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Withdrawal Symptoms From Depressants Can Include

Can Prescription Cns Depressant Use Lead To Addiction And Substance Use Disorder

Stopping Antidepressants: How to avoid withdrawal symptoms, Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome

Yes, use or misuse of prescription CNS depressants can lead to problem use, known as a substance use disorder , which takes the form of addiction in severe cases. Long-term use of prescription CNS depressants, even as prescribed by a doctor, can cause some people to develop a tolerance, which means that they need higher and/or more frequent doses of the drug to get the desired effects. A SUD develops when continued use of the drug leads to negative consequences such as health problems or failure to meet responsibilities at work, school, or home, but despite all that the drug use continues.

Those who have become addicted to a prescription CNS depressant and stop using the drug abruptly may experience a withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms-which can begin as early as a few hours after the drug was last takeninclude:

  • increased heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature with sweating
  • severe cravings

People addicted to prescription CNS depressants should not attempt to stop taking them on their own. Withdrawal symptoms from these drugs can be severe andin the case of certain medications-potentially lifethreatening.

Depressants Are Less Dangerous Than Stimulants

There is a debate about whether depressants are less dangerous than stimulants. Depressant drugs slow down the CNS system has dangerous symptoms that were mentioned before. But the symptoms of stimulant use followed by the sudden crash when the high wears off has its own risks. Therefore many believe depressants are less dangerous than stimulants.

Although people may not agree if depressants are less dangerous than stimulants, they all agree they are addictive. Depressant drugs and stimulant drugs take over peoples lives and require lifelong treatment for a life of recovery.

How Do People Use And Misuse Prescription Cns Depressants

Most prescription CNS depressants come in pill, capsule, or liquid form, which a person takes by mouth. Misuse of prescription CNS depressants means:

  • taking medicine in a way or dose other than prescribed
  • taking someone else’s medicine
  • taking medicine for the effect it causes to get high

When misusing a prescription CNS depressant, a person can swallow the medicine in its normal form or can crush pills or open capsules.

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Symptoms Of Marijuana Withdrawal

Cannabis withdrawal symptoms generally occur 24 to 72 hours after the last use and last approximately 1-2 weeks however, sleep disturbances may last for a month or more.1

Symptoms of cannabis withdrawal syndrome include the following:1, 12

  • Feeling irritable, angry, or aggressive.
  • Anxiety or increased nervousness.
  • Sleep difficulties, including insomnia or having distressing dreams.
  • Eating less or weight loss.
  • Agitation or restlessness.
  • At least one uncomfortable physical symptom, including headache, stomach or abdominal pain, shakiness, fever, chills, or sweating.

What Are Some Withdrawal Symptoms From Depressants

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Withdrawal From Depressant Drugs

Withdrawal from depressant drugs happens when individuals stop using CNS depressants. Because depressant drugs affect brain chemistry, withdrawal symptoms begin suddenly and are severe. For example, withdrawal symptoms begin 12 to 24 hours after the last dose.

Additionally, the symptoms are most severe 24 to 72 after the last dose. After the initial withdrawal period, or acute withdrawal, symptoms begin to fade. However, post-acute withdrawal symptoms may last up to 24 months.

Many people going through withdrawal from depressant drugs may have a rebound effect. This effect is when the original issue being treated comes back even stronger. For example, a person taking Xanax for anxiety often experiences worse anxiety. However, medical detox provides a safe environment that minimizes the symptoms of withdrawal.

  • Increased blood pressure and pulse
  • Hypersensitivity to light and sound

Withdrawal from depressant drugs can be life-threatening. However, the withdrawal risks increase when individuals stop on their own or quit cold turkey. Medical detox is the safest way to withdraw from CNS depressant drugs. In medical detox, doctors use medications to ease withdrawal symptoms and start the recovery process.

