Clonazepam and Lorazepam

[Zac Dibble]

On the topic of Clonazepam, I have been taking anywhere from 1 to 3 0.5 mg tablets a day over the course of the past few months. 3 Weeks ago I upped it to 2 tablets average because of increased anxiety attacks, which I'm going to be seeing a general physician about since my neurologist hasn't been much help. But I digress. On days that were better within the past week, I would only end up taking one however I began feeling some weird random effects such as nausea, abdominal cramps (not severe) and gurgling (random and very uncomfortable), muscle aches, bowel related issues, etc. But after taking another tablet, everything would be fine for the most part. I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone is taking similar medication and knows if this is related to my body being set on a certain level like an addiction (however much I doubt it is), or if its common side effects over prolonged usage, especially in higher doses.

On the topic of Lorazepam, my brother is taking it for really bad social anxiety. I'm not sure how much he takes, but I believe it's once a day or twice as needed. He just started college classes today, but went on 3 hours of sleep. He only ate a Totino's pizza throughout the entire day which was right after he took an hour and a half nap and woke up. He has been nauseous for the past two hours and I'm pretty sure he might have vomited once; not sure. My family tried to push the idea that it was probably just stress from being in such a big crowd mixed with the lack of sleep. But he napped and ate when he got home and was fine up until we went out to dinner and said he felt full and hungry at the same time, along with what I previously mentioned. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It wouldn't bother me as much if he wasn't nauseated or had vomited once. I'm an emetophobic so I get very obsessive.

[Ahlstrom]

I take Clonazepam as needed, I haven't taken any for several weeks. Based on my experiences, sometimes if I take Klonopin without eating it can upset my stomach. I've never heard anything about that symptom occuring because of a certain level of addiction/prolonged usage. I'm not a doctor, so don't take my advice, but personally the fact that you've been taking one to three .5mg pills per day for the past few months is kind of scary. I took two .5mg pills a day for about a month and had trouble and bad symptoms getting off of them, nothing major though. Be careful with those pills, they are a double-edged sword. Definitely the best anti-anxiety medication out there, but MAN they are addicting. I have my mother keep them because I usually wind up taking a whole lot, they feel way too good haha.

I've never taken Lorazepam so I won't comment on that.

[gypsylee]

Generally benzos develop a tolerance within about 4-5 days. They start to make anxiety worse after a while too. They kick the arse of any other meds short-term (I love the things) but yeah they aren't a solution long-term unfortunately. My favourite strategy is having them but not always taking them. Just knowing they're there helps. But you need to be strong willed because they are very tempting.