Benzos Exercise and/or other activities during etizolam w/d?

[Therealsnafu]

Hello everyone,

Over the past 50 days I've gone on a rather reckless binge of 180mg of etizolam. Doses the first week or so started regular, 2-4mg, but soon my tolerance skyrocketed and I was taking anywhere from 6-14mg over the course of a day. Some nights I was drinking alcohol ~6 or so beers in combination, which I contribute to my extremely rapid tolerance gain. My use was NOT a daily habit and was vary sporadic. I would usually binge on 20-40mg over 3-4 days, then stop for 2-5 days, and repeat (as an attempt to avoid/minimize physical dependency)

Anyways I plan to stop fully cold turkey for 10 days before an upcoming trip to see family. But have no fear! I have 65+mg left locked away so if any dangerous WD symptoms start to appear I can simply begin a safe taper plan! I will be gone for a week and I plan on doing some drinking with the ol' guys on my trip and want to lower my tolerance as much as possible before hand so I don't end up spending $50 at a bar only to have a barely noticable buzz (more likely just a headache -_-). I will be taking a small amount (10-20) of etizolam with me as well to the trip as a preventative measure for insomnia/unexpected drawn out withdrawal.

My 10 day withdrawal plan:
- Wake up, breakfast, vitamins, etc, etc... then stretch + light yoga and go for a 1-2 mile walk/slow jog in the morning sun (walk optional if muscles are too stiff)
- Getting home from the jog I will dose ~5-8g of Premium bali kratom, possibly with bali 15x sprinkled in. This will sedate me, provide minor euphoria, provide pain relief for sore/tight muscles, and will most importantly stop any craving to dose a benzo for a good 6 hours for me.
- I will then try to keep myself occupied until the late afternoon doing projects around the house. If anxiety/fatigue/stress w/e kicks in I will lay down and watch tv or surf the net.
- For bedtime it will be another, bit larger, dose of the kratom. As well as an antihistamine sleeping aid, sleepy time tea :D, and top shelf cannabis.

I have no obligations for the next 10 days, so while my plan may not prevent insomnia, it will not be a major impact on my life (I have the entire month of work)
I have a very strong will and can deal with the withdrawal. Only if I truly feel like I am having intense W/D will I pick up my leftover etiz and begin a taper. I have a naturally lower seizure threshold than most people, so I'm going to keep a very close eye on my symptoms.

So, to wrap it up. My main question is:

Can light exercise be beneficial during light-moderate benzo withdrawal? I have a high suspicion it may make muscle tightness even worse, but it would greatly help me both mentally, physically, and most importantly MORALLY during the withdrawal. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also Does anyone have any experience with Kava and benzo wd? If I am not mistaken Kava acts on the gaba receptors much in the same fashion as alcohol... and alcohol is a big no no on benzo wd. This is why I have never taken a serious look into it. I want my gaba receptors to theal so I don't want anything in there for the next 10 days.

Any other tips that aren't common sense would be great!

Thanks.

**For people unfamiliar with etizolam: It is a benzo analog (thienodiazepine), with a short-medium half life (3.6hrs , main metabolite 8 hrs). Benzo chart says 1mg is equal to 10mg valium, however I would probably say its more like 7.5mg from experience. It's half life and withdrawal has been compared to Ativan by some people (unofficial reports). A study has suggested that etizolam has less affinity for tolerance and dependance than traditional benzos.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

I guess being as fit, strong and healthy as possible will give you a head start over someone weak, unfit and unhealthy. You should 'suffer' less in theory.

 

[Gyrospeck]

Exercise and diet will help the withdrawals, so that's a great idea. You may get more sore than usual do to the withdrawals, but its worth it. I would recommend pushing your workouts as hard as you can (within reason) during this process. Also, if you have a gym membership, saunas/steam rooms/hot tubs can all alleviate withdrawal symptom to a point (they can also make it worse, so be safe). Lysine was a helpful supplement when I was reducing my dose and its pretty cheap.

The Kratom/Cannabis/antihistamines will likely help as well, just be careful not to trade dependencies. Kava never helped for me, but YMMV.

 

[Therealsnafu]

Exercise and diet will help the withdrawals, so that's a great idea. You may get more sore than usual do to the withdrawals, but its worth it. I would recommend pushing your workouts as hard as you can (within reason) during this process. Also, if you have a gym membership, saunas/steam rooms/hot tubs can all alleviate withdrawal symptom to a point (they can also make it worse, so be safe). Lysine was a helpful supplement when I was reducing my dose and its pretty cheap.

The Kratom/Cannabis/antihistamines will likely help as well, just be careful not to trade dependencies. Kava never helped for me, but YMMV.

Thanks for the advice!

Yep I have an awesome indoor pool & hot tub at my complex plan on using that bad boy after workouts.

I did some searching on Lysine and there was little info on it, of which some abstract seemed to contradict each other? One said it potentiates benzo action on gaba sites and also lowers seizure threshold in combination with diazepam.
I have no idea if it would be beneficial during a cold turkey wd (with the goal of complete abstinence of everything that tickles my gaba receptors), but it looks like it would help during a tapering method. Not really sure I'll look into it more.

 

[Working_Class]

I'm aware that this threat is many years old, but I had a pretty severe Alprazolam addiction while I was still in construction, I used up to 4 - 5 mg a day for a couple of months, more like 2 months to be a little bit more precise, and the withdrawals were pretty hellish. The lasted for about a week, I couldn't train for the first two days of withdrawals. The rebound anxiety was incredible, I had never experienced anything like it before, and I've been a fentanyl and opiates addict who also leaned hard on amphetamines in the past, but Xanex withdrawl was another beast. Once I started to get myself moving again, definitely training and sauna help to alleviate a lot of the symptoms. It feels like after a good training session, I just felt a lot more "evened out". The withdrawals and insomnia only lasted about 10 days, which was fairly manageable. I even let my co-workers and foreman know that I was experiencing benzo withdrawal (I left the site where i was being used like a pack muel) and the reason I was using benzos was because the last job site I was on was extremely arduous, it tested my mettle and almost broke me. It was downright abuse the kinds of things they were getting me to do at work, I was suicidal absolutely, and that's the reason I decided to use Alprazolam to help me go from "I fucking hate this and I fucking hate my life" to "I don't really care what you asked me to do, I'll just go do it". Anyways, this is about the withdrawal, exercise definitely helps and I would highly recommend doing something that will make you sweat. Physical exertion was very difficult At first, I felt a lot weaker and uncoordinated, but with concurrent sessions, I felt better and better as time went on. It also helps to let others around you know what you're going through so that they can be supportive. If your peers and loved ones aren't aware, they can't help you.