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Harm Reduction Alcohol after tapering off benzos?

C

chrisalt

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
369
I just finished my taper of clonzepam last thursday (4/5/12). I was wondering since alcohol works on the brain and GABA receptors like benzos do would it be a be stupid idea to go out a drink a few beers(literally like atmost 3) with some friends tonight? I dont want to throw myself back into withdrawals or have a seizure or some bs in a couple days. I was taking 4 mgs for about 2 years. In November 2011 i dropped to 2 mgs and then down by 0.125mg a week in jan 2012 untill last week.

any advice/opinions would be great.
 
You probably wouldn't throw yourself back into w/d, but if you drink a lot (probably more than what you said you'd drink) you could have a seizure on the way to sobering up. Have you ever had a seizure? What was w/d and tapering on the benzos like? If it was really hard and/or you have had a seizure, I'd say hold off on the booze. Otherwise three beers will probably be fine. If you do drink, stay away from stims like cocaine, or anything that will lower your seizure threshold.

Regardless you're much better off just giving yourself some more time before you put any cns depressants into your body, especially one that can lower (after spiking) your seizure threshold.
 
Thanks for the reply, and yeah thats what i figured. The withdrawal wasnt too bad but im comparing it to going cold turkey off 4 mgs minimum a day when I was a little younger 19(im 24 now). That was hell, I never had a seizure though. I got lucky I guess. I wasn't really into HR when I was a teen.
 
I would hold off honestly. Clonazepam has a long half life, and there is still a chance that there is some left in your system though it would be a very minuscule ammount. Tapering off benzo's is no easy feat, you should give GABAergics a break for a while, you don't want to risk screwing up your progress :)
 
Leftover clonazepam in the system is not the problem, it's the damage to teh GABA receptors. I came off benzos nearly three years ago and I had a horrific withdrawal. To this day, I still cannot drink alcohol and have it effect me like a normal person.

I spent years on benzo withdrawal "support" forums, although if anyone knows what went down on those forums in the past years, they will understand why support is in quotations. Anyway, the majority of people who came off benzos reported that drinking alcohol threw them back into benzo withdrawals, sometimes for months or years after one night of drinking. The terrifying thing is that some people claimed they were completely healed from benzos, drank a pint of beer and were thrwon backl into benzo withdrawal for the next few years. Nothing like that happened to me thankfullly. All that happened to me when i tried drinking was that, it was no longer fun or enjoyable like it used to be before benzo wd, i didnt get any euphoria from it nor did i even get relief from my benzo wd symptosm. it was like the benzo wd over powered the alcohol. Then the next day, i woke up with a hangover (even though i only drank 4.5 beers) and some inner vibrations (which was a benzo symptom) that may have been brought back by the alcohol. Luckily I was fine by the next day, so I had no reall problems with alcohol, i just didn't enjoy it and I havent really seen it worth risking drinking again. I did have a little whiskey recently and some wine on another occasion, but again, both times i did not enjoy the effects.

So wherther you want to take the risk is up to you, but personally i dont see it as being worth the risk. If you want to get buzzed, use a non GABAergic drug. For example, I became a heroin addict.
 
burn out said:
Anyway, the majority of people who came off benzos reported that drinking alcohol threw them back into benzo withdrawals, sometimes for months or years after one night of drinking. The terrifying thing is that some people claimed they were completely healed from benzos, drank a pint of beer and were thrwon backl into benzo withdrawal for the next few years.
Click to expand...

That does sound terrifying! So glad ive only ever had a benzo WD once(Xanax 6mg/day(for oxy WD or potentiation) sometimes twice for a few months) years ago, I was withdrawing from oxy as well and back then I couldnt really tell what was the benzo WD and what was the opiate WD so I cant say much on the topic but what I highlighted in bold is what will keep me from ever becoming addicted to benzo's, it sounds awful and very scary. As they say, benzo WD is 100 times worse than ope WD and I cant imagine anything worse than methadone WD. The fact that it lasts so long makes me wonder how doctors can just take people off em and expect them to be fine through the WD, ive heard of it happening often.
 
I've tapered down to less than a milligram of diazepam at times, and while tapering down if I drank I experienced pretty bad withdrawals the next day. Mind you this was heavy drinking, but one night of it would result in me having "the shakes," as well as rebound anxiety.
 
I have had a same tapering experience as Tommyboy, down to 1.25mg diazepam a day for about 6 weeks before jumping off.

In my experience, even having 2 beers left me anxious for the next two days. With moderate drinking (6+ drinks) came absolutely horrible rebound anxiety after it wore off, enough to make myself justify taking a bit of diazepam the next few days.

