Just a quick question to the community at large. Taking anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and mood stabilizers during the day. Take benzos and sedatives at night to calm myself and help me sleep. Thing is, I’m been getting progressively more and more depressed, especially during the day. Feel like shit during the day too, kind of like a hangover. I’m starting to wonder if the benzos/sedatives are making things worse, almost sorry I started taking them. Anyone have any thoughts about this? Can they add to the depression? Any comments will be much appreciated.
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5 comments
JustReallySad,
I’m not a doctor! but I believe that taking those drugs are to help you cope with what’s going on at the moment, as soon as you fell better and coped it’s time to cut back and get off of them, don’t take them forever, let them serve a propose then work on getting away from them.
Maybe you’re right rocketman. Going through a divorce right now and maybe the docs thinking is to help me get through it. I guess divorce is pretty hard even on so called “normal people.” Thanks for your thoughtful input rocketman.
JustReallySad,
Oh yeah! my first divorce landed me on a bar stool! for a few months! I was divorcing her! but I didn’t like it! I drank and drank! then I could hear them the people in the bar making bets! he will never walk out of here! I thought about it, got up and I was so drunk I couldn’t see! I straighten out my coat, and walked out of there and never went back! at that time alcohol was my drug I never went to a doctor, but the point is, a divorce is hard! your wounded, and you need a little time to get over it, once you’ve grieved time to start over! get your shit together and carry on.
Don’t know what else you are saying, but benzos are the worst. They are like your best friend and calm you initially, but then turn on you. Basically, you develop tolerance to them and your brain needs more and more benzos to function. If you don’t take more, then your cognitive abilities decline, you get more anxiety, etc. etc.
I felt into that trap by taking lorazepam 0.5mg as needed. I thought it was a small dose, but it is not. It’s similar to 5mg Valium. I took it over the long term, and noticed my anxiety going up, my GI problems getting a bit worse, tiredness getting more pronounced, etc. Then a life event happened and my Dr. upped the dosage, so I ended up on a higher dose, and became so much more disfunctional (mostly housebound, not working, constant fear, racing heart, GI problems, etc.).
Don’t quit them cold turkey though since it can lead to seizures. You need to taper the benzo slowly. Check out the site called benzobuddies.org, as they have plenty of info on how to do it.
Good luck!!
Glad you’re noticing problems, I wish I put 2+2 together while I was on a low dose of benzos. Now, it’s so much harder…
Oh, benzos are worse than alcohol since you cannot OD as easy, and they create awful rebound anxiety. If you take them in the AM, you can expect sleep trouble after a while. If you take them in PM, expect morning anxiety and very high cortisol jolts in the AM. After a while, benzos block sleep, too. They block REM sleep and deep sleep, so all you are getting is light sleep. When you start tapering, you may get insomnia, too.
Benzos are nasty drugs and I feel like a fool for taking them in the first place….