new member, not (yet?) on benzo

[[ar...]]

Hi to everybody.

I'm writing here for having some information about benzos. My info: I suffer from the last winter (September 2006) of anxiety and insomnia. This is a major concern for me, because I had fibromyalgia for 10 years, now in remission, but lack of sleep is definitely a trigger event for a relapse of pain (as I have verified in these months).

So I had to find something to deal with anxiety. I tried small doses of SSRI (but they don't agree with me), tryciclics (Elavil in particular, it helps but side effects are too bad, even at 10mg dose!). The only thing that seems to help constantly is a very low dose of Delorazepam (which is a long acting benzodiazepine, with an half life of about 100 hours). My dose is about equals to 2 or 3 mg of Valium (according to the Italian version of Haston Manual 1mg delorazepam = 10mg valium: I use the liquid form, so can go low as I want, normal dose is minimum 0,5-1mg per day, normally 3 o 4 mg, according to P.I. sheet).

For the risk of addiction my doctor said to use it in this way: take this small dose for 3 weeks (once a day, before bed) and than stop for 2 weeks, then again 3 weeks with, and so on. According to him it's almost impossible to get hooked using this schedule. I'm not so sure, so I ask to you... can a long acting benzo as delorazepam used this way to create an addiction? Obviously I don't absolutely want to go to a dose upper than 2 or 3 mg diazepam equivalent.

What do you thing about this?

 

Thanks a lot for any info!

[[Co...]]

Hi Artkin,

 

Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

 

Frankly and honestly, I am not sure about this. Your doctor may be right, but I've not come across a schedule like this before. It would appear, though, for a small number of people, they can become addicted within a couple of weeks. OK, so you are probably OK for a single run of three weeks, but I do not know what would happen if you were to reinstate again after two weeks off and do this repeatedly. Because of the the long half-life (assuming that the half-life is about 100 hours for you - there will be a lot variability, I'm sure), then your blood levels of Delorazepam will still be at something like an eighth of the levels when you stopped after 14 days. So, although your blood levels will be low, you will not be completely clear. How much this affects things I'm uncertain. Have other benzos been discussed? What about a medium half-life benzo like Clonazepam? On average (for the average person), there would be something in the order of just one-thousandth of the Clonazepam left in your system after two weeks - perhaps it is not suitable though. I'm just throwing up ideas, you understand.

[[si...]]

artkin - welcome to the forum.

 

i to have fibromyalgia - that makes us very susceptible to toxins.  i would not advise you to add another medication - it will just give you more to withdrawal from when they stop working - and they all stop working.

 

muscle pain is compounded when withdrawing from benzos and really hurts when you have fibromyalgia.  i used heat packs and physical therapy.

 

i have found magnesium and calcium taken together to really help me with my pain.

 

are you looking to withdraw or figure out how to sleep?

 

many of us use melatonin, benadryl to help us through sleeping issues - but anything taken over a long period of time will stress you system.  i to was given a benzo to help me sleep because of fibromyalgia - after a while it stopped and made the pain much worse. 

 

there will always be a drug for everything - but a drug is a cover and is hard on your body - in the end you will be hooked on drugs and the issues will be worse.

[[ar...]]

Thanks for the reply.

Colin: thanks for this advice. I can consider clonazepam (I've tried, before delorazepam, only alprazolam - too short lived- and bromazepam - don't agree with my body) but the liquid form is too much I think (a single drop is 0,1 mg, so for being on 2mg valium equivalent I should use 1 drop!). I may consider this: because the main metobile of delorazepam is lorazepam I can use 2 weeks of delorazepam and the last week lorazepam (0,2 mg), so I add about 2 half-life of delorazepam before reinstate. So after 14 days without any benzo the level of delorazepam will be (probably, there will be surely some personal variations):

 

14+7=21 days that are a little more than 5 half life

The amount of delorazepam will be so less then 1/32

 

Maybe for being sure I should add another week drug free

 

Can this plan be right?

 

Silver: I'm so sorry to hear you have fibro too! It's a too bad having this! I hate fibro! My problem is that anxiety (and consequent lack of sleep) is a great contributor to fibro pain: without it I'm almost pain-free. Surely I don't want to be hooked on a benzo, but benzo are the most useful drug for my fibro... so being almost pain-free for 3 weeks every 5 or 6 weeks is better than nothing, I think. I tried melatonin, but after 2 days it give me depression... benadryl I would like to try, but in Italy it's a prescription drug and no doctor wanted me on it

I've tried Elavil but I'm too groggy during the day. For now the best "solution" is delorazepam, but I want to be sure not to become dependent on it.

What benzo did you used? Have you finished your w/d?

 

 

[[Co...]]

Hi Artkin,

 

Your figures appear correct to me. I worked out the half-lifes similarly in my previous post. If you are going to use Lorazepam for the final week, why not just use Lorazepam for all three weeks? It's short half-life would result in undetectable blood levels after two weeks. I'm not sure what your experience of tapering Lorazepam would be like though. Usually, it is not a good benzo for tapering because of its short half-life, but then we are usually talking about people that have been taking it for some considerable time.

[[si...]]

i have found the best thing for my fybro is one supplement that is 33.333 calcium 33.333 magnesium and 33.333 zinc - all in one = just one pill two times a day - i buy nature made from walgreens - you can get it at some drug store some where w/o a prescription.

 

it is always best to treat the problem - not cover it up - you do not have a benzodiasapam shortage - you have a mineral shortage.

 

right now minerals are not patented - but drug companies are moving in that direction.