting opiate use for benzo use. opiate addiction can creep up on you the same way that benzos can, and the withdrawal symptoms from that particular addiction are no more pleasant than the wds from a benzo addiction, believe me.

 

[thelung]

Just like most everybody else has said benzodiazepine withdrawls really really suck. I've been through cold turkey Methadone w/d (was taking 100mg Methadone daily for 8 months and stopped cold turkey due to incarceration) as well as benzo w/d and IMO Benzo withdrawl is right up there with Methadone withdrawl. My adivce to you would be to slowly taper down if you can. If not, there are lots of threads on BL about how to make things at least a little more comfortable for you, but it's not going to be a very fun experience, trust me there.
-good luck-

 

[Valium]

OK so over the last 3 months or so i have used alot of benzos... pretty much every one you can think of, but mostly temazepam, oxazepam and lorazepam. Basically there hasnt been a night in the last 2 months that i havnt had one benzo or another. Usually id have anything between 20-50mg temazepam, 2.5-10mg lorazepam or up to 90mg ox.

The thing is i only ever use it after work, never in the morning or during the daytime.

My question is if i stop cold turkey, will i withdraw? Obviously my rebound insomnia is going to be a bit nasty, but will i have other symptoms? If so, does anyone have any suggestions to avoid them?

I tried replacing the benzos with lyrica recently, but i felt like i was drunk until 3pm the next afternoon.

Any help is welcome

at the doses you list, with the period of time said doses were employed being 3 months....I would, with aggressive emphasis recommend that you see your doctor and/or go straight to a hospital and go into detox. You are basically a serious seizure waiting to happen, not to mention the devastating psychological trauma of WD from high-dose BDPs, ..in your case, VERY high dose BDPs, and two of them of the 'short acting' category, meaning they tend to produce withdrawal seq. which are more pronounced than those resulting from a longer acting BDP.

You cannot use Lyrica to replace BDPs. You can perhaps ease some discomfort, but Lyrica is simply GABAergic...Ambien has more to do with BDP receptor sites than Lyrica, and would actually help you more - just an example.

Unfortunately, for sudden discontinuation of high dose BDP therapy or abuse, there is one line of treatment - detox. This includes intravenous doses of Luminal or Seconal, or sometimes, simply a high dose Librium regime which is lowered gradually according to the presentations of your WD, until it is certain that you are no longer in danger of having potentially fatal convulsions. This takes anywhere from 3-7 days, sometimes 10, and at re-evaluation you might be forbidden from taking BDPs again, save for small doses PRN...or you might restart your regime but try to be more responsible.

So there's nothing you can do. Seek detox center right away. In most first world countries it's free...it's cheap from a medical standpoint, and easy to go through with, and the success rate is high.

Don't waste time. Go into detox. Or else you'll suffer so bad...god knows what you might do. Seriously.


- Seduksen

 

[Valium]

I would definitely try to get a hold of some Kpins, and a few opiates. Opiates work great for the anxiety, sleep, muscle aches, and the general IDGAF attitude that comes with a opie buzz.

K pins will give you at least 2 days of non WD, maybe 3. Then start breaking em up in 1/2s then 1/4s.
Givin that these Kpins would be 2mg.

vous avez tort.


opiates bring on hefty convulsions when administered during withdrawal from BDPs, Barbiturates, Carbamates, and the like. An opiate can serve as an anticonvulsant at the sort of dose that would be close to killing you, simply on the basis of severe CNS depression and subsequent inability of the body to go into convulsions.

Stupid advice to give....i mean about the opiates.


But clonazepam is a good choice. However, the OP is taking astronomical doses of short acting BDPs..he's on 90mg of Serax and 10mg of Ativan, not to mention 50mg of Restoril. This is a problem because clonazepam doses above 4mg QD are for epilepsy strictly. You will have to start with a small dose, 0.5mg tid and titrate every few days by 5 until you reach 3-4mg when you titrate up by 1 and eventually reach the point where convulsions stop or are rare. The limit is 20 [or 24 depending which you believe] mg DIV, and I have a feeling that 20mg DIV will not stop convulsions which are coming, galloping on horseback as BDPs are withdrawn and WD begins. Also, don't forget...Clonazepam is for a different kind of seizure,...not the one we're fearing in this case during BDP withdrawal. So it would be a rather shabby choice.

