Xanax or Valium

[mbellamy09]

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[mbellamy09]

Plus hoping something else would help just as much or better without the memory issues

thanks in advance

[1998]

Valium, 20mg of valium is = to 1mg of klonopin. Every benzo messes w/ ur memory though. Just switching benzo's isn't going to help your klonopin tolerance.

You have to either keep upping your dosage forever (which eventually you'll top out) or slowly taper which is what I'd do.

Xanax has a very quick half life, I'd stay away from it.

LATER

[VisualDude]

How much klonopin have you been taking?

I've only used small amounts of benzos:

0.25 mg Xanax (PRN ~30 pills a year, 10 years)

10 mg Valium (couple weeks, 2 years ago)

1 mg Klonopin (couple years)

At these doses, have never noticed any memory issues.

[mbellamy09]

hey guys thanks for the replies. apparently im easily affected by it. only 2/mg a day. gonna start tapering though and try keppra i believe. my doc wants to do a little more research before it gets prescribed though

[1998]

2mg of klonopin is alot. Taper very slowly!

[VisualDude]

Interesting. A member on a DP forum has been taking 6 mg Klonopin for over 22 years with no change in dosage or in its effectiveness. Her memory is stellar and clearly she is intelligent. Amazing how this stuff goes.

For a while was taking 1800 mg Neurontin (not a benzo but has some similarities). When I started it gave me energy (unusual) and no memory problems. Now, as I have been getting better, 300 mg is plenty otherwise I can get dopey from it.

[1998]

I like hearing that Visual. Its not that often that ppl don't build a tolerance to benzo's after that many yrs. I want to stay on klonopin forever, but I can feel it messing w/ me in a big way.

Honestly the only reason I haven't gotten off klonopin yet is the w/d's make me feel suicidal. Most ppl say it's harder to get off then methedone after long term usage.

Glad nuerontin is working out for you/later!

[mbellamy09]

ive been doin it for a few days now and i notice a diff. might be for the good though. can't really tell lol. im smiling a lot more apparently according to my parents and i dont know if more energy is the way to say it but it feels foreign. as far as the memory goes i think its clearer but tbh it still feels a little weird. visuals are still there might not be as much though.

another question, has anyone turned off the lights and just stared? for some reason i did it last night and my whole field of vision got darker. spooked me a bit.

got off track there. yea it is weird how every person reacts differently though. again thanks for the responses.

[1998]

That's cool things seem to be going smooth right now. Just don't be surprised if around day 4 w/d's start hitting you out of nowhere. That happened to me and many other's I spoke to as well.

A good thing is only about 50% of ppl suffer from hardcore w/d's from benzo's, hopefully you're a lucky one!

"another question, has anyone turned off the lights and just stared?"

When I do this (lights on or off) everything starts pulsating, all the grout in my tile disappears and the tiles start dancing around it's crazy. When I stare for longer then 20 seconds at something without blinking, it looks just like I turned on a strobe light it used to scare the shit out of me lol I just try not to stare at things for to long so all that crazy stuff doens't happen later!!!

[VisualDude]

ive been doin it for a few days now and i notice a diff. might be for the good though. can't really tell lol. im smiling a lot more apparently according to my parents and i dont know if more energy is the way to say it but it feels foreign. as far as the memory goes i think its clearer but tbh it still feels a little weird. visuals are still there might not be as much though.

another question, has anyone turned off the lights and just stared? for some reason i did it last night and my whole field of vision got darker. spooked me a bit.

got off track there. yea it is weird how every person reacts differently though. again thanks for the responses.

my whole field of vision got darker

Please explain – after all it is supposed to be dark when you close your eyes

One of my first visual symptoms was it not being dark when closing eyes … the visual equivalent of tinnitus. Of the 3 meds that help this, Klonopin is one.

Glad to hear you are smiling more…

[mbellamy09]

yea a little confusing. i dont close my eyes. i shut off all the lights waited for my eyes to adjust and just stared and i guess darker is the only way to explain it.

[VisualDude]

yea a little confusing. i dont close my eyes. i shut off all the lights waited for my eyes to adjust and just stared and i guess darker is the only way to explain it.

Have you had image persistance, trails, depth perception, and/or contrast problems?

[mbellamy09]

yea i get minor trails and the image persistance. don't believe depth perception is an issue until i get hammered lol.

[mbellamy09]

i guess ill post an update. i couldn't handle it at all. couple nights ago was the worse night of my life no sleep whatsoever and it has continued. got like 2 hours last night. talked to my old doc(he moved to the hospital permanently) and told him what was going on. my anxiety was and still somewhat is through the roof. all my visuals became way worse. more than when i first noticed hppd 4 years ago. terrible visions when i closed my eyes, plus terrible thoughts. no way i could make it for much longer tbh. so going back up to 1/mg a day. didnt think that was a lot but i guess ive been taking it for like 3 1/2 years so whatever,

so i failed my first go around will wait to try again and prepare myself better i think. are these reactions normal btw?