Ozeph Detox from Benzodiazepine while having pfs

Hi

I took fin 1.25 mg for 20 years and gradually developed insomnia in the last 4 years while on fin. I crashed 1 month after stopping fin and amidst a Pleiades of other symptoms, insomnia became total. I was prescribed Benzodiazepine and could sleep 3 hours and then wake up and toss, drifting between surface dreams and wakefulness the rest of the night.

I started on Alprazolam, quickly developed a tolerance and increased the dose until my psychiatrist prescribed me Clonazepam on which I got from 1 mg to 4.5mg per day, single dose at bedtime, in a period of 1 year. I currently can sleep around 5 hours and then it’s the wake up and dream circus until the alarms ring.

After doing some research, I came to believe my insomnia was due to the lack of the Allopregnanolone neurosteroid, the GAD enzyme that turns Glutamate into GABA, and the lack of the GABA neurotransmitter.

Glutamate is the body’s main excitatory neurotransmitter while GABA is the main inhibitory one and is normally regulated by Allopregnanolone.
GABA is also one of the major players in the regulation of Gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons. Therefore, in my opinion, a lack of GABA could result in the deregulation of hormones that are central to the delicate endocrine system that regulates normal growth, sexual development, and reproductive function.

Benzodiazepine mimic GABA to a certain degree and attached themselves to the GABA (A) receptors, thus relieving some of the symptoms due to lack of GABA. Anecdotal: when I was on Alprazolam, I was horny as hell and didn’t have any sexual symptom (aside from hypersexuality). After switching to Clonazepam, sex drive dropped to zero, I stopped having morning erection, had anorgasmia, desensitization etc… In my humble opinion, this anecdotal story hints at how GABA regulates sexual functions (as well as showing that all Benzodiazepine are not equal).

So now to the core of the topic. I’m increasingly tolerant to Clonazepam, my psychiatrist has nothing else up his sleeve and can’t help me further so again I did some research and found that Gabapentin can be successfully used to detox from benzodiazepine within 7-9 days with barely any withdrawal symptoms, which are usually well tolerated.

Gabapentin and its second generation cousin Pregabalin (both anticonvulsants) are GABA analogues that do not bind to the GABA receptors, do not convert into GABA or other GABA receptor agonist, and do not directly modulate GABA transport or metabolism. They do however inhibit certain calcium channels used by excitatory neurotransmitters like Glutamate and increase the production of the GAD enzyme that metabolizes Glutamate into GABA which is why, I believe, it is efficient in alleviating withdrawal symptoms from Benzodiazepine.

Furthermore, those two drugs are efficient at treating anxiety, panic attack and insomnia. They are much less addictive than Benzodiazepine and can be tapered off within 1-2 weeks. Pregabalin increases slow-wave sleep and improve attention in patients with partial epilepsy and insomnia.

They both also have side effects which you can find here: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/neurontin-abuse/gabapentin-lyrica and here: https://www.medicinenet.com/lyrica_vs_gabapentin/article.htm#lyrica_pregablin_vs_gabapentin_neurontin_quick_comparison

Nonetheless, the two drugs are considered safer than Benzodiazepine, have less side effects and less withdrawal symptoms.
Furthermore, having studied and searched for something that could stimulate GABA production for nearly a year, I’m quite excited to have found what could not only replace the failing Benzodiazepine I’m taking but help in the production of genuine natural GABA. If it works, it will give me time to see what I can do to have proper levels of progesterone, 5ar and 3a-HSD so that I could produce normal levels of allopregnanolone, regulate GABA production and eventually not need any drugs. Et voilà !!! As simple as that.

So I will start today and try to prevent withdrawal symptoms by following this protocol:

Day one: 1mg Clonazepam and 300 mg Gabapentin before bedtime, then 300 mg Gabapentin every 8 hours the next day. Clonazepam has a half life of up to 60 hours, so I will increase Gabapentin as levels of Clonazepam decrease in my body.

