To elaborate on my previous reply to "how and why do people become addicted on benzos?", most people get addicted to benzos because they're prescribed them thrice daily by their doctor and usually actually need them to function to their potential. Yes, some people need benzos for more than a single dose at night to aid sleep. When you take a prescription drug you're actually entitled to and for good medical reason, not something you score illegally even if it's to self-medicate a lesser or equally serious anxiety disorder, there's much less thought in the process as you're merely taking your medicine along with your multivitamin, anti-depressant, and acid-reflux medication. Because it isn't an 'elective' or illicit habit, most people don't think "damn, I've been taking this drug for 6 months now, I'm going to be dependent soon if I'm not already" as someone who buys their benzos illicitly would tend to be more aware of. Unlike more traditionally recreational opioids which lead to more immediate tolerance and physical dependence, cost more, and appeal to more people, an even larger majority of benzo users become dependent on benzos through legitimate long-term use for serious anxiety or depressive conditions.
Those who don't pick up their dependence through prescribed use often rely on benzos to kick another addiction, such as opioids, and choose not to get off them following the end of initial withdrawal--when you're used to being content and relaxed most of the time, if you didn't appreciate the benzo high at first, you just might when you're bored, sober and unmotivated as you're experiencing post-accute withdrawal symptoms. It's a cheaper habit, but once you're ready to stop, it's an exponentially more difficult habit to kick.
Rarest of benzo users who attain serious physical dependency are people who just happen to really like the effects of benzos, like I mentioned in my first reply. Not everyone notices serious effects below sedating/severely memory-impairing doses, and I've known two people, granted both were diagnosed bipolar and on mood stabilization medications (unique chemistry), who never even felt the effects of moderate doses until one ate 16 mg lorazepam and the other around 20 mg alprazolam with half a fifth of vodka (which would kill someone with typical personal chemistry). People with ADHD can also be less aware of the effects of typical doses, I've found. On a personal level, I can understand someone who wants to take alprazolam all day everyday recreationally for 6+ months more than I can understand someone who wants to drink alcohol all day to the point of physical dependency (I'd personally die from the strain of repeat projectile vomiting on my second day of drinking
), even if from my perspective both instances of physical addiction would be awe-inspiring feats I could personally never attain with my state of mind. On the other hand, like a lot of OD posters at one point or another, I can find myself becoming physically dependent on opioids after just a week-long binge--it's simply a more accessible, widely appealing class of drugs that require a lot less use for physical addiction.
The
vast majority of recreational users are just people who take benzos casually for relaxing after a long workweek, to allay stimulant/psychedelic comedowns, along with a few beers for the alcohol potentiation effects, etc., and they never work up a physical dependence. The most common benzo addicts (the kind who are least likely to post on a forum like this) are people just taking what they're prescribed for legitimate purposes, and over a long enough period, their body is addicted before they can think twice about it.
