It is also worth discussing cross tolerance between medication and alcohol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-tolerance ... reads ...
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"Cross-tolerance is a phenomenon that occurs when tolerance to the effects of a certain drug produces tolerance to another drug. It often happens between two drugs with similar functions or effects – for example, acting on the same cell receptor or affecting the transmission of certain neurotransmitters. Cross-tolerance has been observed with pharmaceutical drugs such as anti-anxiety agents and illicit substances, and sometimes the two of them together. Often, a person who uses one drug can be tolerant to a drug that has a completely different function. This phenomenon allows one to become tolerant to a drug that they have never even used before."
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Valium is a benzodiazepine, and so is xanax.
There is an article on Psychology Today ...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...-brain-alcohol
... part of which reads ...
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"Nonetheless, alcohol shared properties with classical depressants, like valium.
Experiments in mice showed that when given valium regularly, not only did they develop a tolerance to it, but they also developed increased tolerance to alcohol. Called cross-tolerance, it indicates that both drugs act at the same receptor, the GABA receptor. "
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The Truth About Cross-Addiction And Cross-Tolerance ... reads ...
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"Cross-tolerance means that when you develop a tolerance to a drug you will also have a tolerance to closely related drugs--but not to totally dissimilar drugs. The more closely related the two drugs are the stronger the cross tolerance effect will be. For example, Valium, Librium, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin are all closely related drugs which belong to the benzodiazepine family of drugs. These drugs all affect the GABA receptors in your brain. If you become addicted to any one of these benzodiazepines then you can substitute any other because there is cross-tolerance. Since alcohol also affects GABA receptors there is some cross-tolerance with alcohol but not as much with each other since alcohol affects many different receptors."
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There is also an interesting discussion at ...
How I've been dealing with cross-tolerance (co-addiction to alcohol and xanax)
... which talks about the difficulty of getting off both xanax and alcohol, part of which reads ...
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"After decades of self-medicating my anxiety/panic/depression with benadryl, chlortrimeton, and alcohol, going from periods of total but very tense abstinence to moderate drinking to weekend binges and back to abstinence, around and around, always worried that I would become a mentally ill alcoholic like my mother, I was at last diagnosed with PTSD in 2004 - so late in my life. After SSRI's, klonopin, and valium caused terrible side effects in me, so much that I couldn't function at work, the psychiatrist prescribed xanax (but added offhand that cognitive therapy might help some). Xanax worked immediately and "beautifully", and both the psychiatrist and my PCP actually told me that I would probably have to take it the rest of my life, as my PTSD would not go away on its own.
This was the first I'd ever known or experienced benzos, but for a while, xanax really stopped the constant anxiety, difficulty sleeping, night terrors, even lessened the periods of depression, and lowered my blood pressure from its borderline hypertensive 140/90 to around 120/80 for the first time in decades. And it helped me drink less (I know that last part sounds alarmingly stupid, but at that time, I was ignorant of the consequences).
The shocking thing I realize now is that neither the psychiatrist nor my PCP ever advised me to stop alcohol - in fact, my doctor encouraged "a glass of red wine every day for cardiovascular health" while writing out another prescription for xanax!! Most unfortunately, he prescribed benzos freely, not recognizing their potential for nightmarish addiction or their cross-tolerance with alcohol. He didn't take benzos himself. Just wine. Somehow I managed to stay at 2 to 2.5mg of xanax for a few years, wondering why it was taking more than one glass of wine to feel any "relaxing buzz" at all. The original xanax buzz disappeared after a couple of years of use, and eventually I didn't (and still don't) feel even the slightest euphoria when it kicks in - it just stops the anxiety or the panic and leaves me feeling just kinda "blah", dead-headed, inert. But the amount needed to quell panic was already slowly creeping up and up.
These last few years have been filled with tragic deaths and catastrophic losses in my life, and my PTSD was fully re-activated. I made the awful mistake of taking more xanax out of desperation, trying to cope with fear and anguish on my own, as the techniques of the therapist assigned to me during this time only seemed to upset me more during our sessions - this therapist has since been dismissed. I kept escalating both xanax and alcohol, being so stressed and grief-stricken by almost non-stop traumatic events that I wasn't really caring about the horrifying levels of addictions that I was reaching, the extreme spikes of blood pressure, and not trying to figure out the actual cause of such frightening tolerances.
After a few very scary "close calls" (some involving the police and a couple of medical crises - I think I was blest somehow and was protected from the worst consequences), I finally woke up and realized the horror of my situation with addiction. I was terrified that I was going to die like my brother had.
So now I'm working hard to decrease my dosage of xanax from the shocking 6mg I reached to at least as low as it was originally - 2 mg - or hopefully, none at all. But I'm having a hard time as most everyone in this forum is or was.
I've tried numerous times to taper both alcohol and xanax at the same time, but failed again and again. The slightest upset and I was back on both of them again. But I was finally advised on another forum that alcohol alone had to go first - completely - before I could even begin to tackle the xanax problem. I accepted this more experienced person's strong advice. So I again went through a week of the usual pure hell with alcohol withdrawal - but maintaining the xanax dosage during that time made it a little more bearable and do-able. I found a little glutamine helped reduce the cravings (but not the symptoms) - but too much glutamine made things worse - such a difficult balancing act! :-\
I finally got through it, and was alcohol-free for over a week when I was astounded and pleased that this soon after the acute alcohol withdrawal, I suddenly needed much less xanax to quell the anxiety/panic and to sleep. ;D I ... tapered from 6mg xanax a day to 4mg-4.5mg, depending on the stress of the day. I've been taking the least I could to keep a lid on my anxiety and get enough sleep, and forcing myself to walk, to exercise much more really helps. 4-4.5mg was the dosage I was taking a few years ago - suddenly it was all that was needed to bear life again. Alcohol itself was making me need 2mg more xanax to keep things bearable. I never knew until recently that xanax and alcohol are medically known to be cross-tolerant, i.e., the more alcohol you drink, the more xanax is needed to stop anxiety or panic; and the more xanax you take, the more alcohol is required to reach any pleasant "high" at all - the two keep "one-upping" each other, so the amounts needed to get any effect from either one get greater and greater. (I know they both supposedly act on the same brain receptors, even though their effects feel quite different - at least, they do to me. As I said, xanax gives me no "buzz", no euphoria, but alcohol does; however, it is unpredictable now - sometimes it makes me feel horrible - which is good, actually - but I can't be certain anymore that alcohol will feel pleasant. But no problem as it's out of the scenario now.)
To give you an idea of how bad my cross-tolerance became, at 6 mg of xanax a day, a full glass of wine had no more effect on me than a glass of water - it took a bottle of wine to affect me like one glass of wine used to. And the 6 mg of xanax was quickly becoming insufficient to keep me from insomnia and anxiety. I know this does not reflect initial experiences with the very dangerous combination of alcohol and xanax, which can make the user pass out into a coma-like state and even die.) But I had reached this horrifying tolerance after years of xanax and alcohol jacking each other up.
I'm meandering now, but as I said, my PCP knew nothing about the cross-tolerance of alcohol and xanax, or even the dangers of going cold turkey from benzos! When I finally expressed to him my great concern about my tolerance and addiction, he just told me to quit taking xanax cold turkey if I didn't want to continue - which, from 6mg to 0mg, could have killed me!! I talked to my wonderful old pharmacist, who promptly called him to tell him how dangerous that was! It's sad and unnerving that some physicians have little understanding of the benzodiazepines they prescribe. And for a decade, I had believed and trusted a doctor who didn't know anything about the poisons he was prescribing."
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