Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
journalistsresource.org
Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
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Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#2A friend of mine got hooked on heroin and ended up on methadone maintence. He’s since managed to get off that and is clean, but he had horror stories of people on methadone abusing benzodiazepines like crazy. Apparently mixing methadone and high doses of drugs like Xanax produce effects similar to heroin, but benzos are really hard to get off. He talked about a woman who couldn’t get her Xanax fix, and she started having seizures. Benzodiazepines take months to titrate off safely, and higher doses associated with abuse do unpleasant things to your seizure threshold and memory.
Bad stuff unless you must have it.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#3A friend of mine got hooked on heroin and ended up on methadone maintence. He’s since managed to get off that and is clean, but he had horror stories of people on methadone abusing benzodiazepines like crazy. Apparently mixing methadone and high doses of drugs like Xanax produce effects similar to heroin, but benzos are really hard to get off. He talked about a woman who couldn’t get her Xanax fix, and she started ha…
There is a pretty large community on Reddit just dedicated to recovery just from Benzo's.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#4A friend of mine got hooked on heroin and ended up on methadone maintence. He’s since managed to get off that and is clean, but he had horror stories of people on methadone abusing benzodiazepines like crazy. Apparently mixing methadone and high doses of drugs like Xanax produce effects similar to heroin, but benzos are really hard to get off. He talked about a woman who couldn’t get her Xanax fix, and she started ha…
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Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#5Dirt cheap, "synergizes" with alcohol, street presses being incredibly overdosed, it is weird seeing the writing on the wall then watch it be inked into existence.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#6What is the thesis here? Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed and have the potential for abuse; these things are both true; I hadn't heard the rate of prescription was rising, but I'd believe it. There doesn't seem to be any evidence presented for a trend or rise in benzodiazepine abuse, or evidence of general harm from the use of the drugs. It highlights parallels between the existence of this prescription drug class and another class that is associated with significant issues, and makes it sound as if there were an issue here... and then leaves it at that, the literary equivalent of a wink and a nudge. Are they arguing that prescription of drugs with abuse potential is inherently a problem? Because that would be a very extreme position, one which would challenge a sizable fraction of the medications available to modern psychiatry.
And this is a "journalist's resource," one associated with the Harvard Kennedy School? No wonder journalism is garbage these days.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#7I was taking 3mg Lorazepam nightly for almost three years. Weening off of it safely took almost an entire year of miserable work, and the final stages I had to do while I had no other significant life responsibilities because of the incredible rebound insomnia and background anxiety you experience withdrawing off benzodiazepines. The only upshot is that when you finally do manage to get yourself off of a drug like this, you sort of feel like you can tackle most other challenges life throws your way.
So yeah, this stuff is serious. And of course, my Lorazepam was prescribed legally, by a responsible, well regarded psychiatrist, with very little warning regarding how quickly one builds both tolerance and physiological dependence on this chemical.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#8A friend of mine got hooked on heroin and ended up on methadone maintence. He’s since managed to get off that and is clean, but he had horror stories of people on methadone abusing benzodiazepines like crazy. Apparently mixing methadone and high doses of drugs like Xanax produce effects similar to heroin, but benzos are really hard to get off. He talked about a woman who couldn’t get her Xanax fix, and she started ha…
It is incredibly, incredibly dangerous to mix benzodiazepines (Xanax, Ativan, etc.) with Methadone. This is common knowledge amongst opiate addicts, at least everywhere I ever went in the US back in my wilder days. I have 3 close friends whom I grew up with that all died before age 30 from abusing that exact combination of narcotics, and know of countless more just in my home state alone.
Benzos are a respiratory depressant, and when combined with Methadone it amplifies it to the point where you stop breathing in your sleep and never wake up from respiratory failure, lack of oxygen to the brain, or your body freaks out and has a coronary episode, etc. it's really really risky -- no joke & no exaggeration. If alcohol is in the mix too then it's even worse.
And I'm not going to pretend like it's not enjoyable -- because it is. It's a great fuckin' buzz if downers are your thing. IMO it's better than heroin (no 'rush' to it, but the effects hit you like a ton of bricks and it lasts all night long. And it's a cheap buzz too), but it's also asking for your life to end.
methadone clinics know this and every one that I've ever seen, heard of, or been to personally Benzos are their one big 'no-no' [as in: if we find it in your Whiz Quiz we kick you out, some won't even give you a second chance and most clinics have mandatory urine screening twice a month, some every week]. You can test positive for damn near anything else -- and they expect you to test positive for opiates -- but if you have benzos in there then you kick rocks.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#9What is the thesis here? Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed and have the potential for abuse; these things are both true; I hadn't heard the rate of prescription was rising, but I'd believe it. There doesn't seem to be any evidence presented for a trend or rise in benzodiazepine abuse, or evidence of general harm from the use of the drugs. It highlights parallels between the existence of this prescription drug c…
>A study published in 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health finds that from 1996 to 2013, the number of adults in the United States filling a prescription for benzodiazepines increased 67 percent, from 8.1 million to 13.5 million. The death rate for overdoses involving benzodiazepines also increased in this time period, from 0.58 per 100,000 adults to 3.07.
In the first link in the article >the quantity of benzodiazepines they obtained more than tripled during that period, from 1.1-kg to 3.6-kg lorazepam-equivalents per 100,000 adults.
Re: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem
#10A friend of mine got hooked on heroin and ended up on methadone maintence. He’s since managed to get off that and is clean, but he had horror stories of people on methadone abusing benzodiazepines like crazy. Apparently mixing methadone and high doses of drugs like Xanax produce effects similar to heroin, but benzos are really hard to get off. He talked about a woman who couldn’t get her Xanax fix, and she started ha…
Benzo withdrawal can, in some cases be even riskier than opiate withdrawal. You also build a tolerance to them very quickly, which makes addiction even worse.