Cheers to you.

I actually had a far worse experience on clonazepam than I ever did on ativan. It’s interesting to read a different perspective. I eventually got so tired of my dependency on clonazepam that I just stopped taking it altogether. I threw the bottle in my closet and never went to find it. Years later when I was moving, I found the bottle and shuddered as I recollected that terrible time in my life. Never again.

I still have anxiety, and panic attacks. I work through them and feel stronger every time. I just go so tired of relying on crutches to get me through the anxiety. When my breath quickens and my heart starts pounding in my throat, I don’t want to be looking for a bottle of pills, or anything for that matter. Sometimes it does get annoying, when I want to sleep and my thoughts can’t stop racing, but I know that I will get through it because I have before.

Betcha could google ‘the pullen wood party’ and something will pop up.. pardon the pun.. oops. me bad.

I got Pullen Wood from an joke I got emailed to me about “what happens when people get married and their names come together’

the names were all related to the big M word. Email consisted of “actual” newspaper clippings from the just married section of the paper.

Pullen was someone’s last name and so ws Wood… Man, I gotta find that one. I was in stitches looking at all the last names put together….

Send it to me.

Pullen was someone’s last name and so ws Wood… Man, I gotta find that one. I was in stitches looking at all the last names put together….

Jen, I assume you got my email?lol

Pullin wood.

I didn’t get your email. Send again….lol…Pullling wood…LMAO….How about choking the chicken?

******WARNING********WARNING********

Scientific rant ahead!!!!

For all the pills our culture takes, how many people can honestly say they know how they work? How many people can answer the question of what the pill is doing for them in their body on a physiological basis?

I’m going to provide a stripped down overview explanation of how drugs work.

Every cell in your body has a cell membrane and every cell membrane has information receptors imbedded in it. Some of these information receptors receive and interpret chemicals called neuropeptides and as such are called neuropeptide receptors. Drugs are neuropeptides.

The cell membrane is what keeps the inside of the cell protected from the outside world and the neuropeptide receptors are what transpose what is going on outside the cell to the inside of the cell. There a millions of different types of neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors. The interesting thing is that neuropeptide receptors are very specific to the neuropeptide they receive. Like a lock in a door, only the right key will fit - only the right neuropeptide will fit the right neuropeptide receptor.

So, as an example many people may be familiar with, endorphins are neuropeptides. In order for a cell to react to an endorphin that cell must have, in its membrane, an endorphin receptor. When the endorphin binds to it’s receptor, the signal is transposed through the membrane to the inside of the cell where the cell then goes to work processing the signal. This may include the use of RNA and DNA to build a new molecule that is then released out of the cell to have a function somewhere else in the body. In the case of endorphins, a sense of euphoria is created as it binds to the cells in your brain.

Now here’s the kicker, your body doesn’t contain a neuropeptide receptor that it doesn’t have a corresponding neuropeptide for.

Since all drugs are neuropeptides, and all neuropeptides are unique to a certain neuropeptide receptor, no drug can work in your body unless your body already has the needed receptor and your body won’t have the receptor if it didn’t already have some of that chemical in it already (even if in trace amounts).

Clear as mud?

Back to our endorphin example for some clarification. Endorphin is short for “Endogenous Morphine”. Morpheus was the god of dreams. Morphine was discovered before endorphins. Morphine is chemically similar enough to endorphin that it can bind to the endorphin receptor. If we didn’t already have endorphins, Morphine would have no affect on us at all.

By taking a drug we artificially increase the amount of a certain neuropeptide floating around in our blood. This increase is usually to a level above our normal homeostasis (internal balance) for a short time for a specific affect. In many cases, the body reacts by decreasing the amount of that chemical it produces on its own, partially because it doesn’t need to produce any more and partially to avoid over saturation.

Now, when you routinely introduce a synthetic version of a neuropeptide into your body, your body eventually stops producing its own which can leave you with a deficit. In the case of sleeping meds, if your body doesn’t need to produce melatonin, it won’t - it waits for its external source to arrive which in some cases can mean that without the external source, you can’t get to sleep.

In some medical cases our body simply isn’t producing enough of the needed neuropeptide and as such we can use external sources to bring us back to normal levels. Type 1 diabetes being a good example of where a neuropeptide (insulin) is absent in the body.

So here’s 2 questions:

1) Is type 1 diabetes a result of a lack of insulin?
2) Is anxiety a result of a lack of Ativan?

I would suggest that whenever you are prescribed a medication you ask yourself a few questions. What neuropeptide is this drug substituting for? Do I need that substitution? Do I plan on having my body go back to taking care of itself after I finish the med?

Joe

I love a scientific rant-Brilliant

Pullin wood.

How about jerkin the gherkin?

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, another word please…..

I like Dan’s advice…. house in the suburbs, dogs running around all day, you can write on your patio by the pool… I think you need quiet time, too….

May I suggest Burke Mountain? Once that area is fully completed, the people living in those houses will have sunrise and sunsets… it’s goona be gorgeous… if you like either of these two things, maybe consider a move for yours and the dogs sake…

Just thinkin out loud now… super bored tonite.. sorry. rambling.

I hide how much gravol I have to take to sleep from everyone. I think the only people who know are the staff at shoppers drug mart near my building.

I am in your boat. Amen to gravol. It’s hilarious, I just returned home from Shoppers to get my gravol supply. Along with Advil Cold & Sinus. Two gravol, two night time sinus and cold. I will be out soon hopefully.
I suffer from sleep apnea, so it is not often I get a good nights’s sleep. I am supposed to purchase a C-PAP machine, (which looks super hot on I have to add, and god help me if I ever have a one stand, this oxygen mask is HUGE and sexy as hell). hahaha. But the C-PAP machine to purchase is a mere $3000 I just can’t afford that right now. It’s NOT covered by medical which is great. So once in while the gravol works. But….if I get into a really deep sleep, that dangley thing in the middle of your throat (i forget the name, uvula, I think its called) gets super swollen then bleeds which makes it hard to breathe and makes me gag as well. Fun times! ! ! I can’t win I tell ya. Ok…I think the gravol and cold and sinus is working. I am feeling alittle drowsy. I hope I don’t do some high on gravol and cold medication dialing. I am nortourios for that. Oh god, ok good nite, I am blabbling on.

Those fucking pills are doing more harm than good.
Sorry if i have stepped out of line .

ranaldo