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Benzos Need advice on comming off benzos

S

showcase

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
37
Hello! i am new to bluelight. Ive looked thorugh the site many times for information, but now ive made an account and I am asking for some advice. Ive been prescribed Ativan (lorazepam) for the last 4 months or so for anxiety. Ive been on Immovane (zopiclone) since last October for insomnia. For the first while I only took about 0.5mg of ativan a day, then that turned into 1mg, then 2mg and now ive been taking 4mg a day for last week or so. On top of that I take 7.5mg zopiclone every night aswell. Now im very worried im addicted to the benzo, and I want to go off of it. Ive read that going cold turkey is a bad idea. Should i just start cutting my dose over time? any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance :)
 
im somewhat on the same boat as you, I went cold turkey 3 days ago after 2-3 weeks of taking between 1-1.5mg of xanax a day, also drank alcohol on some nights, and its literally been the worst 3 days of my life, worst headache ever, on top of which I started getting a little shakey and sweating like I had the flu, sinuses also built up. I researched it a bit and these are all withdrawal symptoms. now I havent been on anything for that long and the pharmacy just WONT refill my prescription for another 2 weeks, so a friend gave me some ativan tonight and its finally helped my headache and just general bad feeling. so yea.. cold turkey is a bad idea, i plan on tapering off myself with the next refill. and just keep the extras for anxiety attacks only.
 
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/ check out taper schedules and dose converters. Ideally, you want to switch to diazepam (valium) and slowly taper from that. After 4 months, i'm sorry to say but you are dependent. Some people can quit without symptoms, but not many. Take it slow, see a Dr. for help and read the link i gave you, you will learn a whole lot about what you will experience and how to deal with it. If you were prescribed benzos and zopiclone, which work in similar ways, your Dr. should have warned you and not prescribed it to you for such a long time, but it's too late now, at least your doc will probably be receptive to switching you over to valium. Don't quit cold turkey!!
 
Thats my problem as well. I just ran out tonight, and I wont get a refill for another week or so. My mom takes ativan as well, so ill need to ask for some untill my prescription is ready for a refill. Id like to use this refill to taper off, and hopfully get off completly.
 
RobotRipping said:
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/ check out taper schedules and dose converters. Ideally, you want to switch to diazepam (valium) and slowly taper from that. After 4 months, i'm sorry to say but you are dependent. Some people can quit without symptoms, but not many. Take it slow, see a Dr. for help and read the link i gave you, you will learn a whole lot about what you will experience and how to deal with it. If you were prescribed benzos and zopiclone, which work in similar ways, your Dr. should have warned you and not prescribed it to you for such a long time, but it's too late now, at least your doc will probably be receptive to switching you over to valium. Don't quit cold turkey!!
Click to expand...

Thank you for the link, ill be reading this all tonight.
 
showcase said:
Thats my problem as well. I just ran out tonight, and I wont get a refill for another week or so. My mom takes ativan as well, so ill need to ask for some untill my prescription is ready for a refill. Id like to use this refill to taper off, and hopfully get off completly.
Click to expand...

yes, i ran out 3 days ago and i thought "I've only been on this for a little more than 2 weeks how bad could it be," oh its bad. 3 day migraine my head still hurts but I took 1mg of ativan tonight and i feel 1000x better, although i still have a hint of a headache, but I do feel a lot better. So yes i would suggest you borrow some ativan from your mom, for when the symptoms start to bother you hard.
 
all will say omg its hell but don't assume it will be for you for a reasonably short peroid. For me I was taking 5-15mg daily of valium for 10-12 months assuming it would be nigh impossible for me to quit and I went cold turkey with minimal discomfort to my surprise. Yes high dose long term cold turkey is dangerous but you aren't in that category so don't think yourself into a hell withdrawal when it may not be the case at all.
 
I could be mistaken, but isn't lorazepam one of the, uh, safer benzos? I'm not sure how safe, exactly, any benzo can really be, but I know that xanax is a real son of a bitch to come down from.

I had been taking xanax for quite some time, then, one day, suffered a grand mal seizure after running out just a couple of days early. It's strange, though, because I don't remember feeling any worse than normal. I was working on writing a paper, reached for my coffee, took a sip, and then that was it... I woke up in my bed with my girlfriend on the end of it crying hysterically and asking me what I remembered.

