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Come across anything negative about taking benzos longterm?

7K views 46 replies 23 participants last post by  JohnG 
#1 ·
Short term cognitive deficits are obvious but these seem to go away after the dose wears out.

What about long term use? Does it impair your cognitive ability/memory? Those who have taken benzos for a long time (several years) do you feel any different now compared to when you started taking them? What about mood changes? Apathy? Depression? I read a source, which claims increased incidence of depression among benzo users.

Benzos are very effective meds for most people but I am worried about their long term effects. My previous doc. said that benzos have no negative effects. He/she has been using them (specificallly Ativan) for several years as sleeping pills. This is the best evidence I have in support of no detrimental effects due to long term benzo use. Still, I am not entirely convinced.
 
#27 ·
Don't get addicted to benzos. They will ruin your life. I know first hand. A psychiatrist purposely go me addicted to ativan for an anxiety disorder. At first it felt great. I had complete relief from my anxiety. But after 3 months of taking only three pills a day (I've met many people who were prescribed 7 pills a day) I had no memory. I could not remember hardly any new information. My memory was severely impaired. I told my doctor that and he gave me the usual pharmaceutical brain washing response of "I've never heard of that before. It must be psychological." Why would I do that to myself? After his repeated statements, I believed him and tried get rid of the psychological demons. After months of self-flagellation (this a cruel psychiatric trick) I finally realized he was just a moron with no morals trying to steal my insurance money. I encountered many groups and many people dedicated to benzo health problems and withdrawal. It took me months to withdraw and it was pure agony. My whole body seized up into severe muscle cramps. I became severely depressed, angry and anxious. If you think you have anxiety now, try getting off a benzo. Your anxiety will go from moderate to beyond severe. You will become paranoid, will lose your job, friends, family and will have absolutely no control over your emotions. The worst part of all this is the drugs cause permanent damage. My experience was over 17 years ago and I have never fully recovered. I have constant tension headaches, my anxiety is much worse than it was before I took these drugs, my memory is worse and my concentration is worse. Is my experience unusual? Well I have met many people worse than me. Many of my fellow victims look like the scarecrow in the wizard of oz because they are so tense and strung out from being on benzos. If you had a before and after video of all of them the difference would be remarkable. Sure some people do not have a problem but my guess is the majority of people do. Many people can take LSD with no problem. Timothy Leary supposedly took thousands of hits of acid. But most people who did the same would have severe flashbacks, concentration and memory problems for life. Any doctor would tell you it is not worth the risks to take LSD; but they won't say that for drugs that pharmaceutical companies sell because they have been brainwashed by them and the unscientific PDR. Its unscientific because it is written by the same drug companies that are selling the drugs and they are only required to publish some of their studies. Never are there studies replicated by third parties and the actual patients over-all satisfaction never gets measured or published. Unfortunately there are no good statistics to know who can handle benzos and who can't. You can't rely on the drug companies and psychiatrists because they want to sell these drugs. They make billions off of them. The saddest part of all this is I have known several people, who after years of trying to get back to how they were before taking benzos, killed themselves.
 
#29 ·
benzo that i use is clonazepam at 3mg per day and have short term memory problems but I cant say that the benzo is the cause. however, it does help sedate my body and make me feel sleepy. zoloft as the other medication i take helps only with my depression.
 
#30 ·
come accross anything negative about living with social phobia longterm? In the case of benzos, the patient really needs to be informed because the doctor isnt necessarily the expert regarding SA many times. Aside from the noted precautions of taking benzos longterm, there are certainly far more dangerous drugs people take longterm for various ailments. Get informed; weigh your options.
 
#31 ·
Benzos are the only thing that help me but like others have said they become dependant. I try to lower my dosage when i feel like i need more than im prescribed and after a week i can cut my doses in half then i continue taking as prescribed and seems to be working fine. I try not to get to addicted but theres no way for me not to. I do this technique so the Dr. will keep me on the 2mg Valiums. Im kinda afraid I will get too addicted if i move up to 5mg ones. I have been tempted to talk about a stronger dose with him but i just say they are fine.
 
#32 ·
We'll become dependent on any drug if it actually works. If Im gonna be twitching in 20 years, at least ill have used something that worked the previous 19.
 
#34 ·
I would take them without hesitation if I thought it would TRULY HELP my anxiety. But I have read thread after thread around here of people that take them and dont seem to get relief from them. Why take something if you are still anxious in all situations, unable to work, not leaving your home, etc? How is it helping? I am not trying to diminish any positive effects or say that they dont help people; I just dont understand how they are helping when some of those who take them seem so unhappy??
..i have to vouch for this, im not anti-anything...but i know someone who is perscribed to xanax personally, and if he doesnt have his pill he wont do anything, even when he has them he still wants to smoke weed and drink and all of that and it really doesnt help his problem, he even skips work when he has his pills, but we all have to make our own decisions....
 
#35 ·
bignate said:
...i know someone who is perscribed to xanax personally, and if he doesnt have his pill he wont do anything, even when he has them he still wants to smoke weed and drink and all of that and it really doesnt help his problem, he even skips work when he has his pills, but we all have to make our own decisions....
Presumably his Xanax helps to some degree. It's not likely someone is going to keep taking something indefinitely if it doesn't provide them with any benefit at all.

He probably drinks & smokes weed because benzos are not very potent for some people. I also don't know his dose, which could be a dinky little joke for all I know. From personal experience I'd say that alcohol is VASTLY more calming than Xanax (or any other benzo). I can't comment on weed as the DEA says I can't have it and I don't have any friends so I don't have the connections that one would need to find their local drug dealer.
 
