So, I'm a recovering alcoholic. I used to be a pretty extreme fifth a day drinker yada yada yada and I managed to get off that. I used it to self medicate my anxiety issues, and while I managed to quit drinking the anxiety persisted to some degree. I was able to deal/cope till around last year. Work started to really get to me, and I started using etizolam for work related anxiety. I started low, but when it hit me I'd been taking about 2-10mg a day for around ten months, generally more around 4-5 though, I realized I should tackle this issue sooner than later. The etizolam has been curious because it hasn't affected my behavior the way alcohol did, no delusions of grandeur and manic belligerence, so beyond addiction I haven't really experienced negative consequences. However, I don't want to be stuck on this stuff. I can go up to 24 hrs without dosing, but at that point the rebound anxiety begins to get to me, and I have a hard time functioning (I don't experience the shakiness and paranoia bordering on psychosis I experienced with alcohol withdrawal though). Over this past week I've managed to stabilize myself on 2.5-3mg a day. My plan is to go down by .5mg a week till I'm off. However, I was curious if anyone has any experience on using grapefruit juice to assist in lowering their dosages during a taper? I find that grapefruit juice doesn't make etizolam stronger but it feels like it makes it lasts longer. Being that etizolam has a rather short half life, could this be of assistance in doing a smoother taper? Is there any potential for this to complicate the taper?
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Effect of Grapefruit Juice on Etizolam Withdrawal/Taper?
- Thread starter PallMall
- Start date
herbavore
Bluelight Crew
Have you considered switching to something with a longer half life like Diazapam? Then you could make much smaller reductions in your dosage. As far as the grapefruit juice goes I don't know how much it helps.
I absolutely recognize that a diazepam taper would be far more ideal, but i don't have health insurance at the moment, and I'm reluctant to have more drug abuse stuff on my medical record. I really feel like I should be able to get from 3 mg to nothing with the rest of my etizolam supply. If i could take a week off from work I even feel like a could cold turkey it. The rebound anxiety and irritability wouldn't bug me too much if i didn't have to be at work, but when it hits me on the job my brain gets way too frazzled and I can't function. While I have no way of knowing for sure that I'm not seizure risk, I don't get the feeling of internal shakiness and uncontrollable shaking of my hands that alcohol withdrawal gave me, and even then I never had a seizure. There were people in my detox that drank far less than me, and the physical manifestations of their dependance were far more intense than mine, so in that sense I felt kind of lucky.
phatass
Bluelighter
You need to see a doctor for your anxiety related issues and not self medicate. Considering you have legitimate anxiety issues, and are allready addicted to a thienodiazepine, you will most likely be prescribed a benzo, it will be at a lower dose, and you will stick to your daily dosage.... 10mg of etizolam in a day is a huge amount for treating anxiety. Also with the doctor (preferably a psychiatrist) you can talk about the roots of your anxiety and try to work on that, which in turn will enable you to decrease the benzos.
The 10 mg days were by far the exception. Most days were 4-5mg. The past few days i've been doing 2.5mg, and today i'm at 2mg. I don't plan on having anymore until tomorrow. Also, as long as I don't space out the 2 mg too far I only experience minimal rebound anxiety. I've been to doctors, and I've been on nearly all the ssri's in addition to valium and xanax. ssri's helped with my anxiety to a degree, but it was more like turning it from 10 down to 7, rather than benzo's which completely eliminate it. In the past I never used the benzo scripts daily, though, cause I always had the booze to turn to. Booze fucked my life up in ways faaaaar worse than this though, and I definitely can't go back down that route. I feel like I did experience breakthroughs in dealing with my anxiety in therapy as well. I use to be afraid to step outside without downing a pint of vodka. At this point I feel like I can manage my anxiety in nearly all situations.....except for work. When I'm not at work I feel fine. My job however is a legitimately stressful and dysfunctional atmosphere where the managers treat their employees in a manner that borders on psychological abuse. I'm hardly the only one there being affected by it. I don't want to make excuses, but I think a new job might be in order.
herbavore
Bluelight Crew
Well I really support making life changes--even scary and difficult ones like looking for a new job. You have to step back and look at the whole picture when you have anxiety (this is from a fellow sufferer btw) and that picture is always changing circumstantially. Life is always going to present stressful situations and the goal of course is to learn strategies within that can fortify our sense of being grounded as well as emotional flexibility. But the truth is that sometimes a situation is so unworkable that it has to go because no matter what we do to adapt it remains overwhelming.
It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things and that your experience with alcohol recovery taught you what you need to know. Hang in there and keep working on mindfulness and other stress reducing tools. I hope that you can indeed change jobs but at the very least could you take a week off without being fired?
It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things and that your experience with alcohol recovery taught you what you need to know. Hang in there and keep working on mindfulness and other stress reducing tools. I hope that you can indeed change jobs but at the very least could you take a week off without being fired?
At this point taking a week off without a sizable amount of notice would be next to impossible. I requested time off in late june weeks ago, and no one has responded to that request. The fact that i have a degree from a top university and I'm making a buck over minimum wage makes it even more difficult. Not that I think I'm above any job, but I feel like I did everything I was supposed to and I have nothing to show for it. I can't help but think that all the nonsense (jail, hospitalizations, car accidents, etc.) during my drinking days might be popping up on background checks because i'm having an incredibly difficult time even getting interviews.