benzodiazepines not working even at high dose...

Clown

Well-known member
I got benzodiazepine oxazepam prescribed 10mg 1 to 3 tablets a day...
Even if I take 60mg in a single dose it only takes the edge a little bit off and still doens't make me comfortabel social situations.... this was my 2nd day of trying it.

I think only the highest daily dosis of 150mg in a single dose will somewhat cure my anxiety.

and on the prescription it says that his peak is 3 hours... afhter 3 hours already the complete old anxious me without the edge taken off and the anxiety comes back quikly.

Is it better to get Alprazolam for anxiety disorder ?

I finally thought I found my magical pill but realise I still will be suffering...::(:
 

decadeOfSA

Well-known member
Benzos aren't magic pills. They work well in the beginning, but will just cause you new problems, eventually. Xanax is about the worst benzo there is. They will just mask your anxiety, instead of curing or improving it. There are too many bad long term side effects with benzos.

Have fun trying to withdraw from them after you run into a wall of tolerance, dependence, rebound anxiety, etc.

I'm tapering off the crap now. I was on Klonopin for 10 years and Xanax and Klonopin for 15 years. I wish I never took them.

Benzos are basically alcohol in a pill, without the hangover, unless you count headaches from rebound anxiety or interdose withdrawal as a hangover.
 

Clown

Well-known member
What do I need to try else ???? every sssri is just placebo and doens't work for me at all therapy only helped a little bit..... so I only got benzos left I rathter get addicted to it at high dose and finally have some years without panic inside but still uncomfortabel in situations .. then that I absolute not can function at all.

I want to change my thoughts in the moments I don't use benzos , so I slowly improve and the benzos help me to get outside and do the job without feeling ill
 

Clown

Well-known member
What do I need to try else ???? every sssri is just placebo and doens't work for me at all therapy only helped a little bit..... so I only got benzos left I rathter get addicted to it at high dose and finally have some years without panic inside but still uncomfortabel in situations .. then that I absolute not can function at all.

I want to change my thoughts in the moments I don't use benzos , so I slowly improve and the benzos help me to get outside and do the job without feeling ill
 
The ssri medications are to help with depression, I don't think they have ever been proven to help with anxiety.
I have only ever heard horror stories of tolerance, addiction and severe physical withdrawal symptoms with Benzos.
Have you ever tried CBT - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy? That can help with the changing the way you think. Could you ask a therapist about trying that?
 

decadeOfSA

Well-known member
Nothing else worked for me either, but I've heard good things about CBT and I'm trying it now.

Fears, including social phobia/anxiety, are rooted in psychology. You may be pre-disposed for more anxiety around people, but I believe you can get rid of the fear with psychotherapy.

You probably have too many negative thoughts and your body is conditioned to automatically go into fight or flight mode around people. You need to stop those thoughts and desensitize the fear of people.

You don't want to be dependent on a drug for the rest of your life and keep upping the dose, because of tolerance. Often, benzos keep perpetuating anxiety anyway and they don't get to the root of the problem. They will damage your brain too and it's unknown whether the damage is permanent or not. A lot of people have protracted withdrawal, where after they stop taking benzos, they have all sorts of withdrawal symptoms for months to years.

I took benzos for many years before I hit a wall of tolerance and they just didn't work as well anymore. Raising the dose didn't really help at all. Then I started reading about benzos online and read all the horrible things. I decided to taper off of them and I have been doing it slowly for 2 years now and probably have a year left to go. It hasn't been easy, even going slow.
 

panicsurvivor

Well-known member
I would like to add my voice to Decade!!!! THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL!!!!!! I cannot stress that enough. I have Benzo's, but I don't take them ever. I just keep them in my pocket, just in case. But if you try and use them like medicine, they will do WAY more harm then good. Listen to Decade, he knows what he is talking about. If I take one of my xanax it will knock me on my ass, and make me feel peaceful and sleepy, so it's a good in case of emergency thing to have in my mind. But the last time I took one was 5 months ago, and before that it was 8 months. If I were taking them every day, I would develop a tolerance, and then they would be worthless to me.



I am not trying to be mean but I have to say this in all seriousness. Looking for a magic pill, is not going to help you. So many people with Anxiety issues just won't except that if they want to get better, they have to work at it. They want to whine and complain, and want a magic pill or trick. But they are unwilling to do anything that requires any effort on their part. Our problems stem, from our thought patterns, no pill can change that. We have too change that ourselves. CBT is a way of doing this, exposure therapy is also a way of doing this. These things will work, if you put in the effort and work at it.
 

corvax

Member
I think 2 days is too soon to say a medication doesn't work. However, on a different note, might I also suggest that perhaps, if antidepressants have never worked for you, you're not biologically capable of responding to them as effectively as other people?

I say this because I went through 6 years of medication hell on a litany of different drugs with absolutely no benefit whatsoever to my crippling depression. I'd be on the max dosage, still feel the same as ever, and all I ever got was the side effects (hypersomnia is a really awful thing). Last year, a psychiatrist did some gene testing, and it turned out I inherited a defective gene necessary for producing the enzyme necessary for about 90% of psychiatric medications. My body can't process them at all.

The psychiatrist said about 30% of people who have treatment-resistant depression have this defect. There are medications out there that bypass this enzyme, though, so it's not like it's the end of the world.

Just my two cents. It may or may not be your problem, but if it is, I'd rather you not go through the hell I did with medications.
 
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