Signs and Symptoms of Valium Addiction

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Valium is an anti-anxiety drug, one of several popular benzodiazepines. More than three million Americans use this drug medically and many more abuse it illicitly. The drug is also known by its generic name, diazepam. If you are looking for signs that someone is abusing Valium, here are the symptoms you would be looking for:

A Valium user may manifest:

• Drowsiness
• Sedation
• Amnesia or memory problems
• Dizziness
• Muscle weakness
• Nausea
• Dilated eyes
• Vomiting
• Double vision
• Blurred vision
• Loss of interest in sex

A heavy abuser of Valium and others who are particularly susceptible to its effects may show these signs:

• Confusion
• Hallucinations
• Loss of inhibitions
• Aggression
• Depression
• Thoughts of suicide or self-injury
• Hyperactivity
• Agitation
• Hostility
• Seizures
• Loss of bladder control
• Tremors
• Urine retention

Another sign of Valium or diazepam abuse is that a person may become a poor driver. He may weave in his lane and may have trouble focusing. His reaction time will probably be slower. Because of the sedating effect of the drug, the driver may not react appropriately to hazards on the road. Highway safety information indicates that Valium use may contribute to some traffic accidents. In fact, use of Valium at night may still impair one’s ability to drive the next day.

A Valium abuser or addict may also suffer a loss of judgment as one of the effects of the drug. He could then possibly decide to mix Valium with alcohol abuse or opiates, which could result in his death. Each of these drugs slows breathing and if it slows enough, the drug abuser will die.

Becoming “disinhibited” is a sign of Valium abuse—which means a person’s inhibitions are lowered. This can result in a person becoming aggressive and harming others or himself or engaging in risky activities like unprotected sex.

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Paradoxical Effects

A paradoxical effect is one that should be eliminated by use of the drug but instead, it shows up stronger when the drug is used. With Valium, these effects can include fits of rage or violence, aggression, excitement, irritability, and hostility. A person may lose control of his impulses which can lead to anti-social behavior, especially among the very young and elderly. Some people may consider suicide. Others may become emotionally blunted.

Some people may take Valium to help them sleep, but after the drug is used for this purpose for a few months, it will lose this effect.

Of course, one of worst effects of this drug is that when combined with alcohol or opiates, it can lead to death. This combination of drugs was involved in the deaths of Thomas Kinkade and Whitney Houston. Amy Winehouse died from alcohol toxicity but according to her father, also had a type of benzodiazepine in her body when she died, as did Heath Ledger and actress Brittany Murphy.

As tolerance builds to Valium, if a person does not get the effect he desires from abuse of the drug, he may add alcohol to achieve that effect he is looking for. As Valium may impair a person’s good judgment, this vicious circle can lead a person right to his own death.

Some people may mix Valium with methadone to try to achieve a specific type of high. In Texas, there is a combination called a “Houston Cocktail” - it’s a mixture of hydrocodone (opioid painkiller), Valium and Soma, a muscle relaxant. This follows the popular pattern of polydrug use.

If you are looking for the effects of Valium abuse on a person, look for shallow breathing, clammy skin, weak and rapid pulse and dilated pupils.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Board, use of Valium can result in reduced concentration, impaired speech patterns, and amnesia, even after the drug is no longer used. A driver who uses Valium is more likely to wander in his lane and have slower reaction times. When alcohol is added, the resulting impaired effect is greater than the effect of each drug by itself.

Addiction is a Sign of Valium Abuse

One of the characteristics of this drug and others in the benzodiazepine class is that it creates tolerance and addiction. Tolerance means that after a short time of taking Valium, a person needs more to create the same effect. If a person is taking this drug as a result of a doctor’s recommendation, the doctor will need to increase the patient’s dosage. If a person is abusing the drug they have obtained illicitly, he will need to take more pills.

As the dosage goes up, so will the severity of symptoms of use.

Reports vary on how long it takes for addiction to this drug to occur. It may just take several weeks or a few months. According to the National Institutes of Health, Valium should not be taken for more than four months.

Once addiction is present, withdrawal symptoms will occur if a person stops taking the drug. These withdrawal symptoms can be severe or even life-threatening. Seizures and convulsions are possible if a person has not been tapered off the drug after heavy use. Many people will need a medical detox to help them break free from their addictions safely.

After Addiction, Many People Lose the Ability to Live Sober

Once a person gets off Valium, he or she may not automatically regain the ability to live sober. An addicted person may quickly learn to rely on a drug like Valium to escape from life’s stresses. He is very likely to need to relearn how to communicate clearly, make drug-free decisions, separate safe associates from dangerous ones, and rebuild his own personal integrity and self-respect. These changes are the focus of the Narconon drug rehabilitation program.

In some 40 locations around the world, Narconon centers are helping those addicted to heroin, prescription drugs, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and other drugs learn to build new, sober lives. The Narconon program focuses directly on the types of damage that result from addiction and provides the life skills to enable a person to repair that damage.

A thorough detoxification addresses the residues of past drug use and helps greatly to freshen a person’s viewpoint. When the toxic remnants of alcohol, opiates, stimulants or other drugs are flushed out as a result of a sauna and nutritional supplement program, one recovers the ability to think more clearly. The fog of past drug use is greatly reduced. This improvement sets up a person to learn these life skills with a fresh, improved outlook.

This program usually takes eight to ten weeks to finish, but some people take longer. There is no set time limit because each person recovers from addiction at his or her own rate. This way, each person goes home to meet life’s challenges when they are ready, not when their time is up.

Contact Narconon today for more information.

Valium™ is a registered trademark of Roche Products Inc.