News Benzodiazepines Not Recommended For Patients With Ptsd Or Recent Trauma

[Friday]

When you give it to cats, it's pretty common for the cat to behave like it's watching a bird flying around the room, or something similar, so it might be causing hallucinations.

Yep. Or, at least, it certainly does in people. If Morphine & LSD had a baby? They named it Ketamine. Yuck. Nasty stuff.

 

[Friday]

@The Albatross I take 1 of 2 short acting, highly addictive meds, in low doses. A benzo during my good years (Valium, as a matter of fact) very sporadically... Safety net style. 3 days here, once every few months there. Stomp on an incipient bad cycle before it can kick off. Percocet during my bad years, because I can take it more regularly without the addiction factor; it's purely for exercise I couldn't do without surgery(s) I can't afford. What I would probably do if I had the surgery(s) is nix the opiate, and go back to the benzo for the breathing room until I could up-cycle & then go back to sporadic use. At least that was the plan. I've had to push the surgeries off three times now. I think if I could have the regular exercise and the occasional breathing space my life would be a lot more stable. Until then, duct tape ;)

For myself, I cannot take long acting meds or antidepressants... They f*ck me sideways. Probably the ADHD thing, although maybe not, regardless my neurochem hates it. But the short acting PRN ones in combo with physical activity are life altering. It's the breathing space during a bad cycle to that lets me get a leg up to move upward, and kicking in the door on a bad cycle before it can settle in to begin with if I've timed things better. Once a bad cycle has settled in and gotten all comfy it takes a helluva lot longer to break on up out of it.

Anecdotally, that's the best combo I've found. Something to break the cycle (and a lifestyle that keeps it at bay). Meds as a tool, not a lifestyle. For others, it will be different, but for me short acting, short term use was a big part of the puzzle. LOL the other parts were lifestyle. But I needed both, working together.

 

[anthony]

Yer... I pretty much always have 2mg valium around, for those "just in case" days where PTSD wants to try and stomp all over my head for the fun of it. I nip it in the bud quick smart, get out and active, and be proactive in throttling it so it doesn't wipe me out. A box of 2mg can last me a year nowadays. If I travel a lot in a short period, then I may need a box every x months. Being stuffed in a plane with lots of people, airports also, tends to get the anxiety going, so a little valium relaxes me.

 

[Chava]

With these sort of write-ups I have a hard time telling if the research is confusing or the summary of it here (probably a little bit of both).

"Benzodiazepines are a "common and controversial" treatment for PTSD."

I have an issue with a statement like this. Does a benzo really "treat" PTSD? None of my meds ever treated anything (well except some hormone stuff). Some worked better than others to help me function, but did not "treat" anything. The closest I come to treating anything is changing deep patterns on an internal level...like undoing the need for the med. I don't yet know if this will work for my trauma as a whole, but it did work for my panic attacks (few panic attacks now and if I do have them, I catch them early and respond with a certain activity).

SSRIs were crap for me (SNRI's, NRI's too). I am sure I'd really like benzos, but my doctor won't give them to me because I'd be gobbling them up. What I've found with my pain meds is that they really haven't helped me long term. Some days I enjoy the numbed-out feelings I get on them, they don't do anything for the source of my pain but let me just ignore it, and over time they quit working...so I take more, and need more sleeping meds because I'm taking more opiate-like meds...and pretty soon I'm drunk again because a whole train wreck happened in response to meds clashing and all my judgment and even giving-a-shit centers in my brain went on temporary vacation. My goal is to get off pain meds and use very sparingly (so I need those internal regulatory changes instead).

So benzos probably are fine for many people (and many of us in emergencies. But I'm sure I'd fall into the category of no-help or getting-worse with long term or regular use because of the easy dependence and not being pushed to develop skills or work directly with regulation. BUT this article didn't really relate to this, which is how it would make sense to me. It talked about hypothetical memory problems, which sort of sounds like bullshit to me. They need to look at all those who weren't helped by benzos and analyze their therapy, other tools, addictive patterns, etc. Likely they believed benzos were the cure or treatment, and that failed to work out on its own.

 

[falling_wave]

I wonder what the long term difference in effects of say self medicating with alcohol and taking benzos is? Does anyone know? Are they just different but equal in potential negative outcome? Personally benzos help me so much more but for some people they prefer a couplevdrinks. Is there proof that benzos are a better choice for coping when nothing else is working or is it just the validation of knowing there is a prescription attached?

 

[Chava]

@falling_wave it probably really depends on the individual...I met several benzo addicts in drug/alcohol treatment. Trauma does lend itself well to addiction, so anyone with those tendencies needs to be careful (and weird this was not really a topic in this article, but the super kooky memory theories...). I pretty much use ambien in place of getting drunk. But then I started taking more ambien. Then ambien plus booze. I assume there are others who just don't do meds well. If I could self medicate with a few drinks (or light dose of benzos), that would be fine...but I always need bottles or increasing doses without telling my doctor. Everything stops working well enough if there aren't other tools (which is why I'd like more info on that in a study like this, along with info about the addiction connection)

 

[anthony]

Does a benzo really "treat" PTSD?

Directly, PTSD, no. The symptoms which comprise PTSD -- yes. A benzo will typically treat both anxiety and depression, thus removing typically the two largest. Anxiety is a given... depression, when comorbid, will normally disappear without the anxiety to fuel it.

Both anxiety and depression have roots in many of the other symptoms of PTSD... thus if you knock out those two, you often reduce others.

 

[Ed Norton]

This study directly contradicts other studies that say benzodiazepines are to be given immediately after traumatic events, in order to possibly prevent the onset of PTSD. When I first read that study I said
"my foot!"

 

[Ivan the Elder]

I just started taking Oxazepam two days ago. I need it and it is helping quite a lot. I have been beating my brain to death with total inability to stop reliving all the crap that has happened to me earlier this year. I have finally figured out what my biggest cue is for my PTSD. It is anything at all that is related to violence of any kind. The psych ward I was at is a very violent place. A few days ago my apartment neighbour was having a loud and nasty argument with her son. Lots of F this and so forth going on. Within minutes I was getting bad off. I went over and was able to control myself to tell her slowly and quietly to STOP THE ARGUMENT. She understood me very well since she is an emergency nurse. The argument ended but my PTSD sure didn't. I saw my doctor the next day and asked him for something to at least shut it down some.

He suggested the Oxazepam and I like it because it has a very short half life, which is the only kind of meds I will take. That way you have some real control on how much it affects you. I'm not worried about addiction. I don't get addicted to anything except maybe sex and a special type of white chocolate that has a lot of Casomorphin in it. I have had to quit both of those recently. That sucks (or doesn't, depending on how you look at it).

I have slept well the last two nights for the first time in a long time and that alone is a big plus. I will see how it goes but for now it is helping. I actually got through last evening without anything screwing up my brain. I finally got a lot or work done on designing a project for my new 3D printer. I have had the printer for months and haven't wanted to do squat with it. Maybe now I can get it up and running.

 

[JEM]

I'll keep my benzos thank you very much.....

 

[anthony]

Yup... my valium is staying put in my drawer for those "just in case" moments PTSD springs upon me.