What's the longest you been on benzos?

Xanax low dosages works so well for me and I am not even aware I'm on them except for noticeably less anxiety. I'm worried that my doctor will one day take me off them and I won't have any thing because nothing else works or if it does it makes me feel too dopey and tired.

So what's the longest you been on any benzo?

I have been on xanax since 1999. In the first few years when my anxiety/ptsd was really bad I had to take doses several times a day but now it is usually just to help me sleep. I know that it is highly addictive but I had no trouble lowering my doses.

Klonopin since 1995, only take it at night.

Can take a mid-day dose but usually don't need it.

Was on Klonopin from 2007 to this summer, and Ativan for several years before that. But I was on a high dose 5 mg /day. It took me 6 months to taper off, and every minute of it was hellish. The withdrawal was horrible. I'll never go on them again. I'm now on Seroquel for anxiety, find it works better and is non-addictive.

splitimage

35 years on Ativan at different levels, I slipped through the net they wouldn't let you get that today, now I am hopeless dependant on 4mg a day can never stop told by doc,s , but HEY life a bummer I can live with it. ATIVAN is a get out of jail quick med , but you end up doing LIFE

Wow, so there is a good chance my doc won't take this away from me. I'm on low doses but it really helps me so much!

I've had a few med free days here and even weeks sometimes, but I guess I have taken benzos for several years now. I keep the dosage low. If I for some reason need to increase it I do, but as soon as I can lower it I do. They can make me tired and I need my energy. Some people build up tolerance, some don't. I don't, rather the opposite. I'm actually on a lower dosage now compared to when I started. A reason I would have skipped them if I could is they mess with my memory. Not a lot, kind of put me memory wise where other people are. Still bothers me since I used to have a pretty outstanding memory.

HE will take it away , docs learned there lesson years ago about BENZOS it only because I have been on them 35 years that they no I carnt withdraw I once was on 12 mg a day not all supplied by doc ,I had a withdrawal from 8mg of the 12MG forced, DEAD IS BETTER THAN BENZO HIGH WITHDRAWL. That cause a near suicide , and a hospital stay. You will try to kill yourself on a 8mg detox cold no two ways about it, you can withdraw heroin in 5 days . Think a year for Ativan an every day is death. I no your looking for wrekky drugs to get high from all you posts, lots of young people join med forums for that reason alone, BUT this is 1 drug you want to bypass or you in for a world of pain, that you may never survive let alone recover

Don't blame the med here. 12 mg of Ativan is ridiculous. If you develop tolerance you should NOT be allowed benzos. That is my opinion as it is the opinion of my doctor. Max dosage is around half of what you took and even max dosage is very high. I think things would have been much different if you had only been allowed a normal dosage say 1-2 mg a day.

Giving you that dosage and pulling you off that fast is both equally ridiculous. You should always take some interest in your medication because it is your body and your life and you can say something if you think you are not treated correctly. Just blindly obeying a doctor isn't being a good patient.

I appreciate your concern, but I'm 57 years old, if I was looking for drugs to "get high" from, it would not be benzos. They just happen to be the only thing that reduces my anxiety. They are equal to taking aspirins for me in low doses I take. If I wanted a buzz it wouldn't be from benzos lol. But I do thank you for your input and concern.

I was on Ativan for about 3 months I think and then Klonopin for about 2, then pdoc took me off.

did he replace them with any thing for your anxiety and how is that working?

I can only go by your previous posts , it quite easy to get high on Ativan and booze , smack heads also use it with heroin, in England Ativan is has much use has Extasty or any party drug, that's why the doc,s are told not to give it and stick to crap Valium also used by smack heads chasing the dragon. You have to be mega ill with anxiety in England to get Benzo,s , im the only one in my 8 G- P surgery that is given 4mg a day , the reason why THEY GOT ME HOOKED IN THE FIRST PLACE , Ativan 30 years ago was taken like candy , has many has you liked , that's how I stock piled hundreds and was taking 12 a day in later life with my supplies, with booze. I flatlined and was a zombie for a year on a brutal withdrawl of 8mg could not make 12mg my body needs the 4 mg a day to stay alive. So go a head give it a try its life changing if nothing else.

I was using it mainly for sleep, and she had me try Lunesta which was a complete piece of crap...but my anxiety is pretty well controlled by Zoloft which I switched to from Viibryd at that same time.

On klonopin since 2004, .50 in am, .25 x 3 during day, .50
As needed (not needed often) Helps with GAD. Would
Like to go off it at some point. Helps at work and in
Other areas of my life. Take care, PG

T he docs said I wasn't on 12mg and did not believe me, where in fact I had a repeat script for 28mg a month for the last 20 years where I sometimes had taken none , so I had a massive amount in the med cabinet, nobody cancel,s a Benzo script because you may never get another .So in his eyes he was canceling the 28mg plus the ones a Locom shrink had scripted.Read my thread HOSPITAL MADNESS then you may get the idea. Have you ever had a massive breakdown??? you don't think anything your in the middle of hell and on your way to death in your head, So now I have ran out of Ativan and vodka my thing that was keeping me alive , and given Effexor at a high dose. Now complete breakdown with massive withdrawl and seizures I am admitted to hospital after suicide atempt where im given 5 mg valium twice a day plus 150mg Effexor they are killing me without listening to me, they wont believe I had taken 12mg a day nothing I said would make them believe me. I was released 2 weeks later worse and 2 stone lighter, I was taken to my GP shaking from head to toe he gave me back the. 4mg a day I take now and saved my life, and put me on sertraline, took a year to detox the 8mg and you never want to be in that place I was banging your head agaist the bedroom wall. You talk as if I had a broken arm not a mental illness I am given my meds by my wife she is my carer the hospital took half my brain away with there none believe and carless tactics. **** get real this is hard core mental illness not mild depression.

