long half life benzos - doesnt your dose always increase?

[[Jo...]]

for people who take benzos with a long half life (eg valium - 40 hours i believe) and dose once or twice a day..... theoretically aren't you always increasing the amount of drug in your body every single day by a little bit?

 

 

lets pretend the half life is 24 hours (even though its more) ......say you take 10mg a day

 

day 1 you take 10mg.... in 24 hours its down to 5 and you take your next 10... you have 15mg now... in 24 hours its down to 7.5, you take your 10, its now at 17.5

 

if this carried on itd go , 17.5, 18.75 , 19.375 , 19.68 , 19.84 , 19.92, 19.99, 19.995, 19.9975, 19.99875, 19.999 etc etc.

 

so in 11 days its gone from 17.5 to 19.999.

 

obviously dosses start getting only slightly more, but it'll always increase the whole time youre on the drug. unless im misunderstanding?

 

 

[[Qu...]]

If that logic holds, this would be true of any drug with a long enough half-life, I'm thinking of prozac, which with chronic use could have a half life of 144 hours.

[[ho...]]

The half life of Benzos does indeed have a cumulative effect.  Each individual can process at a different rate, so you may increase the dose over time (as you showed) or you may hold steady while taking the same amount.  Remember the body will build tolerance to the drug over time so although the dose might rise, the effect is dampened. Receptors diminish over time so the drug literally might not have anywhere to go to cause an effect.

 

This extra is the cushion for the 10% drops in a taper.  In theory, due to the carryover, the extra is initially present then slowly goes away.  That's why people often don't feel the effect of a drop until 7+ days later. Also explains why sometimes you need to hold at a particular level as the cumulative effect drops enough that you need extra time to adjust.

 

I'm hyper sensitive to changes. For me, I have to have multiple smaller divided doses during the day as if I do 1/3 of total at once, I'm too sedated initially. Mathematically the cumulative dose is the same, but it's a more functional level if it's spread out.

 

This is why some people cannot jump at the recommended amount like 0.5mg Valium.  For them that cumulative amount is higher, so the taper needs to be slower and gradually lower dosages. I had to go to 10% drops beginning at 1mg, and it made a difference.

 

Some SSRIs also have very long half-lives- like 30 days.  That's a long time to truly show the effect. Tapers need to have some flexibility for that person's health, the drug used, and liver clearance.

 

This time I'm finding some very gentle liver cleaners are helping the landing. Metabolites of the drugs tend to be neuro excitatory. Using pea protein powder from iHerb.com in fresh veg juice or a banana protein shake with bone broth/amino acids. These have halted the weight loss and seem to help. Everyone has digestive issues with w/d.  These are tolerable, can be pre made in frig, and you can just sip when you don't feel like eating. Throw in digestive aids like betaine and bile extracts.

 

Hope this is helpful.