To ask about diazepam?

[BlueSatsuma]

I hope this doesnt sound Like a really stupid question.

Have a very stressful event coming up so GP has prescribed 5x10mg diazepam to get me through.

I took one today as a trial. I didn’t feel anxious or stressed at all today but there was no impact or change at all.

AIBU to ask if diazepam only work if you mate anxious or stressed.

I will be when I use them but I thought it was a little strange that there was no change.

10mg?! Flip me. I have a high tolerance but 10mg would knock me for six!

I'm also surprised with the dosage. I got 5mg once a day at night to help me sleep when I threw my back out so badly I couldn't stand up straight. I only took it for a few nights as, while it knocked me out, I felt weirdly hungover the next day and very out of sorts.

Hang on.

You had 5mg before but now you have 10mg and they aren’t as strong?

10mg are twice as strong.

If I took Imodium without having the shits it wouldn’t regulate my poo.
A lemsip with no cold would not make me feel better.
If I put head lice treatment on hair with no nits it will fail to kill any.
Take diazepam or beta blockers with no anxiety or tense muscles.... it will do nothing.

I take it for back spasms and it helps the back and helps me not to freak out about the back. If I took it on a good back day it would do nada.

I didn’t even think GPs prescribed 10mg Valium anymore? Chances are they are 2mg, which yes are quite weak.

10mg should certainly do something even without anxiety - it's a hypnotic, most people would feel pretty sedated at that dose.
But of course tolerances do really vary.

Take diazepam or beta blockers with no
anxiety or tense muscles.... it will do
nothing.

Beta blockers.... yes.

Valium..... nonsense of course they will. A strong enough dose will knock you for 6! Why do you think so many people are addicted to them?

As I posted above, I think the OP most likely has 2mg, which won’t do much.

A 10mg OJ the other hand......

Maybe op is posting after her 10mg.

I had 2mg and that was great.

You must mean 5 x 2mg tablets, 10mg in total. The GP can’t have given you 5 x 10mg tablets surely.

10 mg does nothing for me either, I need 15 just to feel the calming effect . People are different, I don’t know why the op is getting doubt.

I have to beg to get the 5mg ones. I'm betting yours are 2mg. It would be very very unusual to have 50mg in total for one event.

However I am jealous 😝

Tolerance does vary but not that much, it also drops off quickly.

I was on about 50mgs a day (yes I know) but by the end of my programme even 5mgs gave me the massive sleepies.

I have 10mg to fly. My GP prescribes them 6 of them a year for me. When I first became an anxious flyer she prescribed 2mg and they did nothing. Then we tried 5mg but still nothing. 10mg takes the edge off. I also take the beta blockers as they help the physical symptoms. My GP says she agrees I need the 10mg because I’m in such a high state of anxiety that the weaker ones aren’t ‘touching it’. She’s happy to prescribe such a small amount each year and says I’m at no risk of addiction not only because I use them so infrequently but also because I’m feeling so shit when I take them that there would be no pleasurable response from either my body or mind to make me want more. And she’s right! I’ve been taking them for 10yrs now and never once been tempted or inclined to take one when I’m not boarding a plane.

Agree with others than 10mg is a high dose.

You don't have to be stressed for it to work, it should make you feel a bit sleepy and spaced out, it is a mild sedative. I have met people who didn't feel diazepam works for them before, so possibly this is how it is for you.

GPs who dish out diazepam too easily give me the heebie jeebies, though my work I've dealt with a lot of people addicted to benzos and the withdrawal can be quite difficult.

You would definitely be better off with beta blockers.

Unless you’re asthmatic in which case beta blockers might well kill you.

I suspect your gp is very popular

For all the wrong reasons. amongst drug addicts and dealers

Stompy, I wouldn’t say having them for a specific one off event is getting them ‘too easily’. The op hasn’t just asked for them nilly willy. I get them easily and twice a year but for something very specific and my GP is aware I’ve tried other things such as hypnosis etc. I don’t consider my GP to be lax just good at understanding the needs of individual patients.

Maybe I need to tell GP 10mg diazepam aren’t working?

Why would you do that? You don't actually know if they will work or not because you took them when you didn't need to! Why did you do that anyway? That's like me taking some ibuprofen now and telling the doctor tomorrow they don't work

I have seen some batshit stuff but popping a diazepam when there is sod all wrong with you then complaining when it makes no difference to how you feel is pretty up there

4mg was strong for me but they definitely helped. Wish I could use them again.

Looking for space I was more meaning the idea of dishing of 5 x 10mg tablets. That is surely more than is needed for a single event like a flight!

I do wish GPs would consider recommending other non-medical ways of coping with anxiety before giving out benzos though. Someone who engages in a graded exposure programme with be able to fly forever, someone who uses diazepam once will often decide they need diazepam in order to cope with a flight.

You must have 10mg worth of 2mg tablets and you’ve got confused, there’s no way you found 5mg stronger than 10mg, that’s literally impossible.

I have a regular prescription of 5mg tablets for mental health problems. I take max one a week and I feel it. I’m not a zombie by any means but I can certainly feel it despite having some sort of tolerance. I feel calmer, my thoughts don’t race... are you expecting something else?

Stompythedinosaur agreed. Diazepam was the absolute last resort for me, I take it rarely but it’s the best option for me for various reasons. It should absolutely be carefully controlled, tbh no doctor Im aware of prescribes it easily.

though my work I've dealt with a lot of people addicted to benzos and the withdrawal can be quite difficult.

Derail but did you ever come across etizolam? That was my down fall and a few of my friends but it was quite localised to S London at the time. My addiction psych and drugs counselor had never heard of it.

Stompy, I was always fine flying until I was at a major international airport where an incoming flight didn’t make it and I was suddenly surrounded by people displaying the most intense grief. It was horrific. Since then I’ve tried hypnotherapy, calming music, exposure programmes run at the airport etc and nothing has taken away the intense anxiety and the feeling as though I’m having a heart attack. The guy running the slow exposure course said he knew it wasn’t working for me partly because it involved explaining how the aeroplane works/stays in the sky and also tries to teach you that your fear is irrational. Well, I completely understand how it stays in the sky and I know my fear is irrational and my fear is the falling not the dying so all in all nothing else has worked. But I continue to fly as it’s unfair to my husband and children if I don’t and my annual prescription from a sympathetic GP allows me to do that.

10mg doesn't touch the sides on me. I am still fully functional.

This thread just proves that everyone is different and it certainly isn't one size fits all when it comes to pharmaceuticals.