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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Benzo the most like Valium?

Bliss26

Bliss26

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 18, 2014
Messages
666
Location
Eastern Canada
So, I am prescribed Ativan which really does very little, even during a panic attack. I've only tried Ativan and Valium for benzos... And Valium I found waaaaay better. But, I have surgeries here and there and Valium is given as my pre-med, as such, I don't want to develop any tolerance to it.

Is there a benzo that compares favourably to Valium, or at least, is way better than Ativan? I don't take benzos to nod or pass out.
 
I like Ativan, personally, but as the benzo freaks here would probably all tell you, every benzo has its own profile.

Klonopin, like Valium, has a reasonably long half life and isn't horribly sedating. Its muscle relaxant properties aren't much to write home about, but it is a little more consuming than Ativan (Lorazepam).

Maybe somebody can chime in with a couple suggestions regarding an RC benzo that is a good substitute for valium.

There are also NUMEROUS threads on BL that carry on at excessive length about the properties of every benzo imaginable.
 
Etizolam maybe (it's a thienodiazepine... similar, i guess...), but shorter duration, or if you have a tolerance to hypnotics, nitrazepam or temazepam have great muscle relaxing properties and also tingle the anxiolitic gaba sub-receptors, euphoric, in a benzo way.
 
phatass said:
Etizolam maybe (it's a thienodiazepine... similar, i guess...), but shorter duration, or if you have a tolerance to hypnotics, nitrazepam or temazepam have great muscle relaxing properties and also tingle the anxiolitic gaba sub-receptors, euphoric, in a benzo way.
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and from what I was told temazepam is one of diazepams metabolites.
 
Hmm, now if you were tolerant to one of diazepam 's metabolites, would that mean you'd be tolerant to diazepam?
As much as I love Valium, I don't want to risk having a panic attack presurgery ..
 
Bliss26 said:
Hmm, now if you were tolerant to one of diazepam 's metabolites, would that mean you'd be tolerant to diazepam?
As much as I love Valium, I don't want to risk having a panic attack presurgery ..
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Well a benzo tolerance is a benzo tolerance. So if you're tolerant ro any benzo u will have a diazepam tolerance.
 
Well, I need about 3mg of Ativan to make any difference but am still very sensitive to Valium. I don't know why that would be the case then ..
 
Temazapam sounds the way to go IF it doesn't destroy the zoned, cool as cucumber feel in the OR with diazepam.
I'm not afraid per se of the surgery but since I'm prone to anxiety I really don't like when they put on the mask and you can smell the ether and taste it in your throat :( and that freezing chemical smell of the room. So basically the five minutes before I'm knocked out
 
Colonel Contin said:
Ativan is often experienced as very subtle anyhow, but your body chemistry might be tuned to respond more acutely to Valium. Sounds reasonable, right?
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Lorazepam being subtle? Honestly, lorazepam and lormetazepam to a lesser extent are much different from all other benzodiazepines, I wouldn't call lorazepam subtle at all. It's not really sleepy as many other hypnotic benzodiazepines are, but it's extremely amnesic when you start increasing your dose. I actually found it to be stimulating in a way, very relaxing, but also producing a noticeable mood boost almost comparable to psychoactive serotonergics and making colours appear brighter. I can still remember how I was going mad when I ran out of it, I dare say it was worse than quitting clonazepam 6 years later.

Benzodiazepines are hardly subtle and they're not like different brands of candies that you may choose from as you like. They're certainly going to ruin your life more or less once you get addicted. I'm sure I did more harm to myself with benzodiazepines than with opioids and I started taking them almost at the same time. I'm still on Suboxone, but I really felt I was reborn when I quit clonazepam. It's sad but my biggest success in my life was quitting benzodiazepines, I honestly can't imagine anything awaiting for me later in my life to be harder than that.
 
Adder, I've not had your experiences. Don't find benzos recreational in the least, only for anxiety and panic.
I also don't have an addictive personality- I could take or leave ciggies, liquor, benzos marijuana etc. The only thing if much rather take than leave is opiates. Very Moreish for me. But I quit smoking CT on my first try 17 yrs ago and go to the liquor store twice a year. Not worried a bit about benzo addiction.
My little sister OTOH, I do worry about. She takes a lot daily, and mixes them w other Cns depressants. She also has tried to quit smoking about 50 times :(
She loves Percocet but luckily can't get them prescribed and doesn't have the $ to buy them off the street with regularity.
 
the drug most like vallium is vallium thre all different just come under the same class of drug benzodiazipines no two are the same
 
