Not me but my little sis abuses them along with the tylenol PM's I didnt know you could abuse those

I once told a packet of paracetamol to fuck off.

Does that count as abuse?

I've abused most every "fun" prescription drug I have ever gotten my hands on which is why the pdoc won't prescribe me benzos. However, my addictive personality is much better now that my meds are half way working. :) I won't lie...I'm tired of being ashamed of my actions. I am who I am.

when I said Ive abused Xanax I meant that Ive taken maybe five when I shouldve taken one but Ive got boxes and boxes of the stuff so I guess Im a big time hoarder too, so thankfully no addiction here x.

Once in awhile I take an extra few Ativan, especially when the anxiety gets bad and my other coping mechanisms fail.

I would say I, and those who have "admitted" to it, are misusing rather than abusing our benzos.

Does it mention a distinction in there? I took a very similar class and there's a difference between misuse and abuse.

I really hope I didn't sound bitchy and holier-than-thou there, because that wasn't my intention at all! =)

I don't get anything worth abusing or misusing. Sniff. Sniff.

I use less than prescribed

I am prescribed 1 mg klonopin twice a day. I try to take less than that and sometimes don't take it at all.

Christa, watch the ativan....it doesn't take too much "too much" to do you in.

Thanks for the warning Starfish!

Well since started using my medical marijuana I have not needed a ativan in over a month. But even when I wasn't on the marijuana I very rarely even used them but like a few others I like to hoard them for just in case. I do the same with percocet use just what I absolutely need to then hoard the rest in case I have something happen and I need them.

I have never considered myyself as a drug abuser, more of the opposite.

I've never abused prescription drugs (or any drug) but I've thought about it.

Exactly why I became highly insulted over the fact that therapists, pdocs, and MDs all insisted I shouldn't have anything to do with weed but they shoved benzos in my face & tried to push me to take them all the time! They're highly addictive, and over time, they screw up your ability to respond with appropriate emotion, & they stop working altogether for many people who've been taking them for 20+ years.

I don't like them. I don't like the drugged feeling they give me. I'm not 100% opposed to using them occasionally, especially when no better options are available, and some people have problems that I don't have & they are even more stuck for options and pretty much have to take benzos all the time. I don't blame the sufferer. Even those who get addicted. How are you NOT supposed to get addicted to something you have to take all the time that has a great propensity for physical addiction?

I just HATE the rampant hypocrisy, carelessness, and judgmental attitudes of the medicos who prescribe this stuff or make judgments about what meds they'll allow you to have or not.

Just as with pain pills. For years, docs got people addicted to morphine, codeine, & Valium to name a few. Nowadays, you better never ask for a pain reliever stronger than a Tylenol or they mark you down as, "Medication Seeking", and they'll start lecturing you and giving you prescription strength Ibuprofen & swear off ever giving you anything stronger. Really? So just who are these special people that when they feel real pain they actually get a real pain reliever? How come they get to decide that and there's nothing a person can do about it. It's like getting black balled.

Now, even though they went through all that before, instead of learning from it, it seems like benzos in the form of muscle relaxers, and certain ones for anxiety, (except Valium. They seem to want to shy away from that one now), are the new things they give out like candy. So, 5 or 10 years from now, I fully expect to see millions of benzo addicts being suddenly cut off by doctors who suddenly started to realize what monsters they made but don't seem to give a crap about the suffering they cause from getting people addicted like a street pusher and then suddenly saying, "No more. You need to clean yourself up. You're pathetic. You were just supposed to take the pills around the clock every day of your life, not get addicted to them." And that's the point at which you wish you knew a good place to hide a body.

Before I left Seattle, Washington to move back to NM.........it was getting to be a real theme with all the social workers, therapists, etc. around there that people just HAD to take the medicine whether it was good for them or not. This med might make you hurt worse, have psychotic murderous episodes, & kill yourself? Well, you just have to suck it up and try it. You have to take your meds.

I'm afraid it's a trend. It's pretty scary, too. For one thing........I received training at a job I once held working with adults with intellectual disabilities. They told us that if a person we worked with really didn't want to take their meds, we should ask why and try to find out. There might be some side effects that they have a difficult time explaining to us or something. In other words, we were supposed to respect the fact that this was their body being affected, not ours. But, I couldn't even get that much respect in that city. No one in my family could.

We were threatened, bribed, cajoled, & controlled by people who probably never had to take more than a couple of pills in their whole life but were like Nazis with the fanatic belief that we nutters must take ours no matter what, even if they were literally killing us. Seriously. .

I overdosed myself on Geodon a few weeks ago. Does that count as abuse?

Peace,

Dara