Addiction is not the right word for the majority of benzodiazepine consumers.
While many symptoms of addiction and dependence overlap, the main distinction is between those who take their medication as prescribed and those who abuse or misuse that drug.
Addiction is defined as a “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance” or “persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful”. Addiction has a physiological pay-off so to speak and can be extremely rewarding. This “high” is the main reason why the drug is used in spite of adverse effects.
Dependence is defined as “an adaptive state that develops from repeated drug administration, and which results in withdrawal upon cessation of drug use.” In other words, dependence is a neuro adaptation to a drug as it is taken regularly. Dependence on a drug is not necessarily rewarding, but getting off of it can be very painful.
These very definitions warrant a different response. The treatment of someone who is addicted to drugs is usually quick and severe, and often without the input of the one being treated. With people who have become dependent on benzodiazepines taken as prescribed, this approach is inappropriate, unnecessary and often detrimental.
In the case of benzodiazepines the neuro adaptations that create a state of dependency mean that someone who rapidly tapers or cold turkeys off this drug (on their own or at a detox/rehab facility) can actually have seizures and die. It is possible to have an addiction to a benzodiazepine, abuse it and have relatively little physical adjustment once the drug is out of the system. Paradoxically there are those who take “low doses” of benzodiazepines for only a few weeks, withdraw and find their bodies have so drastically adapted to the drug that they suffer with severe mental and physical symptoms for months or even years after.
Withdrawal from other drugs such as opiates or even heroin and cocaine does not cause death. Withdrawal from benzodiazepines can. This is why it is so important to understand the difference between benzodiazepine addiction and dependence and assist people in pursuing the appropriate form of treatment.
I’ve been prescribed clonazepam for 18 yrs. I was having sleep issues and given .5 mg. After 8 yrs. It stoped and I was having a breakdown with no sleep for 158 htmrs. Went to hospital where they put me in a phyc. Ward and given Serequel . I got off the Serequel on my own ( took a year) but I’m 58 and have severe cognitive, memory impairment. I need to know where to get help and find out if I have permanent damage. I live in WI and am legally disabled.!please please, I use to b so sharp. I need help !
My doctor has overdosed me with Klonopin and Ambien for eight years. I have been weaning off of these medication‘s for over a year and I need a new doctor that can help me, but there doesn’t seem to be any out there. I live near St. Louis and you would think somebody would know what they’re doing. It’s been absolutely horrific! Healthcare is a joke!
I understand whats going on. “They” don’t want to lose their licenses. So to cover their butts they refer you to a psychiatrist they can help wean me off. (BUT) maybe I dont want to stop taking them or see a Psychiatrist. So I’m being threatened by a 30+ year old who’s has never done this before.y
They dont care how long you’ve been taking Benzo’s And it doesn’t matter if you need your Benzo’s or not.
I used to go in to see my pcp every 3 months for a checkup. I take my prescription like it says on the label for 40+ years. No problems until my doctor retired. I have a PA-C now and right away wants to wean me off of alprazolam.he says that if I dont see a Psychiatrist he’ll continue wean me down maybe slower and with Valium. and I have gone through cold turkey on my own once in my 20’s it wasnt so hard & again in my 30’s what I hated was the pharmacist telling me how addictive it was. I was going to a qwack in my hometown. He gave me 100 pills a month. But now its different once they see my meds list they took me down to 90 1mg.
go for my throat.
They dont care about me, my underlying conditions, my brain. My regular MD said if I have my past records to bring them in. And my anxiety levels went way down.
But this new PA-C doesnt care about a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis letter. I never had to deal with my meds after that. Its been a rollercoaster. The most Anxiety I ever had.
For one I am diabetic and was put on Xanax and Colonipin for over 22 years, now my so called Primary Nurse Practitioner took mr off of my Colonipin and Lyrica it’s been 13 days without either. And I am in W/D Dependence. My blood sugars are over 600 each day several times a day and evening or it gets way down this up and down mode is messing with my heart kidneys feet hands eyes brain everything then now going thru W/Ds from the Colonipin it’s taking its toll on me. But the ones who are not going thru this does not no how bad kit is. I had 2 lite strokes in 07 last lite Stroke I lost my left side vision, these Drs do not care whether you live or die but they want there money when it’s due. Then you go to the ER and you are looking like a drug seeker and a low life person and Drs are or should not treat you like this nor the Dr that prescribed your clonipin should be held accountable for doing what they have done for cutting you off cold turkey especially when you have had 2 lite strokes and diabetes there needs to be a law against this and fully unforced. When you have no one to help you Drs want you in Rehab which makes does not work. I always thought Drs knew this or had to take a test in order to prescribe benzoes but yet they don’t and go on prescribing benzos only to put the patient into more harm
I been on benzos for 8 to 9 months. I was prescribed them for severe depression and anxiety. I also suffer from PTSD. Other meds I take is buprenorphine ..I’m not able to work so lift insurance cant afford regular doctors visit. So now I’m stuck I only have for a few days on my benzodiazepine witch I take 3 times daily. Need to know .what I can do
Anyone facing this scenario should go to the emergency department of their local hospital. It’s a matter of life and death. If it’s not a hospital connected to the clinic where you last received your meds, ask them to check the state prescription drug database to verify that you’re on a legally prescribed dose.
