Silk Road forums
Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: findingcure on September 12, 2013, 07:53 am
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I have decided to give a try benzos that i have managed to get in my hands, oxazepam, and use it 2 weeks to one month but not more than that(to my anxiety). I just want to balance my emotional state.
I have heard that it lowers cortisol and blood pressure. I took first 15mg this morning and feel lightheaded, loss of coordination and bit tired. Im curious to know are these symptoms permanent as long as i use them or just in the beginning of use. Otherwise i feel less anxious, which feels nice break after several months of strong anxiety.
Since the effect time for these is short how often i should take them? I have also gotten in here suggestions to try Xanax(Alprazolam) and Valium (Diazepam). Should i get some of these from here SR to try? Maximum time for use is 1 month, so im not going to try different cocktails. And let's say i'm going to take other type or benzo other day and another type benzo next day are these going to affect each other?
Thanks :)
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Oxazepam is good very mild benzo - diazepam metabolite. You should try other benzos and see if you like them more but if I were you I would stick with one for a while and see if I would get used to it
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Oxazepam is an benzo that is relatively short lived (8 hours or so half life) and about 1/3rd the potency of diazepam. It's not very popular outside of western europe, but that doesn't mean isn't a good substance under some circumstances.
In the netherlands its the first line subscription drug for anxiety complaints, with typical doses varying from 30 to 100 mg a day in several batches (3x10, 2x50).
The effects are both anxiolytic and hyptnotic, which explains why you would feel a bit drowsy when starting to take them. Unfortunately tolerance will build to both properties relatively quickly, which is probably why they suggested you take them for a month but not more.
Xanax will prove to be a much better anxiolytic - and retain that function for quite some time despite the hypnotic effect subsiding with tolerance.
Personally i like oxazepam for one purpose only: long haul flights. Taking 50 to 100 mg of it (depending on your benzo tolerance) is excellent to knock you out for several hours, but the short half life ensures you are more or less functional when you arrive after a 10 hour flight - just have some coffee and a cig and you'll feel perfectly normal (apart from jetlag) soon enough.
This is a niche application though. When you suffer from generalized anxiety it probably is not the drug of choice for the long term. All benzodiazepines carry a risk of tolerance and dependence, but taking oxazepam on a regular basis will ensure you develop either or both rather quickly.
Xanax may be a good choice, but also investigate etizolam: for some people that relieves anxiety greatly with relative little problems with tolerance or dependence.
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Hi Ben :) thanks for suggestion. I actually got with one order, that i made in SR, 3x1mg samples of Etizolam. Can i get any touch to how they work with those and when i should try them(im taking now 15mg oxazepam 2-3 times a day)? One day because of half time?
I started yesterday, so i still have time and opportunity to find better alternative with help from here. And you Ben seem to know about these thing :D thanks.
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It's probably not a good idea to combine these medications, but since they are both short lived that should not be too big of a problem.
I understand you are taking these to deal with anxiety, but i cannot tell from your posts what actually triggers your anxiety. If it is a trigger you can avoid (such a fear of heights) i would recommend experimenting with both substances and find out which suits you best.
Personally i've found etizolam (say 1 to 2 mg daily dosage) to be a bit more mild: You are still aware of the anxiety, but the reduces the physical effects such as increased heartrate and such quite well. This can be a good thing since you are still aware of your anxieties, but you cope with them better simply because you don't feel like you are going to suffer a heart attack right there and then.
For me benzo's like xanax usually remove the whole anxiety experience if the dose is high enough. Oxazepam may do that as well in sufficient doses, but you are looking at 50 mg tablets to achieve that effect.
So its actually up to you mostly: do you want to still experience the anxiety to some degree but not longer be incapacitated by it? Eitzolam is probably the drug of choice for you.
If you seek to suppress the entire sensation of anxiety something like alprazolam or oxazepam may be better suited for your needs. Downside is that, generally, oxazepam or alprazolam will have stronger sedative effect during daytime, which should be a consideration if you drive a car or operate dangerous equipment.