Second and third night will be 0.5mg Clonazepam and 450 mg Gabapentin before bedtime, then 450 mg Gabapentin every 8 hours.

Fourth and fifth night will be 0.25mg Clonazepam and 450 mg Gabapentin before bedtime, then 450 mg Gabapentin every 8 hours.

Sixth day, I will stop Clonazepam but will continue Gabapentin 450 mg every 8 hours until the seventh or ninth day, at which point Clonazepam should have been washed out and replaced by Gabapentin.

If ever I have cravings, I’ve read I can take a single 0.25 mg dose of Clonazepam. If I have anxiety, I can increase Gabapentin to 600 mg every 8 hours. The maximum dose is 4800 mg a day and it takes over 49000 mg to overdose. Quite unlikely.

However, drug interactions can be very potent and dangerous, including alcohol, SSRI, opiates, hypnotics and others. I mention this as a warning to others, as I don’t drink alcohol or take other drugs than Clonazepam and Hydroxyzine (an antihistamine which I will also tapper off and detox at the same time).

Once Clonazepam is out, I will experiment between Gabapentin and Pregabalin to see which one has the best effect for sleep. Those two can be switched overnight without any adverse effects. I could even take Pregabalin during the day and Gabapentin at bedtime or vice versa.

Now this is if everything goes as planned. Other people have successfully stopped Benzodiazepine with Gabapentin but they didn’t have pfs. So let’s see how it works out for me. I don’t think it will make me worst or at least that’s what I’m hoping for, and worst case scenario, I’ll revert back to taking Clonazepam. I still have a bottle and a half full of that shit.

Best case scenario, I may have found a tool that will be useful to me as a sleep aid and give me time to reboot the GABA complex naturally. To that extent, I already take:

Vit B3, B6 and Biotin
Zinc 20mg
Boron 3 mcg
Iodine 500 mcg
Lithium 1 mcg (to be increased to 2 or 3 mcg)
D3 1000 Iu
Vit C 250 mg
Magnesium 450 mg

I should also note I’ve been on a carnivore / ketogenic diet, zero carbs, for 10 months and aside from insomnia all other symptoms have disappeared. I have been stable for at least 3-4 months so I’m not doing this experiment while being plagued with the multitudes of symptoms I had a year ago. I woudn’t do it if I was still unstable but a resent bad experience with collagen peptide 10 gr a day has resulted in sleep regressing to what it was 6 months ago. Collagen being 30% Glycine, I believe it’s due to the presence of Allylglycine, inhibiting GAD enzyme and GABA biosynthesis. It motivates me even more to try those new drugs that increase GAD production.

Let’s see what happens.

Cheers !!

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Best of luck @Ozeph . I’m rooting for you. I have a sleep study tonight which I’m will result in a miserable day tomorrow. I’m hoping to employe a similiar tactic in using Gabapentin. I’m still testing the waters to see if I can tolerate Gabapentin. The last time I took it my heart was pounding but I’m starting to think that may be a drug interaction with Mirtazapine which I need to taper off.

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Sounds good man. Really looking forward to seeing how it works out for you :crossed_fingers:

If things go south you can always try the Ashton Method.

My psychiatrist recommended the Ashton Method: To tapper off for a duration of 9 months.

And you’re right, that’s what I might have to do.

Day 1 of Benzo detox. Sleep was very different. Not sure how to rate it. It took me longer to fall asleep, I woke up sooner (maybe 2 hours) and more frequently but when I did I was not totally awake. I was more like in between. Also during the sleeping periods, although I was dreaming, I also feel there was some deep sleep. Hard to tell though, that the part of the night when we’re completely unaware. I’ll rate it 5/10 for now, as I don’t know if it’ll be enough to have a normal day.
I cheated my schedule. I took 2mg of Clonazepam instead of 1 and I took my usual 12.5 mg of hydroxyzine (the recommended dose for insomnia is 25 to 100 mg). I will cut benzo to 1 mg tonight. After a full day of Gabapentin, 3 times a day, maybe I’ll be fine with that.

