Aa
xanax/ativan/valium??
Which benzo works the best with least side effects?
SO your saying the worse thing that can happen is a slow heartrate and possibly coma, wow that's not dangerous at all is it..I am well aware what can happen to a person who o'd's on these drugs and also if you stop them to quickly all about seizures and the damage done to the brain, I thank God I never suffered from the above but I sure have seen people who have. I guess your just one of the lucky ones who have abused these medications on top of drinking on them (not advised) and has had nothing happen, but who really wants to take that chance. Alls it takes is one time to screw up and my life is way to valuable then that. I took up to 12 mg a day, I never drank with them but I got addicted and alls I am saying it ruined my life for a long time, stressed, not me I was so numb after awhile I didnt care about anything but putting that next pill in my mouth. Die sure I could of died I was abusing my body, destroying my health spent many weeks in hospitals,etc. Now I am healthy, happy. Stress free? No not at all, there will always be stressors in this life and I have learned how to deal with them. I hope and pray you will live a fulfilling life " Drug Free" There are many people on here Im sure that can take there meds as prescribed but there are many who will fall into the same trap I did and I really dont want to see anyone suffer as my family and I did....Take Care of yourself...SUnshine
Benzo meds get a bad rap because most of the peoples with an anxiety disorder will have a comorbidity of addiction ( alcohol, drugs...). No wonder why almost all the anxious peoples tend to self-medicated with those substances...
Benzo are addicting, that's true, but they are not dangerous at all!!! Ok, maybe if you take more than 100 mg of Rivotril at the same time, you will do a trip to the emergency, but you will not die...I don't know why peoples write those kind of false informations. The worse you can get from an overdose of Rivotril, Xanax, Ativa or Valium will be extreme sedation, slow heart beat and sometimes coma but not that often... Do a quick research on google, you will see that in overdose benzo meds are safe...I also remember that I read some studies about fatal dose of Benzo meds and you need a lot more than 100 pills to die trust me!!! They are by far less dangerous than the older barbiturates used in the 50's, 60's and 70's...they kill a lot of well know peoples!!!
All the Benzos meds stop working at some point BUT it's different for everyone, sometime tolerance develop more rapidly, sometime tolerance don't show up even after 10 years on the same benzo at the same dose. Some peoples will use the same low dosage for years without feeling a loose in the effectiveness of the med, especially for the anxiety relief. Other peoples, like me, will start for example at 2mg day of Rivotril for social phobia and panic disorder and tolerance will build-up so fast that after 2 months they will need to increase the dosage to 4mg... to ending at 10mg a day, completly addicted to the med and feel nothing from it, just feel the need to take another pill cause of the withdrawl effects of the med...withdrawl effects who appear faster whatever the half-life of the Benzo use. I have now to take a 0.5mg Rivotril pill every 1 hour...for a total of 8 mg a day...
Normally, switching to another Benzo med can help to feel some relief for the anxiety and panic, BUT it's not working all the time. I think in 5 years I use all of them available in the Canadian market (Xanax, Rivotril, Ativan, Traxene, Valium, Bromazepam, Librium, Serax, Dalmane....). Some of them was more good for the panic (Xanax and Rivotril) but they stop working on me now, the Xanax is perhaps the worse with the Ativan for the cognitives decrease abilities. Other was more sedating and not usefull to treat anxiety, social, general, panic and agoraphobia (Valium, Dalmane, Traxene). Other was not working at all even at high dose (Serax, Bromazepam, Ativan-just make me numb and more anxious at high dose)... So you see it's different for everyone.
I was also used to take drink alcohol with my Rivotril pills ( do that for 1 year, 4 nights a week) and never had any problems mixed them together, even if Doc and Pharmacist told me it was really dangerous... I don't recommend it to anyone, but I never die or had to go to the hospital because I had drink more than 12 beers and take 6 mg or more of Rivotril in the same night!!!
If I could go back five years ago, I would never begin to take this type of meds, why? Because I had better control over my panic and social phobia without the benzos meds!!!!
Strange to write that, but that's true. In high state of anxiety like the one I live now (severe anxiety with weird symptoms daily like headache, jaw pain, pins and needles in the left side of the body, chest pain, low pulse rate with high blood pressure OR fast pulse rate, palpitations, chronic fatigue, pain all over my body, weird scalp toutching feeling, constant dizziness and depersonalisation....), benzo are not working at all... and can't tolerate the antidepressant meds anymore... I seem to be med sensitive now... so the addiction make me take a pill of Rivotril anytime I feel a anxiety symptoms...if I feel that my heart start racing I take one pill, if my heart go to slow I take one pill, if I feel dizzy I take one pill, if I have to drive my car I take 2 pills...when I have to go in a shopping mail or in a place with a lot of peoples I take 2 pills, the worse in all that is the fact that it's not helping me at all... BUT if I don't take those pills, I will not be able to drive, because I know I don't take the pills and my brain associate the pills with the fact that I can do smoething like driving my car or going to a public place... that's more than just addiction, it's destroying my life and my behaviors...
