Overview:
- Benzodiazepines have existed since the 70's and are generally "a calmer."
- In the 1980's, a huge court case caused a re-evaluation of what benzodiazepines should be used for
- Benzodiazepines can cause major symptoms if one stops and affect people differently. Withdrawal is often so dangerous to someone it is unencouraged
- Most people take benzoiazepines the correct way, when:
- It was stressed that benzodiazepines be used for short, acute situations, and not long, chronic situations
- When we have anxiety that requires medication, the medication should treat the issue causing anxiety; it should not halt behavior that would be dealt with differently if not on a benzodiazepine.
- Benzo's like Xanax and Ativan last way too long and affect your behavior with situations far from what was related to your anxiety. Benzo's like Klonopin take too long to kick in and these longer-acting benzo's are for chronic treatment.
- Benzodiazepines should be used to treat acute situations that are rare and not daily.
- Triazolam is not weak; caution should be advised on dosage. But it's not strong enough to ruin ability to think correctly in future decisions.
- Triazolam does not affect the body as harmful as other benzodiazepines
BENZODIAZEPINES have really gained popularity since the release of Valium, a longer-acting, weaker benzodiazepine known for its characteristics of being 1. a sedative, 2. a hypnotic, 3. an anxiolytic(anti anxiety), 4. often an anticonvulsant, and 5. often a muscle relaxant. In 1963, Diazepam came out and without the knowledge of how dependent it can cause the body, the pill spread like wildfire. In 1977, benzodiazepines were the most widely prescribed class of drugs.
In the 1980's, it became evident that benzodiazepines, unlike previously thought, caused drastically higher rates of dependency. The biggest class-action lawsuit in the UK involved over 14,000 patients suing over 50 health organizations and 117 practitioners for withholding information of known dependency. The lawsuit never reached an agreement due to the scope of the case, but it started the recognition and decline of benzodiazepines as a safely, widely prescribed medication to take long-term.
While not as widely prescribed today, do not be deceived to think benzodiazepines aren't widely prescribed. Among VA hospitals, 60% of inpatients are prescribed a regimen. Xanax is the most prescribed anxiety medication in the US. Most psychiatrists and doctors write prescriptions for benzodiazepines, and it is the third largest class of drugs prescribed by a psychiatrist. Over 40% of family doctors will write a regimen for benzo's to a patient.
The vast majority of people taking benzodiazepines will be on either Xanax, Ativan, or Valium. Most will take it only as needed, and are not given refills to take as a regimen. Most patients are warned about the dangers of benzodiazepine dependence. And about 50% of people who do become dependent will not experience severe withdrawal symptoms. About 85% will not experience withdrawals for longer than 6 weeks. 15% of patients however will experience over 80 withdrawal symptoms over an extended period of time that science has yet to explain. Gastrointestinal symptoms, seizures, eye-twitching, insomnia, paralysis, hallucinations, and other factors will occur and be unexplained.
Most doctors will not have to treat a patient that is among this 15%. But the doctors who do recognize the hell they have to go through to help this patient and often the doctor will encourage the patient to stay on the medication; in fact, data has shown most patients who suffer so badly are offered to reinstate on the medication and encouraged. Even the majority of those who go to inpatient facilities that no longer administer benzodiazepines (it is very common in Europe and increasingly common here in the US to halt prescribing benzodiazepines as a rule to practitioners of a group).
Most of these who suffer from withdrawal symptoms which doctors are unaware of why they are caused (literally, there is no deficiency of any part of the brain that would indicate a reasoning for it) suffer because they had too much anxiety in life and therefore were given a medication.
