Effects - Hallucinations with Lorazepam

[pharmapsyche]

Once, SWIM took about 15mgs of lorazepam and noticed hallucinations similar to those he'd experienced on ambien (zolpidem). Anyone else ever notice ambien-like hallucinations on high doses of a benzo?

[amped]

I just came across this and remembered reading your post.

I quote:

So-called "Paradoxical" Effects

"According to Professor Malcolm Lader, 5% of those using benzodiazepines may be affected by so-called "paradoxical" reactions in response to the drugs rather than the desired tranquillising effects. Such reactions include increased aggressiveness (in some individuals even violent behaviour), depression (with or without suicidal thoughts or intentions), and sometimes personality changes. In some instances, reactions such as hallucinations, depersonalisation, derealisation and other psychiatric symptoms occur.

Ativan (lorazepam) and Halcion (triazolam) in particular may produce dissociation and other psychiatric symptoms."

"Paradoxical" side effects occur in all age groups but are more likely to be found in children and in the elderly where they may be fairly frequent yet erroneously diagnosed as various psychiatric disorders. The risk of such reactions is generally greater with short-acting compounds but may occur with all benzodiazepine drugs. It is important to remember that the "paradoxical" reactions can also be encountered in short-term use and, in rare cases, even following the first ingestion of the drug.

[788.4]

I have had interesting tactile and visual hallucinations with combinations of moderate doses of Valium or Klonopin and weed. They were extremly pleasant. One time when I took 6mg of Klonopin, 2 drinks, and took about 6 hits I had a very interesting experience. As I was taking my last hit in the basement at a party with a group of my friends and some random people, one of the girls throwing the party came in and said the cops were coming (they weren't but some stupid person started throwing eggs at the neighbors house so she thought they would be coming). Anyway, we decide to leave the house via a fairly large basement window. My memory of what was happening is a little fuzy, but I felt like I was in Alice and Wonderland. The room felt larger on one size then on the other and the window looked incredibly small. As I sqeezed out I felt like the window was extremly small but that I was shrinking as I was going through it. I remember being in my friends car later and feeling like I was sinking into the seat. The lines on the street were also vibratting with the music that was playing. We ended up at McDonalds and by then the hallucinations had stopped but I was still a little messed up from the Klonopin and alcohol.


I have a very unusual reaction to lorazepam (Ativan). When I take a low dose (1mg) of lorazepam to help me sleep I usually get sleep paralysis and extremly vivid tactile, auditory, and visual hyponogonic hallcunations. This is from entering REM before I fall alseep, not from psychosis. However because I am in a dream like state it is difficult to tell that what is going on is not real. The experience isn't that scary, but it is very bizarre. Faces appear in objects and talkg very lowdly. I believe a face formed underneath my pillow once and was shouting at me. While this is happening I feel like I am being thrown around (as if I were in a dryer) but it is not painful. I also feel pressure around certain parts of my body and sometimes things touching me. During these states my body is almost complely paralyzed and I do not control my breathing. It's very bizarre. People with narcolepsy get these type of hallucinations all the time before they fall asleep and as they are waking because of their messed up REM cycles.

[amped]

Originally Posted by 788.4

I also feel pressure around certain parts of my body and sometimes things touching me. During these states my body is almost complely paralyzed and I do not control my breathing. It's very bizarre. People with narcolepsy get these type of hallucinations all the time before they fall asleep and as they are waking because of their messed up REM cycles.

I have experienced this almost exactly. But I rarley get the halucinations but I know exactly what you mean by falling asleep while waking up, your body kind of glitches(I don't know any other way to say it) I have also gotten a sort of uncontrollable robot movement in the middle of the night in my bed when I'm in a partial sleep like state. I also seem to have very vivid dreams before and after this happens. It's all very very wierd.

[calmascanbe]

I've never had halucinations from benzos , but I've had some wonderfull opiate dreams .

[ThE LiZaRd KiNg]

recently a friend had consumed 3 mg lorazepam sublingualy (disolved under the tounge) and within 2 hours began to hallucinate. he had also had a small amount of alcohol about an hour before that. is this anything to be worried about

[Freak_]

Never heard of people hallucinating while taken lorazepam.

[ThE LiZaRd KiNg]

ya i couldnt find anything about whether or not it was bad, but while on it i saw people dancing around on my bedroom wall. it was pretty cool but i was pretty sure lorazepam doesnt make you hallucinate so i thought id ask.