In those 5 years on the Benzo meds, I was able to stop them for 2 months... Had to taper the Rivotril with the Valium... a very long process... had to do the same with the 12mg day of Xanax I was using at some point in 2008... switch to the Valium and than withdrawl slowly... that's a nightmare to stop those meds...
My advise will be to never try those meds until you try everything else (SSRI's, TCA's, MAOI's...), when antidepressant meds fails, you can ask for them but only in a short term (4 weeks max...). And respect the dosage, that's mean that you don't pop-up a pill everytime you feel bad or start a panic, you take them always at the same time everyday!!!
Benzo are addicting, that's true, but they are not dangerous at all!!! Ok, maybe if you take more than 100 mg of Rivotril at the same time, you will do a trip to the emergency, but you will not die...I don't know why peoples write those kind of false informations. The worse you can get from an overdose of Rivotril, Xanax, Ativa or Valium will be extreme sedation, slow heart beat and sometimes coma but not that often... Do a quick research on google, you will see that in overdose benzo meds are safe...I also remember that I read some studies about fatal dose of Benzo meds and you need a lot more than 100 pills to die trust me!!! They are by far less dangerous than the older barbiturates used in the 50's, 60's and 70's...they kill a lot of well know peoples!!!
All the Benzos meds stop working at some point BUT it's different for everyone, sometime tolerance develop more rapidly, sometime tolerance don't show up even after 10 years on the same benzo at the same dose. Some peoples will use the same low dosage for years without feeling a loose in the effectiveness of the med, especially for the anxiety relief. Other peoples, like me, will start for example at 2mg day of Rivotril for social phobia and panic disorder and tolerance will build-up so fast that after 2 months they will need to increase the dosage to 4mg... to ending at 10mg a day, completly addicted to the med and feel nothing from it, just feel the need to take another pill cause of the withdrawl effects of the med...withdrawl effects who appear faster whatever the half-life of the Benzo use. I have now to take a 0.5mg Rivotril pill every 1 hour...for a total of 8 mg a day...
Normally, switching to another Benzo med can help to feel some relief for the anxiety and panic, BUT it's not working all the time. I think in 5 years I use all of them available in the Canadian market (Xanax, Rivotril, Ativan, Traxene, Valium, Bromazepam, Librium, Serax, Dalmane....). Some of them was more good for the panic (Xanax and Rivotril) but they stop working on me now, the Xanax is perhaps the worse with the Ativan for the cognitives decrease abilities. Other was more sedating and not usefull to treat anxiety, social, general, panic and agoraphobia (Valium, Dalmane, Traxene). Other was not working at all even at high dose (Serax, Bromazepam, Ativan-just make me numb and more anxious at high dose)... So you see it's different for everyone.
I was also used to take drink alcohol with my Rivotril pills ( do that for 1 year, 4 nights a week) and never had any problems mixed them together, even if Doc and Pharmacist told me it was really dangerous... I don't recommend it to anyone, but I never die or had to go to the hospital because I had drink more than 12 beers and take 6 mg or more of Rivotril in the same night!!!
If I could go back five years ago, I would never begin to take this type of meds, why? Because I had better control over my panic and social phobia without the benzos meds!!!!
Strange to write that, but that's true. In high state of anxiety like the one I live now (severe anxiety with weird symptoms daily like headache, jaw pain, pins and needles in the left side of the body, chest pain, low pulse rate with high blood pressure OR fast pulse rate, palpitations, chronic fatigue, pain all over my body, weird scalp toutching feeling, constant dizziness and depersonalisation....), benzo are not working at all... and can't tolerate the antidepressant meds anymore... I seem to be med sensitive now... so the addiction make me take a pill of Rivotril anytime I feel a anxiety symptoms...if I feel that my heart start racing I take one pill, if my heart go to slow I take one pill, if I feel dizzy I take one pill, if I have to drive my car I take 2 pills...when I have to go in a shopping mail or in a place with a lot of peoples I take 2 pills, the worse in all that is the fact that it's not helping me at all... BUT if I don't take those pills, I will not be able to drive, because I know I don't take the pills and my brain associate the pills with the fact that I can do smoething like driving my car or going to a public place... that's more than just addiction, it's destroying my life and my behaviors...
In those 5 years on the Benzo meds, I was able to stop them for 2 months... Had to taper the Rivotril with the Valium... a very long process... had to do the same with the 12mg day of Xanax I was using at some point in 2008... switch to the Valium and than withdrawl slowly... that's a nightmare to stop those meds...