Barbiturates: A Prescription Sedative

Barbiturates, or downers, are a prescription sedative. It treats anxiety and sleep disorders. Common benzos include:

Although barbiturates were considered generally safe, many issues such as addiction and overdose became apparent. These depressant drugs cause a sense of euphoria and relaxation, even in small doses. These feelings encourage dependence in some people.

Because barbiturates offer great benefits for sleep, they were very popular in the 1950s to 1970s. However, the quick rise in addiction and overdose led to them not being commonly used.

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How To Withdraw Safely From Drugs

Medical detox is a type of treatment that helps people safely and comfortably go through the withdrawal process. It focuses on evaluating and stabilizing drug withdrawal symptoms and preparing a person to transition to the next step in their treatment and recovery.1

The benefits of medical detox include a reduced likelihood of adverse withdrawal reactions and discomfort.1,2

Medical detox often takes place in an inpatient facility, where a person stays for several days until their withdrawal symptoms are stabilized. During this time, medical professionals on staff closely monitor and treat withdrawal symptoms with medications in combination with therapy and support groups.1

Inpatient detox treatment offers an added level of support and supervision that can help prevent patients from relapsing. This may be especially helpful for certain drugs associated with particularly uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.1

Outpatient medical detox programs are also available. These programs allow a person to live at home while attending treatment at a rehab facility during the day.

What Are The Dangers Of Withdrawal

How to Taper Antidepressants to Avoid a Withdrawal (Discontinuation) Syndrome?

Abruptly withdrawing from any drug can result in a variety of physical health problems such as mild symptoms resembling the flu to severe seizures. Protracted withdrawal symptoms can result in mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Due to withdrawing from drugs having the potential to be life-threatening, it should be completed under direct supervision from medical and mental health professionals.

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Symptoms Of Prescription Drug Withdrawal

The most misused and addictive prescription drugs are:

  • Opioid painkillers, including oxycodone, morphine, codeine and fentanyl
  • Central nervous system depressants, including tranquilizers like benzodiazepines and the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam
  • Stimulants like the amphetamines Adderall and Ritalin, which are commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Opioid withdrawal symptoms include:

Treatment For Cns Depressants Addiction

Treatment for CNS depressants addiction begins with medical detox to rid the body of depressants and other drugs. After detox, members generally go to inpatient treatment. But, some choose outpatient treatment.

Addiction typically co-occurs with other mental health disorders such as depression. However, the treatment allows individuals struggling with substance use disorder to address all the issues with certified professionals. Even though inpatient and outpatient treatment offers the same therapy options, inpatient depressants addiction treatment is a more intense approach.

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How Long Does Drug Withdrawal Last

Acute drug withdrawal symptoms can last a few days to weeks depending on the specific substance. In some cases, these symptoms may resolve, and a person may feel better.3

Other people may develop protracted or prolonged withdrawal symptoms that can last weeks or even months. These symptoms are typically milder than acute withdrawal symptoms but persist for a longer period.3

Natural Ways To Help Improve Antidepressant Withdrawal

Everything You Need to Know About Withdrawals

The best ways to come off antidepressants safely include:

  • Contact with friends and support system, particularly those with experience withdrawing from antidepressants
  • Staying in contact with your prescribing doctor
  • Slowly tapering off dosages

There are certain antidepressants associated with worse or longer withdrawal symptoms, particularly drugs with shorter half-lives like fluvoxamine, paroxetine and clomipramine, so its also important to consider that when choosing to start one of these prescriptions in the first place, should your doctor recommend it.

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Intentional Methods Of Depressant Drug Abuse

People primarily abuse depressant drugs by using them as a way to cope with the stress of life. For example, many people will abuse alcohol when theyre stressed and want to forget about the struggles in their life. Its possible to use depressant drugs to forget about things because of the way depressants numb high emotions and slow down to the point of feeling sleepy.

For instance, think about what happens when an individual has too many alcoholic drinks. In most cases, the individual will blackout and forget the night. While this is an effect of drinking that most healthy individuals try to avoid, those who are facing challenges may actually seek this effect of alcohol. This is particularly true if youre dealing with a mental illness like depression. Thats why alcohol drug abuse and depression are so strongly correlated.

