  A two-dimensional model atom is employed to study the ionization behavior of
initially excited atomic states in highly-frequent intense laser pulses beyond
the dipole approximation. An additional regime of ionization suppression is
found at laser intensities where the stabilization effect is expected to break
down. The appearance of this effect is due to a strong coupling of the initial
wave function to the ground state of the cycle-averaged space-translated ionic
potential, followed by a subsequent population transfer to the ground state
during the laser pulse turn-off. Non-dipole effects are found to increase the
overall ionization probabilities, but not to suppress or alter this effect.