#36 ·
Caedmon said:
I can't answer for others. But for me, YES, quite significantly. Valium (diazepam) was a short-term miracle and a long-term nightmare. Problems included inattentiveness, cognitive impairment, and depression. Bad times. This was at a reasonably low dose (5-10mg). Benzos are somewhat neurodegenerative over the long term.
not doubtin ur judgement, just wondering, how can u be so sure that the depression u felt down the track was a direct result of then valium or benzos u were once taking? and the inattentiveness & cognitive impairment.. again, just wonderin why u blame the benzos outrite 4 these symptoms.

i'm not having a go at u, i'm jus curious bcos when symptoms similar 2 these come up for no reason in my life im scratchin my head tryin 2 wrk out maybe wats brought it on.. i can usually come up wit 2 or 3 possable things and find it hard 2 pin point causes for syptoms :get
 
#37 ·
UltraShy said:
bignate said:
...i know someone who is perscribed to xanax personally, and if he doesnt have his pill he wont do anything, even when he has them he still wants to smoke weed and drink and all of that and it really doesnt help his problem, he even skips work when he has his pills, but we all have to make our own decisions....
Presumably his Xanax helps to some degree. It's not likely someone is going to keep taking something indefinitely if it doesn't provide them with any benefit at all.

He probably drinks & smokes weed because benzos are not very potent for some people. I also don't know his dose, which could be a dinky little joke for all I know. From personal experience I'd say that alcohol is VASTLY more calming than Xanax (or any other benzo). I can't comment on weed as the DEA says I can't have it and I don't have any friends so I don't have the connections that one would need to find their local drug dealer.
like i said, im not anti-anything, i dont look down upon anyone, everyone must live their own life...but i agree, that his xanax does help, i know that he takes 3 mg. or more a day, cause he is perscribed to 1 mg. 3 times a day and he still buys klonopin and all that from other people, and he just doesnt seem happy, but we all have different problems and different extremities of these problems, but ive just seen what dependent drugs do to people, and im just sick of seeing it and being it...i meant no affense by my comment, im not perfect, i just felt i would put my 2 cents into it lol, but whatever makes you happy makes you happy...
 
#39 ·
hawk

I was on benzos for about 10 years and weaned myself off them about 5 years ago. I experienced many, many short term side effects. Five years later I am still expderiencing some brain dysfunction. I have great difficulty learning new information and having it stick in my memory and I also have difficulty with remembering the sequence of past events. I now realize that I was more anxious when I was on benzos and have found ways to remain calm and anxious free without drugs.​
 
#40 ·
I was on benzos for about 10 years and weaned myself off them about 5 years ago. I experienced many, many short term side effects. Five years later I am still expderiencing some brain dysfunction. I have great difficulty learning new information and having it stick in my memory and I also have difficulty with remembering the sequence of past events. I now realize that I was more anxious when I was on benzos and have found ways to remain calm and anxious free without drugs.​
Is your age wrong or did someone put you on benzos when you were 5?
 
#42 ·
I was taking a relatively high dose of clonazepam for ~8 years. I also augmented it with other benzos, many narcotics, stimulants, etc. Clonazepam did impact my cognition, while I was on it. After I stopped using it, about 8 months ago, my cognitive abilities appeared to have returned to pre-benzo status or pretty close. Even in the study posted previously, the authors wrote,

"Such findings suggest that patients should be advised of potential cognitive effects when treated long term with benzodiazepines, although they should also be informed that the impact of such effects may be insignificant in the daily functioning of most patients."

I tend to agree with this. For daily functioining it has made zilch difference. Whether I can function in my job when I return, I'm not certain but I doubt it will have anything to do with my previous benzo use. The return of anxiety issues are by far more important. After all, I was able, to a large extent, able to finish a 4 year degree and work as a pharmacist despite the obvious cognitive problems caused by my use/abuse of benzos and other drugs. Having said that, here's a full pdf meta-analysis article looking at effects of long-term benzo use on cognition. Table III and Fig. 1 is particularly interesting:

"Cognitive effects of long-term benzodiazepine use: A Meta-Analysis"

http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Anxiety_files/Cognitive%20effects%20of%20long-term%20benzodiazepine%20use.pdf
 
#47 ·
I was taking a relatively high dose of clonazepam for ~8 years. I also augmented it with other benzos, many narcotics, stimulants, etc. Clonazepam did impact my cognition, while I was on it. After I stopped using it, about 8 months ago, my cognitive abilities appeared to have returned to pre-benzo status or pretty close. Even in the study posted previously, the authors wrote,

"Such findings suggest that patients should be advised of potential cognitive effects when treated long term with benzodiazepines, although they should also be informed that the impact of such effects may be insignificant in the daily functioning of most patients."

I tend to agree with this. For daily functioining it has made zilch difference. Whether I can function in my job when I return, I'm not certain but I doubt it will have anything to do with my previous benzo use. The return of anxiety issues are by far more important. After all, I was able, to a large extent, able to finish a 4 year degree and work as a pharmacist despite the obvious cognitive problems caused by my use/abuse of benzos and other drugs. Having said that, here's a full pdf meta-analysis article looking at effects of long-term benzo use on cognition. Table III and Fig. 1 is particularly interesting:

"Cognitive effects of long-term benzodiazepine use: A Meta-Analysis"

http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhi...e effects of long-term benzodiazepine use.pdf
I think that the cognitive problems are extremely dose dependent, I use long acting benzos with 'racetams, and they counter act very well the short term memory problems.. but from my experiences only at low dose :\

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8762467
 
#43 ·
Kon,

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with benzo's. I had a horrible experience with Lexapro. Psychotropic drugs are nothing to fool around with. I'm just glad my doctor and I found a med that works. I guess eventually I may become a dumb*** from taking them (lol)
 
#46 ·
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