Clonazepam; 17 years. I agree. I know the downsides to benzos but…the big BUT…if I don’t sleep I go downhill, fast. My mood becomes unstable, I start experiencing suicidal ideations. Sleeping naturally, without medication, will give me 3 or 4 hours. I’ve been there before, about 9 years ago, trying to get off of the drug. Seriously scary time. After several nights of poor sleep, I called my psychiatrist to renew my rx. I’ve tried CBD drops(hemp) and it made me hypomanic. Tried hemp CBD gummies and damn, same thing.
I can hate benzos but clonazepam is the only drug that allows me to sleep. Between that drug and my 2X weekly T shots, I’ve actually been feeling and functioning fairly well, which I hadn’t been for years. And that’s with the challenges of caring for my wife for 2 1/2 years as she continues to decline from Alzheimer’s.
I’m horny af but erectile function remains hit and miss. If my urologist is okay with me remaining on my dose, I’m going to let it ride. Beats being depressed and emotionally flat. He’s also offered to prescribe Trimix. My wife is still interested in sex, though she’s not sure if I’m her husband and she might not even know who I am. My life was strange before and it’s now gotten much stranger.
Clonazepam was literally the long acting benzo i was referring to. When i took it, I literally “felt” like i wasnt on TRT anymore. I switched to alprazolam, which is obviously not great, but i dont take it every day, maybe once or twice a week at low doses just to get to sleep.
You might want to try switching to a shorter acting benzo if its just for sleep. There are also other options so that you arent solely reliant on benzos to sleep. I sometimes take magnesium, muscle relaxer and melatonin together and that helps. If i could use medicinal cannabis, i would because i never had issues sleeping on that.
But honestly, in my opinion, that is your answer. Its the clonazepam. That drugs half life is insanely long.
You’re correct. Clonazepam has a half life of about 2 1/2 days. Taking it everyday keeps a high level of the drug in the system all the time. Yes, there are other benzos, such as temazepam, which has a short half life and is favored for sleep.
Likely in a medical journal, clonazepam was advocated for people with bipolar and it became the standard when prescribing. I once was on xanax. Killed my erections quickly. That drug was history for me. But yes; clonazepam induces ED, though I still get an erection late in the evening, most nights.
Magnesium messes with my sleep and I’ve had no success with melatonin over the many years of experimenting with it. Temazepam looks promising. I’ll discuss that with my psychiatrist. I believe, though, I’ve got to wait until my current clonazepam rx runs out.