Benzos Is there any way to lower your benzo tolerance?

[mrdqb]

for some reason I can barely feel xanax/clonazepam/ativan. The first time 1mg of xanax put me out for about 4 hours. Now 10 of those don't really make me drowsy at all. so I stopped taking them all together. Also anyone try those 3mg xanax triangles? any thoughts. I have.. not sure if they are any good but i can't tell cuz i got this benzo tolerance. thanks. also does anyone take 100mg phenobarbitals? i swear they don't do anything.

 

[madog11]

The only way to lower tolerance is to stop for a long period of time. Even then a certain amount of the tolerance is perminant.

 

[Jabberwocky]

^ /end thread.

 

[tricomb]

I would advise you to stop being so reckless with your benzodiazepine AND barbituate abuse, you're headed nowhere, fast. Absolutely deadly poly-drug abuse. "For some reason I can barely feel" benzodiazepines, that mysterious reason, is not so mysterious, it's called tolerance, a side effect of drug dependency. Benzodiazepine and ESPECIALLY barbituate discontinuation syndrome is incredibly dangerous and can be fatal and you'll go through hell as the doctors frantically struggle to keep you alive and not seizing as the drugs they administer do nothing due to your tolerance and take desperate measures for which there isn't always established protocol. "What to do when a patient is in WD, we can't stop the grand maul/tonic clonic seizures, we don't know why the IV isn't working, just how high is his tolerance"

Once you've hit double digit dosing, you're in a whole new territory of addiction. I pray you never get to triple digit dosing.

Oh, and the 3mg Xanax XR are not any good for abuse, you can't just crush them and deactivate the time release.

edit: Hah, typed this out two hours ago and forgot to press submit. I see you have received more good advice.

 

[kokaino]

^ Over exaggeration. Not everyone withdrawing from benzos or barbiturates will experience seizures. For example, temazepam abuse is very well known and documented due to an epidemic of abuse in Europe, Australia and elsewhere back in the 1980's and 1990's. So there is a lot of information on temazepam withdrawal.

Here's what they have in the literature:

Abrupt withdrawal after long term use from therapeutic doses of temazepam may result in a very severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. There are reports in the medical literature of at least six psychotic states developing after abrupt withdrawal from temazepam including delirium after abrupt withdrawal of only 30 mg of temazepam and in another case, auditory hallucinations and visual cognitive disorder developed after abrupt withdrawal from 10 mg of temazepam, 5 mg of nitrazepam and 0.5 mg of triazolam. Gradual and careful reduction of the dosage, preferably with a milder long-acting benzodiazepine such as clonazepam or diazepam, or even a milder short to intermediate acting benzodiazepine such as oxazepam or alprazolam, was recommended to prevent severe withdrawal syndromes from developing. Other strong hypnotic benzodiazepines, whether short, intermediate or long-acting are not recommended. Antipsychotics increase the severity of benzodiazepine withdrawal effects with an increase in the intensity and severity of convulsions. Depersonalisation has also been reported as a benzodiazepine withdrawal effect from temazepam.

Abrupt withdrawal from very high doses is even more likely to cause severe withdrawal effects. Withdrawal from very high doses of temazepam will cause severe hypoperfusion of the whole brain with diffuse slow activity on EEG. After withdrawal, abnormalities in hypofrontal brain wave patterns may persist beyond the withdrawal syndrome suggesting that organic brain damage may occur from chronic high dose abuse of temazepam. Temazepam withdrawal has been well known to cause a sudden and often violent death.

Source (WikiDoc, which is written by established MD's with their name, photos, phone number, and creditentials right on the site).

In all that temazepam abuse and withdrawal, they reported "at least 6 psychotic states" - that's not much, considering the amount of abuse the drug went through. They report a "very severe withdrawal syndrome", but no mention of seizures.

 

[xxxyyy]

