Benzos and school/studying

[F1n1shed]

Have any of you successfully graduated from college or uni while on a benzo daily? I notice i am a bit slower on klonopin but is it possible to study and do good in school while on a low dose of a benzo? There is no taking it when i need it, i take it daily other wise i go into withdrawals. I tried taking it a few times a week but the rebound anxiety is horrible, i feel withdrawals so quickly from benzos which is why i said fuck it and take a low dose daily. ( .5mg usually)

Anyways any advice or personal experience would be great.

 

[Crashing]

A benzo is not something I would want to be on while in college.. but i suppose there are individuals who need to be. Being on a benzo would just decrease my overall cognition, getting worse with dosage.

If you plan to do well in school, my advice is just to take a lot of notes and write everything down. The memory effects of benzos are very hard to identify and may seem to be absent but they are definitely present.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but during high school AP exam week (uni level courses) senior year, I was halfway through a 2 week diazepam powder binge. I completely fucked myself for English literature when I took waaay too long on half the test & then filled in bullshit when they said "LOL 30min left, guise", but other than that I handed them like a champ.

 

[SaY4cT]

Relaxation = Focus

Herbal supplements for concentration would be good too I think
you would maybe need to split the low dose over the day not to get all the effect at once
Would also help sleep come faster in order to have absorbed studied material better

Do writing as much as you can

Of course the bigger risk I'd be worried about is starting to increase doses because of pressure from studies

 

[MoreFeens4Morphine]

It seems mostly everyone is against doing that, but I take 1-2mg of klonopin daily and I have a GPA of 3.7 I think it really just depends how it affects you. If it makes you drowsy and forgetful I wouldn't take it that day until after class. Klonopin has a fairly long half life so if you've been taking them every day for awhile now you can actually stop taking them for 2-3 days and not feel withdrawals. It doesn't mean you won't have panic attacks, but it'll be in your system for approx 2-3 days.

 

[lman_15]

I personally was mixing benzo's and opiates and ended up dropping out after 3 years. I'm clean now and plan on going back but, it definitely effects your memory. Now that I am clean I barely remember my active addiction I only remember little snipets / slices of that 3 year span. So I duno it definitely effected my memory of what I did while on benzo's

 

[bennyZA]

I took benzo's daily, 4mg up to 6mg, which as you know is pretty extreme, but my tolerance just sky rocketed and I needed them for a disease, not for anxiety. It made shit so much harder to do after awhile. It's so easy to just say "fuck it" when you're a junior / senior and you're sick of going to class, think you know everything there is to know, are partying a lot, etc.

Another thing to watch out for, the peer pressure to drink is pretty damn extreme in college (at least most of the ones I went to) you don't want to be eating klonopin on a regular basis if you are doing powerful drugs or drinking a lot.

 

[Robman4210128]

When I used to be addicted to alprazolam I would take 4-10mg's daily and on weekends 10-20mg, I ended up doing decent at my local community college, and even graduated with an associates degree in automotive technology, the only problem with that is due to my lack of retaining knowledge for long term storage I had an extremely hard time on the finals and I cannot get a job at any automotive shop or anything of the sort due to having not knowing how to work on cars before I was in classes for them(on Xanax), The only things I know how to do is change my oil, brakes, air conditioning, and electrical.

 

[F1n1shed]

So basically, i should get off the benzos....
Wow this is gonna be a real bitch especially because i have some anxiety issues but i am self medicating after all.

 

[LabRatPsychonaut]

I graduated from college in June of this year, and was on a daily benzodiazepine regimen for a little more than 3 years. Everyday, I had class or had to do a public presentation of some sort and would take anywhere from 30-40 milligrams of Valium. Those were my doses from 2011 until January of this year. From 2009-2011, I would rotate between a 2 milligram Alprazolam bar, or 2-3 milligrams Clonazepam for everyday I was in class. So, yes I can say I graduated while still definitely having a benzo habit. I don't believe my grades suffered as my final gpa was still a 3.5. I haven't taken benzos daily since January, I have no need for daily use of them anymore. After I tripped on 2c-i the majority of my public anxiety disappeared, to the point where I only use benzos a few days out of the month now.

 

[Opanaking]

Yes benzodiazapines do effect your memory and are not good to be on at college. When I first took my placement test I was on 40mg's of valium, I did terrible. I came back and took it when I was clear headed and aced it.

When I was on klonopin I would forget a lot easily and it made school tough. Once I was off it though school was a lot easier.

Here's the thing though, if your already on it and only taking .5mg's a day. You might want to consider studying more and using a lot of repetition to really drill what you need to know into your head.

Taking Klonopin without a doubt can lead to learning problems. It's going to make your brain have to work a lot harder. It does sound like your on a pretty small dose though. Just because taking Klonopin is going to make it more difficult does not mean it will make it impossible.

It just makes it a lot more difficult then it would be if you were clear headed. I know where your coming from though. Being anxious at school is a terrible feeling. For awhile I felt great at school after I tapered off benzos.

But once I started taking opiates again I got the anxiety back occasionally.

For example I smoke pot everyday, but will usually wait until after school when i'm done studying to do it. Sometimes i'll study while I smoke also.

So it really just depends on you as a person. Taking klonopin is not going to make learning easy, but if it helps your anxiety then it might be worth it. That is just one of the bad side effects you willhave to deal with.