But anyway, once I got to the ER they prescribed me a week's worth of lorazepam. Before all this, the xanax and the seizure and all, I had been taking klonopin (clonazepam) in large, large doses. I quit taking klonopin cold turkey as well without suffering seizures and without feeling all of the typical withdrawal symptoms.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you may not feel all that terrible, but please, keep in mind that seizures and what not are still a very real possibility.
 
Since i first posted, ive gone cold turkey. And it seems to be as the days go on, i feel worse and worse. My anxiety level is through the roof, I feel sick to my stomach, and I feel very jittery and nervous. Any idea how long this is supposed to last, and when Ill feel better??
 
i heard 72 hours is supposed to be the worst. most say a week or so til you slowly starting to get a grip on yourself, I'd goto a doctor and taper. the few .5mg ativans that i've had when the symptoms got serious has been working wonders. also go pick up a bottle of L-theanine from the vitamin shoppe.
 
they say the best benzos for tapering off is the ones with the longest half life (klonopin, valium). preferably klonopin as it is MG dose equal to xanax MG, as xanax is the most commonly RXed benzo and problem when tapering..klonopin is the way to go. Ativan is the way to go when it comes to less "beneficial/effects", it doesnt really have an impact on you like other benzos, however it has a shorter half life and WD may be worse then benzos with a longer half life, regardless if ativan isnt even too sedating, its still a benzo, and is addicting
 
dont cold turkey benzos - worst case call ambulance and say you cant breathe (they will come and chekc if you have a heart attack) and once they find out its a panic attack give you some benzos. Once you have some benzos in the system, go and look for some valium and do a a taper the day after. I've cold turkeyed opiates, but only tried benzo cold turkey once and about 30 hours in I knew its not healthy and promptly wnet to the ER to get some valium and then to my doc for more of the same.
 
I'm in the same boat too. Sometime in May my doctor prescribed me 10mg of Ambien for insomnia as well as Klonopin .5mgs as needed for anxiety. I took the Ambien just like I was supposed to but I had a LITTLE bit of fun with the kpins which completely fucked my tolerance and the Ambien stopped working(i could take 60mgs at once on an empty stomach and still be wide awake). I felt like Xanax would be better bc it is shorter acting and wouldn't leave me feeling out of it for 8hrs like the klonopin. I asked my doc and received a big bottle w/ 90 1mg Xannies to take 3x a day as needed. I ran through these in 1 month and by the end, I was dependent on Xanax. I got all the w/d symptoms and felt like complete shit until I got my kpin script refilled. I decided to taper w/ them which I am currently doing.

Check out the Ashton Manual(the link posted above) which shows how to taper off all types of benzos. The only downside is that you have to get a script of valium. The best thing I can say is that the slower your taper is, the less symptoms of w/d you will have..if any at all
 
Here are some helpful compounds for coming off of benzos-- L-Theanine, as mentioned above. L-Tryptophan. Taurine. Honokiol, which is an awesome compound but expensive. Valerian extract, gotta get the potent stuff. Kava, but there are liver risks with Kava. If you get good quality Kava and you aren't regularly consuming other hepatoxic substances, I'm sure it would be fine in the short term. Phenibut... maybe, seeing as it is a GABA-b agonist you could just end up addicted to this instead, only use small doses, no more than a gram a day. Magnesium is good for anxiety as well. Sounds basic and silly, but your body has a magnesium/calcium balance similar to it's sodium/potassium balance. You want the ratio to favor magnesium, slows down calcium ion channels. As someone who is on 2mg/day clonazepam, been on clonazepam for 2 years now, and tapered down from 3mg, I say stay away from benzos. I want to be off of them. Best of luck, man!
 
you do not want to CT a benzo, an opi sure its hell but CT a benzo u might get a grand mal
id taper down 0.5 a week, don't go faster cos really its not worth the risk
good luck
 
I'm tapering 5mg of valium per week...down to 15 mg per day. Even this WD sucks...still getting mad anxiety. Definitely dont cold turkey.
 
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