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Lilly,

A lot of what you say about Benzo's is true and good to see people are using the benzo.uk site. I think Dr. Ashton is one of the few world authorities on Benzo's and willing to speak up about these powerful meds. It's too bad we don't see more info in the US about these meds.

Dr. Ashton ran a Benzo addiction clinic over there for 12 years and helped get hundreds of people addicted to short life benzo's like Ativan & Xanax off them. Her method was switching patients over to a much longer acting benzo Valium and she was very successful doing this.

I think you might be incorrect about Valium being more addictive or "Dependent" then other benzo's like Ativan or Xanax. From what I understand the shorter acting but more potentiating the benzo on Gabba receptors in the brain the more addictive they can be and the shorter length of time you need to take them to become dependent, or in some cases addicted. There is a difference.

You see all benzo's are whats called "Non Selective" that is they all potentiate gabba and act on those receptor sites in our brain. Benzo's like Xanax though are 20 times more potentiating then say Valium with such a short half life the level falls off in the blood stream very fast like you mentioned with Xanax 6-10 hours. This can also cause "withdrawl syndrome between doses" if you have been taking Xanax several weeks say for sleep only. After you wake 8 hours later half the xanax is already out of your bloodstream and by dinner time some people will start getting withdrawl symptoms like GI problems, sweating, worse tinnitus, headaches, internal tremors, etc.

I know, I went through this. I was prescribed 1mg of xanax for sleep becasue of bad T and after several weeks started really getting sick. I was going through withdrawl and didn't even realize it. Once I started taking the xanax 0.5mgs 3 times a day I felt much better but it then takes a couple weeks for your body to settle back down.

Lilly,

Nice to hear from you!

Yes, I get a lot of my info from the uk site not much avaiable in the USA.... Dr. Ashton DM, FRCP is not only a medical doctor she also has a doctorate degree in "Psycho pharmacology" which means she has much more understanding of how these meds work then most doctors.

I'm no expert on these meds by any means. I read and I learn. I'm also going by my own experience and several professionals I have paid to consult with. I think people have to realize that there is a delicate balance with these benzodiazapine meds as some people have mentioned here like taking a couple pills a week when really needed. It seems to me that you either take them prn (as needed) that way or you have to get on them full time as kevin hogan mentions in his book "Tinnitus; Turning the Volume Down" with Xanax. IF you go on them full time say 0.5mgs 3 times a day it can take up to 8 weeks for the full affect of reducing tinnitus to kick in.

I was also told by my internal medicine doctor that some peoples livers get reved up with benzo's and will start breaking down and metabolizing the med faster and faster. Your brain will also get use to getting Gaba the calming neuro-transmitter (Gaba Amino Buteric Acid) That could be what happened with me last summer not to mention I was taking a pretty good dose, 1mg just at night for sleep. I started having withdrawl symptoms between doses after several weeks and got scared. Thank God I found out not to just stop taking the Xanax not sure what would have happened to me then. I guess the whole xanax thing was a terrible experience for me the weening off it was very hard. I wasn't prescribed it properly to begin with though.