Benzo's did kind of let me live, where I hadn't been, or at least without as much fear, so I understand some of the responses here in how experiences such as eating and drinking were made better by way of benzo's, but benzo's can and do down you out; I know when I had no benzo tolerance, 1 mg of clonazepam would have effected me pretty heavily and I doubt food or drink would have seemed to have as much spice, sweetness, or whatever, as they would otherwise. 1 mg clonazepam may be more than you think, or feel - I don't know. Maybe, you do need clonazepam at that dose for maximal therapeutic results, but it is a rather high dose for p.r.n. use in someone without benzo tolerance.
The 1mg dose is definitely required for me, it's also actually the minimum dose listed in the UK formulary, 1mg every 24 hours. I've tried .5 and .75 before and sometimes do indeed use that as a prophylactic but it's not until I have taken 1mg that a significant anxiety episode that I may be experiencing vanishes, rarely 1.5mg may be required after a major trauma. Strangely I find that the higher doses tend to produce a more prolonged complete period of relief from my anxiety symptoms far outlasting the drugs 12-16hr duration.
There is a definite feeling of relaxation and tranquility, like I've had a really relaxed stress free day, but it's subtle, and does not cause intoxication or a feeling that it is drug induced. In fact when I was first trying it for social phobia I suffered from years ago, I couldn't even tell it was having an effect. I feel no drowsiness and my cognitive and psychomotor performance has been assessed as being no different from baseline. I just maybe feel a bit disinterested in things when I take it, perhaps more so now than when I first started taking it in the past, almost like a dulling, not too much of an issue since I take it in the evening as sleep is something I find it benefits too. Maybe the disinterest is part of the reason for going off food, but does not seem to explain the different sensation of taste. When I ask friends if they can tell I've taken anything they say they can't and I've received no comment from anyone else that I seem like I'm on something so I can only assume there is no obvious overt effect of that dose on me.
I'm also prescribed pregabalin 300mg prn which is perhaps more pleasant than clonazepam as it doesn't cause any kind of dulling feeling or affect the taste of food, just a somewhat hazy mildly enjoyable relaxation, but it can cause a degree of psychomotor impairment and does disinhibit me a bit, when I'm going home at night from the deserted riding school I can wander around the fields all alone in the pitch black and not feel any sense of unease that an average person might, it's really quite remarkable.
Over the past 4 years since I developed an anxiety problem at 19 these drugs have greatly improved the quality of my life, but if I could somehow get rid of that side benzo effect it would be a bonus, maybe I will try alprazolam again or taking a slight dose reduction of clonazepam to say 850/900mg if I can tolerate it, as the effect is obviously less pronounced at lower doses.
I will also be consulting my psych doctor about other potential treatment options he mentioned such as prn clonidine and the periodic use of the sodium channel blocker anticonvulsants carbamazepine
and lamotrigine since there are a lot of anxious patients that do well on those drugs and I have an excellent history of response to cns depressants/anticonvulsants. These will hopefully reduce if not eliminate my benzodiazepine use to the point where I am only rarely using them for situational anxiety. Conversely MAOI's nor any other antidepressants have any effect on me at all, at least at the doses the doctors are willing to prescribe.
I do really struggle to see how people can use benzos as recreational drugs, I wouldn't even want to try, anxiety disorder aside. The rare time they may make me feel good is if I transition to a relaxed state from a severely anxious one after using them, otherwise they hold no appeal at all.
food tastes fine to me but i i have much less of an appetite. i'll go an entire day before i realized i havent eaten anything. this could just be due to the amount of beer i drink making me feel full but it seems to have gotten worse since i started benzos. weed helps with that though and im sure it would make food delicious to you again as well
My experience is similar, it does seem to have became worse over time when I take the drug. I rarely drink alcohol though and only in small amounts for the taste these days due to it's many unpleasant effects at higher doses.
Experimenting with other recreational drugs like cannabis is a definite no no given my anxiety issues, and I want to stay in a legal situation and be sure that what I'm putting into my body is exactly that. It also goes against my philosophy of avoiding the situation where I'm taking one psychoactive drug to counter the side effects of another which in my observations often ends badly. Maybe a pharmaceutical tincture of cannabis like Sativex could be an effective agent for some symptoms I suffer from, but it's not something that I feel is most appropriate at this time, nor will doctors prescribe it for psychiatric conditions.
