Benzos How many consecutive days of benzo use until WD?

[Intrinsic man]

Hello all,

I was recently prescribed alprazolam in doses of 1 mg per tablet "as needed" to treat my problem with insomnia. Against my better judgement, I have been taking them 2 mg's at a time for about the past couple of weeks, an hour or two before I want to be asleep. I'm not sure how many consecutive days I've dosed, or how many nights I haven't "needed" them, I only know I've taken around 20 mg's in roughly 14 days.

After doing some research, I am still unclear as to how frequently, and at what dosage, I can take this medication without having to worry about withdrawal. As an opiate addict who who can barely make it through a day, let alone make it out of bed, from the mildest of mild heroin WD's, I realize benzo WD's would probably make my head explode; the mere thought scares the shit out of me. Thank Jesus Mc-Christy I don't find them all that recreational.

From what I've gathered, even a couple weeks of consecutive use is not enough, at least on its own, to induce WD's. If I can manage to only "need" them 3-4 times a week (at 2mg's/dose), will I be in the clear? If not, what sort of regiment would you recommend? As of last night, I'm fresh out, but will have a monthly supply of refills for the foreseeable future, of which I would like to make as sustainable as possible. Any informed/experienced advice would be appreciated.

Also, if it ever came to it, would alcohol help with WD? I know the reverse to be true, at least.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Methacodone]

20mg in 14 days? That's almost nothing.

 

[legaluser]

Are you planning on continuing on using them?

 

[adder]

Full-blown benzodiazepine withdrawal (with dissociation, paranoia, hallucinations, and various different neurological problems) doesn't happen unless you take benzodiazepines for a few of months daily and quit abruptly off a higher than normally used dose. The severity will also depend on doses used, for instance you're certainly going to suffer much more if you take 2mg of alprazolam a day for a month than if you take only 0.25-0.5mg a day.

Taking a short-acting benzodiazepine such as alprazolam 3-4 times a week seems impossible to me if you need 2mg a day now. These drugs aren't really meant to be taken regularly and if they're prescribed long-term to be taken "as needed", it's usually a low dose. Unless you weigh a lot, I can't imagine why you would need 2mg of alprazolam a day, something is not right already. I could survive one whole day on 1mg+1mg of alprazolam after 8 years of benzodiazepine use with up to 6mg of clonazepam a day for long periods of time, surely I first had my dose of clonazepam reduced down to 2mg a day, but this is to show you how strong 2mg of alprazolam is anyway, so I suppose you're taking way too much than you really need. In my experience triazolobenzodiazepines have an additional downside when you stop taking them even if it's just a few consecutive days of use and it's terrible rebound anxiety. All triazolobenzodiazepines that I took had a similar powerful anxiolytic kick unlike any other classic benzodiazepine and when this effect wore off, I would feel anxiety almost immediately.

Also, don't drink alcohol to alleviate benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms, it will only make it much worse when the effects wear off as alcohol impacts both GABA and NMDA systems directly, and during benzodiazepine withdrawal NMDA channels work in overdrive without enough GABA activity to balance it out. However, it's not like you're in danger of severe benzodiazepine withdrawal right now, if anything, you're going to experience rebound anxiety and problems with falling asleep but it should be a short-term problem.