It ain't gonna happen to me surely. Hell, I intentionally tried to kill myself once with benzos and alcohol. It was something like 150*10mg Valium + 100 7.5mg zopiclone + a litre of whiskey.

The result? I went to sleep for 20 minutes and woke up disinhibited.

And yet, my consultant is worried about me taking 50/60/70mg of diazepam at a time. It is what I need!

He said that most would be in danger of death if they took this amount.

Is he for real?

Should I be worried?

PS. Sometimes I take the equivelent amount of Xanax.

I am afraid you want a number, dosage, and count, i am 100# 5'1", and i was out cold no pulse, I mean i was found dead, brought back, then the pumping going on and charcoal, and IV's and feeling like shit. you can have liver damage, get pnemonia, choke on puke, etc.
I am not giving you my number, but yeah it was months stored up and planned, cause i didn't know like you.
Just take your meds like doc writes and get healthy.
Dying is really hard on the body, it really sucks all around, and people are really pissed at you, and you never get meds again, like week dose at time, that kills copay.
Take care, Aly

Famous last words of many a person who thought they were bullet proof.

The fact that you are here on CB is proof that bad things happen to people and that you cannot will things to be how you wish.

The maximum daily dose for valium/diazepam is 40mg. By your statement you are taking more than the maximum at one time by 125% to 175%. You don't say how many additional doses you are taking. I would surmise that you are taking the typical three doses a day. If so, that would have you taking between 150mg - 210mg, or 375% - 525% more than the maximum dose daily. I hope that I am completly wrong about your usage.

Valium is known to be addictive, and difficult to kick. Given the amount you are taking there is a reasonable chance that you are addicted to diazepam.


So, given that you are taking more than the maximum amount in a single dose, given that valium is addictive, given that you have already overdosed intentionally, I would say that your counsultant has good reason to be concerned about your use of the drug.

A doctor who is seriously concerned about OD's will often limit the prescribed amounts, requiring more frequents refills, sometimes to as often as weekly. There are other, safer alternative anxiolytics to valium.

Be sure that you are honest with your doctors and consultants about your medication dosages, usage patterns and mental attitude. If you are feeling the urge to harm yourself tell them. If you are hoarding drugs, dump them down the drain and tell your docs. We all have hard times when urges are awful, but it is pointless to play games with your doctors.

Good luck,

a.m.

Valium PI sheet:
http://www.rocheusa.com/products/valium/tabspi.pdf

I do not easily get hooked on benzos. I do accept that here will come a time when I do get hooked however, but I do not apologise for that.

At the moment, getting hooked is a secondary isssue.

Ok,
But you kinda focused on the lesser of the three issues, the addiction potential.

- You are exeeding the maximum dose. You are beating up your liver with the chance of frying it.

- What are you doing to keep yourself safe; to prevent another OD attempt? Are you hoarding pills? Have you asked your doc about giving you fewer tabs at one time?


a.m.

No. It is actually Xanax that I am taking at the moment, and because it is not used a lot in this country I must get it on a private prescription.

It is cheaper for me to buy in bulk, so that is what I do.

And the other option aside from benzos is to down bottles of whiskey at a time. Not too good for the liver either.

Hi:

Ultimately meds are not the answer. You might explore other ways to calm your anxiety. I have been where you are and was furious that I couldn't get any more than 2 mgs of klonopin a day. Now I am rather thankful.

Look into meditation, exercise, soothing music, down time, time outs, etc. There are many things that can be incorporated into your day that will reduce the need for benzos. I have done it and am happy with the level of lessor anxiety I have achieved as well as the lowered benzo use.

You are looking at the wrong answer. Benzos are there when nothing else works. But it doesn't sound like you have tried many other things.

Breeze

Ok, username,

You are still dancing around the issues.

My personal opinion:

- Benzos are a temporary measure to control anxiety. They relief the immediate distress, but do nothing to resolve the underlying anxiety.

- I do realize that there are people who need a benzo longterm, and there are benzos that are safer for long term use, certainly much safer than diazepam, and somewhat better than xanax.

- I think that it is better to find a good AD, mood stabilzer, or AP, along with talk therapy to get to the underlying problem. Benzos can be a complement an then hopefully tapered down as the underlying problems ease.

My two cents worth.

a.m.

p.s.
- How much Xanax is "equivalent"?
- Another strategy for preventing overdose is the give your pills to a trusted friend or relative and have them dole out only a few days or a weeks worth at a time.
* Just asking the hard questions because you brought them up*

By the way, I don't take benzos for anxiety.