People also often try to abuse depressant prescriptions to help them cope with stress and mental illness. For example, some people will try to abuse sleeping pills to help them sleep an unhealthy amount when theyre depressed and dont want to get out of bed.

Why Antidepressant Withdrawal

Antidepressants work by altering the levels of neurotransmitters chemical messengers that attach to receptors on neurons throughout the body and influence their activity. Neurons eventually adapt to the current level of neurotransmitters, and symptoms that range from mild to distressing may arise if the level changes too much too fast for example, because you’ve suddenly stopped taking your antidepressant. They’re generally not medically dangerous but may be uncomfortable.

Among the newer antidepressants, those that influence the serotonin system selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are associated with a number of withdrawal symptoms, often called antidepressant or SSRI discontinuation syndrome. Stopping antidepressants such as bupropion that do not affect serotonin systems dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors seems less troublesome overall, although some patients develop extreme irritability.

Having discontinuation symptoms doesn’t mean you’re addicted to your antidepressant. A person who is addicted craves the drug and often needs increasingly higher doses. Few people who take antidepressants develop a craving or feel a need to increase the dose.

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How Long Does Detox Last

Most patients will complete a drug detox program in a couple days to a week. How long drug detox lasts depends upon a variety of factors, including which drugs someone used, how much of the drug was used, how long the person has been using, as well as the persons overall health. Typically, detox is the first step of treatment, and patients will enter rehab and therapy to learn coping and recovery techniques.

What Is A Detox Program

Heroin Withdrawal Symptoms and Timeline

Detoxification programs primarily focus on getting you through the withdrawal process safely and comfortably. Though an important step, detox often does little to address the underlying psychological, behavioral and social issues that contribute to addiction.2 Detox is only the first stage in the alcohol recovery process and should be followed up with additional forms of treatment in order to be most effective.2,4

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  • Periods of depression or apathy
  • Lack of energy or motivation
  • Withdrawal symptoms when not using depressants
  • Failing in attempts to stop using the drugs

Another telling sign of abuse is mixing CNS depressants with other drugs, including opioids and alcohol, to increase their effects. This may lead to severe adverse health reactions and possibly life-threatening consequences.

Medical Detox For Prescription Sedatives

The safest way to go through depressant drug withdrawal is in medical detox programs. Medical detox allows people to rid their bodies of drugs under medical care. Although medical detox doesnt take away all the symptoms, it does ease most of them.

Medical detox includes:

  • Medication to ease cravings and discomfort
  • Nutritional plans

Once detox is complete, most members enter into inpatient treatment. Inpatient treatment allows them to focus on their recovery in a safe place. Inpatient treatment includes:

  • Individual and group therapy
  • Prevention of recurrence of use
  • 12-step programs

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Heroin & Opiate Withdrawal

Heroin belongs to the opioid class of drugs. Opioids work by attaching to and activating opioid receptors throughout the body. Opioid receptor activation is associated with a subsequent release of dopamine in the brain, which serves to reinforce the continued use of opioid drugs for their pleasurable effects.10

Opioids are a widely abused and highly addictive class of drugs. Some degree of opioid dependence may develop after short periods of use, even when taken according to a prescription, in the case of prescription painkillers.

Opioid medications, when used under the supervision of a medical doctor, successfully alleviate physical pain caused by injury, illness, or surgery. Misuse of these drugs can greatly increase the risk of someone becoming physiologically dependent on them.

What Are Central Nervous System Depressants

Orange County Xanax Detox

Central nervous system depressants are drugs that slow down brain activity, making them effective for treating many conditions. These drugs operate by affecting the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid , which leads to side effects such as drowsiness, relaxation, and decreased inhibition. Central nervous system depressants are used to treat a number of different disorders, including: insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, stress, sleep disorders, pain, and seizures. There are three major types of CNS depressants: sedatives, hypnotics, and tranquilizers.

