Silk Road forums
Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: Healthybar on July 28, 2012, 09:05 am
-
Long story short - I decided to self-medicate with Ativan (lorazepam) because of severe anxiety (without panic attacks). I was taking 2MG pills and they were helping a lot. But I was too stupid at the time to realize that I was chronically suffering from mid-dose withdrawal. That is, my anxiety would return BAD as soon as the drug wore off. I thought that I could take "as-needed". NOT THE CASE.
I am now on 2,5mg Valium (DIAZEPAM), once per day. And I am doing GREAT 2 months strong.
My advice? If you need benzos, stick to long-acting benzos , diazepam having a half-life of 20-100 hours. I know this is not possible for everyone, but people without panic attacks should stay away from the short-acting benzos. There is really no reason to dig a deeper hole for yourself.
And for those of you suffering from panic attacks, my heart goes out to you. I have experienced a handful, and it is truly hell on Earth.
Cheers to health and happiness!
/HB
-
My advice? If you need benzos, stick to long-acting benzos , diazepam having a half-life of 20-100 hours. I know this is not possible for everyone, but people without panic attacks should stay away from the short-acting benzos. There is really no reason to dig a deeper hole for yourself.
Ugh, very very bad advice :( during these 100+ hours diazepam is still active in your body. Once you take another dose it will add up, if you do it regularily you never get fully sober and before you realize it, you are addicted to benzodiazepines.
The withdrawal from benzos can be very ugly and can take extremely long. Self-medicating with benzos is also a really bad idea, as you have noticed yourself :( You will start to get anxiety before the next dose is due, which will be much more severe than the anxiety you initially took it for. Shorter intervalls and higher doses will be necessary so you can keep functioning. Prolonged benzo-use comes with a high-risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. Usually they are given in combination with an SSRI.
source: benzos.co.uk
-
I was a benzo addict then I didn't know what anxiety, 1 year after quitting with no problems at all I'm paranoid psychotic fuck.
Started when I quit benzo's and opiates and doing psychedelics
Initially it was "give me all the psy substances you have", loved them, respected them,adored them. I could go pretty heavy with almost no bad trips.
JUST 1 BAD TRIP with 1 LSD 150 ug, wrong set and setting, NOW I"M a disaster. Every thing changed from my posture to the tone of my voice.
Now living in anxiety land, dreaming at all those awesome insightful trips I had, having LSD but scared the shit out,.
-
My advice? If you need benzos, stick to long-acting benzos , diazepam having a half-life of 20-100 hours. I know this is not possible for everyone, but people without panic attacks should stay away from the short-acting benzos. There is really no reason to dig a deeper hole for yourself.
Ugh, very very bad advice :( during these 100+ hours diazepam is still active in your body. Once you take another dose it will add up, if you do it regularily you never get fully sober and before you realize it, you are addicted to benzodiazepines.
The withdrawal from benzos can be very ugly and can take extremely long. Self-medicating with benzos is also a really bad idea, as you have noticed yourself :( You will start to get anxiety before the next dose is due, which will be much more severe than the anxiety you initially took it for. Shorter intervalls and higher doses will be necessary so you can keep functioning. Prolonged benzo-use comes with a high-risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. Usually they are given in combination with an SSRI.
source: benzos.co.uk
You have done your research, but you are missing something.
The 100+ half-life is what makes diazepam SAFER than most benzos. This is exactly why diazepam is used to get off of "harder" benzos.
Benzos in general are bad news, I agree. I am saying if you NEED them, and aren't experiencing severe PANIC, try to stay away from alprazolam, lorazepam, etc.
-
I have been using benzos for over ten years. It is possible to use them sensibly. With me, whenever I notice they are not working as well, I go a week without them, then they work again. After ten years I still get 'help' from 10mg of diazepam a day. If I'm about to have a panic attack in a really embarrass situation I take Xanax (quicker). If I have an interview I take Xanax. They cheer me up too and I'm so relaxed, ironically my brain works better. I come across really well. Composed and thoughtful. Xanax is more addictive than Diazepam because one clearly just...well...feels much better. It's a nice feeling.
So learn how to use them sensibly. I did it. It can be done. 1 pill still working after ten years.
-
I have an anxiety disorder as well but not all benzos work for every anxiety disorder, mine is social anxiety so I tried valium first but it didn't do anything except make me feel very heavy so I switched over to xanax and now I'm cured. It took me a full year of carefully dosing (never went over 1mg) and training my brain to know it's not in any danger. I'm now training my brain using a beta-blocker (propranolol) and now I can go anywhere without freaking out, I haven't taken xanax in a while cause I don't need to anymore ;)
-
You have done your research, but you are missing something.
The 100+ half-life is what makes diazepam SAFER than most benzos. This is exactly why diazepam is used to get off of "harder" benzos.
Benzos in general are bad news, I agree. I am saying if you NEED them, and aren't experiencing severe PANIC, try to stay away from alprazolam, lorazepam, etc.
Yes and no. If you mean with safer, that you won't get withdrawal symptoms during the day, than yes you are correct. But benzos shouldn't even be used to the point were w/d symptoms occur.
