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NormallyNeurotic

NormallyNeurotic

Everything is going to be okay ⋅ he/him
Nov 21, 2024
199
I once was put on IV Valium at the ER, and it was the only thing I've ever experienced that quieted my brain. My intrusive thoughts were nearly gone, by self-consciousness about other's views on my was greatly decreased, and best of all I COULD PROCESS MY EMOTIONS.

I have been through so many psych meds since I was a kid, and I was thinking I could tell my psych about my experience and how it helped not only my emotional issues, but my physical muscle issues as well. Do you think they'd maybe let me go on the pill form? I know it'll he different from IV but even if it has a little of that affect, it could actually make me less suicidal.

If not, maybe I can tell my medical doctor about how it helped my muscular issues. I'm diagnosed with muscle spasms, and Google says that is one thing it can be prescribed to treat... think that'd work? That doctor has prescribed me things pretty easily before (including a whole ass insurance-covered mobility aid)
 
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Aug 25, 2018
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What you'd be looking for is a benzodiazepine ('benzo') rather than Valium specifically. I say this mainly because, of the "big four" benzos -- Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin -- Valium seems to be the least-commonly mentioned among the four, as far as what I've personally gleaned over many years among anxiety sufferers (the inference being that maybe it's the one that doctors are least likely to prescribe?).

Also: Asking for a specific benzo may lead to a doctor assuming a lack of knowledge on the part of the patient, which you definitely don't want if you're walking into a doctor's office asking for a benzo. If you ask for a specific one, be prepared to clarify why you want that one specifically as opposed to the others.

You could cite your experience in the ER, but realistically, you probably would have had at least a similar response with any other one administered at the time. A couple valid points in its favour would be that it demonstrated an already-established beneficial response without adverse effects, and that maybe you'd be more comfortable with an already-proven option rather than something new to you.

I have been through so many psych meds since I was a kid, and I was thinking I could tell my psych about my experience and how it helped not only my emotional issues, but my physical muscle issues as well. Do you think they'd maybe let me go on the pill form?
If you have an already-established patient-doctor relationship with a psychiatrist, and assuming you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder already on your file, the best way to get a benzo will be to have the doctor volunteer it. This is the difference between "Can I get a benzo?" and "I think a benzo would help me, and this is why. What do you think?"

Be honest about your intentions, demonstrate a knowledge and respect for the limitations and risks, detail your symptoms, tell them how/why other coping mechanisms are falling short and how/when you'd use an as-needed benzo, and hear and acknowledge the doctor's feedback.

I know it'll he different from IV but even if it has a little of that affect, it could actually make me less suicidal.
Benzos won't provide long-term relief from suicidality. They'll relieve acute anxiety symptoms (but not necessarily emotional pain), but this is only temporary and is unsustainable because tolerance builds up quickly and weakens its beneficial effects, soon negating those effects altogether.

If you're looking for a daily prescription, I can't really speak much to that. Rare is a doctor who will readily issue a daily prescription. And personally I think it's ill-advised except maybe in cases of persistent extreme anxiety that doesn't abate with other medications and despite years of different therapies.

Most likely, the prescription would be on an as-needed basis. But a doctor might also volunteer a time-limited 10-day or 14-day or 28-day daily or twice-daily prescription. Based on what you're saying here, I'm thinking a long-term as-needed prescription will be the better option rather than a time-limited daily.

This can be a delicate subject, so I want to add: The risks of long-term benzo usage are very serious. For purposes of an appointment like this and for your own well-being, research this thoroughly and familiarize yourself with what you would be getting into. Tolerance, dependency, addiction, and withdrawal are factors to consider, depending on length and frequency of use. Medical opinions are varied on benzos. The most conservative advice about benzos that I've ever read from a doctor is "no more than one dose every 6-7 weeks". Personally, I use "no more than 2-3 times per month" as a baseline as far as my own frequency, and it seems I've avoided tolerance buildup by doing this.

*I am not a medical professional, and I have no formal education in medicine. All of the above is "to the best of my knowledge" as a layman.

Wishing you well and good luck.
 
