Valium & similiar drug users ... check this out!

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by SamC, Sep 7, 2007.

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  1. carolanne

    carolanne Lily

    Yay Pamela, you go girl! ;D

    I totally agree - I am tired of reading about the valium wars.
     
  2. shelly3257

    shelly3257 New Member

    I think the arguments on both sides are valid. But what I've seen said a lot and that is absolutely true is that everyone is different. Newbies should consider valium if nothing else works. They should know that this drug is available and provides relief in many. But they should also know that the benzo drugs are very serious business. My doctor has prescribed them for me and I haven't taken them after doing my own research. I wish he, or my pharmacist would have given me more information on them and I am glad that I decided to read up on them myself and then ask questions. Some people will do fine with them. Others not so much. I have a friend who has taken a drug in this category and she was only on them for 2 months on a very low dose and only as needed and she has been off them for 2 months now and still has lingering convulsions, tremors, and other neurological problems they say was caused by valium. Everyone's bodies will act differently to this med. As someone who has only had Meniere's for 3 years I am glad that I know both sides of the argument. I am on a low salt diet and avoid all the common triggers. I take meclizine as needed but only because it works just enough to get me through the worst parts of an attack or helps with the constant imbalance and motion sickness. I do know that if the attacks get worse, and I know that is a good possibility and the meclizine doesn't work, I will go for the valium without a second thought. Anyone here who has God awful attacks would want to know there is something they can do to possibly help a bad attack especially if you are a person who gets cluster attacks like me and could have them daily. I will definitely be cautious, and not take it a lot because I know about becoming dependent on it, and all the awful side effects, but I'm glad there is another med I can try when the meclizine no longer cuts it.
     
  3. gtrvox

    gtrvox our pooch Hugo

    Good points, twinkle, I agree with everything except the SHOUTING! Lose the caps lock, trust me, the keyboard works well without it :)

    George
     
  4. Dizzy Little Piggy

    Dizzy Little Piggy OINK OINK

    Like LisaB, I have never thought that valium was doing anything for me except to relieve the symptom of dizziness. Fact is that there is no cure for Meniere's so why would or should anyone think differently.

    Piggy
     
  5. cdedie

    cdedie Designed by DizzyNBlue

    Everyone is different and different things work for different people. Make sense?

    What helps one person will not necessarily help another.

    Take what people post, do your own research, talk to your doctor and do what helps YOU!

    Just my [​IMG]
     
  6. SamC

    SamC Guest

    Quote the Rolling Stones 1960's

    "Mothers Little Helper" ... a song about Valium

    Just a few lines modified for Meniere's folks by SamC

    "She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
    And it helps her on her way, gets her through her dizzy day
    "Things are different today,"
    I hear ev'ry Meniere's mother say

    Friends don't appreciate that you get tired
    They're so hard to satisfy, You can tranquilize your mind
    So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
    And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight
    Doctor please, some more of these
    Outside the door, she took four more

    "Life's just much too hard today,"
    I hear ev'ry Meniere's mother say
    The pusuit of normalness just seems impossible
    And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
    No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
    They just helped you on your way, through your pukin' spinning day"

    Another interesting article ... Read the entire article ... Excellent info ....

    http://www.breggin.com/minortranqs.html

    A final thought: Is your dependency less of a problem than your dizziness? What do you think the future holds for you using Valium? Can you face a vertigo attack Valium free or is your nervous system needing this drug to depress it? Are you in denial? Only each of us can answer these questions for ourselves. I or nobody else can or should try to answer for you. This is an individual matter.

    Best wishes on making a correct decision for your vestibular problems. SamC
     
  7. groovemastergreg

    groovemastergreg New Member

    You just can't get off the anti-valium bandwagon, can you, Sam? You've gotten your point well across. You don't like Valium. You're against it because it is addictive, the literature you have read, and perhaps your own personal experience with Valium or some other controlled/abusive substance.

    Ironic that whilst the Stones were penning that tune for the Aftermath album, several members were deep into heroin and psychodelic (lsd) abuse. They were writing the song not so much as you write this thread, but to complain about hypocritical folks who can't mind their own business. In their case, complaining about the drug use of rock stars.

    Kinda like Robert Earl Keen sings in his infamous song about the dysfunctional family christmas, "Merry Christmas from the Family"...

    "Brother Ken brought his kids with him
    The three from his first wife Lynn
    And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
    Of course he brought his new wife Kay
    Who talks all about AA"

    Or like Hank Williams Sr. said: Mind your own business and you won't be minding mine.

    Keep on screamin, twinki. It helps me hear you better!

