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Benzos Help: Brother Addicted to Benzos (illicitly) can he go to ER for help?

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ksralyv2mch

ksralyv2mch

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MY brother has been taking 8mg xanax for 3 months every day straight he is going thru withdrawals and wants to quit, he bought these pills on the "black market" so no DR to switch to long lasting benzo for help. I know you can die from benzo withdrawal and even when you go to jail if you are addicted to benzos they give you BENZOS in JAIL/PRISON for your withdrawal so I'm assuming a hospital could help with a script and a counselor?

or would they refer to an inpatient clinic that has a 6 month wait list.
 
Im sure a hospital will help. In my country it would be unconstitutional for them not too, given the severity of benzo w/d. But I'm not in the states. and 8 mg a day is a TONNE! Would seriously suggest seeking medical help.
 
Yes it's certainly worth a try going to the hospital.

Even if they don't help immediately, at least you tried. A reasonable backup plan would be acquiring legal benzodiazepines online. Research them and find one with a suitably long half-life and encourage him to taper.
 
I will echo what everyone else has said just for some good measure.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal is a 100% legitimate reason to be treated in the ER. Especially when a dose as high as 8mg of Xanax has been consumed over a moderate period of time. Much less time is required to become dependent upon Benzos compared to, say, alcohol, but the syndrome is very similar. Doses much higher than 8mg or equivalent are used by some people over a longer period of time. That knowledge might make your friend freak out a little bit less.

Not only can Benzodiazepine withdrawal kill you, but even minor withdrawal wreaks havoc on your brain and can cause permanent damage. Based on this information, any physician who takes his or her oath seriously, would have the compassion to treat you. It is well within the realm of possibility that CT withdrawal could provoke seizures at this level.

Aside from the potentially lethal consequences, Benzo withdrawal is a Mental/Psychological hell. Seek out treatment as soon as possible to help mitigate all of this negative bullshit. That is the advice I have for you and your friend.
 
I've gone to the hospital in opiate withdrawal and came out out with aacript for oxycodone before and at the time I was just using heroin from the streets. I'm in Canada though and many doctors are caring and willing to help unlike some places I've heard of in the states where they simply don't care.
 
Trainspotter is right once again(smart guy,that trainspotter)in that ERs in the states will basically tell you to get fucked if you come in there in opiate withdrawls.They will tell you that it's not life theatening,blah,blah,blah.Benzos are a different story and ERs are legally obligated to at least stabilize you,regardless of your ability to pay.Depending on how good of a hospital it is they may even take him into an inpatient detox/rehab if they offer such services.A few phone calls should tell you which hospitals,if any,in your area have that.They should at least be able to refer him to a detox place and can probably make arrangements on the spot(after he is assessed) to tranfer him to a place like that.If nothing else,since he has been aquiring the benzos on the street could he not get a supply and have someone keep them and dole them out on a slow taper plan at home,gradually decreasing the dose slightly every week or so?The wording of your post sounds as though he has the familie's support on this.You are,however, wrong about jail giving you a detox for anything.I can tell you from first hand experience that they don't give a shit and will let you die in there.If he is in moderate to severe withdrawls any ER should at least give him a pill or shot(usually valium or ativan)and refer him to some kind of treatment.I would get right on top of this quickly and without delay if you haven't already.His health and perhaps his life is literally in jeopardy.Hope this information helps and your brother gets the treatment he needs.This is certainly not a situation to take lightly.Good luck to you and your brother.
 