I take them for a problem linked to tourettes.



I don't take benzos for anxiety.

*Sigh*

username,
You dribble out bits of facts then reject answers and dribble out contradicting facts.

I don't know what it is you want.

You have attempted suicide once.

Your Pdoc is worried about your benzo use, and about another attempt.

You hold the key. Are you at risk of suicide? Do you want help in preventing hurting yourself?

It is pointless to play games with people. You have to want to help yourself.


Wishing you safety,

a.m.

FWIW, I just recently started taking topamax for recurrent depression. Almost as a side effect my tourette's was *gone* by the third day.

Tourette's is a weird beast which reacts differently to different treatments for different people.

There is little that booze makes better that it doesn't make worse the next day.

Death via benzos is harder than the media likes to portray. I think a lot of people who don't know any better mentally confuse them with barbiturates.

Don't shit yourself about the addiction risk though. If you take more than 2-3 mgs a day for a month, there is a good chance you're hooked. Xanax is known for being one of the more addictive ones. If you have to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect, your chances of getting addicted are again increased.

That said, you just got out of the hospital for being suicidal and need to do what you have to do to survive. If you are physically addicted to benzos, that's OK. It happens to a lot of people. Now is probably not the time to try and quit. Get your head together first.

You've got this all wrong.

My doc isn't worried about my overdosing on purpose, he is worried that something like 50mg of diazepam could kill a person, despite me being a big heavy guy with a naturally high tolerance.

Whatever.

One post you say you are using diazepam, the next you say you aren't.

Tolerance for a substance does NOT equal safety of use.

I've already researched the available documentation and shown that you are exceeding the manufacturers FDA approved maximum dosage. You can argue with them.


Respectfully,

a.m.

I don't need to argue with anybody, because I am getting what I need.

I made this thread to see if there were any others who took similar doses.

What tourette's symptoms are you treating with this anyway? Are your tourette's and OCD linked, ie, do tic to escape obsessions or somthing like that?

There is no way you are not hooked to the gills. You will need to spend time in detox sooner or later. Likely months. Now is probobly not the time but you should be getting yourself in the frame of mind to accept that you will sooner or later. Were you try and come off that large a dose cold turky it could kill you as well. Please do not try to quit on your own. Take the bare minimum you can get buy with and not 1mg more. Don't drink a drop.

The MD who is supplying you should loose his liscense.

You will not find anyone else taking that kind of dose because people in wooden boxes don't type very well.

There is no such thing as "natural tolerence" the way you mean it. Tolerence is built up over a few days and you have to keep taking more and more to get the same effect. That's how you get hooked. Which you are.

There may be some confusion here.

How many total mgs per day to you take of diazapam when you take it and how many total mgs per day of xanax do you take when you take it?

I take my benzos roughly 3 times a week.

If I am using Xanax, that means 2* 5mg doses on a particular day.

I have 2 week breaks every so often.

Although confused, I would just like to add that I too suffer from anxiety. And I too am on benzos, I take them daily and am physically Dependant on them at the moment. However, I take half .5 pills every 4 hours, so it isn't a huge hit all at once. Doesn't matter, I take them every day and a day without is like a day without sunshine.

Hopefully, through lifestyle change, one day I will only need them in emergencies. I think what AM and VE are trying to tell you here is: you are playing with fire. It doesn't matter how much you weigh, or how tolerant you are to benzos. I am too - on a bad day I can take 4 mgs. no problem! But that is because I am running on adrenaline. They calm me down.

I am going to assume you take the Valium for anxiety and not Tourette's. It is my understanding that Tourette's is organic where anxiety, although some people are more prone to it, is not. You can work with things outside of medication to learn to handle stress and adrenaline surges, without benzos.

You seem fairly set in your mind on what you are going to do. Your thread has gotten responses, but you might notice that NO ONE has posted that they are on as high a dose as you are.

You might start listening to what these guys are saying.

Breeze

I accept that I am at risk, but there is no way that I am going to stop using benzos the way I use them.

My GP is OK with it, the professor of psychiatry (who I've just started seeing) is OK with it, it is just my consultant who is a little worried.

When I am at uni, sometimes I CAN NOT READ because of my illness, and out of ALL OF THE THINGS I HAVE TRIED, benzos are the best answer.

The only other thing that is useful is alcohol.

I don't want to be using that as a medication.