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this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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Asklemmy
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Benzodiazepine addiction. Was abusing etizolam at first then graduated to clonazolam and was getting fucked up and going to work. I have no idea how I didn’t get fired honestly. I have some videos of myself doing things and I’m clearly fucked, but I suppose I didn’t get that twisted for work. My memory went to shit and a bunch of other things did too, because who gives a shit when you’re constantly wrecked. Weight dropped from normal 185lbs to a skinny ass 165lbs. Mind you, I’m 6’3”. It wasn’t a good look.
It took me 2 years to slowly taper down and that still was a pretty shitty process. Now I’m 9 months clean and up to 205 lbs by lifting weights and actually eating.
What a nightmare. Fuck benzos and godspeed to anyone who’s been using them for longer than a few weeks. Even at clinical doses you’re going to be in some shit when you stop. You’ll be glad you did, though. I’m helping a friend quit etizolam after I told him of my problems and he told me of his addiction. He’s doing great and making a lot of progress on the taper. It helps so much to have someone you can talk to.
A less serious answer - Reddit. Fuck em for killing the apps. Lemmy has been pretty great except for a few rare encounters with tankies. I genuinely enjoy posting here, the smallness is great.
A friend of mine in his 60s has been on a prescribed benzodiazapine since he was a child. He is tapering a microgram per day and struggling with the withdrawal symptoms. It’s going to take him several years at this rate but when he lowers by more it’s debilitating.
At that point, what quit?
I probably wouldn’t. He said he wants to see what his life is like without it.
My pops was prescribed 2mg Klonopin daily for uhhhh 20 years?
He quit a year ago. He told me about it and I thoroughly researched quitting methods. I’ve dabbled and stopped with bad effects before, but only like a week of bad before I was fine. He wanted to go cold turkey from 1mg and I HEAVILY discouraged that. He tapered down to .25 twice a day, then .25 a day, then stopped. He had a month of bad sleep and then slept much better.
I wanted him to do the Ashton method, but he didn’t want to take other benzos. He still did good and I’m proud of him. No idea why or how his doctors all thought that was fine. We know so much more now than when he was first prescribed, and they never warned him. He didn’t know anything about quitting until he talked to me—he’s lucky I was a raver in the ‘00s and studied every drug I had ever tried!