How to Treat Benzodiazepine Addiction

When the term ‘drug addict’ is mentioned, most individuals assume that the individual in question is an illegal drug abuser; but this is not always the case. In fact, increasingly more people are getting hooked on prescription medications such as benzodiazepine every single year.

Unfortunately, benzodiazepines, while effective at treating a range of conditions such as insomnia, panic disorders, anxiety, and seizures, are also highly addictive. The problem that most face is the fact that they do not see any prescription drugs as having the potential to be harmful. This is often to do with being prescribed them by a doctor. This gives people a false sense of security that these drugs are entirely safe.

Nevertheless, an addiction to prescription drugs can often be as harmful, if not more so, than an addiction to some of the illegal drugs out there. Either way, it is necessary that those who are affected get the help they need to get better. That is why it is so important to know how to treat benzodiazepine addiction, or at least how and where to receive this treatment if you are affected.

Do You Have a Benzodiazepine Addiction?

While you need to know how to treat benzodiazepine addiction if you are caught in its grip, it is important to figure out if you actually have a problem in the first instance. One of the issues that most affected individuals face is that they are blissfully unaware of having crossed a line from normal use to problem use.

When it comes to prescription drugs such as benzos, it is quite hard to tell when use has spiralled out of control as most people just do not understand when they are abusing their medication.

What often happens in the case of drugs such as benzodiazepines is that a tolerance for their effects occurs quite quickly. Doctors are recommended to prescribe benzos for only a short period as these types of medication tend to become less effective with long-term use.

In fact, some individuals can become tolerant to the effects of these drugs within just a couple of weeks, making the medication less effective and dramatically reducing the relief received from them. This usually leads people to increase their dose, and most do so without consulting a doctor, not realising that this is classed as prescription drug abuse.

What they also do not realise is that taking more of their medication can quickly lead to physical dependence, which is usually followed swiftly by addiction. But it is not just those who abuse benzodiazepines who may be affected by addiction; those who continue to use these drugs for longer than the recommended dosage period can also develop physical dependency and addiction.

If you are worried that you may have become addicted to your medication, it is important to consider whether you are now using more of it than you did when you first began taking it. If so, this is likely because you have become tolerant to the effects of the drug.

It might be the case that you now need your medication just to feel ‘normal’. If you are unable to function without your benzodiazepines, you may already have an addiction. If you have tried to quit or cut back on your use but been unable to because of certain withdrawal symptoms, you more than likely have a physical dependence.