Valium would be a better option. Unofficially, you can go up with Valium way beyond the 40mg mark. Librium is even better as you can give up to 400mg DIV at the start and then resume a normal dosing schedule.
But nothing is more effective than Luminal....it's ultra long half life and it's induction of benzodiazepine metabolism which leads to increased rate and level of clearance, make it probably the best possible choice we have in this case - and lets not forget how incredibly potent Luminal is at stopping myoclonus and other severe types of conv. Due to its ultra slow clearance, it elicits anticonvulsant effect even with rapid downtitration following a high stabilizing dose. Small doses of Seconal can also be added, and for termination of detox, if the patient can be trusted, Tranxene may be dispensed for a short time, or simply Tegretol in high doses, along with high doses of Valium, until everything is slowly titrated to zero and all social support networks regarding dependence on substances start bringing out real improvement in the person afflicted with the addiction.

- Seduksen Korvalolovich

 

[gtown301]

^^^
uh, that advice may be a bit dangerous if taken the wrong way.
while one poster in this thread said that coming off of benzos is worse than coming off a heroin addiction, i would strgonly advise against substituting opiate use for benzo use. opiate addiction can creep up on you the same way that benzos can, and the withdrawal symptoms from that particular addiction are no more pleasant than the wds from a benzo addiction, believe me.

Yea, if taken the wrong way.

Definitely not referring to substitution at all. The opiates would be more like an in between thing.

Small dose occasionally

 

[gtown301]

vous avez tort.


opiates bring on hefty convulsions when administered during withdrawal from BDPs, Barbiturates, Carbamates, and the like. An opiate can serve as an anticonvulsant at the sort of dose that would be close to killing you, simply on the basis of severe CNS depression and subsequent inability of the body to go into convulsions.

- Seduksen Korvalolovich

Sorry for the misleading info... I was just speaking from personal experience.
I never knew that it could be that dangerous during benzo W/D. I took em in wd primarily because it was a cns.

Again..sorry...disregard my last 2 posts

 

[)4u2nV(Infini]

I was a benzo binge user...benzos and liquor for about 2 months. Would take 6-8mg of clo and 6 beers, 2-3 days of the week and get straight fucked up. Every morning after benzo/liquor I felt super irritable and depressed, it would wear off in 1-2 days. When I finally quit I didn't have any serious side-effects or withdrawal, that I can remember anyways. Oh and also lets not forget the short-term memory loss. I would lose the entire/most of the night of drinking with benzo's and the next day sometime. That really fucks with your head.

 

[caizar]

The poster who said use opiate is incorre not wise imo opites cause banxiety and then you can start an opiate addiction pretty quick so 2 withdrawells to dela with

 

[Pegasus]

I was in a similar situation as you a few months back. The first thing I did was to gradually switch to a benzo with a longer lasting half-life, as alprazolam was my primary benzo. Since diazepam, which is usually the benzo switched to, was not available, I had to settle for clonazepam. My initaial dose was 3mg/ alprazolam per day, which I shifted gradually down from 2mg alprazolam/ 1mg clonazepam to eventually 0.25mg alp, 1.0mg clonazepam before cutting out the alprazolam completely. That brings me to where I am today... I truly wish I was doing this under supervision of a doctor because it is really hard to cut your dose down when you have an endless supply of street drugs, and thus, I am stepping down slower than I had originally hoped.

Benzo.org.uk has the best benzo withdrawl chart IMO; I just substitute the equivalent 0.5mg clonazepam for 10mg diazepam, and try to follow that chart to the best of my ability. I haven't experienced really too bad of withdrawls, and what I do feel is hard to attribute strictly to benzos, as I am tapering with buprenorphine at the same time.

I recommend reading up on withdrawing from benzos at Prof. Ashton's site, benzo.org.uk, as she describes how and why you need to withdraw from benzos gradually. I wish you luck, because I know that a difficult road lies ahead of you. Remember, though, that it will be exponentially worse if you don't slowly eliminate the benzos from your system.

 

[tyler5]

think i saw 'ULTIMATE BENZO WITHDRAWAL' thread, if not, lets make this one it.

i been taking them 35-40 days, up to 10mg xanax.
some days only 40-50mg valium AND/OR 2-3mg xanax.

my question is: how much benzos should i keep / will i need for the taper?
and approximately how long will it last, the tapering process? (in general, of course)


thank You in advance

 

[Z Y G G Y]

Have u ever tried stopping and how did u feel? 40 days isn't a long time ti be on benzos, it's people who are on them for years that need to worry.