Discussion Is it possible to take benzos and opiates long term and still be functional/successful?

[nigelhernandez]

My parents think that you can't take these drugs even if prescribed legally long term and still function. I beg to differ but I don't know. I've known someone in college who was prescribed 1mg of Xanax everyday for a month and subsequently got addicted. She started stealing from her family and that eventually led to her stealing from her family for more benzos. The last I heard of her, she was currently homeless.

But I know that there are many more stories of people who have debilitating anxiety/depression who take benzodiazepines sparingly and it works wonder for them. Same with opioids even though many places, in particular the U.S. has cracked down on prescriptions.

 

[miseryh8scompany]

Of course you can take benzos regularly and be successful. I was taking them every night for years and doing perfectly fine... better than I would have without them. I know many older people at my work who have opiate prescriptions and are perfectly functional.

Abusing something is different then using them medicinally, unfortunately some people can't control themselves and/or don't care.... especially if they're suffering

 

[nigelhernandez]

Of course you can take benzos regularly and be successful. I was taking them every night for years and doing perfectly fine... better than I would have without them. I know many older people at my work who have opiate prescriptions and are perfectly functional.

Abusing something is different then using them medicinally, unfortunately some people can't control themselves and/or don't care.... especially if they're suffering

Can I ask what was your experience on them? Did they offer you euphoria/relaxation? What benzo was it and on what dose?

I'm a bit worried about memory issues as I'm in college.

 

[Bauhaus]

Tollerance builds pretty quickly when you use them regularly, unfortunately.
You start to take them more out of habit, like smoking.
Although I never had a problem with benzos in the past, I usually took 1 or 2/day.
Then when they stopped working completely, I just quit stone cold and didn't have a problem.
I suppose it depends much whether you have an addictive personality or not.
I'm more of an anhedonic person, I usually don't experience euphoria from meds.
The ONLY time I experienced euphoria from benzos was the very first time I took one, and after that nothing, just good relaxation and in the beginning also for sleep.
Ironically the one thing I'm most addicted too is .... Cola light !
When I'm out of cola for a few days I really get cravings.
And now also tobacco since I started again few weeks back. I tell you, that stuff is more addictive than benzos & opioids together.
But everyone's body is different of course.

 

[Mm80]

Yeah course you can.
I lived near there was a senior pilot who took them everyday. He also had a joint before bed to get him to sleep.

 

[miseryh8scompany]

Can I ask what was your experience on them? Did they offer you euphoria/relaxation? What benzo was it and on what dose?

I'm a bit worried about memory issues as I'm in college.

I was taking 1mg of clonazepam every night for sleep and it provided some relief from other symptoms I suffered with. I never built up much of a tolerance, but I got freaked out when I went through withdrawals one time and decided to taper off them. I really had no idea how addictive they were until that happened. I ended up going back on at half the dose because the benefits outweighed the addiction.

To be honest I never felt any real euphoria from them, it just shut my brain up before bed and I occasionally took an extra one in social situations. My situation has changed however and I use them more now (in addition to other meds). If I hadn't have developed a completely new illness I may have come off them completely but that's not really an option anymore.

 

[Disappointered]

I've used them and had no addiction problems. I'm disfunctional anyway so it's hard to figure out whether they had a negative impact on my memory but i''m guessing if they did it was negligible. I'm always on other meds as well in any case.

 

[miseryh8scompany]

I never noticed any memory problems or negative side effects at all, until I came off them.

As a side note, I don't know why more doctors don't prescribe pregabalin first. It WORKS for general anxiety and sleep and is less problematic than benzos.

 

[Jbell6066]

Personally, I've been on both for more than a decade. Benzos I cannot go without, suffer from insomnia among a lot of other problems. Opiates, I've limited myself to synthetic (hydrocodone), this is something I abuse.
It's quite the expensive habit if acquiring illegally as I do. I refuse to go to Doctors because they always find something else wrong with me.

I function very well at a high demanding job without memory loss, might have some lazy moments.

 

[Bauhaus]

It's quite the expensive habit if acquiring illegally as I do.