    I like this song better, covered by Johnny Winter:

    Before you accuse me
    Take a look at yourself
     
  8. Titus

    Titus New Member

    I've been on Benzos off and on for 20 years. They got me through some very rough times. I went off them for about 5 years before the "dizzy thing" started. Valium has been very helpful for me to keep working as a college professor and to keep publishing books and giving lectures. Sometimes I take a little, sometimes I take a lot. If I'm addicted, so be it...at least I'm able to work.

    I'm not an advocate of taking any unnecessary drugs and I prefer to go the natural route, if it works. But I made a choice not to suffer or "tough it out" when there's a simple solution that helps me. Interesting enough, I've never had to increase the dose over a period of time to get the same effect.

    Everyone's different and I respect each person's choice to take or not to take.
     
  9. gtrvox

    gtrvox our pooch Hugo

    Warning: thread hijack ahead!

    Groove: I *love* this tune...always thought it was written by Elmore James but googled it now and it says Bo Diddley. Clapton covered it too! Blues is where it's at!

    George
     
  10. groovemastergreg

    groovemastergreg New Member

    Yeah, I thought elmore james had written it too, but all's I could remember (menieres brain fog) was that I have several versions of Johnny covering it, none of which I can enjoy right now during this latest hearing drop out.

    And about that shouting, after you've had this crap as long as me (just had my 9 year anniversary), you have to ask people to shout, even with my hearing aids maxed out! LOL!
     
  11. Mnme

    Mnme Guest

    Any doctor who prescribes valium must see no better option. THAT's the saddest thing in my opinion, as you only have to dig into this forum a bit to see there are heaps of better options. Sufferers need some sort of hope for a better future, particularly those whose symptoms are severely disabling. If only one thing is offered (eg. valium), then they perceive that as the only lifeline. Where is the choice? Why is it that those who find real solutions so often have to do it on their own?

    Lee.
     
  12. feelbizarre

    feelbizarre New Member

    I have been given loads of options....my doctor has prescribed everything from pills, to chiro, to PT, to acupuncture, massage...etc... Some things help certain aspects, some things help others and not one is a miracle cure.
     
  13. Mnme

    Mnme Guest

    Tumbleweed, I see you have written 'The shore is my cure'! Oh I love the ocean too! There is just something about it ... I guess everyone's got a place where they feel most right. :)
     
  14. Jean F

    Jean F Its still a beautiful world!!

    Hi friends.... I hope I dont upset anyone by coming in to this subject.... 3 weeks ago I had to get help from my doctor, and he gave me these tablets for two weeks,.... I was going through a terrible time, It was nothing at all to do with Menieres, but my menieres was out of control due to the stress of it all....Anyhow for the first time since having Menieres, the symptoms of being dizzy disappeared!!

    Anyhow I have written to my doctor and let him know this, and I am just waiting on word back..... I am very well aware of the addiction side of valium, as drugs and alcohol was part of where I worked, and we had to learn all about drugs and their side effects.... For me!!..... and what I know, there is no way on earth I got anything, other than dizzy free days, out of taking these tablets.... People who take them for thier addictions are taking around 20 to 30 at any one time, I know many of these people, and my heart goes out to them, as I know some people who are slaves to their addiction whatever it may be....... And what they have to do to feed that addiction...
    Im sure when they were little, they never knew by experimenting in their teens that they were going to waste their lives, their parents lives, lose their appearance, teeth, family, friends, then finish up in an early grave!! .... Who really wants to have that kind of life for themselves.... No one.... My love to you all .......Jean F
     
  15. SamC

    SamC Guest

    Greg, A blues dude, eh? Played some myself many years ago. To clarify your excellent point, Jagger wrote the song because all the hate from housewives calling them druggers and how they were corrupting the youth. These housewives, suffering depression, because of their unappreciated lives, were given a new drug, Valium. It worked, but they required more to deal with their families now upset because the wife and mom wasn't happy being a slave and had found escape. Jagger saw this as a hypocrisy and I agree to some extent. My exwife became addicted to benzos given for mental illness and the docs cut her supply down when they realized where this was heading. She then went to illegal drugs, pot and cocaine and that led to divorce. Anyway thanks for the hijack, not sure anyone really cares.

    George, Another blues man ... good stuff.

    TW, I do like your sunset photo... I have several I have taken over the years on the Oregon Coast. Sunsets and lightening photos are my favorite.....
     
