Benzos Gabapentinoids, Phenibut, and advice for the best choice for anxiolytics

[HippocriticAnxiolytic]

Hey guys, its my first time posting on blue light, im a 36 year old white male living in Missouri. I feel as though a bit of clinical context is necessary when describing my history with substances and also with panic, anxiety, and anything related. So my drug use didnt start as recreation or a search for Euphoria. From the age of 13-16 I was chemically immobilized with strong opiates for the forced compliance of severe childhood s****l abuse. It may sound odd, but rather than steering me away from drugs it brought me closer to them because, they were the only thing that made that Hell survivable. Anyway flash forward to today. Ive now been sober from opiates for almost a year and meth for like 6 months. My anxiety since stopping makes meth psychosis look tame. I can't leave my house for very long at all and I never go in stores. With my history of substance use, getting anything effective for my anxiety is incredibly difficult. My MAT nurse finally talked the doctor into giving me a prescription of xanax. 2 .5mg tablets per day. At first this was wonderful and worked well. The doctor told me I'd never be able to come off xanax though if I tried. I dont know if I want to be dependent on benzos my whole life and my memory is already kinda shot. Ive also taken Celexa, gabapentin, wellbutrin, Valium, xanax, vistaril, propranalol. Nothing has worked like xanax. I recently ordered phenibut and gave it a try. I liked that I didnt feel sedated. But of the withdrawals are so bad I dont know that I should do that. I just need advice. At times I need sedation, I cant stop shaking otherwise. But sometimes I just want to feel okay in my body enough to have an actual conversation with someone. I NEED HELP YALL! The doctors think I really need them, so that I can abuse meds. Lol. Newsflash. Drugs are easily obtained, cheap, and there's no red tape or stigma. And if this is what sober life Is destined to, id rather get sloshed. But I dont want to. Not really. Anyway, I'm rambling. hope this made sense. Any ideas for an effective anxiolytic? I just dont know what to do. My xans are no longer working i can't get upped. What do I do?

 

[PureLife]

Im prescribed klonopin and that works for me. 1mg 3x daily. Works for me

 

[placebonaut]

the issue with benzo's is you're going to build tolerance which will make them less effective, so there's no real surprise here that after taking xanax daily for a while it's stopped working for you, the issue is you're going to become dependent on them sooner or later if you keep taking them daily.

From what I've read about the US, they have a trend of prescribing benzos and then keeping the dose steady regardless of this known tolerance issue (USA members correct me if my perception is wrong).

Different benzos may work for you better than others, but a short acting benzo like Xanax might only give you relief for ~4 hours, assume you're meant to take 0.5mg twice a day rather than 1mg at the same time. I can understand why Xanax was prescribed for you, it's just what it's meant to tackle, no shock it works well for you. But it's a fair callout from Dr that you might be on it for the rest of your life....

So finding a Dr who will have a sensible conversation about tolerance build up and trying different benzos is a good idea, though that might be harder in the US.

Other options to talk to the Dr about could be SSRIs, or off-label anxiolytics like pregabalin (similar to phenibut and gabapentin but may work better for you but all these 3 will have issue with tolerance build up)

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As for sedation there are other options to consider which the DR could prescribe, 1st gen antihistamines like Hydroxyzine spring to mind for example. Or you could look at things like CBD, magnolia root, camomile, passionflower, lemon balm, magnesium - I take a combo of these to help with sleep with great success. There's then a whole list of non-benzo drugs that could provide sedation to you could easily get your hands on...

Yes lots of drugs are freely available, and I'm sure you already know the dangers of self medication and addiction risk here.....good luck & be careful

 

[HippocriticAnxiolytic]

Im prescribed klonopin and that works for me. 1mg 3x daily. Works for me

Klonopin is extremely effective for anxiety but for whatever reason it makes me very angry and mean towards my loved ones