This is something that has come up a few times recently with my psychiatrist and more recently with my therapist.
I've been taking diazepam (valium) occassionally when I'm feeling very anxious and it does a great job of calming me down and makes me feel much more relaxed and calm, the best out of any tablet I've taken. I get so hyped up sometimes, it feels good to have the sedative effect to calm me down, especially because they work so quickly.
Obviously I'm aware of the addiction potential for diazepam and I only take it when I'm feeling really bad, but this seems to be fairly regularily, especially over the last week or so while I've been changing anti-depressant medication. I've probably taken at least 1 a day at 5mg and up to 3 tablets a day when I've been really jittery, for about 2-3 weeks. I'm a bit concerned about the addiction side of it, as I could easily see myself falling into a habit of taking them because they make me feel so good. My GP keeps on presribing when I ask for them tho.
My therapist while questioning me about medication said that he was very against the prescription of any benzo's and that a low dose of an antipsychotic can have the same effect and be sedating and calming like diazepam but without the potential for addiction. My psychiatrist also mentioned it as something that we could try in the future before. I think Clozapine and Haloperidol were mentioned, but they all have crazy sounding names so i could be wrong, lol.
I've had a search of the forum but I can't really find anything that describes how they make you feel or any comparison between them and the benzo's.
Is there anyone out there that takes them? How do they make you feel? Do they work as quickly as diazepam or do you have to take them for a period of time before the effect starts? How do they compare to benzo's? What are the side effects?
Any info would be helpful.
Jim