[kareena]

Most (all?) drugs have paradoxical reactions, this thread talks about lorazepam in particular and lists hallucinations as a possible paradoxical reaction.

EDIT: hmm, just realised lizard king is banned so that was a bit of a waste of time.

[Nargyle]

don't think it's a waste of time kareena, i am interested in how lorazepam might cause hallucinations

[kareena]

Fair enough.

[chrisdahl]

Originally Posted by ThE LiZaRd KiNg

recently a friend had consumed 3 mg lorazepam sublingualy (disolved under the tounge) and within 2 hours began to hallucinate. he had also had a small amount of alcohol about an hour before that. is this anything to be worried about

My uncles pet rabbit has hallucinated whilst using Lorazepam and Temazepam,not full on like with LSD,seeing things out of the corner of your eye that dissapear when you try to look harder

Quite enjoyable

[chrisdahl]

This is a quote from a report on Lorazepam taken from Erowid.org

Awhile later my computer looked like it was coming off the shelf, as I looked at it it stopped but then my bed looked like it was made of jello. I found this to be quite odd as the pills were just antidepressants. I decided the next day that I would go up to my buddies and verify what happened. We both took 5 mg. It was quite fucked up again. I was staring at a south park poster and it looked like they guys were walking around and waving at me. I was staring at his ceiling and it looked like it was the shore of a lake, filled with tiny pieces of different coloured styrofoam. When we were walking in the streets it appeared that the street lights were nodding their heads at me as a greeting which I returned with a friendly 'hello'.

I didn't feel intoxicated, I could tell that everything I was seeing wasn't real, but my other friends knew I was on something just from the way I was walking and talking. When we got back to his house I was sitting on his bed with head phones on, staring at myself in the mirror on his dresser. After a while my *reflection* started nodding its head up and down, whereas I was not. It then started moving its lips like it was talknig really fast, again I was not. The dresser began to float and I decided that was enough for the night and that I would go to sleep

[Henfer]

haha, and SWIH thought he's the only one getting such stuff with lorazepam. Not hallucinations, really (SWIH knows both types, the LSD ones and the Diphenhydramine ones). More like a lot of stuff is moving in the corner of the eyes and you look there, it's gone. such stuff.

[Shwags]

Why the fuck would you take 15 mg of Lorazepam.? That is crazy, no offense. I had some serious axiety attacks triggered by takin adderal and 1 mg of Lorazepam chilled me out greatly, even with the adderal still at work for several hours after.

[all_time_high]

Yesterday SWIM got ripped off on a Heroin deal and was very pissed off. Turned out that the stuff he got for much higher price than usual he does was hardly heroin. After loosing 100ish$ (doesn't break the price discussion rule, does it?) on the deal he went for a ride on his motorcylcle at 3ish a.m. out of frustration and just to get some air.

He noticed a 24 hr pharmacy shop on the way in which the counter guy was sleeping (welcome to India, lol). SWIM had to get some medication for his constipation problem anyway so he stopped. The guy didn't look like a bright fellow to him and SWIM thought he can score some shit here. No, he had no intension of stealing anything :P . He woke the guy up and guess what, that guy had no idea what scheduled drugs are. Didn't mention prescription once when I spoke out a list of highly scheduled substances to him including 40 X2mg Ativan(Lorazepam), Fulsed(midazolam) ampules, morphine pills, etc.

Well coming back to the topic as SWIM was angry, frustated and depressed on the lost deal and when he came back home he decided to pop in 20mg Lorazepam (a dangerous dose, even to a highly benzo tolerant person like SWIM). Before this he had done 4 bags of Heroin which were no better than placebos(bad deal, remember?) so count them out.

SWIM doesn't like lorazepam much as it hardly does anything to him but 20 mg was still a lot for him. SWIM was knocked out in less than half an hour and that half hour was quite relaxing and fuzzy.

The part which relates to this topic is when SWIM woke up. SWIM woke up at his usual time by the noises from his flatmates (SWIMs sleep span is 4 hrs). SWIM found himself highly intoxicated, unable to get up from bed and very drunk in a nice way. At this point he noticed slight hallucinating effects. he felt like the room was wobbling a little and a little colour change in the room accessories/walls,etc.

He hardly managed to get up and go to the bathroom. The whole walking phase was kinda psychedelic and inexplanable in words. His bathroom tiles are yellow but they were frequently changing colours from yellow to white. SWIm reads the daily newspaper on the pot and he could hardly read a word this time. All the words were jumbled and dancing. I could hardly concentrate on the paper so I kept it down, did my thing and headed out of the bathroom.

