Clonazolam might be more dangerous than you think

[Unregisteredguest]

I'm writing this because some very severe symptoms occurred after a ONE night clonazolam binge. I took about 50mg, obviously not on purpose, but it's so easy to black out on clonazolam (and I'm benzo-dependent and super experienced) so I guess I just decided to eat all 50mg. I don't know if there were any adverse effects at this time because obviously I can't remember lol, but I lived (clearly).Anyway, I'm dependent on etizolam and am at a steady 1.5mg a day regimen. I have used clonazolam a few time before, but at normal doses like .5mg and was shocked by how severe the rebound effects from one night of moderate use were (racing heart, no sleep, constant panic attacks).

Here's what just happened with clonazolam that really made me see it in a new light and more dangerous than almost every other benzo on the market. The rebound symptoms from one night of use included serious psychosis, suicidality, impulses to self harm, MULTIPLE partial and absent seizures, and probably worse had we not been lucky enough to have some more clonazolam and other benzos on hand. I feel that had I not been with someone this entire time, I could've seriously inured or even killed myself while in a state of psychosis. Luckily I wasn't violent, but also very verbally abusive and kept threatening suicide even though I am normally not at all suicidal. I believe also had several absent seizures. I'd be laying in bed and then suddenly I'd be doing something else or going somewhere and it felt 100% real, unlike a dream. Then I woke up in bed thinking wtf? Or I'd respond to people with completely random, nonsensical replies. It was all just very confusing. I pretty much had them continuously for an hour or two, maybe more. And my experience wasn't even the scarier one.

My friend, who has a worse benzo abuse history than I do (which included clonazolam for some time) started replying to me with completely unrelated comments and/or a random of jumble of words. He then started to have more seizure symptoms so I gave him 4mg clonazolam and a bunch of etizolam. Well, he didn't have a grand-mal seizure but looked like he was on the edge of one, and had constant absent seizures and a few partial ones. He was so far gone that he didn't even seem to realize anything was wrong, and thought he was having a conversation with me, but really it was gibberish. This was WITH 4mg clonazolam and give or take 10mg etizolam, and his normal dose (he's also dependent) is only 3-4mg etiz a day. That many benzos, and he still would not stop seizing for hours, but at least they were mild. If we hadn't had any benzos around, I'm sure it could have been much worse. It was terrifying anyway, he almost looked like he was dying and had every seizure symptom in the book, and almost total loss of motor function for some time. His face would often freeze and then he'd snap out of it or his eyes would roll back into his head, scary thing to see.

My incident happened right after the binge, but his was actually several days later. He took a stimulant and I guess that really pushes the excitotoxicity to its limits. However, he also took much more etizolam than usual that day, and that did nothing to stop him from having multiple seizures.

I'm no stranger to benzo blackout binges. In fact, I don't actually truly black out anymore (I can always remember now) I just lose inhibition like someone blacked out on benzos. I've never, EVER seen such severe rebound effects from a one day binge, or even a week long binge of any benzo. Yes, taking 50mg is hugely irresponsible, but that's the thing about clonazolam, it tends to make you redose and do stupid things and redose until there's none left to redose. So what was supposed to be 1mg of clonazolam for each of us one night, turned into an ordeal that could've easily been fatal, especially had we not been together.

Moral of the story: NEVER binge or even "experiment" with doses of clonazolam unless you only have a very small supply. The rebound effects are still a bitch. But if you happen to black out and consume a large amount, the rebound alone could kill you and cause serious albeit temporarily psychosis. And let me just repeat, this all happened WITH steady dosing of other benzos plus we had a large stash. If you don't have backup, the situation could be much worse, especially since neither of us thought there was really anything wrong with us and didn't attempt to seek any outside help because we weren't thinking clearly period. At least now I can say I know what true psychosis feels like. It feels like shit. Reading this whole report, it sounds more like a datura trip or cold turkeying 10 years worth of Xanax but this was all from one night of clonazolam binging. It's my favorite benzo at lower doses, but now I'm terrified of it. I had no idea it could produce such severe symptoms so quickly. Watch out with this one.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

Disclaimer: Clonazolam is active in the sub milligram range and a normal dosage is like 0.25-0.5mg (even little as 0.5mg can result in a black out) ,so the OP took around 100 times the recommended dosage. While benzos have a high therapeutic index doses this high can lead to serious side effects, like increased respiratory depression etc. and can kill you. Never take that much!

 

[spacejunk]

I remember hearing similar stories when phenazepam was one of the only RC benzos on the market, and people would take massively excessive (over)doses, and have seizures as the drug wore off.
I think people speculated in those cases that the drug had such a long duration of action that people were intoxicated for ages (up to several days) to the point that they developed something of a physical dependence on it (or an increased dependence) which causes problems when folks stopping or going back to their prior, low dose.