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martyrdom

martyrdom

inanimate object
Nov 3, 2025
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It depends on your region. USA doctors are a little hesitant to prescribe benzos. The best way to deal with doctors is to play dumb, imo. Describe your symptoms without medical terms, just as plainly as you experience them. Describe particularly how severely it inhibits your functioning. Let them prescribe whatever (usually, first line of action is an SSRI). Take the SSRI (or whatever they give) if you want (it may also help, they give it for a reason). If it doesn't work (or doesn't work adequately, or you don't take it), let them know it's not working. They may cycle through some different antidepressants, but it's likely they will eventually prescribe benzos for you (they do so particularly for acute stress, such as panic attacks), usually they will say to take them as needed rather than a daily dose. I don't see the harm in saying how much it helped you when you took Valium in the ER, as long as you don't appear like you're insistent on Valium and nothing else, they will usually consider it.
 
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NormallyNeurotic

NormallyNeurotic

Everything is going to be okay ⋅ he/him
Nov 21, 2024
199
What you'd be looking for is a benzodiazepine ('benzo') rather than Valium specifically. I say this mainly because, of the "big four" benzos -- Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin -- Valium seems to be the least-commonly mentioned among the four, as far as what I've personally gleaned over many years among anxiety sufferers (the inference being that maybe it's the one that doctors are least likely to prescribe?).

Also: Asking for a specific benzo may lead to a doctor assuming a lack of knowledge on the part of the patient, which you definitely don't want if you're walking into a doctor's office asking for a benzo. If you ask for a specific one, be prepared to clarify why you want that one specifically as opposed to the others.

You could cite your experience in the ER, but realistically, you probably would have had at least a similar response with any other one administered at the time. A couple valid points in its favour would be that it demonstrated an already-established beneficial response without adverse effects, and that maybe you'd be more comfortable with an already-proven option rather than something new to you.


If you have an already-established patient-doctor relationship with a psychiatrist, and assuming you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder already on your file, the best way to get a benzo will be to have the doctor volunteer it. This is the difference between "Can I get a benzo?" and "I think a benzo would help me, and this is why. What do you think?"

Be honest about your intentions, demonstrate a knowledge and respect for the limitations and risks, detail your symptoms, tell them how/why other coping mechanisms are falling short and how/when you'd use an as-needed benzo, and hear and acknowledge the doctor's feedback.


Benzos won't provide long-term relief from suicidality. They'll relieve acute anxiety symptoms (but not necessarily emotional pain), but this is only temporary and is unsustainable because tolerance builds up quickly and weakens its beneficial effects, soon negating those effects altogether.

If you're looking for a daily prescription, I can't really speak much to that. Rare is a doctor who will readily issue a daily prescription. And personally I think it's ill-advised except maybe in cases of persistent extreme anxiety that doesn't abate with other medications and despite years of different therapies.

Most likely, the prescription would be on an as-needed basis. But a doctor might also volunteer a time-limited 10-day or 14-day or 28-day daily or twice-daily prescription. Based on what you're saying here, I'm thinking a long-term as-needed prescription will be the better option rather than a time-limited daily.

This can be a delicate subject, so I want to add: The risks of long-term benzo usage are very serious. For purposes of an appointment like this and for your own well-being, research this thoroughly and familiarize yourself with what you would be getting into. Tolerance, dependency, addiction, and withdrawal are factors to consider, depending on length and frequency of use. Medical opinions are varied on benzos. The most conservative advice about benzos that I've ever read from a doctor is "no more than one dose every 6-7 weeks". Personally, I use "no more than 2-3 times per month" as a baseline as far as my own frequency, and it seems I've avoided tolerance buildup by doing this.

*I am not a medical professional, and I have no formal education in medicine. All of the above is "to the best of my knowledge" as a layman.

Wishing you well and good luck.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ANSWER!

I want to specify a couple things. I have an anxiety disorder on my record, as well as OCD and severe childhood trauma.

What I meant by "less suicidal," is that (wjat I assume was the Central Nervous System repression) genuinely shut up my head. I have intrusive thoughts, non-epileptic seizures, panic attacks, daily flashbacks, a brain disorder that worsens my ADHD, and many many alters from DID. My brain was clearer, slower, and easier to listen to.

I also have NPD, which makes me hyperaware and sometimes paranoid about people around me having bad opinions towards me. Never in my life have I felt less self-conscious thwn on that damn drug. It didn't remove it entirely, but it was MANAGEABLE for the first time since I was a child!

It also brought down enough of my dissociation that my first reaction when I got sad while on it was to cry, not to compartmentalize and numb myself like usual.

