# Would rotating xanax, clonazepam and ativan reduce tolerance and addiction??



## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Question:

If I were to alternate daily and take clonazepam one day, xanax the next, and ativan the 3rd day, and keep alternating like that, would I still end up addicted since they are all benzos? And would it help the tolernace issue at all ??


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## bmwfan07 (Jun 3, 2007)

I don't think it would help much, since they all act primarily on GABA.


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks 

Just trying to find a regime that may work for me..

How about alternating lyrica and clonazepam ?? Same cuz of gaba ??


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## Recipe For Disaster (Jun 8, 2010)

no they would not work at all because they are all benzos. switching benzos and lyrica would be better but i stilll wouldnt count on it preventing addiction. you need to add more drugs and drugs that act via different mechanism (not GABAergic).


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## shimmer1221 (Feb 18, 2010)

I am beginning to run into this problem now. I've relied on Clonazepam for so long now that my tolerance is catching up with me. I am starting to become scared that I won't have anything to rely on... then what!? I don't know what else to try.


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Recipe For Disaster said:


> no they would not work at all because they are all benzos. switching benzos and lyrica would be better but i stilll wouldnt count on it preventing addiction. you need to add more drugs and drugs that act via different mechanism (not GABAergic).


Thanks for the reply..

Any suggestions on what drugs i may be able to alternate with (not gabaergic?)

What about lamictal ?? Or any others ??


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## Recipe For Disaster (Jun 8, 2010)

i recommend kratom and adderall or dexedrine. rotating with more GABAergics than just two would help also, so you could add kava, carisperadol and alcohol to the rotation. when you come up with a plan, post it here so we can look over it and tell you whether it will cause dependence or not. you will also probably because psychologiclly addicted to drug if you rely on them continuously.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

No, because all benzos are cross tolerant with each other. This is why they will often switch you from another benzo to Diazepam when tapering a person off of a benzo.


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## metamorphosis (Dec 18, 2008)

Whoops, tolerance is all relative with benzos.


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## Positive (Jun 29, 2009)

thats dangerous.. i tried mixing it and it fks u up and makes you more anxious. spend time on each drug and see what works. from then, monitor ur intake.

dont fking mix drugs.


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## Echonnector (Sep 12, 2010)

How about Hydroxyzine added to the rotation. Just fyi heres a brief excerpt from wikipedia


> Hydroxyzine is used primarily as an antihistamine for the treatment of itching, allergies, hyperalgesia, motion sickness-induced nausea, and insomnia, as well as notably for the treatment of mild anxiety.[2] Even though it is an effective sedative, hypnotic, analgesic, and tranquilizer, it shares almost none of the abuse, dependence, addiction, and toxicity potential of other drugs used for the same range of therapeutic reason


In terms of benzos, Ativan and xanax are both short acting and they raise tolerance much quicker, also, ativan feels too hypnotic imo.

I think a regimen of primarily Diazepam with reasonable amounts of Clonazepam used for breakthrough anxiety issues would be the most suiting in terms of longer acting benzos.

Buspar is also an option for anxiety altho I was prescribed it a while ago and I find it to be utterly useless for me.


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Echonnector said:


> How about Hydroxyzine added to the rotation. Just fyi heres a brief excerpt from wikipedia
> 
> In terms of benzos, Ativan and xanax are both short acting and they raise tolerance much quicker, also, ativan feels too hypnotic imo.
> 
> ...


Ya I tried buspar and didnt like it at all. Found it made me spacey and lost...

You recommend diazepam over clonazepam? May I ask why - so I can make sense to my pdoc later today ??

And thanks to everyone for the replies and input, much appreciated...
I am trying to find ONE regime and stick to it 

Have a great weekend to all


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## crayzyMed (Nov 2, 2006)

hanzsolo said:


> Question:
> 
> If I were to alternate daily and take clonazepam one day, xanax the next, and ativan the 3rd day, and keep alternating like that, would I still end up addicted since they are all benzos? And would it help the tolernace issue at all ??


This wont work, the only thing working is rotation with barbs or GABAB agonists, however you have to keep a schedual of 2 week rotations as benzo's stay in your blood for quite a long time.


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Sorry newB here

Meaning 2 weeks on clonzaepam and 2 weeks on lyrica may be ok ?? 
Or they both affect GABA??

If yes, what else can i suggest???


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

The point is that just alternating cross-tolerant GABAergic substances is useful. They must act on GABA via different mechanisms. Personally in the past I made regular breaks from 8mg clonazepam / day taken for 2-3 month with primidone (Desoxyphenobarbital) for 2-3 weeks. Worked like a charm.


