I've got an amusing benzo story for ya. This was about a decade ago, I was not there to witness this, I heard this through second hand accounts.
My buddy, we'll call him Phil, went to a party. The party was at an apartment, where you open the door to the first floor, there is a flight of stairs that leads to the upstairs apartment. On the left is a door that leads to the apartment of the people living downstairs.
The party gets going, and Phil takes around 4-8 Xanax "bars": this is the highest dose of Xanax that is prescribed, typically. One of those can turn a grown man into a shambling, zombified person for a few hours. He also drank about half a fifth of vodka. This combination is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE, AND CAN KILL YOU AND PUT EVERYONE AROUND YOU IN SERIOUS DANGER.
Phil was very, very fucked up. Eventually, people started falling asleep. At some point in the night, Phil took all of his clothing off and walked outside, wandered around in the street for a bit, and then went back into the front door of the apartment. Rather than going up the stairs to his friends' apartment, he opened the door on the ground floor- it was unlocked. He stumbled in and passed out on the nearest couch.
He awoke to police and EMTs dragging him out of this frightened family's apartment. Phil says his memory of the night is very foggy, he remembers going outside, doesn't know why, and everything else is absolutely blank.
This is a funny story because nobody got hurt... but Phil could've died. If I walked into my living room one morning and saw some strange man laying on my couch... well, let's just say the police wouldn't be needed so much as the EMTs would be. Fortunately, one of the family members knew Phil, who is actually a good, nice kid who makes some bad decisions (he was in his late teens I believe).
I ate a bar once after a long night of partying. I woke up 30 hours later. Never again.
Good god he's lucky he didn't die. Years ago, I took one or two of those blue footballs and drank a big beer and was completely wrecked to the point I couldn't stand and walk. It took me 30 minutes to get a cup of water. I got learnt real quick not to do that again.
I have also seen coworkers completely change from abusing xanax, that shit is insidious.
Alcohol potentiates the effects of benzos to an insane degree- benzos are not water soluble, so when taken without booze you get very little of the drug into your system.
But if you wash it down with a beer or vodka, it causes the drug to "separate" more and get into your bloodstream, along with the alcohol.
Interestingly, grapefruit and omeprazole (an anti-heartburn medication, over the counter) also potentiate benzodiazapines. There's a warning on the prescription bottle to not take with grapefruit juice.
I have always wondered about the grapefruit juice warning with medications, but I have been to lazy to actually read why it's dangerous.
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