Another thing, he was having double visions too. As in, he was seeing 2 of everything. He laughed out loud when he saw 2 SWIMselfs in the mirror. Heh

By this time I was feeling almost normal. Just a little drunk. Returned to my bed, had a cup of coffee and the rest of the day was all fine. Just a little drowsy day.

Having a good 7 year practical (and no chemical) experience on benzos this morning's incident was quite interesting and kinda surprising. Can anyone shed light on it?

[FriedBrains]

A few nights ago, SWIM took 8mgs of Lorazepam, had about 7 beers, then smoked some weed with a friend and his sister, only to find an hour later that he was hallucinating, but oddly enough, only outside.. The hallucinations were unlike anything he'd ever seen, even with hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and shrooms..

When SWIM had entered the house, the hallucinations would NOT occur, but if he'd look out the door, or exit the house, the outside would wave around strangely, and the trees against the dark gray night sky would appear as if they were.. Can't explain it, this is the first time this has ever happened, and he has not been able to reproduce what happened. SWIM is SURE there were no other drugs taken, nothing was laced..

Anyone have any thoughts, ideas? What the hell happened? Is this common with Lorazepam?

[Panthers007]

Hallucinations from benzodiazepines are not unheard of. Unusual - yes. But they have been known for some time. As these drugs are mutually potentiating when taken with other depressants such as alcohol, SWIM pushed the envelope and invited what is a rare side effect that is noted at very high doses. 8mg of lorazepam and 7 beers is quite a load.

SWIM is advised not to invite a repeat. These drugs/alcohol mixtures, aside from causing hallucinations, can also cause irreversible coma - or worse. Don't poison your SWIM.

[FriedBrains]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

Hallucinations from benzodiazepines are not unheard of. Unusual - yes. But they have been known for some time. As these drugs are mutually potentiating when taken with other depressants such as alcohol, SWIM pushed the envelope and invited what is a rare side effect that is noted at very high doses. 8mg of lorazepam and 7 beers is quite a load.

SWIM is advised not to invite a repeat. These drugs/alcohol mixtures, aside from causing hallucinations, can also cause irreversible coma - or worse. Don't poison your SWIM.

Wowzers! Thanks for the information, SWIM wont be doing that again! But it was an amazing, enjoyable and beautiful experience he will never forget.. Those trees, they were alive...

FriedBrains added 0 Minutes and 37 Seconds later...

Wait, of course they are alive, but not animate!

[Jatelka]

Case Report Here...

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...4185&catid=129

of benzodiazepine hallucinations

[delphinen]

SWIM get hallucinations on 10+ mg of Lorazepam, but the hallucination sucks, SWIM see random lines on anything and its not special at all.

[0utrider]

hi

a friend of a friend gave his friend one tablet (2,5mg) lorazepam. This guy apparently took half a tablet.. (prior to this he also smoked some weed..).. his "experiences" was not what he expected..
That guy took one diazepam before, was finde, the effects were like all of you can imagine..

this time he was not so fine and he ended up in the hospital. He said that he had strange thoughts, weird patterns of thoughts, which reminded SWIM more of shroom trips than of a valium-like experiece.. He supposedly thought he would go crazy
first he had strange thoughts, couldnt control them anymore, they overtook him, they were somewhat like "im insane. am i insane? am i ever gonna be normal again? im not gonna be normal again." coming to the conclusion hes on a drug, but this pattern repeatly occured till it was "enough" for him and he was actually thinking (just thinking.. he would not have done it though) about suicide and that his life HAS to be over because hes insane..
so he called the ambulance and what they did were just some tests and let him sleep.. might sounds drastic
SWIM was REALLY surprised to hear about this and it sounded a little odd to him, especially since in his opinion this resembles a bad trip known from psychedelics, not "downers"..

any experiences or opinions on that ?

[fiveleggedrat]

Sounds like rare side effects; I have heard of this occuring with benzos. Suicidal ideation and a disjointed thought process means either A) Bad drug reaction or B) Swiy happened to get nasty, rare side effects.

I suggest being very careful with benzos in the future, and starting low and slow, if not avoiding altogether. Also, refrain from mixing other drugs unless Swiy knows responses.

Look up lorazepam side effects online. Swim would suggest some med books but it would more a pain to find them than to look online.

Lorazepam is a weird benzo in Swim's opinion.

[lorzapmail]

Swim has taken plenty of lorezapan and he has never seen any pink elephants.