Benzodiazepines, while having 5 main causes of action, are generally meant to solve a panic attack of self-perceived crisis. In light evidence of these withdrawal symptoms, doctors are veering away from prescribing benzoiazepines and the FDA actually calls on benzo prescriptions for panic attacks only after trying an antidepressant and encourage usage no longer than 4 weeks. Your generalized anxiety is not meant to be treated by a benzo. That's a long-term condition that a benzo can definitely help with, but it's not meant to be for chronic treatment. Having generalized anxiety is to have constant worry. While a non-anxious person may think "Joe is running late. Probably in traffic" one with GAD may think "Oh my gosh I hope Joe is okay, what if he's in a wreck" and not only feel something bad may have happened but worrying about the consequences of it. "Oh if he doesn't show up I could have studied, he is taking my time" and you may continue to let this bother you for a long time, thinking next meeting with Joe "Don't even sweat showing up on time because he will be late" you may habitually and unknowingly do a lot of tasks before meeting Joe each time, etc. This is generalized anxiety. It literally ruins your quality of life. While stress about a test may be common for one with GAD, hence the need for a quick benzodiazepine to alleviate, let's be honest... With GAD if it's not one thing it's another. One with GAD has conceptualized anxiety in such a negative way they feel threatened. Benzo's mask this threatened feeling but they never address it. Surely there are reasons why one may live in constant fear, never relax, and always judge their hardhships and self-perception as failure. A benzo is not needed for this. One who is constantly worried needs to conceptualize what it means to worry, how worrying actual affects them, reality vs. construction, and practice coping, relaxing, and changing models that may explain why someone is generally anxious. Anxiety is involved in worrying but we construct through our past and through our experience what worrying entails.
Your situational anxiety may be cured from long-term benzo use. This is great, but if you had situational anxiety, it would be at certain times. It would not be permanent and while chronic, it is not always apparent. It is circumstantial. Therefore, if one is having anxiety at circumstantial times, maybe during a meeting, wouldn't it be good to perhaps take a benzodiazepine only for that meeting?
Social Anxiety. A big one! A lot of people fear big crowds and freak out, and are given benzodiazepines as a regimen to treat this. Are people in big crowds often though? (Usually no.) For those that are, are they in the crowd all day? Do they need hours upon hours of relief? And will they ever learn to face public crowds an face underlying issues like body image and behavioral modification? Or will their permanent benzo help them? Both will, but the latter is easier and more desirable to work on. People don't want to speak of their problems, especially to strangers. They have secrets like OCD they don't want people to know about.
What's this to do with Triazolam? It's a benzo too, and holds many risks. So what is the deal here?
Triazolam is a benzodiazepine from the early 80's that does not have an active metabolite present after its active use is departed. (Eg. Valium[Diazepam] has desmethyldiazepam which can linger in your body for up to 200 hours.)
Moreso, Triazolam is a very short-acting benzodiazepine, lasting no longer than a few hours. Due to being such a short acting medication, Triazolam often does not have metabolites of chemical features lingering in the body, causing a permanent or noticeable disruption in GABAA leading its likeliness to be relied upon rare. This makes it the ideal benzodiazepine to take, as reliability upon it will be less.
Due to the dangers of chronic benzodiazepine use, the FDA and other health groups have defined when it is ideal to take a benzo. It is agreed that benzo's should treat short-term, acute situations that arise from panic or irrational thought. It is not chronic anxiety and not a chronic thought process.
Let's note some facts first:
- Triazolam is primarily prescribed to elderly who have trouble falling asleep. While it is an anxiolytic like all benzo's, it is not widely used for anxiety. However, when taken for panic attacks, Triazolam is very successful.
- While other benzodiazepines are great for long-term anxiety like Klonopin(Clonazepam), its peak-time of function is at over 2 hours. Is that really indicative of stopping a panic attack?
- Xanax, the most popular, has a half-life of 12-15 hours. This means that it takes about 12-15 hours for 50% of this pill to not be used. Xanax is often prescribed in .5 or 1mg, which is substantially higher than what a patient needs, and a patient is likely to have no panic or anxiety at all for the rest of the day. While that doesn't sound bad, it is not what a benzodiazepine is made for.
- Benzo's are made to help alleviate anxiety but primarily are given and only encouraged to take during a panic attack. People have panic attacks about lots of things. Maybe they are about to take a test. Maybe they are stuck on an essay. Maybe they don't know how to answer their child's request for certain clothing. Maybe they are just being irrational. But regardless, panic attacks are 1. situational, and 2. limited in time and scope significantly. A problem with benzodiazepines like Alprazolam is that they indeed help you get rid of your worries. Maybe you were freaking out about a test you had in an hour. However, after an hour, you are still having these more care-free thoughts, resulting in sleepiness, and being more careless throughout the day. Your attention and care to tasks for the rest of the day will be altered. With longer-acting benzo's, the strength that they erupt at is much lower, so one is likely not to be so drastic. But nevertheless, it causes problems too. Surely, "mommy's little helper" and the song "Submarine" by the Beatle's were not created in vain. Valium, a longer-term acting benzo was at its most popular right after a war when mothers were still told to stay at home, and due to the presence of the father again, the mother often felt bored throughout the day. She would complete the housework in little time and have ample free-time, to where it became boring and unpleasing. Valium, "mommy's little helper" would help mommy ease up a little bit.
