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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Benzos Librium VS Clonazepam

ivorymoon

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 16, 2018
Messages
92
My old doctor used to prescribe me 3mg of Xanax a day. It worked wonderfully for my severe anxiety/panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I moved to another state and therefore starting seeing a new doctor. She wasn't willing to give me Xanax due to the fact that I also take Suboxone but she did prescribe me 1mg of Clonazepam a day.

I desperately wanted (and needed) it to work for me but it just doesn't. It hardly touches my anxiety, even when I take it sublingually. 1 mg is the maximum dose she's willing to prescribe to me. I also take Lexapro (depression/anxiety), Lamictal(depression/anxiety), Clonidine (anxiety), Elavil (sleep), and Vyvanse (severe exhaustion/improved mood/concentration/focus).

Since the Klonopin isn't working for me, I was thinking of asking her to switch me to the equivalent dose of Librium, which I've read is 50 mg.

However, before I ask about switching, I was curious about others experiences with Klonopin and Librium.
Which one worked better for managing your anxiety?
Which one did you find you developed a tolerance more slowly to?


Thank you so much in advance. I'm just desperately trying to get my anxiety to a point of being manageable rather than crippling/paralyzing.
 
It must have been hell dropping from 3mg xanax to 1mg clonazepam.I have serious lifelong anxiety disorder too so i can understand the Fears .
The only thing i know about librium is it takes forever to kick in ,so if you're used to anticipating your level of anxiety and take a pill accordingly, librium might not be very good at that,but it has a very long half life.If i were you id prefer the clonozepam and try to convince your doc to up your dosage .
 
What exactly was the doctor's stated rationale for not giving you Xanax? From what I hear, clonazepam is the most popular benzodiazepine for potentiating opioids including making a given amount of opioid last longer. 1 mg of clonazepam is quite a step down from 3 mg of alprazolam. What a quack.

I do know of someone who used difenoxin, clonidine, and clonazepam to make her one days' worth of Dilaudid (16 of the 8 mg tablets) last for eight days, sort of like the Maccabees with the lamp oil in the second temple in Jerusalem back in the day.
 
What exactly was the doctor's stated rationale for not giving you Xanax? From what I hear, clonazepam is the most popular benzodiazepine for potentiating opioids including making a given amount of opioid last longer. 1 mg of clonazepam is quite a step down from 3 mg of alprazolam. What a quack.

I do know of someone who used difenoxin, clonidine, and clonazepam to make her one days' worth of Dilaudid (16 of the 8 mg tablets) last for eight days, sort of like the Maccabees with the lamp oil in the second temple in Jerusalem back in the day.

Oddly enough in my country Canada clonazepam is the first benzo you would get if on methadone. Im on .5 3x a day on methadone but my doctor wouldn't switch me to lorazepam or a shorter acting one because she said they were not safe with methadone. They also hand lyrica like crazy to people on methadone. Most doctors know f all about the drugs they prescribe .
 
My old doctor used to prescribe me 3mg of Xanax a day. It worked wonderfully for my severe anxiety/panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I moved to another state and therefore starting seeing a new doctor. She wasn't willing to give me Xanax due to the fact that I also take Suboxone but she did prescribe me 1mg of Clonazepam a day.

I desperately wanted (and needed) it to work for me but it just doesn't. It hardly touches my anxiety, even when I take it sublingually. 1 mg is the maximum dose she's willing to prescribe to me. I also take Lexapro (depression/anxiety), Lamictal(depression/anxiety), Clonidine (anxiety), Elavil (sleep), and Vyvanse (severe exhaustion/improved mood/concentration/focus).

Since the Klonopin isn't working for me, I was thinking of asking her to switch me to the equivalent dose of Librium, which I've read is 50 mg.

However, before I ask about switching, I was curious about others experiences with Klonopin and Librium.
Which one worked better for managing your anxiety?
Which one did you find you developed a tolerance more slowly to?


Thank you so much in advance. I'm just desperately trying to get my anxiety to a point of being manageable rather than crippling/paralyzing.

They are similar drugs because of their long half-lives but there are some differences. Klonopin claims to have a duration of action of 6-12 hours. Half life is up to 50 hours. The difference between the duration of action and half life is duration of action tells how long you feel the effects of the drug. Half life describes how long it takes for 1/2 of the amount taken to leave your body. I cannot stress this enough - half life DOES NOT imply how long you will actually feel the medication - that is the duration of action. I find it lasts about that. Librium claims to have a duration of action of 6-8 hours so needs to be taken more often. Its half life is 5-30 hours for the primary drug but has active metabolites which can last up to 200 hours. Background finished.
I have found that librium is quite amazing at controlling anxiety. 25mg 3 times a day works well but 25mg 4 times a day is ideal. I know the conversion from clonazepam to librium at your dose puts librium at 50mg but I have never found a doctor willing to prescribe that does unless you're being treated for severe alcohol or benzo withdrawal. Given you doctor's unwillingness to prescribe more than 1mg of clonazepam it's more than likely she'll probably give you 25mg once a day or if you're lucky 25 twice a day. After 2 or 3 days 25mg twice a day might just hold you. Not may docs prescribe it anymore because it's an old med and you know, newer is better (rolling eyes). I hope this helps.

Good luck to you.
S.
 
1mg of Clonazepam isn't gonna work as well as 3mg of Alprazolam, u could even go into WD. ur doc should be matching ur Alprazolam dose with 3mg of Clonazepam.
 
My old doctor used to prescribe me 3mg of Xanax a day. It worked wonderfully for my severe anxiety/panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I moved to another state and therefore starting seeing a new doctor. She wasn't willing to give me Xanax due to the fact that I also take Suboxone but she did prescribe me 1mg of Clonazepam a day.

