Benzodiazepines

Are any of you on a benzo? I was on clonazepam in the psych ward and I’m prescribed lyrica for anxiety I wish my doctor would prescribe me a benzo it helped so much in the psych ward

idk if I metabolize them weirdly but benzos have literally no effect on me. I’ve been on klonopin, xanax, valium, and ativan. None of them did anything, like I was taking sugar pills.

Yes. I take benzos and I love them. Can be addicting though. :bird::bird::bird:

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I don’t like them, they are too sedative and addicting for me.
But I take Halcion for falling asleep and it is good.

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I was addicted to Ativan in the past and had horrible withdrawal symptoms trying to get off them. Benzo withdrawal can be dangerous.

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Same, I was only on 1mg of Ativan and had horrible withdrawal symptoms, wasn’t even able to get out of bed.
Worse than antipsychotics.

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i take valium.its a good drug.i take low dosage though,its very addictive.

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I take an extremely low dose of clonazepam on occasion, whenever I’m extremely anxious or agitated.
I don’t take it everyday.

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I take klonopin.

I’ve heard the nightmares of getting off of it, and that scares me.

But for right now it’s the only thing working for my anxiety.

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I take Ativan about twice a week for anxiety. I try to take it as little as I can though. For a while I was only taking it like once a month, but my symptoms spiked and so my usage had to increase.

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No. I avoid them, unless it is for 1 or 2 nights to break through a very bad bout of insomnia, once every half year or so.

I was on them for a somewhat long while. Withdrawals were nasty and bad and horrible and i suspect they are partly to blame for all the psychotic and depressive trouble i went through.

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My doctor refused to let me take them for more than a month, she said the prevalence of addiction in that particular drug family was severe.

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They are short acting but addictive. I had a gran mal coming off a small xanax dependency. Waking up in an ambulance isn’t cool.

Good for things like anxiety because you get quick results but bad because they have tolerance issues. You need more with regular use to get the same results…Ie classic addiction.

If you can live without them your better off.

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When I was first medicated, they gave me some benzodiazepines to take as needed along with 20mg Olanzapine. The aps were so strong to me when I took the Benzo I remember not even feeling anything different.

No you don’t. I was on 30mg of Diazepam for ages because I built up tolerance to it.

It took me about 4 months to get down to 10mg.

The withdrawal got too much, so I stopped the reduction.

Once your on them, there is not much hope for coming off unless you’re extremely patient - which I am not

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To get off them I switched to drops and lowered my dosage by 1 drop each week… I feel like a drug addict.

If you really want to scare yourself off these drugs, watch Lisa Ling’s “This is Life.” There’s an episode labeled “The Benzos Crisis” or something like that, and she showcases several awful videos from YouTube of people with benzo-withdrawal induced akathisia. I actually don’t really like that episode (I’ve recently been binging ‘This is Life’ on HBO Max) because it ties akathisia in with benzos, when the truth is akathisia can be caused by lots of different drugs, including antipsychotics.

I spent a year and a half in akathisia hell from Invega withdrawal. I remember posting here about it. My life was a living hell. Since reducing my Zyprexa dose to 7.5mg and eliminating akathisia I have been a much, much happier human being.

It’s important not to adopt an anti-medication standpoint though, as medicine has major advantages. You just need to balance side effect management with medicinal benefit when working out your treatment plan with your psychiatrist.

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I with you benzos Did nothing for me.

I was on 0.5mg Clonazepam for a year and had a very tough time coming off it.

They’re only meant for short term use as they lose effectiveness and you become addicted to them.

I use the following substitutes now :

L-theanine 300mg
Beta Alanine 750mg
Broccoli sprout extract
( https://www.iherb.com/pr/Source-Naturals-Broccoli-Sprouts-Extract-250-mg-60-Tablets/2456 )

And this seems to keep my anxiety at bay.

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I take clonazepam for akathesia but I don’t really notice any affect for calming.