With some of my worst symptoms alleviated (the affect lasted for a while after they gave me it through the IV), and my brain more likely to process emotions, that would get rid of most of the things MAKING me suicidal 😅

Oh and I definitely understand the side affects. I've been on meds for my physical chronic illness that were like that.
 
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Aug 25, 2018
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I have intrusive thoughts, non-epileptic seizures, panic attacks, daily flashbacks, a brain disorder that worsens my ADHD, and many many alters from DID.
Dissociative Identity Disorder may make this a little more complicated. I'm doing a bit of cursory reading on the subject, and it sounds like in the presence of DID, benzos are discouraged outside a controlled medical environment. In approaching your doctor, you'd probably want to acknowledge this as far as any additional precautions. It sounds like it's not a dealbreaker, but it's definitely a complicating factor. (I'd like to offer something more here, but I'm not equipped to be able to comment with confidence about benzos in the presence of DID.)

I relate to much of what you said about the effects you felt from the Valium. The level of relief you describe, I've experienced, myself. For me, it's Ativan, and while it's kind of unpredictable as to how any given dose is going to affect me, or how strongly, the one thing it always hits me with is some form of relief, however fleeting it may be.
 
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NormallyNeurotic

NormallyNeurotic

Everything is going to be okay ⋅ he/him
Nov 21, 2024
199
Dissociative Identity Disorder may make this a little more complicated. I'm doing a bit of cursory reading on the subject, and it sounds like in the presence of DID, benzos are discouraged outside a controlled medical environment. In approaching your doctor, you'd probably want to acknowledge this as far as any additional precautions. It sounds like it's not a dealbreaker, but it's definitely a complicating factor. (I'd like to offer something more here, but I'm not equipped to be able to comment with confidence about benzos in the presence of DID.)
Where did you find the source for that? The only thing I could imagine that would possibly make it different for someone with DID is possibly memory recovery/sharing (and I found a study on a man being given IV Valium for dissociative amnesia), but that isn't a con for me due to multiple reasons.
 
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Aug 25, 2018
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Where did you find the source for that? The only thing I could imagine that would possibly make it different for someone with DID is possibly memory recovery/sharing (and I found a study on a man being given IV Valium for dissociative amnesia), but that isn't a con for me due to multiple reasons.
It sounds like the primary concern would be about its potential to worsen dissociative symptoms. That comes from this study which mentions, "In psychiatric literature, certain authors caution against the use of benzodiazepines for dissociative disorders as they may worsen symptoms."

Digging a little deeper, that statement seems to be based on this other study whose verbiage is actually, "Use (benzos) with caution to decrease anxiety; this medication class may exacerbate dissociation." Maybe I'm misinterpreting here, but I'd be inclined to discern between "caution against" and "use with caution", so that might have been a bit of a slip in the referencing study. I would probably adjust downward from "benzos are discouraged outside a controlled medical environment" to a simpler "extra caution is advisable."

It also comes to mind here that generally speaking, DID is a complex mental health disorder -- say, as compared to "only" a severe case of generalized anxiety disorder. I'd anticipate any doctor to be extra cautious when trialling any mind-altering medication in DID, so I'd be ready for a little extra pushback compared to what the average benzo-curious patient might encounter.
 
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NormallyNeurotic

NormallyNeurotic

Everything is going to be okay ⋅ he/him
Nov 21, 2024
199
It sounds like the primary concern would be about its potential to worsen dissociative symptoms. That comes from this study which mentions, "In psychiatric literature, certain authors caution against the use of benzodiazepines for dissociative disorders as they may worsen symptoms."

Digging a little deeper, that statement seems to be based on this other study whose verbiage is actually, "Use (benzos) with caution to decrease anxiety; this medication class may exacerbate dissociation." Maybe I'm misinterpreting here, but I'd be inclined to discern between "caution against" and "use with caution", so that might have been a bit of a slip in the referencing study. I would probably adjust downward from "benzos are discouraged outside a controlled medical environment" to a simpler "extra caution is advisable."

It also comes to mind here that generally speaking, DID is a complex mental health disorder -- say, as compared to "only" a severe case of generalized anxiety disorder. I'd anticipate any doctor to be extra cautious when trialling any mind-altering medication in DID, so I'd be ready for a little extra pushback compared to what the average benzo-curious patient might encounter.
That makes sense! I think maybe it brings down my dissociation just because I dissociate extra in response to mental pain, so decreasing pain decreases the dissociative response. So it balances out the possible dissociative affects I suppose.

Thank you for the tips!!!
 
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