In either cases i'd recommend starting with a very low dose and increasing that until you approach the desired effect. Especially something xanax that often comes in the form factor of 2 mg bars is something to take slowly: start with a quarter of a bar and see what that does. Etizolam usually comes in the form of small tablets that are 1 mg each - break those in half for your first attempt and go with 0.5 mg to begin with. Increasing dosages is very easy to do, but i think it is best not to take any more that you absolutely need.
All of this is in the perspective of medical application of course - if you want to get 'drunk' on xanax have it by the bar if you want to, but if you are fighting anxiety you usually do not need large dosages to have a very noticeable effect, and you should not take them: the last thing you want for therapeutic use is tolerance to start building!
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Benzos work differently for different people, but from my experience:
Valium is a poor anxiolytic,
Klonopin is fantastic.
Take the lowest dose possible to achieve a significant anxiolytic effect (I take .25mg Klonopin/ day, twice a week). Take coffee with your benzos if you're concerned about drowsiness (the coffee will stimulate your brain, but if the benzo works the resultant anxiety will not "surface").
I don't recommend taking benzos every day for a full month. Doing this puts you at risk for tolerance, addiction, and, if you do go cold-turkey, significant withdrawal for multiple days- a much greater amount of anxiety than you're used to.
-PB
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Thank you for advices :)
I understand you are taking these to deal with anxiety, but i cannot tell from your posts what actually triggers your anxiety. If it is a trigger you can avoid (such a fear of heights) i would recommend experimenting with both substances and find out which suits you best.
It's actually complicated and hard to understand. I have always suffered from social anxiety, or the way i would explain to myself, fear of people. Unfortunately i went through a very stressful event that raised this fear to it's peak causing me to be afraid of myself as well(because im human). That's why im constantly anxious. Before this event i was ready to confront my fears, but everything happened too fast and my fear ended up worse than it was before. Very unlucky and im very disappointed to myself :(
You are still aware of the anxiety, but the reduces the physical effects such as increased heartrate and such quite well.
One of the difficulties has been very strong constant heart beat and that's why i indeed originally planned to look for blood pressure medication. I didn't know what would help with that.
I don't recommend taking benzos every day for a full month. Doing this puts you at risk for tolerance, addiction, and, if you do go cold-turkey, significant withdrawal for multiple days- a much greater amount of anxiety than you're used to.
I actually cutted bit my benzo amount noticing two "side effects" myself which of course were mentioned. Memory problems came fast and were itself stressful. The second one was "false sense of well being", slightly euphoric feeling, that i also looked for, but i still found even that a bit of a lie. I dont know what should i think about it. Especially since benzos itself actually might cause damage in my brains in long run and even in short it's possible.
Over all, in my normal state at the moment, i mostly experience anhedonia and occasional anxiety. I personally understand that anhedonia is my brains own sedative so that im at least in some level functional. But unability to find anything pleasure from life at the moment is tough.
Thank you again. Im going to research a bit more about your recommendations and see what would be best :).
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You are still aware of the anxiety, but the reduces the physical effects such as increased heartrate and such quite well.
One of the difficulties has been very strong constant heart beat and that's why i indeed originally planned to look for blood pressure medication. I didn't know what would help with that.
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You may have been looking in the right place the first time to some degree. People that do not find the axiety itself hard to deal with, but have problems with physical effects like increased heart rate, palpitations and flushing sometime resort to to using beta blockers like propanolol.
A typical example of this would be someone that is affraid of speaking in public, but can deal with the axiety as such - but just wants to prevent any symptoms to be visible to the audience.
There are some downsides to using beta blockers though: They will probably prevent an increase in heart rate and respiration when you actually need it, such as whilst running, climbing stairs and such. This usually is not dangerous, but may make you feel like you have the fitness level of a grandpa (which you basically do at that point, despite it being only temporary).
It seems by now your anxiety has grown rather broad, so a specific drug of a specific situation would probably not be suitable anymore. This leaves you to find the best of the more general anxiolytics like valium, xaxax or etizolam. If your symptoms are mild you could also consider giving benadryl (diphenhydramide) a go - it actually has some anxiolytic and more pronounced hypnotic effects. For most people its effects are insufficient, but some respond to it very well leaving you in a situation where you only need an over the counter medicine to feel better.