Imho you are confusing long-term with short-term use. For long-term usage the short-acting benzos are probably a bad idea. But again, it cannot be stressed enough: they shouldn't be used long term. So all the original indications for the various benzos are fine as long as the are used short-term.
-
Well, technically, if you only have ten panic attacks a year you only need ten pills a year. So you can use them long term. It could avoid the likes of agoraphobia or a fear of panic attacks. A safety net. Hope. You could use them all your life.
-
I have an anxiety disorder as well but not all benzos work for every anxiety disorder, mine is social anxiety so I tried valium first but it didn't do anything except make me feel very heavy so I switched over to xanax and now I'm cured. It took me a full year of carefully dosing (never went over 1mg) and training my brain to know it's not in any danger. I'm now training my brain using a beta-blocker (propranolol) and now I can go anywhere without freaking out, I haven't taken xanax in a while cause I don't need to anymore ;)
Technically they should all work, since they all do the same job at the GABA-Receptors, more or less, potency and side-effects vary a lot obviously.
Hm, interesting, I know someone (a relative) who was diagnosed with SAD. Got the full force of psychiatrist-shit: ssri + xanax :) somewhat worked.
Hope it's ok to ask, but have you just taken Xanax? and then switched to a beta-blocker (high blood pressure med, right)? This sounds somewhat strange and self-medicated :) What about benzo w/d? It's very unlikely that you are cured btw or more precisely it's very unlikely that the xanax has cured you. rather the actions you took on xanax will have cured you. This is possible without xanax also.
-
Thank you,I needed this advice/
-
I have an anxiety disorder as well but not all benzos work for every anxiety disorder, mine is social anxiety so I tried valium first but it didn't do anything except make me feel very heavy so I switched over to xanax and now I'm cured. It took me a full year of carefully dosing (never went over 1mg) and training my brain to know it's not in any danger. I'm now training my brain using a beta-blocker (propranolol) and now I can go anywhere without freaking out, I haven't taken xanax in a while cause I don't need to anymore ;)
Technically they should all work, since they all do the same job at the GABA-Receptors, more or less, potency and side-effects vary a lot obviously.
Hm, interesting, I know someone (a relative) who was diagnosed with SAD. Got the full force of psychiatrist-shit: ssri + xanax :) somewhat worked.
Hope it's ok to ask, but have you just taken Xanax? and then switched to a beta-blocker (high blood pressure med, right)? This sounds somewhat strange and self-medicated :) What about benzo w/d? It's very unlikely that you are cured btw or more precisely it's very unlikely that the xanax has cured you. rather the actions you took on xanax will have cured you. This is possible without xanax also.
I was doing the ssri + xanax but I couldn't do the ssri, it was turning me into a zombie and the valium would make me feel drunk but I would still have that ball of anxiety in my chest so it was useless. I tapered off the xanax with the help of my doctor but it can easily be done on your own, like I said I never went over 1mg so technically I didn't have to taper off but my doctor wanted to play it safe and I thank them for that ;) The recent switch to a beta-blocker (yup a high blood pressure med) was definitely self medicated as I've been reading on social anxiety forums the effectiveness of it, and with propranolol it blocks my adrenaline to kick up so it takes away the physical aspects of anxiety rather than mental (which the xanax took care of).
It's true the actions I took on xanax cured me rather than the xanax itself and that's what my whole philosophy is based on, using drugs as tools to do things you normally can't. Meditating definitely helped my general anxiety but when I would go out to say a mall I would get the worst anxiety thinking everyone was looking at me, talking about me, etc. That's when I would take the xanax and then I started forcing myself into those high anxiety situations and taking small doses of xanax (.5-1mg) until finally I didn't need the xanax :D
-
It is great knowing there is a magic pill that can stop those horrific attacks. Because of that you aren't afraid of having them. You still might, but they won't last long. I use beta blockers to keep me calm on a daily basis. Plus the blockers mean you won't think you are having a heart attack...because they prevent the heart from going apeshit.
It's all common sense really.
-
Benzo addiction and withdrawal is a very dark place, you start thinking that everyone else is making the mistakes, when in reality it's your own mistakes. I was addicted on xanax bars for 9 months and have relapsed twice in the last 2 months. When you are going through Benzo withdrawal, any thing ranging from spilling your drink to breaking a cigarette in half can ruin your entire day.
-
Sounds awful. I know Noel Gallagher (after taking enough coke to fill a semi detached house) said "coming off benzos was more difficult than coming off any drug I've ever taken, and I have taken a lot"
When I notice any drug is becoming less effective I take a step back. Not easy when you are a certain age and hedonism is the only thing you give a fuck about. I was lucky. I ran out of money when I was close to going OTT.
-
I used to have really bad anxiety. I started taking Xanax and it sucked away my soul. I dropped out of college and just didn't do shit. This is with PRESCRIBED dosage. Now I only take them to sleep after a psychedelic trip, but I'm actually going to stop doing that because the next day I tend to be very uninterested in things, and sometimes depressed. I also hate that even at prescribed dosages, your memory gets really bad and your day tends to fly by. When you think back on your day, you sometimes can't remember if that happened that day or the day before. It's just really weird.
If you have anxiety I suggest you make an effort to work on it without any drugs. Meditate. Become spiritual (shit, even religious). I don't know, but do SOMETHING about it.