RDP89 said:
Well a benzo tolerance is a benzo tolerance. So if you're tolerant ro any benzo u will have a diazepam tolerance.
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This exactly! Also about 1mg of Lorazepam=10mg's of Valium so if anything the Ativan would drive up your tolerance way more then Valium does. I love Valium but having a benzo tolerancce after being on 6mg's of Clonazepam a day i need alot of it. I have even had ampules of Valium meant for IV/IM use and 20mg's IV did nothing really. I personally prefer Temazepam as it's the only benzo that gives me any real euphoria. It's about half as potent as Valium but i would take 60mg's of oral Temazepam anyday over 20mg's of IV Valium or even 8mg's of IV Ativan. I've had the 4mg vials of Ativan before and as with Valium the only difference i found in IV use compared to taking either orally is that it kicks in almost instantly. It doesn't cause anything resembling a rush and as benzos have such a high oral bioavailability anyway i didn't even notice much of a difference in potency.

A good benzo mix is Valium and Temazepam together. It's a rather sedating mix and temazepam seems to have a sort of synergy with Valium. Temazepam is one of the main metabolites of Valium so maybe that's why. Then again Temazepam makes anything better :D . But yeah all benzos are cross tolerant with each other more or less. Hence why if you take really potent benzos like Clonazepam, Xanax or Ativan you end up needing higher then normal doses of lower potency benzos like Valium, Temazepam or Oxazepam.
 
Bliss26 said:
Adder, I've not had your experiences. Don't find benzos recreational in the least, only for anxiety and panic.
I also don't have an addictive personality- I could take or leave ciggies, liquor, benzos marijuana etc. The only thing if much rather take than leave is opiates. Very Moreish for me. But I quit smoking CT on my first try 17 yrs ago and go to the liquor store twice a year. Not worried a bit about benzo addiction.
My little sister OTOH, I do worry about. She takes a lot daily, and mixes them w other Cns depressants. She also has tried to quit smoking about 50 times :(
She loves Percocet but luckily can't get them prescribed and doesn't have the $ to buy them off the street with regularity.
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My addiction to benzodiazepines was much more physical than psychological. Anyway, addiction doesn't always come from recreational use. I bet that before most of the people all around the world who got addicted to benzodiazepines didn't start taking them for fun. Maybe it's changing now because more and more benzodiazepines are available as RCs but at least that's how it was in the past, I guess. I didn't take benzodiazepines for fun either, I started taking them because of my social anxiety, they were making me feel relaxed and they chilled me out when I was anxious. If you keep on taking benzodiazepines for a longer period of time, you're going to become physically addicted and it will be not only difficult to quit cold turkey but also very dangerous no matter whether you'll still want to take them or not. I did start taking more than I needed but it wasn't really for some sort of a buzz, I was always a very nervous person, that was my way of calming down, and I thought I was making my life a bit easier. Perhaps you won't increase your dose as fast as I did but even if you take a low dose for a longer period of time, it will be hard to quit them painlessly. And if you regularly take benzodiazepines for any reason, sooner or later you will need to increase your dose for the same effect.
 
again i have to chime in and say there is nothing 'fun' about taking benzos..i take them in the same sense that i would take aspirin if i had a headache...it is possible to take benzos for years at the same dosages and still have it maintain its anti-anxiety qualities...its when people seek something more out of them, a total escape is when dosages increase i have found...my uncle has been scribed valium for 16 years at 20 mgs a day, works for him...most people just seem to gobble them until they blackout though, its weird as there is no euphoria associated with them imo..

i have always found klonopin to be very subtle..you really cant tell that it has kicked in or even working, you simply feel less anxious...also, no noticeable sedation like with other benzos like xanax or valium..
 
I feel the same way about lorazepam (though maybe that isn't as common as I thought). I have been prescribed xanax for 12 years for acute panic syndrome and have never developed a physical dependance. This is probably due to the way I take it (like aspirin for a headache, as described above), and due to the fact that it is so sedating that I cannot take it and function normally, so I have to restrict myself to emergency use. If I were prescribed lorazepam instead, I might find myself taking it for general anxiety and may, therefore, be more likely to develop dependence.
 
I have been prescribed xanax for 12 years for acute panic syndrome and have never developed a physical dependance.
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How do you know that if you've taken it all the time?
 
adder said:
How do you know that if you've taken it all the time?
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It sounds like although prescribed for 12 yrs, he doesn't take it on the daily-- maybe not even weekly, just with the ebb and Flo of the panic attacks.
Edit: he indicates they were for emergency use due to sedation
 
taking any benzos at all is going to increase ur tolerance to any other benzo. I would'nt concern yourself as long as u keep the Ativan use low.
 
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