Morning: I don’t have withdrawal symptoms, but it’s too soon to tell. I took benzos a year ago to escape insomnia. My logic was I’m bad enough with pfs already and not sleeping, by itself, was making it more than twice as bad. However, Gabapentin does not seem to make me sleep as Clonazepam did. So I may end up clean from benzos, but unable to sleep and therefore unable to have normal days, go to work, drive my motorcycle in Bangkok’s crazy trafic etc… If that is so, I will have to go back to benzos or find an alternative.
Maybe without benzos I’ll be able to take Taurine or sleeping herbs like Valerian, passion flowers, Ashwagandha etc…

So how I feel this morning: Like I didn’t have a good night of sleep. I feel drowsy and I have brain fog. I just drank a coffee and had some beef jerky (homemade with beef and salt only). Of course, I took 300 mg Gabapentin along with my morning vitamins and aminos. Maybe I should cut 5-HTP, L-Dopa and Tyrosine, but those are the ones that usually wake me up. I think I’ll take some calcium with Lactate and Pyruvate now that the calcium channels are blocked. This should boost Orexin, the wakefulness neuropeptide.
Gee focus is bad. My brain is at 50%.

2:30pm I’m waking up a bit. Brain at 70%. Still no withdrawal symptoms (and still too early to tell).
I have to take another 300 mg of Gabapentin in 30 minutes. Let’s see if it hits me or if it goes down smooth.

4:30pm I took the pill at 3pm, it’s now at peak effect and I’m having quite a lot of brain fog along with a small headache. I have some energy but far from what I had during the past week. My thoughts are still coherent but I’m having problem focusing. Also easy tasks, like accounting, seems more difficult now. I’m definitely not as sharp as I used to.
I’m now taking my 3 brain aminos: 5-HTP 100 mg, L-Dopa 350 mg and Tyrosine 1000 mg.
Tyrosine used to eliminate pfs brain fog. I don’t know about Gabapentin brain fog.
I’ll have to look up if Gabapentin and 5-HTP are having negative interactions…

7pm Nope. No negative interaction. Gabapentin reacts with GABAergic drugs only, and the aminos I’m taking affect Serotonin and Dopamine. The 3 brain aminos did lift off 75% of the brain fog. At the moment, I feel in a good mood and slightly euphoric. It would probably be better if I took the brain aminos at the same time as the Gabapentin. When the detox is over, if I choose to continue Gabapentin, I’ll reduce the dose to 100-200 mg. 300 mg really hits me. The recommended dose for the benzo level I was taking is 450 mg 3 times a day !

Just curious: why do you take 5-htp in the morning instead of tryptophan at night? Tryptophan is typically very sedating.

It doesn’t work for me. Tryptophan makes 5-HTP which turns into serotonin which turns into melatonin and make people sleep.

Well, it looks like it stays serotonin for me and I’m not making melatonin or something because if I take either Tryptophan or 5-HTP after 6pm, I have a hard time sleeping. I take melatonin pills.

I gave my tryptophan to my 15 yo son who was having issues with confidence and depression. He took the pills and is now much more confident, have more friends at school, is less depressed etc…

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nice experiments. i m verry curious because im also tring ways to improve sleep. benzos work well…but im afraid im on of the candidatest to develop tolerance quickly…as i dit to booze, cigaretts,and even coffeine. right now im on zopiclone 7,5mg and im either in for a switch to lorazepam or give gabapentin a try.
but any of these combinations would exclude AD medication? even mirtazapine?

It would be dangerous with mirtazapine. The detox cases I’ve read that involved benzos and AD detoxed from antidepressant immediately while tapering off benzos over 5-6 days while taking Gabapentin 300 mg (or 600mg) three times a day.

In those cases, Gabapentin did both the job of the benzo and the AD afterward at 300mg or 600 mg three times a day.
I must point out that the Gabapentin is hitting me quite hard. I have a slight headache, brain fog from it and have problem to focus. Not great so far, but I’m less than 24 hours in the experiment.

