Posted by paul on December 25, 1999, at 0:50:37
In reply to Are Benzodiazepines Like Alcohol?, posted by Marc on December 25, 1999, at 0:05:27
> When I drink I feel so happy and uninhibited by anxiety, especially social anxiety. I know this is normal, but is that what benzos like Valium, Klonopin and Xanax make you feel like? If so, then they're the drug for me. How's this analogy, Benzo:Alcohol::SSRI:Marijuana ?
Alcohol is a very blunt instrument. It does affect GABA in a way similar to benzos, but at the same time, simultaneously has a widespread effect on many different systems, food-milling this pleasant anxiolytic effect in with so many other effects on the body all along the pleasant-unpleasant spectrum. I, for example, respond extremely well to benzos for anxiety and social phobia. But I'm not inclined to abuse alcohol when benzos are not available. To put it like this, using alcohol instead of a benzo to treat anxiety would be like trying to kill Saddam Hussein with a nuclear bomb. Nuclear weapons are very lethal, but their imprecision and unselectiveness make them too blunt an instrument to use to kill one man.
Maybe a substance could be invented which would antagonize all of the effects of alcohol at all receptor sites except at those where the GABA/benzo magic happens...
As for the SSRI:Marijuana analogy, I don't follow you... I'm not aware of any serotonin receptor- cannabinoid receptor connection. Intuitively, it seems completely wrong. Of course, I could be wrong.
poster:paul
thread:17465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/17466.html