Diazepam or Similar

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Currently taking 10mg Diazepam for when my anxiety becomes unmanageable or to avoid MH crisis which results in SH and attending Crisis team at A and E.
Does anyone find it wears off very quickly. Usually an hour max and I could easily take another dose. Does anyone else experience this or take anything similar that might work for longer?

Anyone?

Diazepam typically takes about 20-30 mins to take effect if taking orally
10mg is a high dose so you certainly shouldn't feel it's worn off within 40 mins

I would suggest discussing with your GP

The half life of Diazepam is quite a while, it shouldnt be wearing off that quickly, maybe your body is getting used to it, how regularly are you taking it?

It depends on how well (or not) I’m coping. On average I would say 10mg once a day but only on 2/3 days a week. I didn’t think that was an awful lot but maybe it is?
I’m wondering if something like Promethazine would be a better alternative. I do really need to speak to the GP but trying to get an appointment is almost impossible, so just looking for advice in the meantime.

Promethazine can be helpful and you can buy from any chemist (usually called Phenergan) in 10mg or 25mg tablets, from my experience it sometimes had a much better effect than a benzo such as diazepam. it might be worth a try, prolonged use of benzos can cause you to find that the same dose you have been taking can become less effective over time if you use regularly.

That’s really useful to know, Thankyou.
I went to the local Pharmacy this evening and got Phenergan 25mg. I think maybe half a tablet to begin with just to get an idea of how it will affect me. Hopefully these help a bit more with out building up too much of a tolerance to them.

Phenergan is an antihistamine and has a sedative affect. Please be very careful and ensure you have someone around you if you are responsible for children the first time you take it.

With prolonged use it also doesn't do much good for most people.

My DH is here to ensure children are ok! Thanks for the heads up.
When you say it doesn’t do much good with prolonged usage, what do you mean by this? Long term side effects or just a decrease in if efficiency?

Diazepam has one of the longest half-life of the benzos (36-200 hours) so it is very unlikely that it is working only for an hour, you might not realise how much it is helping until you stop taking it at peak anxiety times. 3 times a week isn’t too often. Hope you stay out of crisis.

prolonged use of benzos can cause you to find that the same dose you have been taking can become less effective over time if you use regularly.

10mgs 2-3 times a week of Diazepam should not cause tolerance. It just might not be strong enough to manage the anxiety.

Phenergan will make you feel sleepy. I can't drive while taking it as I know my reaction time is impaired. I would also be very concerned about looking after a baby while taking it.
25mg would have me sound asleep for 9 hours if taken at night. I would start with a quarter tablet in your case, not a half.

"decrease in if efficiency" is what i meant by issues with prolonged usage. I tend to use in crisis to resettle sleep patterns then stop.

Also it can have the opposite effect on people that it's meant too. Just to warn you in case that happens.

Well just an update….. that worked better than I thought it would. Split the 25mg tablet in half (not very well) but took the smaller of the two bits so roughly 10mg. Slept from 9pm last night until 10am this morning. DH made sure kids were all ok but wasn’t expecting it to work that well.
I do feel really slow and a bit unsteady this morning, is that normal. Almost like I’ve had a few drinks but nothing major.

Yes, that's been my experience of it too.

Just trying to work out how to reduce the dose further! It worked well to keep me out of crisis but wasn’t expecting to spend the whole day feeling like I’m on another planet.

I get diazepam for dental procedures and find I need to time it perfectly or it wears off very quickly - not always easy if the dentist is running late. It helps to quickly reduce my panic but not great for longer term anxiety reduction.

I find Trazadone works better at managing my anxiety longer term - I take it at night and it’s brilliant at getting me off to sleep, and then keeps my anxiety subdued during the day without making me feel like a zombie. I only take 100mg but you can go higher if needed.

You could try night nurse as it has the same ingredient.

Or you could try another drowsy type antihistamine that's over the counter?