downerhead said:
Trainspotter is right once again(smart guy,that trainspotter)in that ERs in the states will basically tell you to get fucked if you come in there in opiate withdrawls.They will tell you that it's not life theatening,blah,blah,blah.Benzos are a different story and ERs are legally obligated to at least stabilize you,regardless of your ability to pay.Depending on how good of a hospital it is they may even take him into an inpatient detox/rehab if they offer such services.A few phone calls should tell you which hospitals,if any,in your area have that.They should at least be able to refer him to a detox place and can probably make arrangements on the spot(after he is assessed) to tranfer him to a place like that.If nothing else,since he has been aquiring the benzos on the street could he not get a supply and have someone keep them and dole them out on a slow taper plan at home,gradually decreasing the dose slightly every week or so?The wording of your post sounds as though he has the familie's support on this.You are,however, wrong about jail giving you a detox for anything.I can tell you from first hand experience that they don't give a shit and will let you die in there.If he is in moderate to severe withdrawls any ER should at least give him a pill or shot(usually valium or ativan)and refer him to some kind of treatment.I would get right on top of this quickly and without delay if you haven't already.His health and perhaps his life is literally in jeopardy.Hope this information helps and your brother gets the treatment he needs.This is certainly not a situation to take lightly.Good luck to you and your brother.
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Thanks, yeah he tried to go CT not knowing the ramifications, he knows he was addicted but didnt know how dangerous it could be so he tried cold turkey, he ended up at my place at 2am spilling his guts out to me, I gave him my bottle of ambien to help him get well (it helped, but it has such a short half life) he said he is planning on talking to his GF who he lives with about it and I'll be there for support too, hopefully she can taper him because the more I Think about it the less likely if we get him into our family psychiatrist and they see him as "Abusing" benzos they might not help but who knows... i told him not to try cold turkey EVER again, and if he wants to quit we can tackle this together (since he is an ignoramus to any drug "Science" or experience with withdrawal and addiction.)

I just thought he would've learned, he saw my heroin habit DESTROY our family and well as he said he didn't think xanax could be dangerous... DRs should really start explaining drugs a lot more before just dishing them out.

so plans of action:

1) Tell Girlfriend - maybe she can help him taper... if so can anyone help with a good Xanax taper (that's all we can find... :/)

2) Next time he W/Ds he goes to ER and see where that takes us...

3) Get him into our psychiatrist and our counselor and get the problem fixed that way (since we're lucky enough to have insurance in USA, which is becoming ridiculous)

any other help is greatly appreciated!!!!

SIDENOTE: Well in AZ- Maricopa county if you can PROVE you are detoxing from alcohol and/or benzos they put you on a librium regiment and have you see a psych (low level) as they help you through it cause they have had enough law suits from people dying in their "care" whilst going thru benzo/alcohol W/Ds
 
A hospital will probably script him Valium or another long acting benzo. Don't let him withdrawal c/t no matter what. Ambien won't really help either.
 
@ ksralyv2mch: If you decide on the psychiatrist route (or any doctor other than ER),definitely don't let them know he is addicted to benzos or they won't give him anything that will help.Best just to say that he has major anxiety and panic attacks.I have been on Xanax(legitimately,for a major panic disorder) for a good while and in my experience a general practitioner is more likely to prescribe benzos than a psychiatrist,who would likely want to pump him full of crazy anti-depressants.At least that has generally been my experience and I've dealt with this for a long time.Did your brother get into Xanax because he really does have anxiety issues or was his use purely recreational?If he does have legitimate issues then it may be a good idea to get him a legal prescription anyway.I know that without my Xanax my life is practically unliveable.I have abused the hell out of benzos too but that doesn't take away from the fact that I really have the condition they are prescibed for.If that's the case with him and he needs them but is unable to control his use(took me a while to learn to)then perhaps he could get a benzo script and his girlfriend,you or another family member could hold his medications and dole them out only as prescribed.I know that sounds like a pain in the ass but if he really needs them it is better than living with a debilitating condition like chronic anxiety.Even if it was just recreational use that got out of control it would be far better,safer and more easy to manage if he got a prescription for a while,slowly tapered off(without mentioning to doc that's what he's doing) and when he is finally ready and fully detoxed just tell his doctor that he feels that he doesn't need them anymore and wants to get off the meds.Just my 2 cents and what seems to me the best and safest way to go about it.Remember that if he gets them legally his use will be easier for those who care about him to keep an eye on and control.Not to mention he won't risk getting caught with a controlled substance without a prescription.That could lead to legal trouble and a criminal record that would follow him the rest of his life.Either way,it's certainly good that he realizes he has a problem and turned to those closest to him for help.Sounds like he's at least started on the right track.Lucky for him you are there for him.
 
granddeception2 said:
Read post ok to mix klonopin with oxycodone in basic drug discussion
Click to expand...

Brodawg, I see your name is now crossed out for whatever reason, in that other thread all I said was it was ok to take benzos along with opiates. I never mentioned anything about benzo addiction, I have taken my (over) fair share of benzos in my day but I have never had an addiction of any kind to them. The only thing I've had a problem with is opiates (heroin) sooo calm down
 
crimsonjunk said:
A hospital will probably script him Valium or another long acting benzo. Don't let him withdrawal c/t no matter what. Ambien won't really help either.
Click to expand...

