Posted by Christ_empowered on October 20, 2011, at 21:36:28
In reply to Re: I dont wanna be that old lady on benzos » gadchik, posted by Phillipa on October 20, 2011, at 11:03:09
I think its a game of "pick your poison." Personally, I'd think about tapering the benzos to as-needed (PRN) use and avoiding the antidepressant. That's just me though.
Philipa--I'd personally say just go slow with a taper and try to introduce stuff--like high-dose niacinamide--that will help you out and maybe make the taper easier. I've heard that taking melatonin at night can help with the insomnia that comes from reducing benzos. Other supplements can help you get your brain back into shape. I'd personally consider lots of c, b-100 a couple times daily, green tea extract, and other such things to improve overall health and boost your antioxidant defense system.
If you need drugs, though, just try to keep the doses low and avoid sedating medications. Your doses seem pretty low, so if you *have* to keep taking them, I don't think its a huge deal. The downside to benzos is the cognitive impairment. My grandfather was on a benzos at pretty high doses ever since he had electroshock in the 70s (that treatment, obviously, doesn't do your cognitive skills any favors, either). At one point, his doctor thought he had Alzheimer's. Turns out his xanax dose was a) too high and b) as he got older, it was causing more pronounced cognitive problems (personally, I think the electroshock plus high dose antidepressants did more to hurt his brain that the benzos, but I'm not a doc, so whatever).
And to gachick...benzos aren't evil, and antidepressants aren't that great. Any psychiatric drug you take will work by altering normal brain function. They don't fix anything; the goal is to alter your brain chemistry in such a way that either you feel better or, in the case on institutionalized people, the people responsible for your care are pleased.
Good luck to both of you.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:1000307
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111016/msgs/1000369.html