# Klonopin and Alcohol



## Catastrophizer (Aug 23, 2010)

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## sadboy (Jan 29, 2010)

It can be dangerous to mix benzos and alcohol. I sometimes do it when my sleep schedule is ****ed up and I need something strong to knock me the **** out but I don't recommend doing it. You can probably die if you take too much.


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

Alcohol and Benzos is a dangerous mix. Dont recommend it. You will blackout and do really dumb stuff when mixed with benzos. They both act on GABA.


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## orbit55 (Apr 23, 2008)

I don't know about your Klonopin bottle but mine only says alcohol "may" increase the effects of alcohol. I hope my boozing days are behind me but that was my excuse to get drunk while on it.

When I first started mixing I had a 6 drink limit which quickly got tossed. It's a toxic combo. You get wasted faster, the hangovers are brutal and I am sure twice as hard on your body.


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## Positive (Jun 29, 2009)

Same boat as me before. I took a .50MG, but accidentally forgot I was on meds, and drank pretty heavy.

Please do not do the same.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

Benzos plus alcohol usually results in you blacking out, which isn't much fun and could be dangerous if you don't have someone looking after you after you black out. But then again why would you want to black out? Just keep benzos and alcohol seperate, there is no need to mix the two.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

I still contend mixing benzos & alcohol is not risky unless done in excess.



> You can probably die if you take too much.


If mixing benzos & alcohol was at all likely to produce death it would be a commonly used suicide method. It's not.

I just checked on online blood alcohol content calculator. It tells me that I could get a BAC of 0.43 if I managed to consume 20 shots (roughly a liter) of whiskey in an hour. I tried to put in higher numbers, but it refused them as "unrealistic." Not that 20 shots in an hour is at all realistic, though out of curiosity I wanted to see how stunningly heavy I'd need to drink to get up to levels where death by alcohol poisoning would be a serious possibility. Seems those who die by alcohol poisoning really need to make quite an effort.


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## bigcat1967 (Apr 20, 2010)

There have been cases where ppl die while taking benzos and alcohol.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

UltraShy said:


> I still contend mixing benzos & alcohol is not risky unless done in excess.
> 
> If mixing benzos & alcohol was at all likely to produce death it would be a commonly used suicide method. It's not.
> 
> I just checked on online blood alcohol content calculator. It tells me that I could get a BAC of 0.43 if I managed to consume 20 shots (roughly a liter) of whiskey in an hour. I tried to put in higher numbers, but it refused them as "unrealistic." Not that 20 shots in an hour is at all realistic, though out of curiosity I wanted to see how stunningly heavy I'd need to drink to get up to levels where death by alcohol poisoning would be a serious possibility. Seems those who die by alcohol poisoning really need to make quite an effort.


The CNS depression when mixing these two drugs is NOT linear. It increases exponentially(or close to it) IMO.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

UltraShy said:


> I still contend mixing benzos & alcohol is not risky unless done in excess.


That's right. Tip: better exceed with alcohol than with medication when taken together. One pill+many drinks = high , many pills+one drink = ko (feel faint, throw up but then sleep like a baby)
They can be mixed without exceeding either of them, and nobody wrong happens.
In the past ppl killed themselves through barbiturates at high doses or mixed with alcohol.


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## 49erJT (Oct 18, 2010)

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## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

I've got a question for the beer drinkers. I'm on 0.5 mg twice a day and half a bottle of beer (seriously, that's not much!) will make me fall asleep in the midst of a party. When I wake up I feel absolutely horrible. I haven't noticed this when I have small amounts of hard alcohol though. I thought I might be allergic to beer or something but I have to say, when I wake up it's like I've been drugged. Everything seems fuzzy and it's not fun at all. Needless to say I missed the drinking stage of teenage life.


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## orbit55 (Apr 23, 2008)

I was able to drink 18 drinks in one night before benzo's. When I started mixing my tolerance went down but I slowly was able to make it back to around 12. Trust me these are not proud accomplishments. 