Indeed. I tried to get buprenorphine from my doctor for anxiety but he doesn't want to give me a prescription: "But ..... but ...... opioids are for PAIN, I telll you PAIN !"
Doctors can be really short minded when it comes to different uses of one drug. When in 2012 I told him lyrica & baclofen are useful for anxiety and sleep, he didn't believe me, even said it was "dangerous".
Then when I talked about opioids and said that Tramadol could be useful for depressive & anxious patients since it's also a SSRI & NARI, again he didn't believe me.

 

[Jbell6066]

It's why I refuse to ask for help from medical professionals. They can hear you but they can't feel what you feel or how you feel...

 

[chrisbate7]

Benzodiazepines are devil drugs. People think they help but the problem is you go through interdose withdrawal and immediately your anxiety goes up. Also, you get tolerant to a dose after as little as a month or two. And if you ever get off them get ready for months of hell from withdrawal/injury. I would highly recommend against taking them unless you are literally ready to die soon and just need to cope until then. Not ever good for long term wellness

 

[GoneGoneGone]

Yeah course you can.
I lived near there was a senior pilot who took them everyday. He also had a joint before bed to get him to sleep.

He was flying high so to say?

I never noticed any memory problems or negative side effects at all, until I came off them.

As a side note, I don't know why more doctors don't prescribe pregabalin first. It WORKS for general anxiety and sleep and is less problematic than benzos.

I think there were some fatal ODs from pregabalin

To OP:
Well I think there are some in the entertainment industry who take them and we know this... for example Heath Ledger...
Lena Dunham also took Klonopin.

They of course work differently for different people, but you will find many successful people and then discover that they are on some sort of meds, including benzos.

 

[catalepsy]

Yes. Sorry, hold on a sec, nomnomnom. Okay, I'm good to answer now.

You absolutely can. It's not hard. See? I'm doing it right now.

 

[miseryh8scompany]

Personally, I've been on both for more than a decade. Benzos I cannot go without, suffer from insomnia among a lot of other problems. Opiates, I've limited myself to synthetic (hydrocodone), this is something I abuse.
It's quite the expensive habit if acquiring illegally as I do. I refuse to go to Doctors because they always find something else wrong with me.

I function very well at a high demanding job without memory loss, might have some lazy moments.

My psychiatrist is an incompetent moron, and the answer to everything is always SSRIs, despite them never helping in the slightest bit. I'm willing to listen to her psycho babble and pointless questions every 3 months so I can get my clonazepam and zopiclone refilled. lol.

Opiates, I do have to get off the darkweb though, or just use tianeptine

 

[Jbell6066]

My psychiatrist is an incompetent moron, and the answer to everything is always SSRIs, despite them never helping in the slightest bit. I'm willing to listen to her psycho babble and pointless questions every 3 months so I can get my clonazepam and zopiclone refilled. lol.

I had a doctor seven years ago try to put me on SSRI's, told her to fuck off then given a psych-eval. Of course I lied on this psych-eval and an hour later that doctor called me to let me know I could no longer be her patient. I didn't even get any meds from her... I just went home and took a good dose of psilocybin mushrooms to fix my head temporarily.

 

[waived]

My parents think that you can't take these drugs even if prescribed legally long term and still function. I beg to differ but I don't know. I've known someone in college who was prescribed 1mg of Xanax everyday for a month and subsequently got addicted. She started stealing from her family and that eventually led to her stealing from her family for more benzos. The last I heard of her, she was currently homeless. But I know that there are many more stories of people who have debilitating anxiety/depression who take benzodiazepines sparingly and it works wonder for them. Same with opioids even though many places, in particular the U.S. has cracked down on prescriptions.

I think both opiates and benzos are genuinely problematic long term and even short term.

 

[Xocoyotziin]

I can see it being possible as long as a few conditions are met. One, you don't act like a jackass on your doc, can roleplay normal functioning and can keep your use relatively secret, and two that you can keep a steady supply line going that doesn't draw too much heat.

Either way anything that has the potential to physically addict you is going to be another burden you have to upkeep, some people can balance that and some can't. And over time it probably gets more difficult, and neurological changes accrue that can have a variety of effects.

But the drugs instantly turn you into a complete fuckup meme is imo a meme and the issues are more complex than that, often generated by biases surrounding drug use, like their illegality or controlled distribution that drives up their market value which puts drug users in a tougher spot in terms of supply lines, leading to theft, gang violence, and stuff like that.

