Ah how wonderful to float through your day, troubled by nothing. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, like most everything, the reality of tranquilizers never matched the reality.
The first tranquilizer I remember is Librium, a wretched drug that left you feeling sluggish and muddy-headed. Then came Valium. Valium seemed at first a wonder drug. Take one and you could function without caring, at least that was the pitch. Tranquilizers do have some limited medical and psychiatric uses and had folks stuck with those and taken the darn things only when needed, all would have been well. But, people are what they are, and they started practicing preventative medicine. Why wait until you're upset to take the pill? After all, something is bound to upset you each and every day, so why not get ahead of the curve and take 1 every few hours? Make sense, except, things just don't work that way.
Start taking 3 a day, which most doctors okayed and fairly soon, those 3 just aren't doing the job. I knew a few folks who stayed at that level, but not many. In fact, I knew a lot who took 3 at a time. They ran into a few difficulties, but really so did those who took them as directed. It just took the latter longer to see the troubles.
Like about every other drug that hits the market, Valium was said to be non-addictive, and like all of those drugs, it was in fact, horribly addictive. For a long while, this didn't trouble most folks because doctors dispensed them like M&Ms. But, finally, the Federal Government stepped in and prescriptions became harder to get. Those addicted to low doses went through some extreme agitation, tremors, anxiety and heart palpitations when they ran out. Those used to taking large doses had bigger problems. A friend of mine got so upset, he went out wandering around, the cops thought he was acting weird, arrested him, then transferred him to a mental ward. He denied using drugs (this was before drug tests were ubiquitous) and that night, went into convulsions. He died. Later, when family notified the attending physician of the guys Valium, intake, he shook his head and sadly said that had he known that, he could have saved him. The man died of Valium withdrawal.
There were other, less dramatic effects. When the stuff first hits, for a brief while, as your body and mind relax, you feel kind of energized, in a floating sort of way. Heck, you're ready to get busy. That is a bad move because at any time, and that time is very unpredictable, you will feel slow and fuzzy-brained. I have been driving when this happened and had to pull over and let the other person in the car take the wheel. Then, there is the issue of sleep. Valium doesn't really put you to sleep, but it is easy to doze off when under its influence. When you wake up, your brain feels like a soggy, smelly gym sock, unpleasant and annoyingly useless.
All in all, Valium was a disaster. Now, the same folks who gave us that, have settled on Xanax and Ativan as the prescription tranquilizers of choice. Chemically, they are different from Valium but I can tell you from personal experience, they have the same effects and the same problems.
Do yourselves a favor folks. Find another way to deal with stress. Exercise, read, meditate, play with the dog, there are a myriad of activities that reduce stress. Stay away from tranquilizers.
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