After a huge setback with fitness/sports because of a chronic inner ear disease (that drove me crazy) I found relieve in something else, alcohol. Like a majority of the “normal” people that drinks I like to drink a few beers when I come home from work or on days I have nothing planned. I also notice since the period (4 weeks) that I drink alcohol almost each day my social, positive and negative symptoms have been tempered/improved and have noticed no increase in my positive symptoms, well, other than some days I need 0.5mg Clonazepam more than I “usually” take because alcohol might mess with my mood (I’m schizo-affective). I’m allowed to take 1.5mg Clonazepam a day, and if I don’t drink heavily in the weekend I don’t exceed that, in contrast, I listen to my brain/body and only take the amount that’s needed (to be clear, Clonazepam is like my primary anti-psychotic, it’s impossible for me to handle my psychotic symptoms without it). Anyway, my question is: How many of you use alcohol (“heavily”) without problems? And, how many of you feel relieve of symptoms after drinking alcohol?
I’m just checking with you guys to evaluate my drinking habits. Knowing that my drinking habits is actually a normal response to daily stresses that’s socially accepted.
I have the equivalent of 2 cans of beer a day. The opposite of addiction is connection. I have no connection so I self medicate with just the two cans. I don’t see as much of a bad habit compared to drinking in my 20’s.
If you have the inability to control how much you drink, have black outs, have physical addiction like the shakes and it impacts on your daily routine and life then these are the symptoms of alcoholism. I think that is the basic outline of it anyway.
It keeps my depression at bay, never hungover and I have no physical addiction, so I think it is ok for me to do it. Don’t know how you feel?
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not to be picky… but if its in response to stressors in your life to calm or relieve yourself of said stress…is that not self medicating… it may be a socially acceptable means of self medication… but if it was any other substance either your doc gives it to you to medicate the issue or your giving it to your self to self medicate the issue… I don’t think alcohol should be any different despite its long relationship with humans…
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I’m a tad confused about something: doesn’t Clonazepam work just like alcohol and therefore wouldn’t taking it with or nearby the time of drinking alcohol cause greater intoxication? I think that’s true, so I’m just concerned that it might be difficult to regulate how intoxicated you become while using both since Clonazepam doesn’t hit you all at once. It seems like it might be a hard medication to deal with while also drinking. But also, Clonazepam is a Benzodiazepine for anxiety, not an anti-psychotic. There is an anti-psychotic that sounds similar but I can’t remember what it is. Are you sure you have the right name?
I’m afraid I have no insight otherwise: I cannot drink - it makes my symptoms go through the roof. I wish I could once in a while, though. I’ve spent 14 years of my life not drinking because of whatever I’m diagnosed with this week.
Drinking helped me that night, but drinking heavily only caused me depression and unstable moods in an already miserable existence.
Not recommended.
Yeah, sure. So far I’m OK with what I’m doing, I also have no physical addiction. I, let say, “reward” myself by drinking a few. Otherwise the negative/depressive symptoms are just too hard on me. I was a endorphin junkie before my ear disease, that’s how I handled it before. I guess I’m just too intolerant to the boring flow of daily life and need an “addiction” that influences my shitty brain.
I guess I’m just happy I can enjoy alcohol like non-schizophrenics that drink regularly. They all “self-medicate” too you know.
Everyone reacts differently to meds… Most people on Clonazepam will get sedated, I don’t. Yeah Clonazepam is a anti-anxiety med but for me it’s way more than that, it eliminates some positive symptoms for me that turned my life around. I react perfectly to Clonazepam and alcohol.