Drugs that are classified as CNS depressants include:

  • Many Sleeping Pills

Different classes of CNS depressants work in different ways, but all have the ability to reduce activity in the central nervous system and lower levels of awareness in the brain. While CNS depressants all share this ability, there are significant differences among substances within this drug class. In particular, some are generally considered to be safer and are prescribed more than others. However, its important to note that almost all depressants have the potential to be addictive and should only be used as prescribed. Central nervous system depressants are sometimes called sedatives or tranquilizers, although those terms are more properly applied to specific categories of CNS depressants.

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Effects Of Central Nervous System Depressants

Central nervous system depressants work by increasing the production of the neurotransmitter GABA, which in turn slows down brain activity and produces feelings of relaxation, drowsiness, and a number of other effects, including:

  • Lowered blood pressure
  • Physical dependence

Another possible side effect of central nervous system depressant use is overdose. Excessive consumption of depressants can lead to respiratory depression, seizures, and potentially even death. CNS depressants should not be combined with any medication or substance that causes sedation, including prescription pain medicines, certain over-the-counter allergy medications, and alcohol. If combined, they can slow breathing, or heart rate and respiration, which can be fatal. This risk is also compounded if CNS depressants are used to offset the effects of stimulant drugs, such as cocaine or Adderall. In particular, it is extremely dangerous to combine multiple CNS depressants, because the risk of serious complications such as overdose, respiratory failure, and death are greatly magnified.

What Is Antidepressant Withdrawal

Antidepressants are medications used to treat symptoms of depression, such as sadness and anxiety. Different antidepressants may also be used in the management of anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorders, some chronic pain syndromes, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For some people with depression, these drugs can correct a chemical imbalance. Those who have taken antidepressants for over six weeks are more likely to have withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking the drugs.

People taking antidepressants should never stop cold turkey. Quitting suddenly throws the brain into a state of imbalance that can be worse than before. The resulting symptoms are both psychological and physical.

Medical professionals often refer to withdrawal from antidepressants as discontinuation syndrome. This is because withdrawal syndrome implies a physical dependence or addiction is present, and antidepressants are considered non-addictive. Discontinuation syndrome and withdrawal both describe the same effects caused by quitting antidepressants.

Some doctors believe discontinuation undermines the serious effects of quitting antidepressants.

The term discontinuation syndrome that is currently used minimizes the potential vulnerabilities induced by and should be replaced by withdrawal syndrome.

– Giovanni Andrea Fava M.D. et al, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2015

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Depressant Drugs: Facts And Long

Central Nervous System depressants slow down brain activity. For this reason, they are useful in treating anxiety, panic, and sleep disorders. Further, CNS depressant drugs are available over-the-counter or a prescription sedative. But, long-term use leads to depressants addiction and severe withdrawal symptoms.

What Are The Types Of Drug And Alcohol Addiction Treatment Programs

Cocaine Withdrawal Symptoms

Continuing addiction treatment after withdrawal management, or detox, is an important step toward long-term recovery.9,13 As you get close to completing detox, your treatment team will discuss a longer-term treatment plan that best suits your needs and will help facilitate your entry into additional treatment, whether it be in the same location as the detox program or elsewhere.

In follow-up treatment programs, you can learn coping skills and relapse prevention techniques, improve your communication skills and receive medication treatment, if needed.9

Treatment that may include substance withdrawal can occur in a variety of settings, depending on your needs and the intensity of your symptoms.2,8 There is a continuum of treatment settings where detox and rehab services are available, including:2,22

As you move through drug and alcohol recovery, your treatment plan may need to be reevaluated and adjusted to meet your needs, as they may change.9 Additionally, longer periods of any form of addiction treatment may be most helpful in reducing drug or alcohol use and improving treatment outcomes.9

Dealing with substance abuse and withdrawal is difficult and can be overwhelming. Addiction can have a profound impact on family and friends, as well as on the person suffering.

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