  16. groovemastergreg

    groovemastergreg New Member

    Well, everyone certainly has their perspectives and their own addiction profiles. But I'll say this, if I could have my hearing back if I only started using heroin, I'd have to do some thinking. But sitting here on the cusp of deafness, future CI's, and an uncertain future in many regards, I'd be disingenuous if I didn't say valium didn't cool my stress a great deal during the episode I'm going through right now.

    I'll end my participate in this thread with a little metaphor for what I feel is the tone of this thread:

    In 2004, when my dad was in his final days of his 26 year battle with a very rare, agressive and hard to treat cancer at Houston's M.D. Anderson Hospital, a fresh out of residency Dr. was assigned to his case when his longtime doctor retired, I had to do an "intervention" with the good doctor when she cut his morphine, and told my poor mother that she was afraid he'd get addicted to it.

    My mother, normally a very assertive personality, was simply too stunned to formulate a reply, other than to point to the seizures and obvious extreme pain. When she called me, I left the office and made it to the Medical Center, where I located the good doctor's private office.

    When we spoke, I told her it was obvious that my father would not be leaving the hospital this time, everyone (including him) knew that. At least one of his then retired longtime M.D. Anderson doctors told me he wouldn't be leaving, and you could see it on the faces of the nurses and my family. Brain lesions and a bad arse case of some rare hospital borne staff infection and some type of bizarre pneumonia had taken hold, and the IV antibiotics were not helping. Seizures from the brain lesions were sending my dad into spasms of pain, and some pretty wicked seizures.

    My dad had been through three primary doctors during his 26 year cancer fight at M.D. Anderson, and all of his retired or deceased docs were older gentlemen who understood pain and suffering is for naught.

    No. Morphine wouldn't cure any of his problems, but it was making his last days more tolerable. I hated to see him in a stupor, but it was better than watching him in torment.

    The doctor listened to my speech, and then reinterated her message about her fear of addiction.
     
  17. carolanne

    carolanne Lily

    Sorry about your dad, groovemaster. That's really sad.
     
  18. sparrow

    sparrow Guest

    My neurotologist refused to prescribe Valium to me. I had to turn to my primary to get it and only a very limited supply. I was trying to use this to get off of Klonopin, seems like everyone disagreed with my request and won't help me get off of Klonopin. My prescribing doc for Klonopin won't either at this point, as he wants me to stay on it.

    These docs got me into alot of trouble with my meds and then abandoned me when I told them that if I continued with all these drugs, there would be consequences. Consequences meaning that something serious could happen to me. Honestly, I couldn't get anyone to listen to me until I used the word "consequences". Everytime I went to a new doctor, the new doc nodded his/her head and commented that "yeup, you are on a hell of alot of drugs". Sooo, when I went off of everything and couldn't get out of bed for days on end due to the withdrawal effects, the docs weren't there to help me get thru this, even the one that made the suggestion that I immediately stop all these meds, the one that prescribed me the most.

    I now have an arsenal of medication that I keep locked in my closet, as most are controlled substances and I worry about any of this getting into the wrong hands of ... like one of my maintenace people of my apartment complex. I just see my doctors writing out prescriptions for me, willy nilly, I go home and check out possible interactions on-line then do all my other research and then call the doc back and comment on this and I get a comment back "well, I didn't know that".

    I guess we have to just be a nation of informed consumers to guide our doctors into making informed decisions. I feel like they just walk out of medical school and forget everything but how to sit in their white coats on that twirly chair, with one eye on their watch so time doesn't run over or insurance company won't pay for the visit and then absentmindely scribble out a prescription, close the chart and rush out the door to their next patient.

    It's scary and I for one, am extremely irked for the place I am in now because all these doctors didn't think before they gave me all this medication. What was my doctor thinking when after 10 years of prescribing Klonopin to me, one day I would have to come off of it? What was he thinking?

    Sparrow :mad: :mad: :mad:
     
  19. LisaB

    LisaB New Member

    Groovemaster, I'm sorry about your dad too. It is scary that we need advocates in our family or friends to intervene for us when we are too sick to do so. Your mom and dad were both so lucky to have you..........Lisa B.
     
  20. gtrvox

    gtrvox our pooch Hugo

    Groove: I'm very sorry about your dad and I'm also sorry that your hearing is so bad right now. Here's to hoping that it soon improves and you'll be able to able to hum along with T-Bone Walker: "They call it stormy Monday - but Tuesday's just as bad!"

    A doctor who refuses to prescribe morphine to a dying patient in agonizing pain is an idiot who should be stripped of his/her licence. I'm no doctor but I know that the first words of the Hippocratic oath are "First do no harm". You can't do much more harm than allow a fellow human being suffer terrible pain.

    George
     

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