O tempora, o mores! (retrospective tolerance)

[Politicalchalk]

Hi all. SWIM has about a 7 year history with psychoactive illumination. SWIM wanted to comment on benzodiazepines and get some feed back.

SWIM remembers his first experiences, he found a COMPLETELY filled (not rx #, COMPLETELY) bottle of lorazepam. He doesn't remember the dosage, but no matter. It was blissful and relaxing. Some mild hallucinations at times. Later, SWIM's mom was prescribed alprazolam, to which she quickly remembers disappearing. Other benzos have come and gone, not to mention loads of opiates and more-than-dabbling with psychedelics.

Now SWIM is in a position where he medically needs benzos -- movement disorders and bipolar, to wit. Here's how the order went: clonazepam .5, lorazepam .5, clonazepam .5, lorazepam.5, lorazepam 1mg. SWIM honestly can't say there's any sort of euphoria with any of these, even at 10 times the dose, or mixing with other substances (alcohol, cannabis, hydroxyzine-- one of the more potent antihistamines, even other benzos -- although I don't have much experience there)

SWIM reads all these stories on this forum and wonder how this could be. Is his other medication inhibiting the "fun" enzymes? Has SWIM built a tolerance? Maybe now I'm just an adult and the meds work like they are supposed to: to relieve stress, anxiety, and aid sleep.

SWIM would love any feedbacack. Why can't SWIM produce the same PSYCHOACTIVE effects with benzodiazepines as others? Chemistry? Genetics? Other Chems? Spiteful Sobriety Gods?

Peace to you all and please be safe!

[radiometer]

If they are not working, then the solution would be to discuss it with SWIYs doctor.

Assuming that one has a "medical need" for benzos, wouldn't you agree that trying to get "high" from them is probably a poor strategy for that person? Just a thought. My opinion is that a person who has anxiety or other issues, which are bad enough to require treatment with benzodiazepines, most likely not be fucking around with recreational drug use at all, or at least should be quite careful in their choices. It will only make the underlying issues worse. Although, many such people are actually self-medicating without realizing it, and I suspect that may be the case with SWIY.

To reiterate the main point - SWIY should discuss the issue with the doctor who has prescribed the medications.

[Politicalchalk]

SWIM will admit he's self-medicated before on the opiate trail and that turned disasterous. As far as the benzos, SWIM was quite excited when the specialist offered it to me as an option. At first, the effects were so intense, SWIM needed his family's help in moving around, remembering things, etc. Bless them for putting up with that. Next we tried the lorazepam which was much more lucid...clear. An emergency psychiatric situation cam along and SWIM was given another go at clonazepam. The Doc said sometimes people can't handle it the first time around, stop, and try again with great success. The clonazepam did produce a bit of a fog, a little unsteadiness, and memory lapses (like ALL benzos). But it was NOTHING like the initial trial with clonazepam. SWIM has tried recreational doses up to 5mg or so, with a sip of alcohol, and merely got groggy and nodded off.

SWIM initial experience with lorazepam came in .5, 1, and 2 mg tablets (the kind bestower has MS). She actually recommended quaaludes! Anyways, SWIM was free to experiment with lorazepam like a kid in a candy store, which he did. SWIM was about 16 and in that "I'm such a bad ass" phase. Anyways, it wa quite euphoric.

Presently SWIM takes his meds as prescibed. Sometimes he goes a bit extra with the benzo, but that's to be expected. On rare occassion though, and under safe circumstances, SWIM tried to achieve that euphoric dose.....and got nothing. flat out nothing. HE means, there was sedation of course, and the norms of what one would expect a benzo to do....but the euphoria is just gone.

As mentioned before (I think), SWIM actually needs the benzos for a movement disorder and other things. I take my meds regularly and at the right dosage. Perhaps the other meds might be blocking some specific subnuit in the GABA(a?) complex there or some other pharmacological reason. SWIM is just confused and somewhat frustrated that the experiences of yesterday do not seem to be able to be replicated.

If your test fails, it should fail the same way all the time. But it worked in the past. So the data is inconclusive.