Benzos Lorazepam once worked - not anymore, only Alprazolam and Bromazepam

[Michael1706]

5-6 years ago I took Lorezapam in 2,5 mg tablets (2 of them would get me happy and careless) for both anxiety and recreationally. Worked wonders for anxiety.

I made a break and in 2014 had a flight - Lorezepam 5 mg....and... nothing happened! I was anxious all the way and had taken 5 mg 30 min before the start. I hadn't taken any in months before that.

Last 1,5 years I struggle with addiction, because 30 years of age is not that far anymore and I haven't accomplished anything in my life besides German "Abitur" which entitles you to study on uni's.
Struggling with Social Phobia since youth, at about 21-23 a GAD manifested and gets worse. Now I suffer from moderate to severe depression also. Barely able to do my education, 2nd year, and apart from school I work part time - 6 hours on a regular day. Have girlfriend....guilt in my heart, financially it's tough.

To make it short. I usually take 1-2 mg Alprazolam (they are 1 mg tablets) for work and 4-6 mg per dose on school days (Once a day, pregabalin for sleep) It works, although I get tired after those first 1-2 euphoric hours. Still, better than anxious all the time. Or I take Bromazepam, 6 mg tablets, doing a great job because all charts say (0.5 mg Alprazolam= 6 mg Bromazepam). So 1 of my 1 mg Alprazolam tablets should equate 2 of my 6 mg tablets. For me it works more like 1,5 Bromezepam tablets = 1 Alprazolam tablet instead of 2:1. Still, Alprazolam widely known as Xanax gives me that extra kick for very miserable situations, slightly anti depressive.

Now, this morning I took 4 x 2,5 mg Lorazepam. I felt nothing at all, even worse than before. Paradoxical effect possible when you've taken a specific benzo numerous times before in the past with success?

 

[Nod Alot]

I would guess it IS possible, especially with lorazepam... in my opinion that is. For whatever reason I got strange effects from it that I didn’t get with any other benzos.

I find it’s the least effective benzo, again, this is only my opinion. When I would take a good dose of it I would barely feel it. It wouldn’t give me effects of other benzos I’ve tried/been prescribed (such as Valium, Klonopin, Xanax, Restoril, etc.)

And it’s the only drug I’ve taken that’s given me ‘sleep paralysis’, on several occasions. That shit was scary as hell! One time I was laying in bed in this half awake/half asleep state and I couldn’t move. It felt like I was going to fall off the side of my bed, so I wanted to move away from the edge but my body wouldn’t listen to me and move. Hella weird.

 

[BurritoJimmy]

It's probably not paradoxical effect. More likely it's random. You're going to have wild swings in how you feel due to the fact that you take large doses of short acting benzos.

 

[Nicholai]

4-6mgs of Xanax in one go on a regular basis is really quite a bit. I'm not surprised you don't feel the Ativan. To me it feels subjectively 'lighter' than these other hard-hitting benzos you're taking.

 

[dood42069]

4-6mgs of Xanax in one go on a regular basis is really quite a bit. I'm not surprised you don't feel the Ativan. To me it feels subjectively 'lighter' than these other hard-hitting benzos you're taking.

Agreed.

 

[truenamebrand]

I would guess it IS possible, especially with lorazepam... in my opinion that is. For whatever reason I got strange effects from it that I didn’t get with any other benzos.

I find it’s the least effective benzo, again, this is only my opinion. When I would take a good dose of it I would barely feel it. It wouldn’t give me effects of other benzos I’ve tried/been prescribed (such as Valium, Klonopin, Xanax, Restoril, etc.)

And it’s the only drug I’ve taken that’s given me ‘sleep paralysis’, on several occasions. That shit was scary as hell! One time I was laying in bed in this half awake/half asleep state and I couldn’t move. It felt like I was going to fall off the side of my bed, so I wanted to move away from the edge but my body wouldn’t listen to me and move. Hella weird.

I second a lot of this. Lorazepam’s effects for me are quite distinct from other benzos, and not in a good way. I’ve shuffled benzos MANY times due to tolerance and lorazepam was by far the benzo I used for the shortest time, due to its uselessness and strange feeling it gave me.

On that note, it’s also possible it has stopped working for you due to being on it for a while. Unfortunately this is a common theme with benzos, and ultimately none are going to work like they did in the beginning. Like I said, I’ve been down this road to nowhere countless times — going from clonazepam to lorazepam to alprazolam to diazepam back to alprazolam back to diazepam back to clonazepam.

 

[keeping]

4-6mgs of Xanax in one go on a regular basis is really quite a bit. I'm not surprised you don't feel the Ativan. To me it feels subjectively 'lighter' than these other hard-hitting benzos you're taking.

^ this.
you're not experiencing any paradoxical effects, you're just getting more and more wound up because Ativan won't touch your habit.
one thing is that you may be experiencing some rebound anxiety, benzos are well known for that.
have you tried to deal with your anxiety with anything other than xanax? exercise, yoga, deep breathing even dietary changes can have great benefits.

 

[clubcard]

Bromazepam's 2-pyridyl moiety means it is more like pyrazolam than any prescribed benzo. Pyrazolam is not fun but it IS selective. Research on bromazepam LED to pyrazolam... I mean, anyone seen the synth? Why go to that much effort when the 2' chloro analogue of alprazolam is much more spectacular? It took the Chinese almost 3 years to work out a route to pyrazolam! Much work went into the 'painting by numbers' QSAR and then in vitro affinity data.... of something that cannot be patented....