re: Has anyone in here successfully weened off benzodiazepines?

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I use Stimulants I believe in them more than benzos and SSRIs are the single most useless medications in psychiatry.

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Ummmmm... what? SSRI's, especially Zoloft, are very helpful for anxiety. They've helped scores of people and have saved countless lives.

Stimulants for anxiety? I'm confused...

Stimulants for treatment resistant depression, meaning two 1sr mine medications have failed already. Usually for me remeron is first unless a health issue prevents then a throwna dart and pick and SSRI because it’s all random what will work for who. If they come from a GP on and SSRI I know it is I’ll fail immediately because the dose will never be brought high enough to control their issues without me giving them benzos which just reinforces bad habits. Many many many studies have shown depression treated with 10-15mg XR adderall or more optimally 30-40mg Vyvanse is often he best case.

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td01241

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Because it has a short duration, wouldn't Xanax be useful for people that are claustrophobic and need a MRI or for someone that just takes it for a flight?

That was often given in the 70s and 80s. For those rare PRN benzo needs we use Valium now

My wife has treatment resistant depression. Literally every SSRI she's tried either doesn't work or has intolerable side effects-if there's a weird side effect associated with a drug, she gets it. The only thing she can tolerate is a low dose of wellbutrin and I'm not sure it even works any more. She has xanax as needed for anxiety but doesn't take it much, always has more left over at the end of the month. The last new thing she tried was something to increase methylfolate levels. Her Dr said it would be completely benign but it made her so fatigued she couldn't get out of bed. She's pretty much given up on meds, just gets through it on prayer and willpower.

It's freaking hell man. You need to be very careful about seizures.

I would highly suggest you get medical assistance to taper off.

This is sadly something I am very familiar with.

But I don’t think that’s good medical practice. If you go exactly by the DSM two different type of antidepressant medications should be tried first line. Those are almost always SSRIs or SRNIs, the names you all know but there are a ton of different types. Each one require approximately 6-8 weeks to fully judge. I like remeron first because it’s a night time one that helps with sleep so no benzo bridge. But if the second one needs onetouce started something and once you start benzos it’s 10 billion times harder to take something away than having ever not given it. If I had free reign to ignore 1st line and the DSM is would start anyone presenting with major depression and a clean UDS on Vyvanse 7 day scripts at a time

Vyvanse man. I’m telling you it is the best treatment for depression we have medically. It works essentially on a chemical level just the same as SSRIs only it does it immediately and with effectiveness

Generally the feeling in Med school was the longer lasting Valium was worth the trade off in how less potent it was

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Who knows. Like I said it has become very popular outside of its initial limited scope. I don’t like using it personally. I use Klonopin 95% of the benzos I write. Restoril rarely and maybe Valium if they have proven they can handle PRN scripts of 5-10 a monrh

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Ativan is used a lot by dentists before procedures as well.