Valium Abuse: Symptoms and Treatment

Valium, also known as diazepam, is a prescription benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to help people handle extreme stress, anxiety, and chronic pain. While it’s generally only given for short periods of time, it is highly addictive and can quickly cause people to become reliant on the drug. If abused, the side effects can be deadly. Abuse starts as soon as you start taking Valium without a prescription or taking more than what your physician has recommended.

Signs and Symptoms of Valium Abuse

Valium is easy to abuse, even if you’re using it with a valid prescription! Anxiety, which affects 40 million people in the United States, is one of the most common mental-health disorders, and many people with anxiety disorder develop an addiction to a benzodiazepine. If you’re concerned about Valium abuse for yourself or a loved one, consider the following side effects and see if they may need treatment.

• Short-Term Side Effects: Dependency on the medication and constant worrying about the prescription, fatigue, loss of coordination, dizziness, slow speech, depression, nausea, and loss of appetite.
• Long-Term Side Effects: In most cases Valium should not be taken for a long period of time, generally no more than four months, as it may start to affect your work or school, cause problems with family, and cause poor judgement and inappropriate behavior (similar to being very drunk). It can also cause delayed reflexes, blurred vision, confusion, and memory loss. If you’re trying to determine if someone you love is addicted to Valium, look for a change in appearance or hygiene patterns, a lethargic attitude, irrational behavior, and memory loss. Mixed with alcohol or other drugs, these side effects can be deadly.
• Overdose Symptoms: The more of a drug you take, the more your body becomes dependent on the drug to function, causing you to take even more the next time. While symptoms of overdose can start mild with drowsiness and confusion, they can also lead to ataxia (loss of control of body), hypotension, respiratory depression, seizures, and coma.

Valium abuse is a growing problem in the United States. Admissions to treatment programs tripled between 1998 and 2008 for benzo treatment and millions of people are using and abusing Valium. Since this is such a large and growing problem, drug treatment centers are set up to help people who are abusing Valium get the treatment they need. Going to a treatment center means there is medical help and support to help mitigate withdrawal symptoms and teach you the skills to prevent relapse.

Valium addiction doesn’t develop overnight. It takes anywhere from weeks to months for the body to develop an addiction to the medication. It happens when someone starts increasing the doses of their medication to help treat their anxiety or to help them fall asleep. Pay attention to how frequently someone is requesting refills of their prescription or if they’re seeing multiple doctors to get prescriptions.

Valium Withdrawal

If you’re struggling with Valium abuse, the best thing you can do is start medically supervised treatment. If your Valium abuse is severe, you may need to seek treatment at an inpatient treatment center where your withdrawal can be slow and accompanied with other medical intervention to help the symptoms.

Valium withdrawal symptoms include:

• Tremors
• Irritability
• Abdominal pain and muscle cramps
• Confusion
• Restlessness
• Nausea and vomiting
• Sweating
• Headache
• Extreme Anxiety
• Tension
• Derealization (feeling that your surroundings are not real)
• Epileptic seizures
• Hallucinations
• Depersonalization
• Hyperacusis (sound sensitivity)
• Numbness and tingling in the extremities
• Hypersensitivity to noise and contact

These withdrawal symptoms highlight the importance of quitting Valium sooner rather than later and doing so with the assistance of a doctor and the support staff to make you comfortable. Going to a drug treatment center means you will have the staff on hand with the experience to support your withdrawal process and offer the guidance you need to get and stay clean. Close monitoring by medical professionals also means you can be confident you’ll be successful and less likely to relapse.

Unlike other benzodiazepines, Valium is designed to be a long-lasting drug providing extended relief. As a result of this, withdrawal from Valium is a longer process. The first symptoms may not appear for a week or more, even in heavy users. Withdrawal can last up to six weeks and may follow this timeline.

• First 1-2 Days: You may start feeling the first signs of withdrawal around two days after stopping use. Generally, you’ll start with faint symptoms of anxiety and restlessness that begin to increase in magnitude.
• Second Week: Symptoms of Valium withdrawal peek during the second week after quitting. This is when the worst symptoms begin to show themselves such as insomnia, sweating, muscle and abdominal pain, and nausea.
• Weeks 3-4: Withdrawal symptoms can continue for a month after you quit, although the intensity of the symptoms will start to decline and become more bearable.
• Week 5: For those who have developed a physical dependence on benzodiazepines, you may experience post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) which can cause symptoms to appear suddenly, months or even years after quitting.

As the body processes and removes the drugs, these symptoms can show up. With medical guidance, most Valium users gradually reduce their doses to help prevent the worst of the withdrawal symptoms and dangerous side effects. Most guidelines suggest a schedule of four to eight weeks of a slow withdrawal. Obviously, this will vary depending on the health of the patient, the severity of the addiction, and more personalized factors.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

Thankfully, there are many treatment options for Valium rehabilitation. From visiting an inpatient rehab center staffed with experts to offer you the support you need around the clock to private inpatient and outpatient treatment options. These options will all help you detox, then give you the education and support you need to kick your addiction for good. Finally, you’ll enter into an aftercare program designed to help you keep your resolutions and provide additional support as you get back into your normal life. Rehab facilities range from comfortable to five-star-resort luxury. There are single-gender options, structured and unstructured programs, and more. Many centers offer dual-diagnosis treatment to help you handle the underlying cause of your addiction as well as the addiction itself. Others offer more holistic approaches that focus on faith-based healing or the mind-body connection.

Since there are so many treatment options available, reach out to Rehab-Finder.Org. We can help you determine which type of facility will best meet your needs and determine what your insurance will cover. With this information and more, you’ll have what you need to make the right treatment decision.