Not sure if there is any truth to that theory or not, but RC benzos sre scary. I hated clonazolam, personally.
50mg is a crazy-big dose. Far out, i hope you're ok now, OP.
Did you seek any kind of medical treatment?

 

[tacodude]

I started at about 100 ug the same dose as usual LSD dose's.... I thought I could handle it. Four days later 75mg are gone and I don't use benzos at all besides a couple times so it was quite scary learning what I've done, knowing nothing, and waking up to my dog missing and not realizing it right away or knowing she was safe with my parents until they realized I actually was worried about her. I have not touched a benzo since.

 

[hotgirls.jpg.exe]

Shit man you took the equivalent of 2 grams of diazepam, like no fucking kidding that's dangerous

Glad you're ok. Benzos ain't nothing to fuck with, I've read some utter horror stories about the hyper potent ones like flubromazolam

 

[SkAnK'd]

I'm far from naive when it comes to benzos, I've been addicted to xanax, clonazepam and diazepam at different points over the years but always managed to do self managed tapers which is always hard work in itself. When I've tapered from these properly I've had few problems except for the usual - rebound anxiety, insomnia. In the past I've had some major seizures, full on clonic tonic episodes from running out of supplies at the height of my addictions but have managed to avoid that when I've tapered at a comfortable pace over a number of months.
I found with clonazolam even after using for say 4/5 days straight can bring on some really intense withdrawal symptoms whereas with other benzos I can get away with 7/14 days of binging with few side effects except insomnia and some mild anxiety hut I'd rather that than massive gran mal seizures which I've had many off, probably come close to dying several times too but that was always from sustained use over periods of say 2 months plus.
What really worried me after the last time I had clonazolam were the withdrawal symptoms I had after only 4/5 days use, within about 12 hours of my last dose I had a massive gran mal seizure and and a further 2 seizures in hospital, I'd taken roughly 5mg at a time over those 5 days, my tolerance is pretty ridiculous. The rebound anxiety I got was horrific and within a few hours of that kicking in I started with the seizures. I hadn't taken any benzos the couple of weeks before this binge so can only assume those 5 days of using were enough to develop a physical dependence. Was a really scary time for me, so much so I didn't use it again.
I agree this shit incredibly dangerous and not to be underestimated.

 

[steewith2ees]

As this is a repeat of a thread in BDD which was closed I'll repeat my response...

Glad you are OK but this kind of goes without saying. Any benzodiazepine that is taken at 100 or so times the regular active dose will more than likely end in tears, I would not say this is just a feature of clonitrazolam.

 

[spacejunk]

^ concise and to the point.

 

[smokedup]

This stuff caused me to nearly die in a car wreck....

Wait let me rephrase this. I nearly caused myself to die in a car wreck. Benzos turn me into a soulless, sex addicted psycho with no respect for clothes, money, laws and self respect.

 

[steewith2ees]

This stuff caused me to nearly die in a car wreck....

Wait let me rephrase this. I nearly caused myself to die in a car wreck. Benzos turn me into a soulless, sex addicted psycho with no respect for clothes, money, laws and self respect.

You were driving while under the influence of clonazolam?

Lesson learned there then. I'll admit that certain people do not react very well to these drugs, but the majority of the millions of patients across the globe who are prescribed benzodiazepines for legitimate reasons do not end up driving while under their influence, take hundreds of times the active dose and experience bizarre neurological effects as a result or become 'soulless, sex addicted psycho(s) with no respect for clothes, money, laws and self respect.'

I am not saying these things do not happen, but I do not want the countless people who use this class of drugs safely and legitimately to get the impression that they are disproportionately dangerous due to a minority of anecdotes involving folk using reckless amounts of an extremely potent triazolo that has no current use in medicine.

 

[Felonious Monk]

I remember hearing similar stories when phenazepam was one of the only RC benzos on the market, and people would take massively excessive (over)doses, and have seizures as the drug wore off.
I think people speculated in those cases that the drug had such a long duration of action that people were intoxicated for ages (up to several days) to the point that they developed something of a physical dependence on it (or an increased dependence) which causes problems when folks stopping or going back to their prior, low dose.

Shit, I remember that stuff, scared me off of RC benzos pretty much permanently. I still use Etizolam but the fact that in comes in actual Rx blisters from India makes it seem different. I'll always remember (or rather, not remember), getting 10mg of Phenazepam from some online vendor and eating all of it at once because it was in such an inconvenient container. Definitely lost 2 or 3 days to that, fortunately I didn't do anything stupid or have any rebound effects.