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Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

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Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#151

Post by orangepurple »

fb03 wrote: post #89
cameronh90 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly working out is a trigger for my anxiety. I'm currently trying graded exposure therapy for exercise, but so far it's not working.

Was about to say this. Do you also trigger while trying to exercise? I have had pretty intense panic attacks while trying to work. to the point of having dizziness, weakness, closing throat feelings, the works! Pretty shitty stuff. 15 minutes later, you are absolutely normal and feeling bummed and sometimes embarrassed as well. I would also not wish a panic attack to my worst enemy. What I'm trying to do now is short…

I had those exact symptoms from not eating sufficients amounts of salt combined with not drinking enough water. Now I aim for 7 grams of table salt per day. Low sodium symptoms are indistinguishable from "feeling like you are dying."

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#152

Post by s5300 »

shepardrtc wrote: post #109
phenthrowAway wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To anyone curious about phenibut: Don't. Just don't. Please. Just a few weeks of usage can cause dependence. It is notorious for causing compulsive redosing. Withdrawal can make you unable to sleep for days, with lingering effects like panic attacks and anhedonia for weeks and weeks. Withdrawal from larger quantities can cause auditory and visual hallucinations and seizures and can even KILL you. Avoiding serious sym…

Phenibut is horrific and should be banned. I thought I could control it, but I couldn't.

Because you have no self control a substance should be banned.

Cool world that would be to live in.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#153

Post by sva_ »

yodsanklai wrote: post #120
shepardrtc wrote: post #29

I was prescribed benzos because of sleeping issues, but I was also taking phenibut at the same time. After about 3 weeks of using large doses of the benzos every night, I stopped taking them, but a year later I still feel pangs of withdrawal sometimes when I get stressed. It took me another 4 months to get off the phenibut and a month or so after that before my sleep returned to normal. There were months where I mayb…

> I tell everyone to never take benzos for any reasons You can't generalise your experience. Everybody is different and that's the doctor's job to assess whether the benefits outweigh the cost, considering the patient and their problems. Personally, I've been taking benzos very occasionally for 20 years (never more than a few days at a time) and they helped me overcome difficult times. Never had the slightest addicti…

I have friend who was at nursing school, and she'd get them prescribed for the few occasions where she had to do a presentation, as she would get extremely nervous. She never took them after. Maybe she could've addressed the issue differently, but it worked for her, and she never got hooked. But milage varies, and so on. She also told me that at the hospital, benzos are readily available and they kinda hand then out like candy to manage patients (there doesn't seem to be any rigorous bookkeeping about them).

I also tried a few many years ago, but they didn't really do anything for me. I think they only work if you got anxiety or something, so some underlying issue which -if chronic- is probably not a good fit. Never had any cravings since.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#154

Post by kayodelycaon »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #124
heavyset_go wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard of people going through withdrawals after just a single week of use. Nuts that it's sold as a supplement at all. Interestingly enough, a suspected GABA prodrug that supposedly passes the blood-brain barrier called picamilon has been banned by the FDA, yet phenibut is still on shelves.

picamilon is banned? That's dumb, soon they will ban l-theanine and taurine? I really don't think you can get addicted to picamillon like phen or benz

Some supplements are basically unregulated medications.

I found out the hard way that L-Theanine does not mix well with bipolar disorder. I suspect it inactivated the mood stabilizer I was on.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#155

Post by pirate787 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #120
shepardrtc wrote: post #29

I was prescribed benzos because of sleeping issues, but I was also taking phenibut at the same time. After about 3 weeks of using large doses of the benzos every night, I stopped taking them, but a year later I still feel pangs of withdrawal sometimes when I get stressed. It took me another 4 months to get off the phenibut and a month or so after that before my sleep returned to normal. There were months where I mayb…

> I tell everyone to never take benzos for any reasons You can't generalise your experience. Everybody is different and that's the doctor's job to assess whether the benefits outweigh the cost, considering the patient and their problems. Personally, I've been taking benzos very occasionally for 20 years (never more than a few days at a time) and they helped me overcome difficult times. Never had the slightest addicti…

My family was addicted to benzos by a quack doctor who hands them out like candy. He has many seniors on it long term for "anxiety" and though seniors are at particular risk and are not supposed to use more than 6 months.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#156