I told him to only go to the ER if he is going into withdrawals and has no means to get any more benzos. The ambien I gave him seemed to help him, I mean he took a lot more than the recommended dose (he took 40mg) but it took away his anxiety and physical symptoms and when he took another 20mg on top of that he slept a bit. So I was glad I could help him with that.

TheLostBoys said:
Is there anyway to get xanax the same way he was getting them & have you hold onto them & taper down?
Click to expand...

This is his plan but with his girlfriend in control since he lives with her, I need to talk to her first cause from how she talks about it it seems like she doesn't fully understand the gravity of the situation of benzo addiction.

subotai said:
you can buy something like etizolam on the internet still
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I've always wondered about this etizolam, I mentioned it to him, like it's completely legal in the US to purchase these?????

downerhead said:
@ ksralyv2mch: If you decide on the psychiatrist route (or any doctor other than ER),definitely don't let them know he is addicted to benzos or they won't give him anything that will help.Best just to say that he has major anxiety and panic attacks.I have been on Xanax(legitimately,for a major panic disorder) for a good while and in my experience a general practitioner is more likely to prescribe benzos than a psychiatrist,who would likely want to pump him full of crazy anti-depressants.At least that has generally been my experience and I've dealt with this for a long time.Did your brother get into Xanax because he really does have anxiety issues or was his use purely recreational?If he does have legitimate issues then it may be a good idea to get him a legal prescription anyway.I know that without my Xanax my life is practically unliveable.I have abused the hell out of benzos too but that doesn't take away from the fact that I really have the condition they are prescibed for.If that's the case with him and he needs them but is unable to control his use(took me a while to learn to)then perhaps he could get a benzo script and his girlfriend,you or another family member could hold his medications and dole them out only as prescribed.I know that sounds like a pain in the ass but if he really needs them it is better than living with a debilitating condition like chronic anxiety.Even if it was just recreational use that got out of control it would be far better,safer and more easy to manage if he got a prescription for a while,slowly tapered off(without mentioning to doc that's what he's doing) and when he is finally ready and fully detoxed just tell his doctor that he feels that he doesn't need them anymore and wants to get off the meds.Just my 2 cents and what seems to me the best and safest way to go about it.Remember that if he gets them legally his use will be easier for those who care about him to keep an eye on and control.Not to mention he won't risk getting caught with a controlled substance without a prescription.That could lead to legal trouble and a criminal record that would follow him the rest of his life.Either way,it's certainly good that he realizes he has a problem and turned to those closest to him for help.Sounds like he's at least started on the right track.Lucky for him you are there for him.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your kind words everyone!
@downerhead: He is going to see a GP this thursday, I guess it's like a shop doc (if you get my drift) so he basically will get what he needs legally so he can avoid the whole might-go-to-jail aspect of his addiction. I just see him abusing them tho and not taking them properly. He did start taking them mainly for anxiety issues, ever since he was young (7-8ish) he has had migraines and they were completely debilitating to him and he'd be vomiting and any sense stimulation would cause serious pain and just agony, so he would constantly be worried he'd get migraines and then that turned into anxiety of having migraines.... then he started freaking out about death and the future and what death is and can he make it to survive with a job and all that and...well he legitimately has anxiety issues and serious social anxiety too. So he use to use it primarily for sleep (that's when his anxiety would spike) and social situations which then turned into a daily habit and when the .5 peach footballs wouldn't cut it, he bought white bars and split them in half for a bit and well you know benzo tolerance grows fast! and before he knew it he was taking 4 bars throughout the day since xanax has such a short half life. I told him to try to klonopin if this doc really operates how he says he operates, posssibly the 2 or 3 mg ones so he can break them apart instead of taking more of the smaller pills. If not that then valium. I just hope he sticks to getting off them or using them appropriately, he saw how heroin addiction destroyed my life... well his plan is solid, I'm on celexa for my social anxiety/general anxiety and depression and it works for me but it's a SSRI and I like acid and molly and mushrooms... so I'm trying to ween down off that too but I told him if he doesn't want to be on benzos but manage his anxiety with meds try that! But that to causes w/d (brain zaps.. gotta love them! and when your heart pounds! like a hammer!) I'm ranting

anyway thanks everyone for the tips, I'm sure I'll find a proper taper schedule around here if I use the search bar (as everyone always suggests) so I won't ask. You are all very kind, except that one dude, and yeah be careful out there!

PEACE AMIGOS!
 
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