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switching from lorazepam (benzo thread)

R

revkoz

Greenlighter
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
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6
Hey guys, i have a couple of quick questions and comments about benzos.
I have been prescribed various amounts of lorazepam over the last couple of years, i started out on a small script of clonazepam and that did very little. The ativan helped starting out getting 45 .5's per month, then it was upped to 60 1 mg's per month. After that i got a DUI and the doc reduced my script to 30 1mg's per month. For the last 5 years I have suffered from a severe panic/anxiety disorder diagnosed by several psychiatrists/psychologists.
My question is when people all over are getting large scripts of xanax and valium only to do recriationally and sell, why can't I get a script of something a bit stronger or more when i would and do take it as prescribed. My life has been spiraling out of control due to my anxiety and something needs to change. If anyone has any tips on getting an upped dose or stronger benzo please help out. Any information is greatly appreciated and believe me when i say i do not intend to abuse this drug in any way shape or form.
 
Are you interested in seeing a really quality psychiatrist who'll follow you closely, maybe prescribe you an antidepressant, and refer you to cognitive therapy along with the pharmacotherapy? You don't want drugs to be your only way out of a panic attack, *trust me*. If you can pull off a combo of drugs, therapy, and biofeedback or yoga, you'll be much happier and healthier.

This thread should be in Healthy Living, by the way! Welcome to Bluelight!
 
True about the healthy living, i just didnt think about that to be completely honest. I have been participating in counseling and taken many different anti-depressanst including SSRIs and others. None of these seem to help although I completely see where you are coming from. The only thing i have found to help was serious cognitive therapy and benzos. Thanks for the quick reply and intellectual response. Truly.
 
Get another psychiatrist. And don't be so honest with him. Use whatever insight you have to not set off the doctor's DRUG SEEKER alarm--which would suck because, per your report, you are not a drug seeker in the clinical sense of the term: you have a diagnosed chronic anxiety disorder (which type? social? generalized?) that is not responding to your current regimen of lorazepam 1mg qd prn (they put the prn on the script as a joke). Is that all you take? Also, what have you taken before? Clonazepam is stronger than lorazepam but I find that doses lower than 1 mg bid are ineffective. The good thing about clonazepam is it's lengthy half-life; in contrast to, eg, alprazolam, clonazepam delivers 7-10 hours of anxiety reduction with less sedation than other benzos. Also, I'm guessing you probably take the lorazepam in the morning; I work at an outpatient psychiatric clinic and I'm tired of idiotic psychiatrists prescribing lorazepam at bedtime (qhs) for anxiety, especially since the anxiolytic effec ts have subsided by the time one rises.

And so then I take it you sleep less than 5 hours a night. Consider telling your psychiatrist to supplement your Ativan script with at least 15 mg Mirtazapine qhs. Mirtazapine will knock you the fuck out for a good 8 hrs and you'll have unbelievable dreams. During the day, Mirtazapine will keep your anxiety levels at bay, and you can assist it by taking lorazepam when you feel the anxiety breaking through.

If you were my patient I'd start you on alprazolam 1 mg bid, and eventually raise your dose to 1 mg tid. The beauty of alprazolam is that among the popular benzos, it has the most palpable "kick," allowing a patient to feel intensely comfortable and sociable among others. I take 2 mg of alprazolam when I get to work in the morning and 1 mg after lunch. That makes me talk a lot with those around me and raises my latent inhibition. Morning doses are the day's most important and if you start your day off well, you may not need any extra anxiolytics during PM hours because your mind will be better prepared (we say "conditioned") to handle stress. Stacking the benzos in the first third of the day has the unfortunate consequence of causing late-afternoon lethargy, fatigue, apathy and abulia; I deal with these by taking at least 1 mg Adderall at 8am and 1 mg after lunch, as well as plenty of caffeine and, on rare occasions, 25 mg of ephedrine. If it seems like I'm self-medicating, you should know that my psychiatrist is fully aware of every aspect of my regimen and is aware that I was addicted to IV heroin or methadone for nearly a decade. Again, I have to stress the importance of having an open and functional relationship with your psychiatrist.

What were the circumstances of your DUI? Did you deserve it? Were you only on the Ativan at the time? Don't make the mistake of filling in the lorazepam's shortcomings with alcohol: it'll fuck up whatever balance you may otherwise gain with the benzos.

Other ineffective benzos I see prescribed a lot: diazepam, clorazepate, estazolam, chlordiazepoxide. Especially diazepam, which is probably the most over-rated drug ever. Valium is absolutely useless and I wish it would die a quick and fiery death.

As far as psychotherapy: do find yourself a good therapist, non-condescending and adept at teaching cognitive-behavioral techniques. If the shrink doesn't have as much influence as a good sensei, keep looking. The fight-or-flight reflex is so wackily hard-wired in people with chronic severe anxiety that you will need a fucking engineer to help you own your emotions.
 
^ Benzos + Amphetamine is a very, very, very bad idea.

I disagree with the psychiatrist advice (psychiatrists are useless, see a psychologist), and I agree with the not being too honest advice.
 
On alprazolam 2 mg qam 1 mg qpm since 2003. Started modafinil 200 mg qd in January 2008 to deal with PAWS after discontinuing methadone. D/C modafinil in June 2008 due to it being expensive as fuck; started Adderall 10 mg bid in June 2008 and have been at that dose ever since. Currently my doctor is trying to get me to raise Adderall to either 15 mg bid or 20 mg qam 10 mg qpm. I'm not sure why, but my doctor has gotten a lot friendlier since I started taking the Adderall. In 5 years I've never seen him so enthusiastic about my regimen.
 
^ You have a fucked up doctor.

So I see you're still fresh with this combo. I felt the same way you did when I was prescribed it (Dexedrine + Bromazepam). Two psychotic episodes and a heart-attack later, I decided it wasn't worth it.

Good luck.
 
I think you have to add that a lot of experts think caffeine is way worse regarding anxiety disorders than amphetamines. I also suffer from generalized and social anxiety disorder and high amounts of caffeine let me freak out while moderate doses of Pseudoephedrine are not that bad. (But I have no experience with "real" amphetamines.

Best regards.
 
yes what nutbag doctor would prescribe stimulants to someone suffering from anxiety , sure the benzos will cover it up for a while , but tolerance to the anxiety killing effects of benzos build rapipdly while the negative effects of stimulants tend to get more pronounced over time , so its not a question of if you go into psychosis or a serious anxiety attack (the one that ends with you waking up in a psych ward ) but WHEN
 
I have to disagree that tolerance to benzos make them ineffective over long periods of time. The guy who started this thread is probably developing tolerance to lorazepam but he's on a very low dose (plus, we were given no information about body mass and I suspect his DUI involved more than just 2 mg Ativan). In the case of alprazolam, it is approved in the US only for the short-term tx of acute anxiety, but studies have shown that patients who don't abuse alprazolam can continue benefiting from a maintenance dose indefinitely.

Thanks for the warnings about amphetamine. I took 100 mg of 5-HTP last night and this morning, about 20 minutes after I took my first Adderall, I went into what seemed like serotonin toxicity (heart rate was 140 bpm sitting down). In class I had a hypomanic episode and ripped the chalk out of the professor's hand and started using sigma notation to show him how to calculate genotypic probability in polyhybrid crosses, and he and everybody really wanted to kick my ass.
 
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