[crazydoggers]

> Of course there are a lot of legal addictives - like a whole range of mood altering drugs like Xanax, Prozac, etc. - which are far worse long term.

I’m not quite sure it’s fair to lump all those drugs under addictive... Xanax is a benzodiazepine, but Prozac is an SSRI. Both can cause withdrawal symptoms if you stop too quickly, but neither are really classified as addictive.

Some of these drugs also profoundly impact people’s lives for the positive as well as actually save lives from severe depression. The constant idea that these drugs are somehow dangerous does much more harm than good to those who need it.

For some reason people have no issue with drugs like Nexium for heartburn (which can also cause dependence) but if it’s a drug that effects your brain... it’s labeled as evil.

And to clarify, addictive substances are not defined simply as something that causes withdrawal. Lots of things cause withdrawal... Tylenol can cause rebound headaches, heartburn medicine can cause intensified heartburn, etc. True addictives on the other hand also cause reward and reinforcement behavior. The strong reward stimulus effects molecular transcription factors that result in reinforcement behavior, which drives the addiction (not fear of withdrawal)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction#Mechanisms

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_dependence

[DanBC]

Benzos cause dependence, and your link says this.

[crazydoggers]

Dependency is different than addictive behavior.

If you read the whole page, it goes into more detail:

“Addiction, or what is sometimes referred to as psychological dependence, includes people misusing or craving the drug not to relieve withdrawal symptoms, but to experience its euphoric or intoxicating effects.”

Also if you read the link on addiction you’ll note that benzos are not listed as drugs that elicits true addictive behavior.

Can you become dependent on benzos... yes that’s possible. But people typically don’t seek out ever increasing doses to get high, which is an important distinction. And people who abuse them are often self medicating due to untreated anxiety disorders rather than to party or get high.

Stigmatizing medicine like SSRI and Benzodiazepines as addictive like opiates is misleading and harmful.

Benzodiazepines, if used under a doctors supervision and for limited duration, almost never cause dependence. Opiates on the other hand, even short term doses, can lead some individuals to become quickly addicted and start drug seeking behavior.

Doesn’t mean benzos are totally safe all the time, but it’s just not fair to compare it to opiates or Kratom.

[rlucas]

I’m not in a position to argue the deeper details here, but superficially this thread has a tone that is pretty uncritical about benzodiazepines.

For persons scanning the conversation and absorbing the ambient folk opinions here on various substances — it is crucial to know that benzos are in fact very treacherous. You can die from them, they are highly abused, and they have a big tolerance effect as well as interactions (esp w alcohol) that can get folks in big distress or danger.

[crazydoggers]

Not attempting to be uncritical of benzodiazepines, they can indeed be dangerous. Just trying to specify that they are not addictive in the same way. My understanding is that when they are abused in the sense of getting high, it’s usually in conjunction with opiates or other illicit drugs.

This is perhaps a more critical review, but still specifies the difference between physical and psychological dependence.

https://pro.psychcentral.com/benzodiazepines-are-bad-or-are-...