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

Yeah probably what medline said ^ ^ 
Also in my experience, if it helps, i found the benzos much more potent and effective when i was forced to stop taking them for awhile (well a few weeks)
Last year i was up to 4MG of klonopin and still not feeling relaxed, but since the break and discontinuation of them which was hell i admit, i am now able to remain calm on 0.5-0.75 not even 1MG of klonopin and i have not increased the dose, i have no desire too because they work so well as long as you do not increase or tell yourself you need to.

I have done it, i have managed not to increase my klonopin intake otherwise yeah i would go back to where i was but honestly 0.5Mg calms me right down and helps me sleep and think clearly which is something it never used to be able to do when i was initially given 2MG to begin with. Going from no benzo to a moderate dose of something potent like clonazepam is not a good idea, but then again my doc and the shrink at the time were pretty useless.

Ativan tends to wear off too quickly and is not as potent as klonopin and to my knowledge Xanax either so i would stick with Xanax or klonopin in smaller doses


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## ron9916 (Jan 22, 2011)

cross tolerant


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## jimmythekid (Apr 26, 2010)

jim_morrison said:


> No, because all benzos are cross tolerant with each other. This is why they will often switch you from another benzo to Diazepam when tapering a person off of a benzo.


Yep. Except Xanax. If your hooked on that you have to taper off with it. I think because it's way more addictive than any other benzo.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Especially Xanax with it's relatively short half life should be switched to the very long acting diazepam when tapering off.


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## Recipe For Disaster (Jun 8, 2010)

Medline said:


> The point is that just alternating cross-tolerant GABAergic substances is useful. They must act on GABA via different mechanisms. Personally in the past I made regular breaks from 8mg clonazepam / day taken for 2-3 month with primidone (Desoxyphenobarbital) for 2-3 weeks. Worked like a charm.


can you go into more detail about this? and where did you get desoxyphenobarbital?


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Recipe For Disaster said:


> can you go into more detail about this? and where did you get desoxyphenobarbital?


Take alcohol withdrawal for example: It can effectively be treated with benzodiazepines because they are cross-tolerant. Both substances act on GABA but via different mechanisms.

Same story with benzos and cross-tolerant drugs like barbiturates, mebrobamate, clomethiazole... acute withdrawal symptoms are suppressed and physical dependence / tolerance subsides to great degree within ~2 weeks. Of course it's important not to stay too long on e.g. primidone (Desoxyphenobarbital) because it can cause physical dependence itself after many weeks / few months. It's abuse potential is pretty low (IMHO lower than that of benzos) in contrast to the very dangerous short acting barbs.

I got a script for primidone from my Pdoc. In general it will be pretty hard to get a doc to do that, altough primidone is pretty harmless and I think whereas phenobarbital is a controlled substance, primidone is not. It (or it's metabolite to be exactly) has an extremely long half which is very useful when it comes to benzo withdrawal.


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## MBL (Oct 5, 2010)

If you have an addiction/tolerance to one benzo, it tends to carry over to the others.

I would suggest a secondary line of medications instead of just benzos which will give you an addiction and lack of benefits over time.


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## zaljereck (Mar 16, 2011)

*What?!?!*



Arisa1536 said:


> Yeah probably what medline said ^ ^
> Also in my experience, if it helps, i found the benzos much more potent and effective when i was forced to stop taking them for awhile (well a few weeks)
> Last year i was up to 4MG of klonopin and still not feeling relaxed, but since the break and discontinuation of them which was hell i admit, i am now able to remain calm on 0.5-0.75 not even 1MG of klonopin and i have not increased the dose, i have no desire too because they work so well as long as you do not increase or tell yourself you need to.
> 
> ...


First off, please do not give advice if you don't know what you're talking about. People can get confused and take the wrong meds or when talking about benzos, DIE, if they stop taking them all together at once. Ativan has the longest half life(about 8-12 hours) of all the benzos mentioned. Xanax is short acting and powerful(3-5 hour half life), almost like the opposite of Ativan. It's like you're getting all the medication at once vs. over a long period of time, almost like an SR. I'm not too sure about Klonopin because they never worked for me, so I never asked or read up about them. Take it from someone who's been on Ativan for over 5 years. Yes Ativan is fast acting, but the because it stays in your system longer, it doesn't hit you as hard when you take it. When you take a Xanax, YOU KNOW IT!!!  That's my experience with them at least. In my opinion(and this isn't fact), I look at the benzos as a ladder from weakest to strongest as Ativan, Klonopin then Xanax. There's a reason why more people are hooked on Xanax than Klonopins or Ativans.


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