the only way to reduce to tolerance to any drug is by not using it for an extended period of time. benzos are notorious for how fast tolerance develops, i've taken them on and off since i was 17, and the only way to retain their efficacy as a remedy for anxiety attacks and not become physically addicted for me was to severely restrict my intake. for me 1-2 doses a week is about the maximum i can get away with, i've often used them more often and every time it was detrimental to my well-being. everyone's different, but in one regard we're all alike: take benzos every day, get horrible physical dependence. if limiting your intake proves hard/impossible, abstain completely. that's really the only advice i can give.
during a particularly shitty time in my life i used benzos heavily, around 10-20mgs of flunitrazepam a day, maybe 3-4 days a week. even though i didn't use them daily my tolerance escalated so fast i did not think it was possible just a few weeks prior. in about a month i went from 2-3mg flunitrazepam producing very strong effects to needing at least 10-15 for about the same, and flunitrazepam is notoriously potent. even though i didn't develop the full-blown physical addiction a lot of people have had the misfortune to suffer through, it still produced a shitload of unpleasant symptoms, like massive rebound insomnia and anxiety. i did this knowing full well what would happen though, and i am genuinely baffled that people are actually surprised that a class of drug whose addiction potential is almost as well known as the addiction potential of say, cocaine, when they end up addicted. i mean, what did you think would happen if you take a drug daily that is well known to cause physical addiction? do some people think that the rules of brain chemistry somehow magically don't apply to them? if you take opiates every day, you get physically addicted. if you drink long enough and often enough you get physically addicted. all GABA agonists produce severe physical dependence. and they produce them in everyone. yeah, i too once though that the rules didn't apply for me, but guess what? i ended up just as strung out as any other fucker who is stupid enough to go down that path. it's just astounding to me, the number of people who're suprised by the fact that drugs are addictive.
it's just that these types of thread pop up so often that it actually makes me think that most people really have not the slightest clue about what they're putting into their body. i mean, typing the word benzodiazepine into wikipedia and 5 minutes reading tops will inform you of all you really need to know regarding its addictive properties. and yet somehow doctors even prescribe people benzos with the instruction to take a certain dose daily, which in my book is just sadistic. i mean benzos really are useful for certain types of anxiety disorders, and they've been a life saver for me at times, but it takes a lot of willpower on my part to stick to medical use. and i know that if something really fucking aweful were to happen, i'd probably end up using them way too much again, but at least i'd be fully aware of the consequences. benzodiazepines are the only thing that work for my panic attacks aside from opiates, and hell, every once in a while i like to kick back with a few bong hits and a few mgs of alprazolam, but i am always, completely aware what will happen if i go overboard. same as with every opiate. these aren't drugs you fuck around with. these are drugs you take seriously, if you value not being in horrible agony from withdrawal. i mean, like i said, i got physically addicted to various things in my life, but it was not ignorance but simply indifference that lead me down that road. indifference toward adverse effects from excessive drug use i can accept. it's your body after all. however, ignorance when abusing intoxicants is inexcusable.

 

[ErgicMergic]

Taking a 6 month break from alcohol, benzos, pregs, and barbs helps somewhat. Taking a 1 year break helps a lot more.

 

[xxxyyy]

yep. benzos and gabapentin are nearly peerless in how fast tolerance to the recreational effects develop. for gabapentin i'd need to wait about a month between each use to get a nice buzz off it. like i said, taking benzos no more than twice a week has worked for me but i am completely aware of the danger inherent in having easy access to benzos. if you respect them as a powerful medication they can improve your life if you suffer from an anxiety disorder that doesn't respond to antidepressants. if you view them as 'something to get fucked up on every day', then i'm very sorry, but i have no pity anymore for stupidity. generally i'd say the only acceptable use for benzos is the treatment of anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal and acute seizures. there simply are no fathomable circumstances where taking benzos daily in any dosage is anything but a guaranteed trip to a detox facility. a girl i briefly dated was prescribed 4mg clonazepam daily. against, um, stuff. not as an anti-epileptic, or because she had horrid panic attacks. simply because she found life to be stressful and was a bit overworked. i told her what would happen if she did take them daily, but then a doctor said it's okay, so it must be. i have no idea if she eventually developed the physical dependence i prophesized, but really, and this cannot be stressed enough, never fuckin underestimate benzos. they may seem benign but they really are anything but. i think one of the reasons people tend to think benzos are relatively harmless is their low toxicity compared to older tranqs like barbiturates or methaqualone. i mean i understand people popping librium and valium like crazy in the sixties, they were novel drugs back then and touted as miracle drugs. i mean yeah, it certainly was easy to off yourself with seconal, and the same does not apply to benzos. but really, back then they pushed librium and valium like crazy and i suspect that roche knew exactly the addiction potential but just chose to keep that information to themselves. valium is to this day still one of the most profitable drugs ever. billions upon billions in sale. when it became apparent that benzodiazepines were very addictive, contrary to what was said back in those days, there was an unprecedented slew of malpractise suits. i mean that should tell you something.
also, sorry for the rant. seriously sleep deprived + EPH IV

 

[SpaceYourBassAgain]

^ Over exaggeration. Not everyone withdrawing from benzos or barbiturates will experience seizures. For example, temazepam abuse is very well known and documented due to an epidemic of abuse in Europe, Australia and elsewhere back in the 1980's and 1990's. So there is a lot of information on temazepam withdrawal.

Here's what they have in the literature:

Source (WikiDoc, which is written by established MD's with their name, photos, phone number, and creditentials right on the site).

In all that temazepam abuse and withdrawal, they reported "at least 6 psychotic states" - that's not much, considering the amount of abuse the drug went through. They report a "very severe withdrawal syndrome", but no mention of seizures.

The OP did not report any use of temazepam. Temazepam is different from more common benzos (more of a hypnotic/also used as sleep aid). According to your source, "Temazepam withdrawal has been well known to cause a sudden and often violent death." This sudden and often violent death would be from having seizures.

