Posted by laima on February 9, 2007, at 6:33:56
In reply to Well Benzos Worked For Years Now No Hope, posted by Phillipa on February 8, 2007, at 12:16:16
Phillipa,People are obviously having varying experiences with their benzos- there are probably many factors involved, such as how long they've been on them, which ones, what other meds they are on which are intermingling with them, doses, perhaps even body size and how their metabolism is.
I think you should look at your situation, do as much research as you can, and weigh your pros and cons of all options: no changes, try to come off them for a break, or increase. Maybe there are some other options, as well.
A few thoughts: if you take a break you can eventually see where your base level anxiety is at- I already wrote about the strange experience I had, where it turned out clonazapam/klonopin was making me feel worse. I was quite intrigued with what I read about in Ashton's online book, about the possibility of chronic withdrawal while using drug as directed- I think that's what happened in my case. Another observation- every time I took a break with benzos, whether clonazapam, or xanax before that, they regained their effectiveness. That's really good news!
A risk of increasing your dose could be that you acclimate to the new dose and end up in the same boat, but on higher dose.I've heard, read, that side effects of benzos can manifest or become stronger on higher doses- that might be something to weigh as you make your decision. That may also likely have something to do with why doctors are or are not willing to increase doses indefinately.
I found the valium link for you at medline:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682047.html(They do say: "Tolerance may develop with long-term or excessive use, making the drug less effective.")
Wikipedia is also interesting, and has some link to other sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValiumHere's their link to the manufacture's official insert for the brand-name version of valium:
http://www.rocheusa.com/products/valium/tabspi.pdfI've personally found Heather Ashton's book to be quite informative- there were parts I was skeptical about, but other parts which were truely helpful and extremely insightful.
(Even Einstein didn't get everything right.)Again, I really think you need to individually weigh your pros and cons for the various options. What's right for one person's situation might not be so for another. What happened to one person might not happen to another, either.
Good luck.
poster:laima
thread:731116
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/731314.html