Safe usage?

[amaryllis_celladine]

Hey everyone,

My doctor prescribed me diazepam for my emergency moments. I have been off mirtazapine for 13 days now, and I'm still having patches of bad anxiety. My anxiety was off the scale today. I was VERY aroused by anxiety this week as my Dad was being tested for prostate cancer, and having Generalised Anxiety Disorder, I assumed the worst. He seems to be fine, but today I was having anxiety while I was intimate with my partner, anxiety when my Mum and Dad were a bit late coming home, anxiety when my boyfriend and I disagreed on what to do in a computer game we are co-playing, anxiety feeding the friggin' cat - it's driving me insane.

I realise, cognitively, that I've gotten aroused this week and am having a hard time coming down from that arousal. I am currently studying CBT, I am seeing a psychologist, and now that I have good health insurance, I am backed with heavy-duty psychiatric help if need-be. But I need to make sure that I'm covered and that I have the money for that help, and I need to organise things with my doctor next week.

Until then, all I have to help me through these rough patches is diazepam. Yesterday was my day out with my sister and a friend. I had a lot of anxiety, as I've developed irritation and agitation when in crowded public places. I never had that before. Anyway, before I left, I had 2.5mg of diazepam. I had woken up very depressed and anxious, and I was worried it was a codeine downer (yes, I take codeine, my doctor knows, I need it for my pain condition and I have seen lots of pain specialists, it's all that works without making me feel ill, I am careful not to take more than a certain amount a week). It evened me out for the rest of the day, but I still felt the anxiety a bit.

I feel like taking the other half now. I've been going about it like this: No more than 5mg a week at most. Ideally, spaced out further than 8 days a pill. Only for the worst of days.

Am I going about it right? It's all I have right now, and I have been trying my CBT for ages but it's just been such a shitty week that I'm feeling overwhelmed. I don't want to get addicted, but I really need help.

It was my birthday on Wednesday, too! LOL!

[southey]

How did your prescriber tell you to take them? It's good you want to use them only when your at your worst and is how I try to use them as they are hard to get.

Spacing them out 8 days apart is not going to help if your overly anxious during this time, you need to take them as needed. You say 2.5mg evened you out most of the day so you know a good starting dose for you that works. It's very likely that 5mg would help even more and both these dosages are very small and safe to take every day if needed for a couple of weeks.

The thing I found with Diazepam is that it worked so well for my anxiety that I would be tempted to take it when I didn't really need it, for lower levels of anxiety I could cope with. Not in a drug fiending kind of way but wanting that serene feeling again. This is where I think Diazepam can be misused? In my experience kept for severe episodes of anxiety it's safe and not too habit forming .

Tolerance does build up if you use it all the time and is another reason to try to use just when you can't cope. One day you may find 2.5mg does not work but 5mg does. This isn't necessarily bad as the safe daily dosage for Diazepam is much much higher but avoiding tolerance by sporadic use will make a small hard to come by stash last longer.

Steve.

[amaryllis_celladine]

Well, my doctor wrote on the prescription to take a half once a day or as needed. I told her when she made the prescription that I only take it from time to time, which she said was good.

I've used these class of drugs before. I had lorazepam for a time, when I was having separation anxiety from my parents that was brought on by assault trauma. I reached a point where the drug gave me rebound anxiety before I got addicted in any way, and stopping from that point was easy for me. I mean, the anxiety was shit but I don't recall really having any bad come-downs. I was having too much anxiety outside of it anyway to really register.

I've had half a tab every once in a while for years, and it's not really done me any harm, and I haven't gotten addicted. I'm just going through a super bad patch of anxiety right now (I don't know how I got into this, and I'm hoping I'll get out again). I just don't want to accidentally slip into addiction. I became fairly dependent on codeine a few years back, as I hadn't had experience with withstanding pain or spacing out my meds. I've had years of experience since then, hence why I am being cautious now.