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Benzos How long does a benzo dependancy take to develop?

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bayhead415

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
254
I am curious if anyone has references to info on this. I am trying to avoid being forced to take medications I disagree with such as klonopin. So I am curious how long does it take to develop a dependancy on klonopin to the point where you can not stop without minor withdrawal symptoms? I am guessing it takes a while get to the point where if you cold turkey you will die, but that info would be good too.

Thanks
 
You won't die from quitting a medicinal dosage of clonazepam.

It would take at least a few weeks of daily dosing to become physically dependent. 1-2 weeks, and you're probably only lightly mentally dependent and will only have rebound anxiety upon quitting.
 
That's about right.

Although everyone's body is quite different, what CH said is likely what you'll experience. The trick is psychological at first, later it becomes entirely physical.

When Clonazapam is withheld from me I don't even experience anxiety for the physical symptoms are so horrible anxiety goes to the back burner (still present in high degrees though), which I find Ironic. It's a fate worse than death.
 
One thing I've noticed about xanax (which I'm sure holds true for any benzo drug): Once you develop a high tolerance to benzos it seems to last for months, years maybe.

For example, at one point in my life I could take 6mg of xanax and while it would get me stupid it wasn't anything like taking 3mg when I had no tolerance at all. I tapered down and quit taking them all together.

Months later (6 or so) I took 1mg of xanax and barely felt anything, I ended up having to take 2mg more to get where I needed to be so I could sleep. It has been about a year now and xanax is still basically useless for me in usual doses. Now I have to reach for Ativan if I use a benzo for sleep as I don't seem to have much of a tolerance to it (1mg usually works, 2-3mg has me "stupid" if I stay up).

Just an observation.....if you truly need the k-pins don't abuse them because eventually they won't work at all and the rebound anxiety/withdrawal isn't any fun I assure you.
 
So 30 days of daily dosing would lead to a withdrawal upon quitting?

Also I doubt I would get a deathly withdrawal dependancy, but just curious what that takes.

Edit: Drug in question is also klonopin

Edit 2: I also do not think I need I need them as I do not get panic attacks. It is mostly because my therapist wants me to have drugs that distract me from thinking about the issues of abuse I went through as they say it will be distracting for this hospitalization program that they want me in just to please my parents. It could be helpful, but I feel individual therapy would be more helpful as I am in a really weird situation. My issues is I do not want to take drugs I do not think will help just to please someone else so they will continue paying for my housing especially when those people don't want to help me because they think smoking pot and other drugs are bad, but that prescribed drugs aren't as bad. Also if I am getting support I will be on opiate pain management and I do not want to combine benzos and opiates even in therapeutic doses just because they are both CNS depressants.
 
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that takes a bit longer than 30 days...I was on them for about 2 months and just dealt with the rebound anxiety...
 
Rebound anxiety will be very hard for me especially when caused by a drug withdrawal because I am about to be homeless soon because my parents wont enable "pot use" because it is schedule 1. For them when it comes to me they can not accept I can be responsible because I was the lazy child who always ate junk food and was considered impulsive, but really my parents did not know me at all because they did not talk to me and get to know me. Instead they only talked to me to tell me what they think I should and should not be doing and to figure out if I did anything they need to punish me for.

So to make it clear I need to know how long it takes to develop ANY slight withdrawal effect from a clinical dose as I can not deal with anxiety rebound as it could lead me to becoming stressed out and being targeted to be forced into the hospital because I am dealing with stress that than becomes over exaggerated to make me seem like a risk to myself and everyone else around me. To say the least I am going through a lot of psychiatric abuse and am trying to avoid it by finding whatever evidence I can to fight decisions I think are inappropriate.
 
bayhead415 said:
Rebound anxiety will be very hard for me especially when caused by a drug withdrawal because I am about to be homeless soon because my parents wont enable "pot use" because it is schedule 1. For them when it comes to me they can not accept I can be responsible because I was the lazy child who always ate junk food and was considered impulsive, but really my parents did not know me at all because they did not talk to me and get to know me. Instead they only talked to me to tell me what they think I should and should not be doing and to figure out if I did anything they need to punish me for.

So to make it clear I need to know how long it takes to develop ANY slight withdrawal effect from a clinical dose as I can not deal with anxiety rebound as it could lead me to becoming stressed out and being targeted to be forced into the hospital because I am dealing with stress that than becomes over exaggerated to make me seem like a risk to myself and everyone else around me. To say the least I am going through a lot of psychiatric abuse and am trying to avoid it by finding whatever evidence I can to fight decisions I think are inappropriate.
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Don't take clonazepam at all then. For me, after 5-6 days of medicinal use, there can be rebound effects.

If you don't want to take medication, you don't have to.
 
true dat...

I'm supposed to take effexor for depression, but I don't...I hate that shit...
 
I binged on xanax for almost two months heavily using every day. When I abruptly stopped the withdrawal was bad.
Worse than opiates which I knew what to expect. Benzo withdrawal was very rough and I would advise people to be careful.
 
