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going sober.... could this increase the effectiveness of my prescribed klonopin?

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behindblueeyes

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Messages
89
Well I've decided to kick the booze, the only drug I really have an issue with, as my quality of life has pretty much gone down the tubes. I'm prescribed klonopin, 2mg daily... now, before, when I would drink almost every night (binge), in the mornings to go to work I would have to take 1-1.5mg just to take away the morning anxiety, shakiness. The klonopin was barely effective throughout the day. These past few weeks I've cut down on the alcohol, limiting the amount I drank on nights before work (but still binging on weekends).... but tonight, I'm going sober. Plus, I know I'm gonna have to wean off the kpins soon (been on them about a year), and there won't be a happy ending with that if I'm getting trashed at night.

But I guess what I'm wondering is, now that alcohol will be out of my system for the most part, could my klonopin be more effective in stabilizing my anxiety? I guess only time will tell, but any experiences or feedback is useful.

Plus, I'm used to drinking right now, being sober.... I'm bored. It helps to gain knowledge on forums like these, especially with those who know what I'm going through.

Agh... alcohol, so many things/people I've lost just for a temporary escape on life.

Going sober, on 4/20
 
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alcohol manipulates the GABA, which is the only neurochemical that i am aware of that Benzos affect directly, So many neuro chemicals react like a ball, you throw them one way for a desired result, but after that result they bounce back up hard and return to the same place or actually a little worse. I believe if you are able to stop drinking then the effectiveness and possibly the need entirely for the benzos may disappear. The chances of this will significantly increase if you figure out why you drink? What type of anxiety have you been diagnosed with? My very best wishes<3

What do you do to combat your boredom? I always try and remind myself that change causes change.
 
neversickanymore said:
alcohol manipulates the GABA, which is the only neurochemical that i am aware of that Benzos affect directly, So many neuro chemicals react like a ball, you throw them one way for a desired result, but after that result they bounce back up hard and return to the same place or actually a little worse. I believe if you are able to stop drinking then the effectiveness and possibly the need entirely for the benzos may disappear. The chances of this will significantly increase if you figure out why you drink? What type of anxiety have you been diagnosed with? My very best wishes<3

What do you do to combat your boredom? I always try and remind myself that change causes change.
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Thank you for your response :). "the effectiveness and possibly the need entirely for the benzos may disappear." that would be great.

I drink to block out a lot of emotional pain, past pain... traumatic memories, to just escape basically. I've been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, and am also on mirtazapine... which is subtly helping my depression (probably only subtly bc of my drinking habit).

Well I used to drink to combat my boredom... tonight, I'm looking on message boards and just trying to gain insight and thinking about things. Will probably go to bed early tonight.
 
Hey Blueeyes.. The pain, weather caused by you or others, is killing you.. In order to be able to live a good son=ber life you have to confront your demons.. "don't listen to the demons the just fill you with fear" there are a couple of approaches to that.. one very successful way is the twelve steps, they are designed to get at the emotional scars or the demons.. another way to approach it is to literally just forgive YOURSELF and EVERYONE else for everything that ever gone down.. just take the guilt you have about yourself and throw it away, as long as you are going to do the rite thing now then keeping it just kills you slowly, I blueeyes forgive myself for everything.. Im only human and I make mistakes but im amazing and really FUCK it life to short to kill myself over such little shit, i learned and am moving on.. if anything remains than address it and make it rite. As far as holding resentment and anger towards others, if you do that then you are choosing to let them hurt you still.. no matter what it was, FUCK it, you're going to move on and let their sickness plague you no longer..

If you cant get your head around that then do the steps.. hell do the steps anyway. no matter what you think of the fellowship the steps are powerful.. best of luck and remember you are worth it and to have patience.
 
I think I need some kind of therapy to deal with the "demons" in my head.... I'm constantly plagued with anxiety and flashbacks... I know I have to get over this to truly be happy sober, I'm thinking some kind of therapy will be beneficial.
 
Quitting the booze will temporarily increase your anxiety, but bear with it. Alcohol abuse can actually cause depression, so I would expect (and have heard bluelighters report) that quitting will increase the effectiveness of your AD. Plus, so long as your life is centered around escapism, you don't have any real impetus to actually deal with whatever issues are causing/exacerbating your mental health problems.
 
Never Knows Best said:
Quitting the booze will temporarily increase your anxiety, but bear with it. Alcohol abuse can actually cause depression, so I would expect (and have heard bluelighters report) that quitting will increase the effectiveness of your AD. Plus, so long as your life is centered around escapism, you don't have any real impetus to actually deal with whatever issues are causing/exacerbating your mental health problems.
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Yeah, I know that kicking the booze will probably have some effects on my anxiety, but the klonopins should help with that. At least I have something to help. And the alcohol abuse was definitely causing depression, all I wanted to do was keep drinking to make it go away. When My antidepressant was starting to kick in though.... that really made me want to quit abusing alcohol, because I could have some potential in beating my depression in other ways. Well I just took my medicine so I expect to be peacing out to dreamland soon... I'll keep posted if the klonopin does indeed work better and my depression/anxiety gets better.
 
^Hope things look up soon.

And the alcohol abuse was definitely causing depression, all I wanted to do was keep drinking to make it go away
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I know how that goes. Yet I keep on coming back to it no matter how many times my sobriety breaks prove to me that the booze doesn't help. I dunno, even if I feel as bad as if I wasn't using (or worse), it makes me feel like I'm doing something about it, rather than being a leaf in the wind.
 
Benzodiazepines (eg clonazepam) won't have complete cross-action with alcohol, since alcohol has a somewhat complex pharmacology in comparison to benzodiazepines. As others have said however, it will help relieve some of the anxiety, tremors, and any of the potential symptoms of your somewhat mild-moderate habit.

I'm moving this for you to Sober Living.

BDD -> SL
 
My anxiety got a lot more manageable after being off alcohol for a few weeks. It was a vicious cycle. I started to drink to cover up a lot of the same things as you did, trauma and depression, but eventually it started being the cause of anxiety and depression, and my last episode drinking ended in trauma.

But still, underneath it all there were the reasons I started drinking in the first place that I had to deal with. I have a therapist who specializes in ptsd and she's great. I've tried a lot things I was very skeptical of, but I think they've helped. Hypnosis has helped me a lot and learning to meditate. Look around at some different stuff for helping to heal/manage trauma. There's a lady named belleruth naperstek who has some good cds and books on trauma that have really helped me.
 
I would also suggest the 12 steps. They are free and have helped millions get and stay sober from everything.
 
yeah alcohol is defintely worse, the rebound anxiety (which is technically a withdrawal) makes it a terrible choice for anxiety. Alcohol affects a wide spectrum of neurotrasmitters whereas benzos are selective in comparison. I think being sober from alcohol will just improve your life, clonazepam or not, you will get rebound anxiety when quitting which the clonazepam will help with then after that, you will likely feel your mood/energy and happiness improve drastically. Alcohol definitely makes people depressed, so do some benzos if you abuse them so i think that's plenty incentive to get sober at least.
 
RobotRipping said:
yeah alcohol is defintely worse, the rebound anxiety (which is technically a withdrawal) makes it a terrible choice for anxiety. Alcohol affects a wide spectrum of neurotrasmitters whereas benzos are selective in comparison. I think being sober from alcohol will just improve your life, clonazepam or not, you will get rebound anxiety when quitting which the clonazepam will help with then after that, you will likely feel your mood/energy and happiness improve drastically. Alcohol definitely makes people depressed, so do some benzos if you abuse them so i think that's plenty incentive to get sober at least.
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I agree with this in all ways
 
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