I would never black out but the hangovers were terrible. I mean one night of getting drunk turned into 1 day of being sick the whole day. This happened quite often. 

Anyway, I'm sure mixing is really stupid and to answer seafolly, I bet there is some relation with benzo's and hangovers but don't try to make up for a lost social life. I kind of did this and believe me you are so much better off without the booze.


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## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

Oh it's been ten years, I've mastered the art of being the only sober one at a party.  It just seemed like a really extreme reaction to half a bottle of beer. Surely on such a low dose I should be able to drink more than that rather than slide into a coma? :b


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## 49erJT (Oct 18, 2010)

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## 49erJT (Oct 18, 2010)

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## orbit55 (Apr 23, 2008)

49erJT said:


> I felt the same way when I would drink heavy and I would get so depressed....For some odd reason I would never get hangovers with Lexapro?


I've always had an SSRI/SNRI and benzo combo. So I've always had the nasty benzo hangovers.

I do remember feeling sooo depressed the day after drinking on Celexa which is similar to lexapro. I would go on these irrational Vegas trips and the next morning have all this self-pity and call my relatives and just bawl my eyes out. Alcohol is just not worth it.


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## Akane (Jan 2, 2008)

I never noticed a difference but then my sister and I both have a hell of a time getting drunk. I finally accomplished it by chugging vodka. It lasted all of 30mins, then I felt normal again, and then I ate dinner and vomited it all back up. My sister called me drunk for the first time like a month ago after having some shots of expensive whiskey with her new coworkers.

Benzos and alcohol can increase the effects of each other for some people though. I have tried to use that to my advantage by drinking some alcohol at night when my doctor would not give me a high enough prescription of lorazepam for insomnia. Not very effective for me like I said. I'd be quite happy if benzos meant I could actually feel something from alcohol other than the burning in my throat from the high alcohol content in the stuff I'm trying to get drunk on. It could be useful to have them interact and costs a lot less money either in type of alcohol/number of drinks or in benzo prescriptions.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

49erJT said:


> I'm not really sure how dangerous it is to mix but I know lots of people do it. Are the short half life barbs/benzos more dangerous in combination with alcohol than the longer acting ones?


dunno really...maybe...what I know is present-day sedatives and hypnotics are designed to prevent overdose death and coma. Most barbiturates are now no longer available.


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## orbit55 (Apr 23, 2008)

swim said:


> dunno really...maybe...what I know is present-day sedatives and hypnotics are designed to prevent overdose death and coma. Most barbiturates are now no longer available.


My doc must be really stupid because he prescribed Ultram for body aches when I had a cold and at the pharmacy I had an inkling that it would interact with Pristiq and it did. So the pharmacist called him and he put in an Rx for a barbituate.


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## boredandtired (Jun 19, 2011)

Was on Clonazepam a few years back and each time I relapsed while on it I collapsed and woke up hours later. Definitely an extremely dangerous combo. If you know you're going to drink on the weekend stop taking them a few days before otherwise the blackouts will happen.


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## 49erJT (Oct 18, 2010)

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## boredandtired (Jun 19, 2011)

49erJT said:


> *Were you drinking heavy when you collapsed? *I know kpin has a long half life so it can stay in your system for like 5-10 days depending on how fast you liver metabolizes it.


Being an alcoholic at the time I would have to say yes. It was an awkward feeling for me when I woke up because it's never happened to me.

You may be right about the 5-10 day wait period. Shortly after those blackouts I stopped using Clonazepam until now.


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## 49erJT (Oct 18, 2010)

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## boredandtired (Jun 19, 2011)

49erJT said:


> Yeah blcking out is very scary....Did you take a large dose of Klonopin when you blacked out?


I was on the normal prescribed dose (for me) of 2.5mg. It was odd becaise there were no warning signs of being faint. Just happened as if someone turned off the lights.



49erJT said:


> My wife's aunt has a drinking problem and will down a bottle of wine or two everynight and then before passing out she takes 2mg Klonopin to help her sleep through the night. If she keeps doing this one day she may not wake up.


Valium and alcohol are a poor combinations since both are downers.


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