The short answer: NO.

The slightly longer answer: YES.

Once upon a time (late nineteenth century) it was discovered that barbiturates have interesting medical effects. After a while they started to be prescribed for anxiety and insomnia. Fifty years later it dawned on people that not only was it easy to overdose, but also they were addictive. Let’s put that another way: they had been freely prescribed but were dangerous. Enter the saviour of everyone on barbiturates: the benzodiazepines. Not heard of them? Try some of the types: diazepam (aka Valium, Pax, Apzepam, Stesolid, Vival, Apozepam, Hexalid, Stedon, Valaxona), lorazepam (Ativan, Temesta, Tavor, Lorabenz). I’ve picked those two because they’re the ones I know for certain I’ve used. If you would like the full list try here.

In the seventies as part of my treatment for depression I was prescribed a tranquillizer – no idea which one. I was assured it was completely safe and not addictive. It made me feel a great deal better and made it far easier to sleep. Fantastic. The new wonder drug.

Then I tried to stop taking it and weird things happened. I felt strange, depressed, had major panic attacks, couldn’t sleep. It was unpleasant. So I kept taking the tablets and went back to my family doctor.

“I’m addicted.”

“No you’re not. The clinical research quite clearly shows that tranquillizers are not addictive. You’re imagining it.”

I tried another doctor. Then another. Then a psychiatrist. They all told me the same thing. I was deluded. Well thanks, I’m suffering chronic depression and you help me by saying I’m deluded.

Why did so many doctors refuse to listen to their patients? It doesn’t make sense. All clinical trials are limited in what they can say. All have limitations. I wrote about some aspects of this in my last post. Even now, with medical training much improved, I am meeting medical professionals who are far too trusting of summaries of clinical trials.

Hey guys, the biggest clinical trial of all is when doctors start prescribing the medicine to the rest of us. Only then does the full story ever come out! One month in the early eighties I was put on a new antidepressant which made me feel better than I could ever have imagined. The psychiatrist phoned me and said stop taking them at once. I argued. He said they had been withdrawn on safety grounds. I said I don’t care, they work. He said best to stop now because people were being killed by them. And clinical trials had missed it.

Back to tranx.

Come 1981 I saw a new psychiatrist. It helps when you move towns – they have to reallocate you. He looked up from my medical notes and said, “I see you’re taking a tranquillizer. Did you know they’re addictive?”

I didn’t hug him, but it was a close thing.

As I understand it all the original trials on tranquillizers had been conducted by drug companies. They have a financial incentive to find new medicines are safe. Did that influence the nature of the research? I don’t know. But when they came to test for potential addictive properties they used a strict medical definition of addiction which was then current.

Now to you and me we’re addicted if we can’t stop without experiencing unpleasant side effects. It’s that simple.

In the seventies addiction had to be physiological. There had to be a physiological problem which cropped up when you tried to withdraw.

Now heroin is addictive in those terms. I understand that coming off it involves cold turkey which feels like a fortnight of raging flu. That’s kind of a nice form of addiction because you grit your teeth, it hurts for a while, and then you’re okay. Although of course heroin addicts rarely get off that lightly because there are other factors.

Some people – perhaps increasing numbers, particularly of young people – are cutting themselves to feel better. To me it doesn’t make sense. To them it does. Now clearly cutting yourself cannot be addictive, but it is. When it is repeated as a means of coping it starts to include the production of opium-like substances in the brain. If you delay the actual cutting this deadens the physical pain, and of course also makes you feel better. But these chemicals are addictive. You may not be swallowing or injecting them, but you are causing your body to create them. Would this have been classified as addiction in the seventies? Probably not. In those days addiction was a physical dependence on a drug. You could not in those days become addicted to playing computer games – not that there were any till late in the decade. Now you can.

Tranquillizers are not physically dependent. What finally dawned on those medics sufficiently well educated to listen and observe was that patients were becoming seriously dependent on them in some other way. I’ve been told that trying to come off them causes the very problems they were being taken for in the first place. My own experience suggests it’s not the simple, but that is a fair guideline.

So what is the difference in feeling between the two types of addiction? Let’s compare two drugs I’ve been to some extent addicted to: alcohol and tranquillizer.

I finally came off tranquillizers a couple of months ago after thirty five years of addiction and a number of failed attempts to stop. I no longer experience withdrawal effects from the tranquillizer. I rarely have any wish to take them. Three times since stopping I’ve had a fraction of a tablet to help me sleep, but I’ll be discussing that with the doctor soon. Taking some again was nothing special. It helped me sleep, left me feeling dopey the next day, and that was it.

Some years ago I stopped drinking alcohol. Completely. I was becoming addicted with weekly intake gradually rising and already over health limit. For months, perhaps a year, I longed for alcohol every day. I didn’t care what sort of drink just so long as it had alcohol in it. Even now I sometimes catch the aroma of someone’s glass of beer or wine and want to grab it from them. That’s pretty spooky. Even more frightening is that twice at social functions I’ve been persuaded to take just a sip of alcohol; after all, what harm can that do? In both cases the alcohol hit the sensors in my mouth like a sledge hammer. Something flashed through my entire body, a feeling of joyful recognition. For several minutes I had to fight the desire to drink more. This was nothing like having another tranquillizer. Alcohol is physically addictive. Once addicted you are never free. If you go back to using it the addiction returns worse than before, as if you’d never stopped.

Medical note on barbiturates and benzodiazepines

Both these types of medication continue to be prescribed effectively for specific patients. They can be of great value, but they are used with great care. Do not be scared of them if your doctor suggests their use. The doctor will ensure you only use them in safe ways and do not become addicted.

Share on Facebook