Even so, they are only required to stabilize you and send you on your way, per EMTALA.
Anyone on benzos should have a DPOA, an emergency supply they keep secret, and a plan. Doctors frequently patient dump and you should stretch and accumulate a secret emergency supply because of it. If it’s been legally prescribed then the state prescription drug database can vouch for you. If you don’t have one, take in current copies of your chart notes/medical records, or save all empty prescription bottles and take the bag with you.
State prescription drug databases share between states. Emergency departments share information with other ED’s as well.
Well I break them in half and. I go back and forth with my pcp I bring in some credible articles. But he’s he’ll bent on weaning me down. He hasn’t talked to me about a plan we can go by. I don’t understand him. He wrote in a text to me why dont you ask your Dr. So and So to prescribe them. He’s not my doctor you are. I asked him do you want to see my psychiatric diagnosis that’s all you need. I know I must sound like a spoiled brat, I don’t need to see a counselor and I don’t have to be weaned down! Lol why do you PA-C’ s think you have to mess around with my meds on a first time visit that’s a nice way to start a relationship. He says that I’m difficult and I should see a counselor. I’m going along with the wean until I cant. Then I’m going to the ER. They take care of me. This elderly Doctor came up to me and said, do you need your meds refilled uh yes I do. He was my hero. They’re far and few between. That’s all I have for now.
Thank you! This distinction is so important. BZDs are prescribed drugs. But most physicians don´t care and most people don´t know. They believe that all is just a question of will.
And medical doctors? The prescribe BZDs to the patients, then they call them “misusers” and treat them like 2nd class people always implicating it was the patients fault.
I have seen it so often with my wife: a doctor prescribed midazolam to her and insured “no problem, you can take more” – “this medicine does not cause dependence”. A lie. When problems occured, other physicians listen, but once they hear the word “benzodiazepine” they look down to the “junkie” and don´t care any more.
There is so much des-information and wrong estimates concerning benzodiazepines. My wife was treated by a young “expert” physician who prescribed a 30-fold overdose, because he did understand the paradox effects, he did not know the correct CYP enzyme and interactions and did not know about metabolites and the accumulation with respect to half life t1/2 = 24 h…. My wife is terribly suffering for 3 years from this crazy treatment, i.e. torture. – And in the end it is always the patient´s fault. It´s a shame.
Oh, he understood the effect. All right, they just don’t care. My doctor is a head of a hospital and told me I could not get addicted to Klonopin and Ambien because it was a low dose.This is a straight up lie. I’ve been in physical withdrawal for over a year. It’s been horrific. They should all be put in prison and have the key thrown away.
“The body adapts to the drug, and people who use heroin regularly don’t take the drug to get high.
Most of the time, they are trying to avoid withdrawal. They’re unable to quit using heroin, but people addicted to heroin rarely feel high. They’re trapped in a daily cycle of seeking heroin to feel normal.”
https://www.drugrehab.com/addiction/drugs/heroin/what-heroin-feels-like/
Yes, people can die from opiate withdrawal
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.13512
Thank you for making this distinction. It is so important for friends and family to understand. I would emphasize the distinction that most or at least some of us did not experience feeling “high” from our medications – not even at high doses that were prescribed to us. We tend to think of drugs that make us feel high as being potentially addictive and harmful. It is because the drug did not make me feel happy or high that it never occurred to me to think of it as being in a dangerous category. It was given me for a very bad sleep disorder, and the medication made me sleepy not high. My physicians even tried having me take doses in the day to prepare my body for better sleep at night and it did not make me high but painfully sleepy (I could not sleep in the day so it just increased my somnolence but without the ability to sleep). Of course, also I did not know the drug would be harmful because my physicians did not tell me it would create physical dependence. And inexcusably poorly informed about this class of medication, they did not say that it would harm my nervous system down the road. To the contrary, they prescribed it for years. It worked for my sleep disorder, until it injured my nervous system and created many horrific symptoms that required going back on the drug to alleviate. When I tried to go to a hospital to be medically supervised to get off the medication, I was yanked off in a few days (the taper should have taken months), which increased the long term injury. Because of all the negligent misinformation about these medications, now years later – and years off the medication – I am still suffering terribly from the medication injury.