Posted by blueberry on January 19, 2006, at 4:32:44
In reply to BENZOS....Can you become Addicted or Dependant, posted by tepiaca on January 17, 2006, at 15:00:42
Addiction implies drug seeking behavior, hoarding of supplies, seeking euphoric effects, seeking higher doses to get euphoric effects. Dependence is more along the lines of your body being accustomed to the medication where removing the medication causes withdrawal symptoms.
I personally do not understand why the general medical community looks at benzos in this way, since in my own experience all of the psychotropic meds have similar dependence issues.
I've weaned off of so many meds. I let my level of withdrawal discomfort be my guide as to how fast or how slow I weaned off. Paxil took me 3 months to get from 20mg to zero. Prozac, even with its long half life, took me 3 months to get from 20mg to zero. Xanax only took one month to get from 2mg to zero. Zyprexa took me one month to get from 5mg to 2.5mg. Even something simple like St Johns Wort took me 2 months to get from 600mg to zero. My body was dependent on all of them, and the dependence was greatly influenced by how long I had been on them.
The body gets accustomed to the particular medication molecule, whatever it is. That to me is dependence. Whether the molecule is actually helping or not is a different issue...the body has adjusted to where it needs it regardless. Is it addiction? Or is it dependence? I don't think it matters what they call it, it means it is real hard to get off of it. In my own experiences, all meds cause dependence, with paxil, effexor, and antipyschotics being the worst, even worse than benzos for me.
poster:blueberry
thread:599991
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060115/msgs/600636.html