which is worse for you: long term tobacco smoking or long term benzo usage?

[drugaddict55]

obviously benzos are more difficult to physically withdraw from but since many people smoke cigarettes their whole lives and never quit, that's not always a factor. so which would be worse in terms of long term adverse affects on health?

1) a typical benzo dependency (say 4 mg alprazolam per day)

or

2) a typical tobacco dependency (say a pack of cigarettes per day)

 

[phr]

Probably a pack a day.


I'm not sure if xanax actually causes any long term damage.

 

[marquee]

Benzodiazepines may cause some sort of long-term damage to the brain. It's still an unresolved question, and from what I know it's not understood to be very significant.

 

[Chemethist]

tobacco by far. smoking anything hurts the lungs in the end, and the nicotine and other nasty shit in tobacco is definatly unhealthy and carcinogenic.

 

[JV]

i would def. say tobacco but you gotta remember that 4mg a day is gonna increase..

 

[drugaddict55]

i would def. say tobacco but you gotta remember that 4mg a day is gonna increase..

for me it's actually decreased. i used to take 6-8 mg a day for a while but then i realized i could get by just fine with 4.

 

[Newmoonrecord]

no question at all here... long term tobacco smoking. it's virtually guaranteed to *kill* you. there arent even any known risks to benzos!!

 

[blase deviant]

Definitely tobacco. I don't get why doctors are so reluctant to prescribe benzos. They're for anxiety, and if you have anxiety, why not take a drug that kills the anxiety?

 

[sonic]

Tobacco is harder on you physically for sure. Inhaling tobacco over time has the potential to destroy your organs and/or give you cancer.
With benzos if you use chronically for many years the only serious physical health danger is making it through acute withdrawal because you are susceptible to experiencing seizures. After that you have to deal with psychological issues such as rebound anxiety that can be long-term, but at least you're less likely to die from benzos.

 

[smokester]

There have been long-term cognitive deficiencies after prolonged benzo use, completely "reseted" by flumazenil though. Were talking about receptor plasticity and 'trapped' agonists becoming inverse agonists, causing ticks, anxiety, 'fogginess', etc.

 

[LightTrailz]

The reason why doctors are so scared to prescribe benzos is because a vast majoirty of them are scared of getting patients addicted to the drug itself and that they believe even the smallest use of a drug that may be habit forming will cause addiction regardless of the persons actual condition / diagonosis . this is the exact same reason why me and my doctor bump heads so often is because of this exact same reason .

 

[Slay]

tobacco for sure. at least benzos wont cause cancer or high bp or cardiovascular disease (strokes, heart attack etc)

 

[zigzag| dta]

but cigs are so tasty hahaha

yea i gonna have to say cigs are worse

 

[Ham-milton]

Ever see a PET scan from someone who had been on high dose benzo for long periods? It's not as bad as a cocaine addict, but it's not good either.

 

[negrogesic]

^^^I would agree; damage from prolonged high dose benzodiazepine abuse can be profound...

It is certainly a different class of damage, very difficult to compare with nicotine....

 

[Madmike]

Didn't anybody think about the things you could do while high on benzos.

Think about taking massive amounts of Xanax and dying suddenly!

And if you do something VERY STUPID under influence.

But I think benzos are bad for your liver and especially for your brains.

 

[Ham-milton]

not bad for your liver. Do a little research before saying things like that.

And we're really not comparing nicotine & benzos, but rather smoke's effect on the lungs and cardiovascular system and benzo's on the brain (they can cause some peripheral nerve damage).

Nicotine itself, besides being addictive, is relatively safe. I mean, not in overdose- it's incredibly toxic then. However, it's actually neuroprotective in low doses. Smokers rarely get parkinsons. or is that Alzheimers? I always forget.

 

[negrogesic]

Of course, i was referring to nicotine through smoking, not the drug itself

 

[GenericMind]

A pack of Cigarettes by far IMO. 4mg of Clonazepam isn't really that much.

 

[phatass]

benzos w/d suck but i don't think many people are dead from benzos alone.... tobacco has killed more people than all other drugs put togetheer (legal or otherwise)....