- Triazolam is not a weak benzodiazepine in terms of mechanism of action. This is both good and bad. It calls for doctor's to make it aware to patients that they should try just half a tablet firstly. It also causes for lots of attention in those who are drowsy. However, not being weak makes it actually work. Being shortly-lived allows it to work on its intended focus: one issue. Your test is 30 minutes away, you take it. 3 hours later you have completed the test and you didn't worry, but you aren't careless now. You got over panic, but you didn't need a medication post-test. You didn't need the lingering effects. In fact, many notice the lingering affects are negative and therefore do not take their prescribed anxiety medications are certain times. My mother, for example will not take her medication ever at work. Yet in the near past, this is when she would have needed it.
- When our anxiety comes up, the medication often effects us but less profoundly than if we took it for pleasure. The reason is simple: Benzo's actually work on your GABA and you need more GABA to be less stressed. When you are stressed, your body is using up its GABA so the med is helping you. When no stress, it's as if you have an excess so you are just careless, often mellow, but don't care about things when you should. This is important to understand because a critical fault in most benzodiazepines is that they last longer than needed and alter behavior and decisions drastically and unrealistic to the person's moral character.
- One on a benzodiazepine must know what anxiety is, how to cope with it, and when it is right to take a benzo.
- It should be medically agreed that benzo's should be taken in acute, non persistent situations. If the situation is persistent, the benzo is not helping one understand their inner-self and the problems you are having.
- A benzodiazepine should be given for ONE situation that needs attention and not alter your entire day. This is a prominent reason I am against longer acting benzo's, which even Xanax is in comparison to Triazolam
- A person must understand the grave, profound withdrawal effects affiliated with benzodiazepines and should never ever take it regularly. We've got some changing in societal habits to do.
- One unintentional problem is doctor's approving a regimen if the patient wishes.
- Another problem is a doctor writing a prescription of 30 pills; one month's worth. By doing so, the patient thinks they can take as a regimen.
- We need to define the definition of as-needed and know what anxiety really is. Odd as it is to say, many don't know what real anxiety is. Worry and anxiety are complimentary but not the same.
- We need to have a short-term plan on how to handle a crisis before medicine.Try it. Breathing techniques, exercise, etc, we need to try to handle it without it.
- Doctor's need to stop withdrawing benzodiazepine medications from chronic users - Huh? I said it right. If one is dependent, they need a slow taper. 15% of people withdrawing have inexpiable symptoms that science doesn't explain. No EEG, EKG, blood pressure check, urinalysis, blood culture, etc will ever explain it. It's called Somnolence and it happens to many. Learn about the Ashton Manual before anything.
While I believe it is okay for some to be dependent on a drug for their well-being, we've got to accept and spread the word that benzodiazepines pose dangerous risks if taken as a regimen. If seldom however, they can be effective tools. The situation and length of time however are important to implement. Therefore, if you use a benzodiazepine, I encourage Triazolam. Great Anxiolytic yet very short acting and hard to be habit forming as a result.
* I hope this article has given you insight into long-term useage of benzodiazepines, the problem with most benzo's, and construction and conceptualization. I hope this article has explained why if given a benzo, I encourage Triazolam.
* I hope you understand benzodiazepines are no longer widely encouraged to prescribe as a regimen and the issues on benzo's aforementioned are exclusive to a group of people for reasons unknown
* I hope this article has given you insight into long-term useage of benzodiazepines, the problem with most benzo's, and construction and conceptualization. I hope this article has explained why if given a benzo, I encourage Triazolam.
* I hope you understand benzodiazepines are no longer widely encouraged to prescribe as a regimen and the issues on benzo's aforementioned are exclusive to a group of people for reasons unknown
** Benzo's should be a last resort to treating anxiety. I have my reasons. I just encourage you to deal with your anxiety other ways.
Best!
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| The damn truth! <3 |
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