 

[NA90]

You can, just don't you the those specially with the opioids. They are awful to let go.

 

[waived]

I can see it being possible as long as a few conditions are met. One, you don't act like a jackass on your doc, can roleplay normal functioning and can keep your use relatively secret, and two that you can keep a steady supply line going that doesn't draw too much heat.

Either way anything that has the potential to physically addict you is going to be another burden you have to upkeep, some people can balance that and some can't. And over time it probably gets more difficult, and neurological changes accrue that can have a variety of effects.

But the drugs instantly turn you into a complete fuckup meme is imo a meme and the issues are more complex than that, often generated by biases surrounding drug use, like their illegality or controlled distribution that drives up their market value which puts drug users in a tougher spot in terms of supply lines, leading to theft, gang violence, and stuff like that.

Both Benzodiazepine's and Opiates can turn someone into a complete fuck-up really quick because tolerance skyrockets even when used in controlled settings and they are both highly addictive. As you've mentioned they both have high recreational value and are highly controlled which puts drug users in a spot, to be specific about it, to either go through withdrawals, sometimes unexpectedly and at very inopportune times and suffer those consequences, or to seek the drugs through other avenues which looks like coming up with extra money, or using money already budgeted for things such as rent and food, having to interact with people who are a liability to your quality of life usually in more than one way. A myth is that all of this occurs some years down the line to unlucky people. It can start a month in when your drugs run out and your brain still wants them. I also want to point out that withdrawals are not something that just feels bad that you deal with for a little while before being good.

 

[kjghfg]

I've seen periods of acute psychosis in someone suffering from diazepam withdrawal and also I believe there may have been long term and lasting effects from this (although there were other factors involved). That is only me saying that about one person though and it's subjective so it doesn't really mean anything.

Drs in my country are loathe to prescribe these now for the reasons mentioned in @waived 's post. Too much pain for not much gain for a lot of people, but it completely depends on the person and situation. Patients where I live just end up getting various drugs thrown at them, with no resources put into helping them in other ways simultaneously, and see which ones stick. Of course it's possible for someone to function on just about anything, but the goal would seemingly be to make functioning possible or make functioning easier/ better than it is without the drug.

No drug is 'bad' it's just appropriate when it's the best tool for the whatever it's required for. There are plenty of other drugs that are under-utilised for many things that benzos are commonly used to treat in the US especially, without the same level of side effects.

 

[Gnip]

I've taken clonazepam, temazepam and alprazolam since November 1996, and worked continuously 45 to 65 hours a week from November 1996 until I retired in July 2002. Without those medications, my working life would have ended in February 1997, and I probably would not have been able to live long enough to reach the new millennium.

Benzodiazepines are medications I've used for nearly a quarter century, sometimes daily, and sometimes on an as needed basis. One of my current psychiatrist's old friends and colleagues is psychiatrist David V. Sheehan, who published "The Anxiety Disease" in 1983, a classic in the field which I read many years before I met my first psychiatrist in November 1996. They are a truly GREAT class of medications, but I was also very well educated about benzodiazepines long before I ever had any prescribed for me. I've always kept a supply on hand with me at all times since my first prescriptions, and they are absolute peace of mind to know I always have them with me. On my keychain is an aluminum pill fob capsule filled with tablets of quick acting alprazolam and long acting clonazepam for me at all times (usually with three or six additional 15 mg temazepam capsules).

My father keeps an Altoids tin box attached to a magnet on the dashboard of his Buick, filled with alprazolam tablets, since he's prone to daylight highway and bridge anxiety from seeing long lines of vertiginous convergence. When these visuals trigger his anxiety in situations where he must continue driving, he quickly opens that tin, pops an alprazolam, takes a swig from the water bottle always at his side, and his dread is instantly relieved so he can continue driving without difficulty. At night when he can't sleep due to anxious thoughts and chronic worries, he pops and alprazolam tablet and is quickly fast asleep again.

 

[Brick In The Wall]

I think the answer to this question varies wildly from individual to individual.

 

[nozomu]

I take benzos regularly but can live without them too, I never really develop chemical addictions to medications I've taken and I've been on some very addictive stuff