Benzos Long term benzo users: Have you noticed any cognitive decline?

[Transcendence]

I'd like to aim this question particularly towards those of you who are students or have an intellectually demanding job. Obviously any changes are going to be a lot less noticeable if you sit around all day or do drone work.

As far as I know, the jury is still out on whether long term benzo use/abuse causes any structural brain damage. Obviously one's cognition and memory in particular are going to be impaired while using benzos. But after stopping all use and getting through withdrawals, have you noticed that your memory is still fucked or that your mind doesn't seem as sharp as it used to?

 

[the red shark]

I am a student and if anything benzos help. They privide clarity when writitng essays so i am not thinking about random shit, I can focus without stress sort of thing and as a bartender when I am under the pump really busy xanax allows me to focus on the task at hand kinda like taking a deep breath and my memory is fine 6 different spirits with 6 different mixers I'm all over it. Without the benzos I'd be stresiing and forget what went with what.

 

[Dunno]

After about 5+ years of use, no, they fuck you up being still on them not only cognitive, in other ways

 

[hydrochron]

I'm a student also. And I think benzos are beneficial when it comes to "debates" in class, anything that involves alot of talking.

But even then you might slur a word.

As for work, they slow you down, and impair your memory and ability to think without you being able to tell the difference.

Going to school and not taking benzo's is obviously alot better for you.

Yes they do impair your thinking and how good your going to do in school, if you have a 3.0 on benzo's you can have a 4.2 without them.

Peace.

 

[burn out]

i was on benzos for about a year and a half and they definitely affected my cognition but the biggest affect was in withdrawal which i haven't gotten though yet (15 months and counting) so i can't answer your final questions. i do wonder if there is actually an end to withdrawal though. if there isn't, then yes, they affected me cognitively in a big way. i would not be able to attend school right now its so bad.

 

[Jabberwocky]

long term benzo use can definitely cause cognition problems. there's reasearch studies/journals/papers out there on the subject.

as for your main question - i went through a couple month period of withdrawal coming of valium. it took a long while (many months on top) of no use and getting my mind and body more pro-active again before i felt myself coming back to reality and out of the fog.

 

[adder]

I was about to start lowering my clonazepam dose (earlier I went down to 6mg from 30mg). It didn't work out. What's more interesting I take short exams every week from one subject and on lower dose I did a lot of stupid mistakes like wrong counting etc. Partly it might have been caused by pressure (the doctor I have these lectures with is terrible so you actually sit and have no time to think because you've got 3 minutes to write quite a lot of text and it's chemistry).

Anyway, when I got back to my regular dose I started doing things like automatically. I also take methadone and it mixes up with benzodiazepines very well to give you a concrete high. Anyway, with my doses being stable for quite a long time now I can do all those things and I don't notice any major drop in my intelligence. Any failures are more caused by lack of motivation than lack of brain cells... I also started taking estazolam from time to time to have higher levels of benzodiazepines in my blood, there's no magic like years ago, it's no hypnotic for me, it's a superb socializing benzo for me now that I have such a tolerance. Also, I can take 2mg of clonazepam more during harder days as I always get 360mg and that covers 60 days but I visit my doctor more often than every 60 days. Actually, I've already seen through her and she doesn't really mind giving me scripts for clonazepam (with "P", meaning here it's for chronic treatment and with clonazepam that also means I pay nothing for it) as she thinks there's no escape for me from this now... (yeah, crazy treatment for BPD, I also get scripts for other drugs but I don't buy them, I guess I've already taken every evil psychiatric shit available here).

Well, it's a paradox but that's how it is. When I'm relaxed, I can do things better. Not as good as I would if I weren't addicted - I'm sure - but good.

 

[villian]

7 years on benzos, almost a year since I quit and my cognition has been obviously effected.

Tried to go back to school and it was pathetic.

I got some Piracetam in the mail the other day going to try that and hope for the best

Quite a few studies were done.. some related reading @ http://www.benzos.une.edu/documents/benzowithdrawalmetaanalysis.pdf

tl;dr

Results of the meta-analyses indicated that long-term benzodiazepine users
do show recovery of function in many areas after withdrawal. However, there remains a significant
impairment in most areas of cognition in comparison to controls or normative data.

 

[adder]

Well, I've used benzodiazepines (mostly lorazepam, estazolam, lormetazepam, and clonazepam) for almost 7 years daily and while certainly I can't say I'm the same person intellectually as I was when I was like 12 and I was a really smart kid, I don't have problems continuing my education.

I don't want to deny studies on memory and cognition impairment after chronic usage of benzodiazepines here but to be honest now I work better on it than I would without it (well, actually it's impossible for me to quit now as it would take a lot of time and I've already taken one break at university that cost me one year, anyway this wasn't due to my addiction but because of hypothyroidism).

 

[Captain.Heroin]

I don't use benzos frequently and never have but I notice no differences at all with occasional use.

 

[Dopiate112]

ive been on clonazapam for 4 years now im 24....and i use to take 6 x 2mg a day (mostly at night/after dinner)...i dropped don to taking only 3 x 0.5 at nite now and i havnt realy noticed any changes in the cog. department...alot of ppl i know say they wake up angry or they do stupid things like fight with there girlfriends or boyfriends for no reason and then the next day they have no reason why they did what they did...almost like they have complete memory loss...my one buddy got into a fite with his gf and slashed her tires and yesterday the the methadone clinic we were talking and he didnt know why he did it...he had no reason and was confused...my other buddy used to steal stuff from stores like wal mart and stuff and not know why he was doing so...others have done the extreme like stolen cars and got caught and been like " i have no clue why i did that"...but ive never experience any of this behaviour myself..never...i mite wake up sometimes with a weakend stomach, but thats about it...almost like my stomach feels like its eating itself..but ya thats all i can say for this...cheers...

 

[NFloyd]

used to be an A student - since using/abusing (over 3 years) benzo's i changed my major to a less demanding one, dropped to a part time student and get worse grades. i don't "recognize" any ill effects, but i've seen the consequences that i can only associate with my benzo use