It's astounding how sensitive you are to the rebound anxiety effects during benzo withdrawal/PAWS.
 
i been on klonopin 3mg daily for three years, and my primary just the other day kicked me off of it, and dropped me frm his practice for a dirty random urine tox. he didnt even taper me! unethical, illegal?! IDK WHAT TO DO!?i been getting by with not much but i gotta do something this is not fun its the worst WD ever, opiate WD is a fuckin cake walk compared to benzo WD
 
Opiatekrazy, get to another doctor ASAP and try to get on some benzos. This should be easy since you've been on them for so long. If that's not an option, you might need to go to the hospital. I'm not sure, maybe not? 3mg isn't a huge habit but it certainly could be dangerous.

I would recommend L-Theanine at 400mg or Kava Kava tincture in glass bottles, but 3mg of clonazepam is too big of a habit for these OTC remedies to work.

DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL, it will help for a couple hours, then make you feel like shit, and it actually can cause seizures when it wears off.
 
opiatekrzy said:
i been on klonopin 3mg daily for three years, and my primary just the other day kicked me off of it, and dropped me frm his practice for a dirty random urine tox. he didnt even taper me! unethical, illegal?! IDK WHAT TO DO!?i been getting by with not much but i gotta do something this is not fun its the worst WD ever, opiate WD is a fuckin cake walk compared to benzo WD
Click to expand...

You need to seek medical attention ASAP.

3 years of 3mg daily cold turkey could cause you to have a seizure.
 
Ditto on what Tripman said. I've been on the same dose for the same period of time. I can get away with taking 2-2.5mg/day for a 3-4 day stretch or so if I don't have more than a few alcoholic beverages but that's about it. I'm a bartender though so avoiding drinking can be tough. I've also had some problems with alcohol in the past. Nothing where I couldn't just say, "woah" and slow down but yeah. As others have said alcohol should be avoided or consumed very moderately, like slowly sipping a single glass of red wine over dinner kind of moderate. But yeah, you need to seek immediate medical attention, opiatekrzy. And what ever you do, avoid all stims including caffeine. If you are on bupropion, halve your dose for the time being. Any ADHD meds, stop taking them. Theanine is wonderful, albeit expensive. It's a very mild gabaergic and I will probably take it as a daily supplement after I grow the balls to taper off clonazepam. As far as whether it was ethical to do that to you, the answer is a clear and resounding "no". Illegal? You could make that argument seeing as your doctor knowingly put you at risk for potentially life threatening status seizures. If he was really worried he should have put you on a relatively short diazepam taper AT THE VERY LEAST. Go to the ER if you need to but if you can get a last minute Dr's appointment and explain the situation you are more likely to get more than just a few milligrams of diazepam. The ER deals with addicts trying to hit them up for drugs all day long and they often just assume you're trying to score. Theanine, Kava and Valerian might help you hold out a little bit, or help supplement a lower dose of benzos, but you need to get back on benzos ASAP. If I may ask what did the tox screen come back dirty with? If it was just weed, that's some bullshit and many doctors will be understanding. Best of luck man! On a side note, as for finally kicking benzos... A lot of you have said alcohol is pretty much out of the question for you even after a while of being clean. Is this the norm? I would like to be able to sit around and have a glass of wine with my girl over dinner or have a pint or two after work. Mostly for social reasons. I took an 8 month hiatus on drinking ending about a year ago and honestly I didn't miss the booze so much as I hated being the teetotaler, it was very socially awkward. It probably didn't help that I just ended up smoking more (a lot more) weed to compensate. I'm also 25 and live in the middle of a major east coast city where social life pretty much revolves around going out, especially in the service industry. Sorry for the long rambling post.
 
Bullshit they were trown back years after a binge drink. It's amazing how neurotic people get, after been through a WD. The longest study done on people with benzo wd, is a year. Why do you think that is? After a couple of months tops, people are not in wd anymore. It doesn't make sense to make a study longer then a year
In your case, I'll surely make an exception but there is no such things as damage to the GABA receptors with benzo use. It doesn't exist in the scientific literature, but people still love to scream out loud about it. The only "Damage" caused to the brain, would be in the case of a seizure, or lack of oxygen.

Educate yourself before opening your mouth and babbeling out "facts", without having a clue about what's going on. And No, the "everyone is different" argument don't cut it as it do not mean anything essentially
 
Ive ready many a report on here of x benzo users getting thrown back into withdrawal from drinking.

I experienced the same thing after quitting opiates after 5 years on them...and this effect lasted for 3 months after quitting. I imagine it would be worse with benzos.
 
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