Just pay attention to tolerance instead of thinking the time limits. When you notice it it is the first sign that you are starting to be in trouble. Usually by taking a break at this point it is possible to avoid the dependency. In my experience.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
Don't take clonazepam at all then. For me, after 5-6 days of medicinal use, there can be rebound effects.

If you don't want to take medication, you don't have to.
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Ya, but I am punished and refused access to a hospitalization program that will please my parents so they continue paying housing and is about to leave me on the street. It is why I am trying to collect facts I can bring to a court of law to prove they are illegally trying to force me to take addictive medications just because they can be "prescribed" under federal law and completely denying and other possible solution even including skullcap instead of pharmaceutical benzos and not just medical weed. Thanks for your input though... The one time I had ativan 3 mg throughout 3 days caused me major problems afterwords.
 
bayhead415 said:
Ya, but I am punished and refused access to a hospitalization program that will please my parents so they continue paying housing and is about to leave me on the street. It is why I am trying to collect facts I can bring to a court of law to prove they are illegally trying to force me to take addictive medications just because they can be "prescribed" under federal law and completely denying and other possible solution even including skullcap instead of pharmaceutical benzos and not just medical weed. Thanks for your input though... The one time I had ativan 3 mg throughout 3 days caused me major problems afterwords.
Click to expand...

I take it you don't have the resources to get an attorney to help you?
 
Unfortunately not. I am struggling to find one and tomorrow will be seeking public legal aid and get back to connecting with homeless advocacy groups and mental health right groups. It is very problematic though because my parents do not use drugs and my mother has some medical education back round, but really they are oblivious to misconceptions in the media and our society about drugs and completely refuse to look into the truth when it comes to drugs including prescription drugs. Because they have the money and blame all my problems on drugs I am forced to have to jump through hoops to prove they are wrong as they constantly try to undermine me so I can not prove I am right and not lying about the abusive past I went through with my parents including violence from my father. It is really just a lot of bullshit I am dealing with and the more evidence I get that I can refer to the better.
 
I agree , i have been on both xanax and then 20 yrs on xanax and was doing 8 to 10 a day,cut them out but needed something and it was clon and i can do 40 a day 0.5 when things get ruff, i am on morphine and have cut that down but the benzo,s are the worst if you want a life stay away from the xanax i had a friend give me his so i had twice what i was suppposed to have i quit a year ago gave my life to God and lately the old friends are coming around and giving me more clonazepam
 
just put the pills under your tongue and spit them out later.

Worked for me in the mental hospital, even though I was just hiding them to share with friends and to snort for kicks.
 
Before reading this, please keep in mind this is just my own surprising experience. It goes against everything I've heard and read, and I hesitate posting it just out of simple harm reduction, but I do so to show how different each individual's body truly is.

I've recently come off of two 75-80 day binges (each spaced out a couple of weeks) of benzos. I'd start at around 1mg alprazolam and 10mg of diazepam per day, and ended up around 4mg alprazolam and 30mg diazepam per day.

I was utterly terrified at the thought of stopping because of what I've read, and because I've had two seizures in the past (not related to benzos), and I didn't have time to taper. I didn't have a choice though, I had to stop.

I noticed only mental side-effects of wishing I could take some more, but no physical withdrawal symptoms. I feel really lucky, and wouldn't advise anyone to push the limits outlined by others above.
 
I've been taking 0.5mg of Klonopin once a day (1/4 of my prescribed dosage), and I'm feeling guilty since I've been maintaining on 2.5mg diazepam once a day on top of that.

I sometimes turn anger into myself and make myself feel guilty, but I have to say, I've been extremely responsible with full bottles of 30 x 2mg Klonopins. I've been taking only a 1/4 of the 2mg tabs instead of popping them whole and getting benzoed out for recreation. I only took ~1-1.5mg the first couple of days, to provide an "attack dose" to thwart my suicidal ideation stemming from seriously intense panic attacks at the time... coincidentally, the day I was prescribed clonazepam, I had the most intense panic attack after a tramautic event,, I felt so trapped, being broke and 22 years old, being homeless scares the shit out of me. My hands were shaking so hard that I could barely open my new rx and cut a 2mg kpin in half.

I have to say, clonazepam and diazepam are fantastic "background" benzos that allow you to think clearly at 0.5mg kpin and 2.5mg diaz, as they're very "subtle." Klonopin accumulates each day you take it, so watch out fo long-acting benzos. If you take it in consistently large doses (>1-2mg/day),it will build up in your plasma and become a bit too depressing due to the body effect, whereas Xanax doesn't induce as much depression. They relieve physical tension way better than the primarily cerebral Xanax, which is not approved for epilepsy or muscle spasms.

I want to get off clonazepam, but I feel like tapering in the middle of a rough patch can send me off the edge and do myself in, so I'll probably do it with diaz/clonaz when things are stable enough. :)
 
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