Posted by Vincent_QC on January 12, 2009, at 10:54:21
In reply to Re: Lou's request for clarification/authority-uhnpsub? » Vincent_QC, posted by Sissy35 on January 11, 2009, at 14:30:38
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> You never made a truer statment Vincent!
> I have suffered from panic attacks since the age of 6. So I have been on many benzos in my lifetime. I have always just stopped them cold trukey like with librium (do they even make it anymore?) and valium and some others.> I could kill the doc that ever gave me xanax! This is the most additive drug I have ever taken.
> I am still fighting this drug. Some day I will make it. But its the hardest thing i have every tried.
> Sissy35
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Hi Sissy35!
That's true...Last summer, I ended up at the psychiatrict hospital because of the Xanax...I eatead them like candies...12mg/day and I never had any improve on my social phobia with the Xanax, I had 2-3 months of really hard cognitives impairements (not able to speak at all like I had a big patato in the mouth, muscles spams and cramps, panic attacks, short-term memory difficulties)...I still have some of them...no concentration at all, search my words, forget a lot of things...I had some improve at first on the Rivotril who is less addictive than the Xanax because he have a more long half-life than the Xanax...But that's was not wonderfull, except for the first month maybe... you see, some countries like England remove the Rivotril from the list of the anxiolytic drugs and it's now only avaible as a drug to prevent seizure...that's it...so that's maybe a good sign that it's not very good in a long-term view to treat anxiety...
I also have to fight with my Valium addiction now...Even if the Valium don'T make any positive effect on me, I still need to take it, if not, I feel a really bad sensation in my head...my brains crave for it...Sometimes, I get up in the morning and I want to stop it...but at the end of the day I feel like my head will explode and I also fear a lot seizures...
Did you ever had those strange sensations inside your head when you stop your benzo cold turkey??? It's what i'm leaving everyday...I feel like someone push my brain with his two hands or play in my head with a knife...that's really freaky... and I also feel so nervous that every little noise will make me jump...
For your information, in Canada, the Librium is avaible, I try it before my Xanax adventure last summer...It's similar with the Valium in term of efficacity and for the half-life in the blood...stay a lot longer in the blood than the newer and powerfull benzos like Rivotril or Ativan or Xanax...and it have also a lot of active metabolites, making it a more easy benzo drug to stop also...but the Librium take more time to make is effect...and it was totally inneffective on me...even at the maximum daily dose...
One thing is sure, people who claim that benzo drugs are not dangerous in a long-term of view they are totally wrong... I'm the perfect example of someone who loose maybe more than 80% of his cognitives abilities... Now i'm like a vegetable...I feel useless and I can't do a lot of things without feeling tired and without having to use all the energy I have, just to do some stupid things like writing a message on the internet for example... I canno't open my MSN now because I can't talk to one person at the same time...can you imagine me answer and talk with 10 peoples at the same time like before??? Never...lol
I see what it can do to others peoples in my familly also, who had to take Rivotril or Ativan for anxiety problems (people who didn't had any substances abuse in the past) and they all became addicted...So I totally disagree with the people who claim that benzo drugs are not addictive or dangerous for the cognitives impairements!!!
Benzo drugs have to be see as a temporary drugs...just to help to cope with a too much stress situation and they need to be stop after 4 weeks...
Too bad my family doctor never told me this before and never stop filled me tons of prescriptions of them... But what can I do? That's a good Doctor, he's just not used to have patients like me who are very easy to became addicted with streets drugs and alcohol...
So for now, I continue my fight against the Valium...i'm now at 10-15mg/day...I hope I will be able to stop them in 6 months...if I retrieve 1mg each week on my daily dose...
How you succeed to stop them cold turkey??? I canno't concieve this...you are really lucky to be able to do this...You never fear a seizure attack of something like that?
I write all of this now and I know I don't take my first 5mg dose of Valium today...And I can begin to feel the strange sentations inside my head...that's so weird...In my life, I was able to stop drinking alcohol in 1 day, I stop cold turkey a lot of "street" drugs that I used for years and years and I never encounter withdrawh symptoms...but I don't know why, the benzo drugs seem so powerfull on my brains that I just canno't stop them cold turkey. I can also stop any AD's drugs without feeling bad or worse...but not the benzo drugs...
One last question...When you stop them cold turkey, how many days it take before the overstress and anxiety level return to a normal state? Did you had a return to a level of anxiety worse than the one before you start a benzo drug???
Well I hope you will have a great day and thanks for your futur answers!!!
Take care of you!
Vincent ;-)
poster:Vincent_QC
thread:871465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/873514.html