Post by sascha_sl »

opportune wrote: post #147
throwaway284534 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a exactly the kind of puritanical catch-22 that entrenches every corner ADHD treatment. “Oh, your justification for access to the high-inducing , party drug of amphetamine is that it’ll cure your lack of focus? Well, if these dangerously addictive drugs so effective, then surely you can handle 30 day prescriptions with no refills.” God forbid your prescription runs out on a weekend or holiday when your doctor…

100% this. The worst part about ADHD treatment is all the disruptions of care to prevent people trying to abuse it. I personally don't give a rat's ass if people want to take adderall to go out and party or masturbate either. They'd probably have fun with less negative health effects or risk of fights/belligerence compared to alcohol... But for some reason the government (the FDA) and medical field in general cares a…

I found it really useful to cycle single doses between 5mg/10mg and ocasionally skip it entirely, when I know it wouldn't be essential. (Usually the skip sorts itself out when I forget I have them. You'd think lingering processing deficiencies would be obvious enough to remind me, but apparently not.)

I've been avoiding higher doses because this setup works well enough that I don't want to disrupt the status quo and I keep hearing from friends that build a dependence and even one who went off them entirely after adverse reactions on very high doses.

Fortunately I have a doctor who agreed this was a good idea and writes me prescriptions for different strengths.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#157

Post by sshine »

shepardrtc wrote: post #109
phenthrowAway wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To anyone curious about phenibut: Don't. Just don't. Please. Just a few weeks of usage can cause dependence. It is notorious for causing compulsive redosing. Withdrawal can make you unable to sleep for days, with lingering effects like panic attacks and anhedonia for weeks and weeks. Withdrawal from larger quantities can cause auditory and visual hallucinations and seizures and can even KILL you. Avoiding serious sym…

Phenibut is horrific and should be banned. I thought I could control it, but I couldn't.

I tried it once years ago.

Amazingly potent. I considered finding applications for it, but alas, I had no use for it.

Seems like a WW2 drug like amphetamines: Sure works wonders if you’re patching up people, going through horrors like a breeze. But it ain’t a peace-time nootropic with minimal downside.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#159

Post by matheusmoreira »

opportune wrote: post #134
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not just talking about benzos, but also anti psychotics, amphetamines, statins, and basically the whole gamut. My brother is a pharmacist, and is constantly shocked by the prescriptions that healthy people bring in to get filled. The medical field has been unjustly given too much prestige.

If they're healthy, couldn't that be because of the medicine? A lot of people have conditions that medicine treats so well you wouldn't even know they had a condition at all. I know many people who have taken antipsychotics, amphetamines, and statins for decades and it was perfectly fine for them. I also personally know some judgmental pharmacists too. All I'll say is, there's a reason pharmacists and doctors are dis…

> If they're healthy, couldn't that be because of the medicine?

It's very likely. This actually has to be explained to a lot of people with chronic diseases like hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Way too many of them just stop taking their medication after their condition improves.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#160

Post by opportune »

shepardrtc wrote: post #29

I was prescribed benzos because of sleeping issues, but I was also taking phenibut at the same time. After about 3 weeks of using large doses of the benzos every night, I stopped taking them, but a year later I still feel pangs of withdrawal sometimes when I get stressed. It took me another 4 months to get off the phenibut and a month or so after that before my sleep returned to normal. There were months where I mayb…

Did you tell your doctor you were taking phenibut when they prescribed you benzos? It seems like something you definitely shouldn't mix.

I completely agree that benzos are bad news unless you truly need them. In my relatively uneducated opinion, I don't think they should be a first-line treatment and it's kind of a joke that they're considered schedule 4 (at least compared to things that are schedule 2 - I don't think really anything should be "scheduled"). Benzos and other gaba-ergics may not be as pleasurable as other drugs, but they're very addicting and have the most harmful withdrawal process of any class of drugs.

Phenibut and the prevalence of RC benzos (which aren't subject to the federal analogue act since benzos are schedule 4) are another phenomenon. I think people underestimate the risks of this stuff due to how easy it is to get them - especially phenibut which is sold in a lot of more "legit" websites.

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