I desperately wanted (and needed) it to work for me but it just doesn't. It hardly touches my anxiety, even when I take it sublingually. 1 mg is the maximum dose she's willing to prescribe to me. I also take Lexapro (depression/anxiety), Lamictal(depression/anxiety), Clonidine (anxiety), Elavil (sleep), and Vyvanse (severe exhaustion/improved mood/concentration/focus).

Since the Klonopin isn't working for me, I was thinking of asking her to switch me to the equivalent dose of Librium, which I've read is 50 mg.

However, before I ask about switching, I was curious about others experiences with Klonopin and Librium.
Which one worked better for managing your anxiety?
Which one did you find you developed a tolerance more slowly to?


Thank you so much in advance. I'm just desperately trying to get my anxiety to a point of being manageable rather than crippling/paralyzing.
You're right, librium takes 1-2 hours to reach peak levels.
Elimination half-life
5–30 hours (Active metabolite desmethyldiazepam 36–200 hours: other active metabolites include oxazepam)
But remember half life of a drug has nothing to do with how long it lasts and you feel it. If it did weed would be the most popular and arguably the only drug people would use. Its half life is at least 30 days so if half life were an indicator of duration of action / active life / duration of effects you'd be stoned for at least a month after using.
Typically, the therapeutic effects of Librium can last anywhere from several hours to a full day, depending on dose, individual metabolism, and other personal health factors. As for the dose, I'm speaking from years of experience and at least 10 stays at an in-patient medical detox unit, you're unlikely to get a GP or psych to give you a script for 50mg of Librium. The max dose is 25mg 2-3 times a day. In the hospital for alcohol or benzo treatment I was given anywhere from 25mg tid for moderate alcohol withdrawal up to 50mg every 4 hours for severe benzo dependence.
Who knows though, maybe you'll get lucky but probably not with the doctor you described.
Best of luck to you! As I said I know what you're going through. 1mg Xanax tid to 1mg of Klonopin a day sucks. Klonopin works orders of magnitude better than Librium but you'd be better off on 25mg of Librium tid than you would on just 1mg of Klonopin. You might try asking for 1mg (2 is better but your doc sounds like a stickler for what she reads and not personal experience,which is the worst. I never have a second visit with those doctors) of lorazepam bid or tid. It kicks in pretty quickly and the effects last 10 hours. Maybe 12 depending on your body. I went to an addictionologist for 12-15 years and he had me on 1mg Klonopin tid, 6mg Suboxone 5 times a day for pain, 25mg Adderall IR bid then switched me to Vyvanse 40mg , 50mg hydroxyzine every six hours, Orphenadrine 100 bid, Baclofen 20mg tid, and Citalopram 40mg daily. Sooo there are doctors who don't just regurgitate what they read. Before that doc I saw a psych for 3 years. She had me on - - clench your ass - - 2mg Klonopin tid, 8mg Suboxone bid, 30mg Adderall IR bid, 40mg Citalopram, and 10mg Valium tid. It was great until I couldn't remember what happened on a TV show the previous week or had for dinner the night before and sometimes didn't remember conversations I had earlier in the day. NOT COOL!
That's probably a lot more than you bargained for but I like to be thorough especially when it comes to benzos. If you can get by with Vistaril (hydroxyzine pamoate) not Atarax (hydroxyzine hydrochloride). There is a long held belief that Vistaril is better for anxiety and Atarax for allergies. Though if you look it up you will find that individuals will say it is true and doctors will say that it is just an urban legend but I've had both before I looked it up because I was given Atarax once and it didn't seem to work as well. I asked my pharmacist about it and she said that they are not the same medicine. Since that's their wheelhouse I went with her interpretation. Sorry for the long tangent. You can find countless websites with info saying that Vistaril is just as effective as lorazepam for mild to moderate anxiety though you said yours is severe but perhaps you could adjust? You can also find a ton of abstracts from US govt sites such as the NIH which show the same. Also, I'm not sure if we can name sites but a site that rhymes with bugs.com will let you compare meds side by side in the user reviews section. Since you went from 3mg Xanax to 1mg Klonopin you have some idea of what trying to get off them is like and you DON'T want to be where I was years ago. It was truly a living hell that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
All the best to you. I hope things work out in your favor.
S.
 
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In short, if Clonazepam (Klonopin) is not working, then it would be strange for Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) to be effective at an equivalent dose. I'm not speaking to your specific case here, this next statement is more of a blanket one. People who are taking multiple controlled substances, especially someone with a history of addiction, would be lucky to be prescribed any Benzodiazepines at all. The relative risk to the prescribing doctor is astronomical.

Clonazepam and Alprazolam (Xanax) are essentially equipotent. The duration of action is somewhat different. Clonazepam is often stated to be a long-acting Benzodiazepine, though for most people it's effects are perceived as only slightly longer-acting than stuff like Alprazolam. Anyway, you've made a reduction of 2/3 in your Benzodiazepine intake. It is likely going to take some time and discomfort for you to regain a sense of homeostasis.

I hope and I actually believe that if you give it time, you will adjust and will experience less discomfort. I know this will probably make me sound like a huge dick, but I would actually be grateful that you have not been completely withdrawn from Benzodiazepines, as that would be a totally different story. It's not at all out of character for doctors in the US to do this without any care or concern for the patient's withdrawal.
 
Wouldn't adderall and other Sims make anxiety worse, that could be why benzos are not working. The few times I've taken Sims my clonzepam don't work as well
 
Not the best solution, especially if you can't control your use but you could order some kind of 'legal high' benzo if you're in the US or Canada.

Etizolam being very similar to alprazolam structurely.
Though etizolam exports from India are being stopped, so it won't be a long-term solution.
 
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