Posted by yxibow on May 22, 2008, at 0:56:52
In reply to How often can Valium be taken before tolerance??, posted by jms600 on May 21, 2008, at 17:38:14
> Hi everyone
>
> Does anyone know how often Valium can be taken per week before the brain will start to become tolerant to it's effects?
>
> I feel I need Valium three or four times per week; however I'm frightened of taking it too much as I don't want to become tolerant to it and find that it no longer works for me!
>
> Any ideas anyone?
>
> Thanks!!As others have said I think, it depends on the dose and consistency of taking it. For reasons not for your situation, I took a high dose for at least 4 years or more -- I stopped feeling the ahhs of it.
Now though, even though its been halved, there's still a theoretical reason for it in my case -- at least it seems so -- really pronounced anxiety and loss of functionality happens if I reduce it........ yet I want to reduce it for several reasons -- clarity, and including that I can't take another medication if I'm on it. And actually though I can't feel it, more at times in an emergency does "fill in the gap" of a complex disorder.
The point being -- yes, there are people who have been on it since it came out in 1962 and still have some use for it, but any benzodiazepine has the potential of tolerance and habituation -- not addiction, although for those prone to addiction, both can occur at the same time, its not semantics.Anyhow, if you stop feeling any value from it and it is purely there for the purpose of prevention of withdrawals, it could be past its sell date, so to speak.
Officially, depending on what country you're in, they're only supposed to be taken for like 4-8 weeks and then something like an SSRI is supposed to be used instead. Eventually short to medium term memory holes or loss can start to happen after a long period of time, for some.
However, only your doctor can really tell you what would be proper for your case, not all of our different conditions.
I guess, as a generalization, if you're only taking it sporadically -- say a few times a week at a low dose, habituation will take much longer than 24/7.
I hope that helps
-- J
poster:yxibow
thread:830381
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080519/msgs/830451.html