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Benzos Flexeril for XANAX taper/withdrawals?

ShaunG

ShaunG

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 10, 2011
Messages
272
I took Flexeril for like 6 months. It made me sleep like a baby, relaxed my muscle spasms, and reduced anxiety. Overall, a pretty solid drug other than the long ass half life which over 6 months accumulated and made me drag ass every morning and my sex drive go bye bye. That being said, I was on xanax for anxiety at the time and realized I went from .5mg-1mg a day of xanax to nothing or .25 without any noticeable changes. Of course when I decided to quit the Flexeril the anxiety came back and I needed my xanax again. I intend on tapering xanax again as soon as my back is fixed or they shoot me with some drugs or give me a nerve block. I have been on low dose daily xanax for 2 years. I was wondering if it would be good to use Flexeril to taper since it has a nice long half life and then just go from xanax to Flexeril for a month or two before tapering the flexeril. Anyone done this before? It seems like it would work?
 
No, it would not work. Flexeril is like a tricyclic anti-depressant that doesn't even work on the same receptors as benzodiazepines.

Discontinuation of either substances abruptly is not advised, especially not in the case of alprazolam or any benzodiazepine where abruptly discontinuing the medication can result in fatal withdrawal symptoms.
 
Interestingly enough, Flexeril can actually lower the seizure threshold. So I think Cyclobenzaprine would be just about the last medication you'd like to take during Xanax WD as it could even further increase your chances of a serious seizure. I'd highly advise you avoid it.
 
IME, taper down the xanax use to as low as you can go, it's tough but you can use some OTC meds to help with the WDs. Really, it's not much different from opiate WD. You want things that take your mind off of it and relax you. Valerian root, Melatonin, DXM, and others can help you ween off, but really they just help with symptomatic relief of WD and offer distraction to the mental addiction that comes along with any habit forming substance.

Flexeril, of which I have plenty of experience both taking and prescribing, may knock you out so you don't have to deal with the WD, but it is not advisable in your circumstance. Ideally to get off xanax you would go on a low dose-long acting benzo like diazapam for a short period. It's in a very rough way similar to the idea behind suboxone, it's something that satisfies your need and lasts much longer. That gets rid of the mental aspect of needing to dose every X hours and allows a taper that is manageable.
 
im no expert on this topic but i know for a FACT tramadol causes seizures. i had a medium benzo habit a few years ago(4 mg xanax 4x week) and when i quit cold turkey, i increased my tramadol usage (which i was using alongside xanax as a potentiater)and bam! two seizures. the second one happened 3 weeks after i was off benzos so it was ALL tramadol. i guess my seizure threshold remained unstable or weak for a while after i had the 1st one.

i have been on flexeril for years and have never heard of it lowering your seizure threshold. if it does, i need to know for a fact, bc i am prescribed 1 a day and i just use them (20 mg)the days i take off benzos to help me less anxious and able to sleep.
 
Like Tricomb (excellently) said, cyclobenzaprine is a completely different class of drug from benzodiazepines and will not "scratch your itch" if you're in withdrawal. You might get some benefit out of the sedation it can provide, but don't expect it to maintain or even hold you over whatsoever or you'll find yourself confused and in a world of hurt, OP.

Diazepam or clonazepam are your best bets if you're looking for a long half-life benzo for tapering. I recommend having a pill-jockey you trust to dole out your dose daily for best results.
 
actually librium is better than diazepam or clonazepam for benzo wd because it lasts long and is pretty weak so it's very easy to wd from as long as you take reasonable doses
 
It may help a little bit, anything helps a little bit for benzo withdrawals.

But as tricomb has stated it won't alleviate the symptoms, as its completely unrelelated to GABA agonists and besides, if you're tapering off of a drug and using things that affect the same receptors, alcohol, kava, etc, you won't taper properly.

So in my opinion its better to use something of a different class. I've used opiates in times of need, though I don't care for opiates in the least and therefore there was no addiction swapping risk.

I advise Neurontin and a slow valium taper. Neurontin in high enough doses works miracles for benzo WD, IMO.
 
I'd rather take nothing at all than cyclobenzaprine, hah. When it comes to benzodiazepine tapering, you have to use..... benzodiazepines. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE.

$0.02
 
I meant alongside a taper or titration schedule ;)

Using valium of course.

But using neurontin would help, it's about the only thing that will alleviate the horrible depression and anorexic qualities of the tapering process.

But yea flexeril is shit. I'd rather eat poison so I guess I should recant that statement. Even though I'd probably eat it anyway out of desperation if my clonazapam had been cut off.
 
Yep, no first hand experience, but I've heard Lyrica can be a miracle drug for benzo withdrawal. I second trying to get your hands on it.

