Out of all of this a cuning plan of the Baldrick variety has arisen to me. If they are independent of each other, then why not say have 10 days phenaz, then 10 days etiz, and keep forever rotating, and thus preventing becoming physially dependent on either ???
Genuius eh /. I wait for someone to point out the flaw in my plan.
They are cross-tolerant and doing that will raise your benzo tolerance massively. The dependancy builds to the effects of the drugs on your GABA receptor complex, where it enhances its inhibitory effects. Your body adapts to this effect, and since they all work via the same mechanism, they are cross-tolerant. Your brain desensitizes and reduces the number of GABA receptors and make various other changes. It will adapt to benzos working as a part of the inhibitory system, and sudden cessation leads to withdrawal symptoms as the body attempts to return to homeostasis, but suddenly with receptors in unnatural states, and the odds highly unbalanced in favor of the excitatory neurotransmitters.
All benzos exert the same effects to some level so taking them induces tolerance to hypnotic, sedative, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic and muscle relaxant properties. Tolerance occurs rapidly for hypnotic, sedative, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant effectss, and much slower for anxiolytic and amnesic effects, but whatever benzos you take will raise your tolerance to all of those. Your body doesn't discriminate; they do the same job at the receptor sites and that's good enough.
My only point was that, rather obviously perhaps, benzos are the best at relieving (withdrawal) symptoms they are efficient in treating. If you have rebound insomnia, all benzos will relieve that symptom and get you to sleep, but a hypnotic one (like flunitrazepam or midazolam) will do that much better than a non-sedative one like (like clonazepam or bromazepam). The non-sedative ones WILL do it but at a larger comparative dose than the hypnotics. Xanax is poor for most withdrawals as it is not a strong muscle relaxant, anticonvulsant, sedative or hypnotic, so you have to take lots of it to achieve relief from those effects. Other benzos, like diazepam, lorazepam and flunitrazepam possess all intrinsic actions to a significant degree and will work against all the withdrawal symptoms effectively.