To be honest with you, I don’t advise you try it. Not until you see what results I have. I’m in the same squeeze. I need the benzo to sleep and function normally, without it I can’t work. But I’m building tolerance and reaching dangerous levels faster than I’m recovering from insomnia.

I decided to stop and detox from the benzo and find alternative to be able to sleep. There’s no guarantee I’ll be able to do that. In the end, detoxed or not, I may have to go back to benzos just to be able to get enough sleep to be able to function during the day. It remains to be seen.

Maybe I’ll be able to sleep without benzos. We’ll have to see.

I’m doing the experiment because I’m relatively healthy, I’m on a diet that got me free of all pfs except insomnia (typical pfs insomnia) and I don’t have lots of work at the moment. But I’m wondering if it’s not just a foolish and dangerous thing to do !

What is better ?

  • Increasing addiction to benzo but totally normal during the day and able to work ?
  • Taking Gabapentin, benzo free, not sleeping too good and feeling hammered during the day ?
  • Detox from benzo then stopping Gabapentin (over 2 weeks) and be drug free, whatever the results?

I don’t know. I just know benzos are bad and I’m trying to get free from it and find other ways.

So let’s see !

I’ve been editing Day 1 as I went through. For those interested, you may read again Day 1 as it changed at least 5 times during the day (making additions). I’ll be doing the same today as changes occurs within hours.

It looks like on Day 1 I made a mistake and took 450 mg Gabapentin at 3pm. This is why I was so hammered. I may have done the same in the morning. My memory is failing me and everything is blurred, kinda like in a dream or something.

Day 2 Yesterday at bedtime I took 1 mg of Clonazepam, 22.5 mg of Hydroxyzine and 450 mg of Clonazepam. I increase Hydroxyzine by 10 mg as I try to counteract the lack of benzo with something that would make me sleep.
Hydroxyzine is an antihistamine and does not have bad withdrawal symptoms as Benzos do. Also antihistamine acts on the histamine complex, which, along with the Orexin complex, constitute the wakefulness mechanism in the Body. Orexin is the main one, histamine is secondary and has other functions. Therefore an antihistamine can make you sleep and they just developed an anti-Orexin that definitely fights insomnia by knocking down the wakefulness mechanism (Suvorexant).

Morning I slept as good as bad as on Day 1. I would again rate it 5/10 as I don’t know if it’ll be enough to have a normal day. I woke up 1-2 hours before I got up, and I was quite awake, feeling well and everything. I took my morning pills right away, on an empty stomach, and then drank a coffee.
At first I started to feel more awake and my mind was becoming sharper then Gabapentin 300 mg slowly kicked in and brain fog slowly settled in my mind.

1:30pm Gabapentin has it’s peak 3 hours after taking it, (and eliminated in 6-7 hours). So I’m about at peak time now. I’m dizzy, have brain fog although my mind is still coherent and I can focus. When walking, it’s hard to keep my balance and I’m feeling some muscle weakness although I can push through it and do things. I’ll try 10 pull ups, lifting my knees to my head as I do it, and see if I have normal muscle strength (I can do 13 at my peak)… I did 12 and now I’m quite dizzy. But it means the muscle weakness is not real, it’s just a feeling.
Considering 36 hours for Clonazepam average half life (I have little body fat and I’m ketogenic, which means I cycle though my fat at least 3 times faster than someone eating carbs) , I now have the equivalent of 5.75 mg maximum in my blood whereas I had about 10 mg every morning when taking 4.5 mg a day. I’ll be half way (5 mg) through around 3am tonight. I’ll have 0.5 mg in the blood in a week and 5 days later (2 weeks in the detox) it will be 0.05 mg at which point I can consider myself cleaned up of benzo.
When stopping Clonazepam cold turkey, the first symptoms appear around 2 days later and peak 2 weeks after. According to my half life calculations, this is when the body only has about 0.05 mg left of Clonazepam which makes sense if it’s when withdrawal symptoms peak. It looks like I’l have to be on Gabapentin for at least a month if not two.
It’s been 36 hours since I started cutting the Clonazepam. So far no symptoms but it’s still too early. If in 2 weeks I still have no symptoms, it will show Gabapentin does prevent Benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms for a guy with pfs on a restricted diet, taking lots of supplements and doing exercise. If my pfs symptoms were more severe, it would not be advisable to try this.

