[netsavy006]

Are there ways that you can take a benzo and help prevent the need for medication increases? I use to be on Valium 2mg BID, then was having anxiety again and needed to go to 2mg TID. Right now I'm on 5mg AM, 5mg @ 5PM, and 10mg @ bedtime. (for a grand total of 20mg/day). Anything I can do so I don't have to increase the medication again? I follow the directions and only take it as prescribed, but are there other mechanisms that can be used?

I feel like I've asked the same question, but in different ways.
Anyways, Thanks in advance.

Andy...

[SashaSue]

I really don't think so. As your anxiety waxes and wanes, your dosage will need to be changed accordingly. Plus, I believe people build up tolerances to benzos, necessitating dosage increases to achieve the same effect.

The only option I can think of would be trying a different med to manage your anxiety, but if the valium is working, and you aren't experiencing any serious side effects, that would probably be foolish.

And really, if it's working well, without serious side effects, it's probably foolish to try messing around with your dosage, or minimizing whatever future increases your doctor may prescribe.

[gizmo]

With any benzo, you are going to build up a tolerance. The question is, "How quickly?" That's your magic question. While you *could* try another benzo, it might be just trading apples for apples. I personally take xanax PRN and take 2mg to get the same effect that most other people get when taking 0.5 - 1 mg. It sucks to have built up such a tolerance on a med I take 2-3 times a week, but that's the way my body and mind work.

The other thing I've had to have a serious "Coming to Jeebus Meeting" with myself about is what specific anxiety warrants the use of a benzo. Six months ago, I was taking xanax twice a day plus at night to sleep. The thing I learned was that I was automatically medicating most, if not all of my anxiety. And some of it I could handle on my own using CBT and other behavioral modification techniques. So I began using therapy techniques to get through some (not all) of my anxiety attacks and episodes, and slowly weaned myself off of the daily xanax and ended up with the PRN xanax.

So perhaps you could begin therapy and learn some anxiety coping techniques that could get you through those periods that your current valium medication doesn't cover so you don't need to increase the dose again? I won't tell you it will be easy, but I will tell you it's worth it.

[dianthus]

I've been taking Ativan as a maintenance med for many years in dosages ranging from 1mg/day to 5 mg/day. At the moment I take 2-3mg/day which seems to work. They key is to decrease your dosage when you can and stay on the lowest possible dose that keeps you able to function.

[notfred]

dianthus, on 01 November 2009 - 06:38 PM, said:

I've been taking Ativan as a maintenance med for many years in dosages ranging from 1mg/day to 5 mg/day. At the moment I take 2-3mg/day which seems to work. They key is to decrease your dosage when you can and stay on the lowest possible dose that keeps you able to function.

Same here, over the last 2 decades I have taken as much a 1 mg, 4X a day everyday during very stressful periods. At the moment I am taking 1-2 mgs as needed.
As dianthus says, key is lowering the dose after the stressful period is over. I do not believe everyone becomes tolerant to the antianxiety effects nor is doomed to every increasing doses.

nf

[Bueler]

I'm prescribed 0.5mg Klonopin twice a day, and I've been on it for probably over a year. I do build a tolerance, but I haven't gone over that... usually I stop taking it for a week or so (No withdrawal symptoms), since I figure it's not really working anyway. And, then I restart it. A "tolerance break" if you will.

Otherwise, it's a lifesaver!

[The Emperor]

I wouldn't recommend going off your meds for any length of time to decrease tolerance, unless p-doc recommends it, though I personallyhave considered this, but then, I'd probably be a fucking wreck without them.

Right now I think I'm becoming tolerant of my .5mg klono 3x a day because I geta lot of breakthrough anxiety. Then again, I just went up on my SSRI and I think this might be the reaso, so I'm waiting it out a couple of weeks before putting in a call to p-doc over it. Hell, then I got other shit going on that is causing anxiety personally, so, yeah.

My thoughts on this topic are basically what everyone else said. Use the lowest possible dose for as long as possible to keep you halfway mellow.

My point is (if I'm making one, I don't feel coherent right now) that I personally, to avoid going up on the dose, am waiting until everyday feels as terrible as it did befor I started taking the med. If I start getting frequent, breakthrough panic attacks and all that old anxiety that made me unable to function well or speak like a human being, then I might consider going up, because THAT shit sucks, this is tolerable at least. I don't need to feel drugged to feel like my benzo is working, as long as I only get a little nervous in public and don't spend my days sweating and laying down on the floor, I'm good. As soon as I'm a big ball of aniety again, that's when I'll say something and up the dose.

Maybe this is the wrong approach, but I think my pill is still working at least a little for me, so I'll just wait to comment to p-doc on it until I feel like I haven't taken anything at all for the anxiety.

Blah, that was long and likely very redundant. Congratulations to whoever read this, especially to those who tried to understand it. ugh, that was hard, me not thinking too good today.

[karuna]

Have you thought about therapy to manage some of your anxiety?