My advise will be to never try those meds until you try everything else (SSRI's, TCA's, MAOI's...), when antidepressant meds fails, you can ask for them but only in a short term (4 weeks max...). And respect the dosage, that's mean that you don't pop-up a pill everytime you feel bad or start a panic, you take them always at the same time everyday!!!
I agree, if your doctor is prescribing the wrong medication then by all means switch doctors. Zoloft is the number one prescribed medication used to treat depression and anxiety followed by lexapro. I was on lexapro for about a year but it made me too jittery and the teeth grinding, the whole nine. It took away the depression but I found the side effects overbearing. Zoloft and xanax have literally saved my life.
I know its not for depression, in my situation I was on them to long for my anxiety and I started to isolate and from there the depression set in, even being on Zoloft for about a year didnt help me. I am happy you have a good Dr and that it is working for you that is awesome.....My Dr just kept dishing them out to me and at higher doses and it got out of control. Good Luck to you and I hope all works out for you...
But I agree that it takes more than just meds to treat this disorder. Much like Navy Seals are trained to ignore pain and the elements we need to break down our barriers and expose ourselves to our weaknesses in addition to the good, safe, effective medications prescribed. We need to train our brains to learn how to deal with the symptoms of this disorder as well as seek good medication to balance out the proper seratonin levels in our brains. Peace and God bless
Xanax isn't used for depression. That is why they are usually prescribed with a seratonin booster such as lexapro, zoloft, pristiq, paxil etc.... Valiums were really super popular in the 80's and then doctors went to much more effective measures in dealing with anxiety by pinpointing why it occurs rather than treating the symptoms after the fact. I used to have the worst public panic attacks. On the highway, in the super market, whenever I drove further than 10 miles from my home. Agoraphobia to the max. It sucked and then I went to a therapist and was prescribed the meds along with some very effective exposure therapy.
Thank You so much, I am definately not here to attack anyone. I have just seen and been through so much because of these medications.. I have learned through many mths of counseling how to get through my anxiety and trust me I am still to this day having constant chest burning and tightness which they say is anxiety, but I do my deep breathing, meditation, and I just stay busy with the things I like to do. I talk to family about my feelings and I have alot of support. I would of told people before they were crazy if they thought this would work but it does for me now and I am much happier. Xanax eventually just brought me down into a deeper depression but I am speaking for me and what it did to me,I was on them for ten yrs. I am no longer depressed and I am living a fulfilling life. Sure I get anxious and stressed but I have learned to take a step back and gather my thoughts, it is very hard but its working.
Everyone here is free to express their opinions. I try not to take things too personally here and realize sometimes when someone is stating something it's not an attack on anyone but just a strong personal belief.
Anxiety is such a strange illness. It has so many different causes, symptoms, and treatments. What's good for one isn't for another. It's extremely frustrating and difficult to cope with mentally and physically.
I would like to hear how you deal with your anxiety now and how long it has worked for you.
If you no longer need meds then that's great. I don't think any of us love them all that much! :-)
I'm surprised so few people responded to this poll.
Anxiety is such a strange illness. It has so many different causes, symptoms, and treatments. What's good for one isn't for another. It's extremely frustrating and difficult to cope with mentally and physically.
I would like to hear how you deal with your anxiety now and how long it has worked for you.
If you no longer need meds then that's great. I don't think any of us love them all that much! :-)
I'm surprised so few people responded to this poll.
That is my experience and everyone is different. Its very easy to abuse any drug. I never abused drugs in my life till I was put on xanax and hydrocodone and my experience was awful. I started these when I was 39 never taking any drugs prior and yes I got very addicted to them as do many people. I to started out with .5 in the am and .5 in the pm and then I was prescribed more and more and because of my situation I went through hell but I am happy to say Im off all the that crap and have been for almost 11 mths and I will never take any of it again I have learned to deal with my anxiety differently and its working. Sorry that you are sick and tired of hearing this but I just really dont want to see anyone go through the hell that I went through, and your right not all people will get addicted as long as the right Dr is taking care of them. Sorry for expressing my opinion I thought that is what this was all about.
Benzos get such a bad rap. Sure they are addicting and dangerous but they work great for short term relief from serious panic disorder. I'm sick and tired of people giving these drugs such a bad rap. They are bad for people that abuse them and mix them with other drugs or alcohol. Stop trying to scare people away from them. I currently take xanax and it has zero interaction with zoloft 150 mgs I take daily. I take appx .5 mg in the morning and again at night and I've never had a problem with it. I just posted the poll t find out more about the other drugs mentioned. I've heard that ativan is actually the worst for you from several doctors but was only trying to get users experience. With xanax I can still function great at work and I've heard valium and ativans just knock you out and tranquilize you to the state of uselessness.
To be honest you dont want to start on any of these but the worst of all is xanax please stay away from this drug It is soo addicting and dangerous..
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