Stay away from anything that lowers the seizure threshold; Cyclobenzaprine, Tramadol (big one), Carisoprodol, etc.
 
im talking about taking flexeril on the days i dont do benzos. they help me sleep and not be anxious. they do help with the very minor psychological craving for benzos, i can guarantee you that. with cannabis as well.
 
Forgot Flexeril does lower seizure threshold....so other than alleviating some WD symptoms, its not really smart I guess. Nevermind. I just noticed my Xanax use went way down when I was on Flexeril due to less anxiety and no sleeping problems. I'll taper as far as I can go and then ask the doc to switch to Valium and maybe ask about Neurontin or Gabapentin...heard these were good. I do have access to some Lyrica from my dad if that would help. I guess I need to get off the opiates first since opiate do not make me tired and would only contribute to the massive insomnia I will experience. Thanks for the input.
 
Neurontin is gabentin fyi.

And it's the only thing that will make benzo wd's bearable.

You won't be comfortable, but you'll be able to read and wait them out until your next dose, or if you're tapering, it will lesson the misery and anxiety a bit.

Less is more with gabapentin with about 150mg maximum ability to be absorbed by the receptor sites as they become saturated. It takes approx. one half hour to 45 minutes before you can take another 150mg dose. Staggering them in this way is the only way to avoid tolerance and inefficency.
 
Thanks. Is there anything for sleep that do not hit the same receptors that Xanax or Valium do?
 
ShaunG said:
Thanks. Is there anything for sleep that do not hit the same receptors that Xanax or Valium do?
Click to expand...

My daily battle with sleep has been my main challenge on my current taper, so I'll let you know what works for me.

I have developed and tried quite a few different tactics for sleep during benzo wd, none of them are too much more effective then any other, and I'll only mention medications here. Their are others but these I have plenty of direct experience to comment on.

1. Opiates -- I know, Harm Reduction would say not to combine these two classes of drugs, especially for the sole purpose of falling asleep. However at therapeutic and commonly prescribed doses I don't imagine a combo is all that dangerous, especially if you have a tolerance to either benzos or opiates, and my experience has shown this to be true. My goal was never to get high off the opiate. Basically opiate induced sleep is the only thing that got me through the worst of my insomnia. Opiates with morphine backbones work much better then there codeine counterparts for this work, IME

2. Antihistamines -- Despite all the short comings of antihistamines (large negative side effects profile that gets exponentially worse as you increase the dose) I have found them to be my second most invaluable tool in getting to sleep during benzo withdrawal. 50-200 mg of diphenhydramine will normally put me down 2-3 hours after I dosed. My main problem with using antihistamines to get to sleep is how fucking disgusting of a body high accompanies the sedative and hypnotic effects. Today i would rather have 4 hours of light sleep that feels normal rather then 8-9 hours of a deep sleep that feels shitty. A month or two ago when I was in the worst of it, it wasn't even a question. I needed sleep. So i guess antihistamines are a toss up, depending on how serious your insomnia is.

3. Melatonin -- Melatonin has also helped me out. Unlike opiates and antihistamines there is no real forced sedation, so it probably is the least effective in *getting* you to sleep. However I find a base of 5 or 10 mg's of melatonin at bed gets me into a much deeper and satisfying sleep then I usually reach in benzo withdrawal. So instead of waking up tossing and turning repeatedly during sleep, once your down your down for the night. However I find the tolerance to these effects build up extremely rapidly, necessitating a need to switch between other sleeping tactics.

4. Marijuana -- A drug that will commonly get over looked in its ability to help you get to sleep. My only problem with cannabis and sleep during benzo wd is that I find I wake up throughout the night once the maijuana has worn off (so basically Im lying there in my bed sleeping for an hour, wake up roll over hit the pipe and then Im able to get my next hour of sleep).

Fuck man, I can't believe what I had to go through every night just to get to sleep. Just straight months of only getting 3-4 hours of sleep, and none on taper down days. However this was mostly due to my aggressive taper schedule my last time around. In the past I have taped off a 6mg a day kpin habbit with relatively little in the way of wd. So slow taper over a period of months if possible to avoid wd, or make peace with the fact that you will have to white nuckle the rebound insomnia
 
Damn. Thanks for the feedback. Not looking forward to it, but I guess I dug myself into this hole. At least it is a low daily dose and it never got higher than 1mg of Xanax per day. Opiates give me insomnia and marijuana makes my anxiety worse these days unfortunately. MJ was my Xanax for 15 years until even that started to give me anxiety. I can try Benedryl and/or melatonin though. I can probably get some muscle relaxers if I want too other than Flexeril. Zanaflex knocked me out pretty good in the past, but only for a few hours then I'm wide awake. It sounds like you just deal with it till your body adjusts and you can finally pass out again at a normal time. I'm sure exercise will help a lot too.
 
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