So I have several friends who are also prescribed benzos and have anxiety issues/other similar mental health issues and when they take their benzos they say it gives them a sort of high, or at least a very loopy peaceful feeling. They don’t do that for me…they literally just make me feel normal. Like if I’m paranoid, bam paranoia gone but I don’t feel high or loopy. Even if I’m not paranoid, and take them, it just helps me fall asleep normally that night and not experience anything bad. Doesn’t make me sleepy, just easier to fall asleep when you’re not terrified something horrible will happen to you.
Is this the same for other people on here? Do benzos make you high? Or just normal? My friends aren’t abusing their medication either they’re taking the same dose as me. I wonder if I have some sort of GABA deficiency.
I have been taking Diazepam since last November. Started on 5mg twice a day, and now I take 10mg three times a day. It doesn’t seem to work anymore as I am still getting anxiety. I tried to come off them a few months ago, but the withdrawals gave me anxiety.
I am not sure how you’re supposed to know if you need to keep taking them when the withdrawal includes something it’s treating you for!
They just make me normal. I have never felt high from Benzos, they just calm things for me and allow me to breathe for a while. As above, not so much anymore as I have become tolerant to them and dependent.
My Amisulpride on the other hand feels like I have smoked weed, as it really mellows me out and that feeling I remember I had when you smoke like half a spliff? Very strange drug. but I think being mellow and not sedated is a good disposition to have.
Benzos have never given me a high either. I take them very rarely. Only when I absolutely need them. My new pdoc won’t prescribe them for me. She said to fill all the precriptions I had left and to make them last - so I have.
Benzos would just help me sleep but not make me particularly sleepy. I only took them because it was hard to sleep at the mental hospital i was at. I got off them shortly after leaving the hospital. I was never on enough to create anything close to resembling a high, I’m not particularly anxious although i can get a little paranoid. And I wasn’t on enough to effect that
I’ve never had benzo withdrawal either. Was on Ativan for a year every night sometimes taking extra as needed quit cold turkey and no withdrawal symptoms.
By the way I like how well thought out and organized your replies always seem to be, just thought I’d mention I appreciate that.
@Val I also only take them when absolutely needed. In fact, most of the time I don’t even take them when absolutely needed, my mental health workers have had to work with me on learning to use them to avoid being further traumatized by my symptoms when they act up. Honestly if I could take these every day sustainably and know I wouldn’t gain tolerance to each dose in 2 weeks I would. They are the best & only thing that’s really 100% helped treat my ptsd & psychosis symptoms. Oh well. I’ve never had a prescriber who was opposed to them thank god, I find when I don’t have a benzo safety net I turn to alcohol instead. In my opinion, this is much more dangerous.
Thanks @Anna. I spend time to reply as I want to say the right things but do tend to ramble on a bit sometimes.
I like typing as it gives you time to write things and check them to make sure I get my point across.
I am also trying to be careful what I say here especially, as it’s peer to peer support, and I want to make sure what I say is constructive when I am thinking straight at least.
That’s the same issue I had w them. When I realized I was just going to keep increasing my dose infinitely I gave up and just quit them. Ended up substituting w alcohol for a while…bad…eventually got back on and did as needed. That’s rough you get anxiety going off them though I hear benzo withdrawal really sucks.
I will keep that in mind. Sometimes I abandon posts because I think this.
I managed to go 20mg, 15mg then 10mg and everything went to ■■■■. I then rapidly went to 30mg. My pdoc is more concerned with AP’s right now than Benzo use. One thing at a time.
Happened with me & some other meds too. Geodon, and seroquel I could not quit even after tapering to the smallest commercially available dose. I ended up having to split the smallest doses. So like seroquel’s smallest dose available is 25 mg and I split that in half and then even split half of that in half. Helped a lot. Donno if you tried that. I agree though one thing at a time.
I have a feeling that I might be using my pill cutter again with Aripiprazole. I have also been lowering the dose of that whilst upping Amisulpride.
I had to go back up last week as it was giving me horrible nausea. I am not happy that Aripiprazole didn’t work out as on paper it seems to be not as bad as the others for side effects.
I seem to remember you said you were on something called varylar? I don’t think we have that in England.
Abilify was awful for me, the akathisia was unbearable. On top of that made my attention span like 5 seconds & gave me weird twitching in my hands and mouth. Low side effect profile my butt.
Yeah I’m on vraylar which is I believe newer than Abilify. Vraylar & fanapt I think are the newest APs. Fanapt made me mildly sleepy and made me gain weight rapidly & didn’t seem to help my symptoms at all though I was on the lowest therapeutic dose. Vraylar has been awesome for an AP, no sexual side effects, no weight gain and actually causes some appetite suppression, however does cause some akathisia and drowsiness. Not to the same extent as other meds I’ve been on, but enough to be unpleasant.
I’m on modafinil for my narcolepsy and that helps w the drowsiness as well as coffee and my pdoc just prescribed me propranolol for the akathisia and it works great but unfortunately dulls my alertness which is only noticeable when I’m driving. Due to this I’m not sure if it’s a better fix than Ativan was which is what I was using for it initially, especially when both cause physical dependence with long term use and must be tapered off very very slowly.
I don’t know what meds are and aren’t available in the UK but I think I have heard vraylar hasn’t been approved there yet unfortunate as it works very well so long as I take it on a strict schedule (one missed or late dose can cause strong sporadic breakthrough symptoms for the next couple days!!)
Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you either. I don’t notice Akathisia as much now as I am on anticholinergic drugs since being on Haldol. I did say low side effect profile ‘on paper’! It seems hit or miss to be honest until you actually start taking it. It gave me terrible anxiety - I was a mess and told I was just ‘unlucky’!
I am glad you have found something better now - even though it still has it’s issues. Sounds a hell of a lot more tolerable for you than Abilify.
Hopefully it will be approved here too. I am running out of options of drugs to try that don’t make you over-weight and sedated.
My pdoc has floated the option of Clozapine a couple of times now, but that scares me. I do not want to be taking that at all.
Benzos get me high. I had them for akathisia awhile back and in addition to the great feeling of relief from the ceasing of restless legs, I felt high.
I stoppd taking them, as the akathisia went away. I barely get akathisia anymore, just the occassional feeling that goes away after exercising them for a few minutes. I usually just move my legs for a few minutes like a bicycle kick for a few minutes when i lie down to sleep. It doesn’t justify being addicted to these ‘lovely’ pills though for me,so i quit. No great withdrawal, but the occasional pang for benzo feeling sometimes thoough.
unfortunate as it works very well so long as I take it on a strict schedule (one missed or late dose can cause strong sporadic breakthrough symptoms for the next couple days!!)