7pm I took another 300 mg of Gabapentin at 3pm, along with 5-HTP 100 m, L-Dopa 350 mg and Tyrosine 750 mg. This time Gabapentin did not make me so dizzy, I barely felt any difference. It also turns out I did a 23 hours fast without noticing. Being ketogenic, I can stay a long time without eating, I never have low blood sugar (ha ha. by definition) so Im always full of energy no matter how long its been since my last meal. Im sure our ancestors were like that. I cant imagine a cave men having hypoglycemia and feeling weak…
When I did eat, however, I had 1 pound of beef with some spinach and lots of animal saturated fat. Im good for at least 16 hours. It makes me feel like a jaguar, eating all I can when the hunt is good and fasting between catches. Aside from that everything is smooth. Ill have to say, much smoother than a week ago. Gabapentin has a way of taking worries away !
I feel like a stone hippie saying ‘‘everything is coool, man.’’

lookin good if your tapering clonazepam and still score 5/10 sleep quality.
funnily i had the same hornyness/sexual desinhibition on my 3 day trail with alprazolam. on clonazepam libido was also zero but daytime dizziness was acceptable (1mg clon)
confusion and dizziness on after 10mg of diazepam was beyond. i also did bloods once on 10mg diazepam and it showed high e2,lowish t.
did you have bloodworks done?

Thanks

Yes, I`ve read some doctors prescribe Alprazolam to make their patient horny again, have erections and avoid structural damage to the penis from lack of erections over time.
Also, and I agree, to prevent insomnia as the lack of sleep can be a burden very hard to carry, especially with all other pfs symptoms.

Im only testing cholesterol levels, which, by the way, reveal I have a very good fat ratio. Lol. Im a bit confused, I dont remember what its called.

For the rest, I look how I feel and do a lot of research. I find what`s appropriate in diet or supplement change if needed.

Benzodiazepine are dangerous. And so are SSRI and other anti depressant. Doctors are prescribing benzos for sleep because of a convenient side effect they have: they make people sleepy. It`s not even their main purpose: most of them are for fighting anxiety, spasm and convulsions.

Anyway. It takes what it takes. When Im clean of benzos, I still dont know how I`m going to sleep !

yeah, one has to consider whats worth: the debilitating effects of chronic insomnia or the sides of sleeping aids.
big plus of benzos is they have few very few sides in the shortterm. whats your opnioin on SAGE217, being in clinical trail for insomnia&depression ?

If a single pill taken a single time can destroy someone, a single pill taken one time could fix it.

Although SAGE217 is probably not that one, if it does what it promises to do, IMO it would be a central element to being 100% symptom free.

With it regulating our hormone regulator which is off now (the hypothalamus), it would be easy from there to recover hormonal balance.

Quote from Wikipedia: ‘‘One of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus controls body temperature, hunger, important aspects of parenting and attachment behaviors, thirst, fatigue, sleep, and circadian rhythms.’’

This gland is regulated by GABA, which is regulated by Allopregnanolone, which we are missing.

SAGE217 mimics or transform into Allopregnanolone, which regulate GABA, which regulate the hypothalamus, which regulates all our other hormone and neurotransmitter bringing them back to normal.

It would fix my last symptom: insomnia.

I don`t know if it would restart our natural production of Allopregnanolone or just replace it for as long as we take the pill. So it may or may not be a cure, but it should greatly help with the symptoms.