I'm sorry if I don't get it but if you had 28 mg a month it sounds like you were prescribed 1 mg a day.

I'm pretty lost here.

JESUS 28mg a month for 20 years is ( 6880) MG out of them a repeat script use when needed, I may have used (5000) so I have a stash of (188O) plus a script from the locom that did a runner from the hospital , so I had a ample 12mg a day dose for a few months. That why no one would believe me the stash was gone when I was carted to hospital by my family and the nightmare started, BASICLY I told the truth and they did not believe me, so they continued to slowly kill me with nothing to replace 12 mg and a bottle of vodka a day, well i get the vodka the smack heads smuggled it in the ward in Evien water bottles, DO YOU GET IT NOW ,ITS BLACK AND WHITE TO ME,

If I read you right then you were not prescribed 12 mg, you only took it anyway because you had access. Is that correct?

In that case you are a drug abuser and you need to address that.

I've only been on Xanax for about 9 months, but my pdoc has told me that if it's something I find I need to stay on, then I can stay on it as long as I need to. We monitor my use and I'm on a very low dose, so there is minimal addiction risk. I had originally planned to only be on it for a year and then slowly work my way off of it, but based on where I'm at now, I don't see that happening any time soon...it's more likely that I'll be on it for several years or longer.

Very cool! All I need is .5 pills and I split them in half, only take .25 as needed usually just twice a day and then a full .5 to go to sleep. On rare occasions I do tale a full .5 during the day but I have to be in a full blown rage for me to even consider it. Some days I skip completely except for sleep.

Off course I was that was the only thing I had, no shrink for 12 weeks, SURVIVE is the name of the game hear , and I survived something you hope you never have try. You don't seem to suffer CRONIC mental health where you hole body and mind are taken over be depression, suicide is often the answer to most I tried it once , but I was strong enough to survive the detox do you think you could have survived 12 months in 1 room out your tree , no I think not. I wasn't thinking anything you carnt think in that situation. What do you think I would do in the 12 week wait for a shrink if I didn't have 12 mg of Ativan, yep face down in a river or similar so I say, you haven't the faintest clue how mental breakdown effects anyone because you have not been there, how do you take hold of your own life when your not on this planet at the time. You are saying take responce of you own health, ha ha ha you have not the clue have you about cronic mental health , I have gone though 20 lives and come out the other side maybe tempory But life is just that life, I get on with it

I've had PRN Ativan since 2011. I take maybe 2 or 3 a month, depending on how well I am doing with my panic attacks.

When I was at my worst, I was depressed in that way you describe for three years straight. I saw a doctor once in a blue moon and when things got really tough I scheduled an emergency appointment at her. Thing is, the way doc saw it, you wait 2 months for that appointment. And that was at my worst. I had no antidepressant, I almost had nothing.

I went to the psych ER but they refused to help me since I had my appt booked already so I "can wait for that". So I went home.... with nothing no help nothing. Just waiting for an appointment that felt so far away. I had 3 ambien a week that I was prescribed. That is what I had to soothe me. I can say, it didn't help much but those days I could take them they drugged me up a little so I didn't have to feel the pain so much.

The other days I did nothing. My friend came here and cooked for me so I wouldn't starve. I wanted to die every day but I had such bad feelings about it since I would leave family and friends so I couldn't do it. That doesn't mean my pain was manageable. It wasn't.

So before you think I sailed through life - think again.

AAAAAAALLLLLLLL love for anyone , I have a wife 4 kids 8 grandkids that I would die for, they slip off the radar in breakdown you would no this if had been through it. NO 1 very rare is a suicide letter found for a critical breakdown sufferer they don't plan it the just do it. SO family thoughts would not be in your mind nor would food you don't eat, you survive on drink any med be it legal or illegal you are past the point of reason. You said I should have taken charge of my med intake . That is not the thoughts of a breakdown talking. that is the voice a rational man who has never been in breakdown or been in mental hospital zoo , you were still able to think for yourself , you can never get in mental hospital by just turning up, i you shot the staff you may be in with a chance . I am still an outpatient have been most my life, Yet I can write about these experiences were most would try to forget. IF my friend you had little or no meds heading for a complete meltdown you would eat broken glass if someone told you it helped. So your lack of self medication an level head in depression for 3 years you say with no real help, shows me you situation was not thought life threating by medical staff, and you were just a number on the computer with a very long list. Your GP can get you a mental hospital emergency appointment that day if they think your life is in danger or your a danger to others, so come on lets get real. I can only speak of my illness and the way I coped there is no advice to a person in crisis , do you no why I drank a hole bottle of vodka in 1 swallow , it was to knock myself completely out of the thoughts i had ie suicide. then sometimes I would wake and that thought pattern had been deleated for a while SURVIVAL. for another day but destroy my cuts but that was not the issue at the time staying alive WAS