Benzos inter-dose withdrawal?

[Znegative]

So lately I've been feeling really shitty during the mid part of my day. I've had a whole lot of anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, and uncomfortable tingling sensations that run up my back. I had attributed this to my reduction in suboxone (I've gone from four mg to 2 in the past week and a half) but it just doesn't really make sense as I've tapered my suboxone before and have never really felt this bad. The other day I forgot to take my evening dosage of ativan, and these symtoms seemed to worsen, I felt more anxious and incredibly emotional like I was going to cry, that's when I thought that this could have to do with the benzo's I take. I am wondering if this could be inter-dose withdrawal? I've never experienced this before because the other times I've taken benzo's I either had more than enough to get me through the day, or none which would then lead to acute withdrawal, and every time I tapered off them it was on a long half-life benzo so I didn't experience this.

I'm a little skeptical though as my dosage is really small, 1 mg lorazepam in the morning, 1mg at around 4 pm. However I've been taking benzo's every day for about a year now, but had tapered down to this low dosage and stayed at it around three months ago after switching from a mg of clonazepam/day.

If this is what I suspect it is, should I ask my doctor to switch back to clonazepam? I don't really see what the point would be in raising the dosage (though that's what I'd love to do, and switch to xanax at the same time!) as I would just develop a tolerance to that and have a bigger problem.

Anyway, feed back would be appreciated.

 

[ErgicMergic]

Interdose withdrawal is definitely possible. I got it with Xanax quite often; the longer I would take doses, the higher tolerance would raise, and the faster the perceived effect wore off. At first, 6-8 hours between Xanax doses would be ok. A few months later, the dose would wear off in 4 hours.

I would ask to be switched to clonazepam or diazepam, as the constant ups and downs of short-half life benzos are annoying.

 

[Znegative]

alright thanks, I think I'm going to call my psychiatrist. The only problem I find with clonazepam is that I don't get any real relief from it, but then again it's not like ativan helps that much either.

 

[heavyriffer]

I used to think the same thing, except I went from clonazepam to xanax and after experiencing horrid rebound anxiety and some interdose W/D I went back to clonazepam to find relief, you just have to let it work and relax it'll do its job.

 

[ErgicMergic]

I used to think the same thing, except I went from clonazepam to xanax and after experiencing horrid rebound anxiety and some interdose W/D I went back to clonazepam to find relief, you just have to let it work and relax it'll do its job.

He needs to go from a short-acting benzo (Xanax, or in his case, Ativan) to a longer-acting one, like Clonazepam or Diazepam, so his brain has a constant supply of GABA agonism. I compare Xanax to heroin, short acting, recreational, fun, and Clonaz/Diaz to Methadone/Suboxone, long-acting, not so recreational especially once you have a tolerance.

One thing you must accept about long-acting benzos is that they will keep you feeling normal, not high, which is a great thing if you're tapering.

I never really abused my Diazepam, but Carisoprodol, Xanax, and Lyrica (short acting), I abused them since they were recreational.