Day 3 I will also edit as the day goes by. Yesterday I took only 1 mg of Clonazepam which bring my total blood level to the equivalent of 4.5 mg considering Clonazepam’s half life as compared to 10 mg usually. I can’t be sure of my own personal elimination rate, so those figues can be wrong but the ratio between now and what it was before is the same: less than half.
Sleep was not good. 3/10. It took a long time to kinda fall asleep and I’m not sure I had any deep sleep at all, it seems like I was in a zombie state all night drifting between being awake and slightly sleeping with surface dreams. Lots of being awake.

9:30am I took Gabapentin at 7am so it’s almost peaking. I feel a strong rush and have brain fog. This combined with the lack of sleep results in my faculties being impaired. I was hoping Gabapentin would help with insomnia, but it doesn’t seem to do so. I don’t have anxiety which is the first sign of benzo withdrawal symptoms but Gabapentin does not replace Benzos for making me sleep.
While taking Clonazepam, I was reacting bad to Taurine and any other GABAergic natural alternative like Valerian, Passion flowers and Ashwagandha. I figured it’s because they were competing with Clonazepam for the GABA receptors. If Gabapentin (despite it’s name) does not create GABA and the receptors are half free from benzo, I may be able to get benefits from Taurine and GABAergic plants. I’ll try in small dose tonight, it certainly feels like I’m low on GABA.

I had carbs for breakfast, although not a huge amount, maybe 30 gr, with lots of Ghee and some proteins. I’ve been craving carbs which is a bit unusual. So I though maybe I need it so I took some but not a large amount.

Holy crap ! I just found out Gabapentin and Lyrica destroys brain cell and connections to the hypothalamus.

Apparently it doesn`t take long either. ‘‘cell degeneration after just 21 days of exposure to the drug.’’ https://integrativewellnessgroup.com/death-sentence-brain/

I cant go through with this. Its worst than Clonazepam, not mentioning I cant sleep. Its been only 3 days though and I didn`t take the high end dose.

I think I prefer Clonazepam`s verdict : it doubles my chances of getting dementia (from 1% to 2%).

I dont know what to do. General brain cells degeneration after 21 days seems pretty bad. I cant take that !
And Im not cleaned off benzos yet. I see only one alternative: to go back to Clonazepam, hoping I didnt do too much damage already.

F#?% me !

I gotta say I don’t know what provoked you to go madman to jump off klonopin especially since it helped you. You told me yourself a few months back you had no issues with being on it since it gave so much function to you. Gabapentin and Lyrica are well known to block formation of new brain synapses as well and have a litany of side effects. I tried Gabapentin briefly and it was a horrible experience.

What’s carbs did you end up eating? I’m trying Keto now as well (3 days in) and appreciate all the detail you provide.

I had a motorbike accident and took collagen peptide. After that, sleep became bad even at 4.5 mg Klonopin so I started to worry about dosage increase.

Also Klonopin is using my GABA receptors and I react bad to GABAergic herbs because of it (although I`m not sure of that) I wanted to give Taurine and herbs a try.

I did research on Gabapentin and Lyrica and didnt find anything negative about them. I think I actually saw somewhere it was helping create new brain cells. I wanted to check that back so I Googled Gabapentin and new brain cells and all I got was it was killing them all ! Ouch ! But now I know and youre right, Klonopin was working so why stop ?

I had 50 gr. of oatmeal, with 2 tsp of sugar, 3/4 cup of milk, some water, an egg and 2tbsp of ghee.
Altogether, it had about equal amounts of carbs, protein and saturated fat. It`s enough to break ketosis though.

3 days in is too soon to try something like this. Your body will be well adapted to ketosis and able to use dual fuel (carbs and ketoses) around 3 months. Past that point, you can have limited amounts of carbs (like a small slice of birthday cake) and quickly go back to ketosis as long as you dont do it too often or too much. I do believe the body would remember to quickly go into ketosis even after a week of eating carbs, but I try to avoid it. Psychologically, its all too easy to revert back to eating chocolate and ice cream.

Do you feel some benefits already?