The OP did report that taking 10 mg of "xanax/clonazepam/ativan" barely makes him drowsy. That is a high dose (5 bars at once or 10 footballs)and the OP has a very high tolerance to benzos. While you may see tricomb's post as an over-exaggeration, everything he said is correct. I've seen a guy have a massive grand-mal seizure because someone bet him that he couldn't go one day without taking xanax. He took the bet without knowing what he was doing, and benzo withdrawal could have taken his life.

Just like everyone else, the OP (mrdqb) could die from trying to lower his tolerance by not taking any benzos for a day . It is possible that he might make it through without a seizure, but that is beside the point. Tricomb was simply giving his best advice for harm-reduction, and in this case the possible "harm" involved is death. I don't mean to come-down too hard on anyone, but this is a really serious topic that every benzo user should know about. It does not take much to develop a physical dependence to benzos, and even a minor seizure can result in death (if the person is driving, etc)

 

[tricomb]

for some reason I can barely feel xanax/clonazepam/ativan. The first time 1mg of xanax put me out for about 4 hours. Now 10 of those don't really make me drowsy at all. so I stopped taking them all together. Also anyone try those 3mg xanax triangles? any thoughts. I have.. not sure if they are any good but i can't tell cuz i got this benzo tolerance. thanks. also does anyone take 100mg phenobarbitals? i swear they don't do anything.

I would advise you to stop being so reckless with your benzodiazepine AND barbituate abuse, you're headed nowhere, fast. Absolutely deadly poly-drug abuse. "For some reason I can barely feel" benzodiazepines, that mysterious reason, is not so mysterious, it's called tolerance, a side effect of drug dependency. Benzodiazepine and ESPECIALLY barbituate discontinuation syndrome is incredibly dangerous and can be fatal and you'll go through hell as the doctors frantically struggle to keep you alive and not seizing as the drugs they administer do nothing due to your tolerance and take desperate measures for which there isn't always established protocol. "What to do when a patient is in WD, we can't stop the grand maul/tonic clonic seizures, we don't know why the IV isn't working, just how high is his tolerance"

Once you've hit double digit dosing, you're in a whole new territory of addiction. I pray you never get to triple digit dosing.

Oh, and the 3mg Xanax XR are not any good for abuse, you can't just crush them and deactivate the time release.

edit: Hah, typed this out two hours ago and forgot to press submit. I see you have received more good advice.

^ Over exaggeration. Not everyone withdrawing from benzos or barbiturates will experience seizures. For example, temazepam abuse is very well known and documented due to an epidemic of abuse in Europe, Australia and elsewhere back in the 1980's and 1990's. So there is a lot of information on temazepam withdrawal.

Here's what they have in the literature:

Abrupt withdrawal after long term use from therapeutic doses of temazepam may result in a very severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. There are reports in the medical literature of at least six psychotic states developing after abrupt withdrawal from temazepam including delirium after abrupt withdrawal of only 30 mg of temazepam and in another case, auditory hallucinations and visual cognitive disorder developed after abrupt withdrawal from 10 mg of temazepam, 5 mg of nitrazepam and 0.5 mg of triazolam. Gradual and careful reduction of the dosage, preferably with a milder long-acting benzodiazepine such as clonazepam or diazepam, or even a milder short to intermediate acting benzodiazepine such as oxazepam or alprazolam, was recommended to prevent severe withdrawal syndromes from developing. Other strong hypnotic benzodiazepines, whether short, intermediate or long-acting are not recommended. Antipsychotics increase the severity of benzodiazepine withdrawal effects with an increase in the intensity and severity of convulsions. Depersonalisation has also been reported as a benzodiazepine withdrawal effect from temazepam.

Abrupt withdrawal from very high doses is even more likely to cause severe withdrawal effects. Withdrawal from very high doses of temazepam will cause severe hypoperfusion of the whole brain with diffuse slow activity on EEG. After withdrawal, abnormalities in hypofrontal brain wave patterns may persist beyond the withdrawal syndrome suggesting that organic brain damage may occur from chronic high dose abuse of temazepam. Temazepam withdrawal has been well known to cause a sudden and often violent death. Source (WikiDoc, which is written by established MD's with their name, photos, phone number, and creditentials right on the site).


In all that temazepam abuse and withdrawal, they reported "at least 6 psychotic states" - that's not much, considering the amount of abuse the drug went through. They report a "very severe withdrawal syndrome", but no mention of seizures.

Over exaggeration, more like harm reduction. I find it rather incredulous that you kokaino of all people post that bullshit. I never said that everyone should expect seizures, but they are an imminent danger, a very real possible outcome. God forbid you have one in the bathroom and fall and break your neck on the sink on your way down, or on the freeway on your way to the hospital.

You should know better. You are well aware this is a harm reduction focus forum.