11-08-2017, 09:39 AM
Has anyone experienced "tolerance withdrawals" while using benzo's over a long period of time? For anyone who may not know, that is when you are on the same dose of a med for a long period of time and begin to exhibit withdrawal symptoms, even though you have not withdrawn. I have been on relatively small dose of Clozazepam for 12 years. I never meant to be on this long, but it has become the mainstay in my battle against anxiety. When was I supposed to withdraw? When I was no longer anxious? ha! I hope that I see the day when I am no longer anxious, but I am not holding my breath. In any event, for the first five years I felt the dose hit on the way in. Not the impact with which ALP hits, but I definitely felt it. Over the next 5 years, I didn't feel anything...but if I missed a dose, I did feel it's absence. But over the past 2 years, I have had symptoms of tolerance withdrawal. So I had to make a decision. Either I wean off completely, or I go up a dose. (There were some other alternatives, but they weren't for me). I didn't want to live on Clowns forever, but it is a small dose. Then again, I live on my heart medicine forever and there is no stigma to that, right? So I chose the latter. Can you believe that adding just an additional .25 dose first thing in the morning completely eliminated the symptoms? I am posting this because I was wondering if any of you are dealing with tolerance withdrawal and what you are doing about it.