While there’s like 725 helpful things you can do to help your anxiety, starting from limiting caffeine to meditation, taking medication definitely can help. There’s a stigma from taking meds for anxiety and other mental problems. People rarely discuss the fact that medication is not a cure. It doesn’t make life rainbows and butterflies. It doesn’t turn things around in a matter of minutes. It doesn’t erase scars. It doesn’t clear the memory banks. It doesn’t heal the broken trust or mend the broken hearts.
Medication provides a way to allow these things to take place. Medication is nothing to be ashamed of. You won’t tell a near-sighted person to “get over it” and suggest them to look harder without glasses just because you don’t experience the same thing they do. Mental illness may not be entirely understood, but it doesn’t mean it’s unreal and not need to be treated.
The impact of benzodiazepine overdoses seem to fly under the radar, there are nearly 9,000 individuals who died of a benzodiazepine overdose in 2015. This equates to around one person every hour of every day in 2015.
Prescribing medication for our brain is far from a perfect process, Lorazepam is both a helpful anxiety-relieving prescription medication and a harmful addictive drug. Different people have different experiences with the pills but are its health benefits trump over the adverse side effect?
What is lorazepam?
Lorazepam is an antianxiety agent with the chemical formula, 7-chloro-5-(o-chlorophenyl)-1,3- dihydro-3-hydroxy-2H-1,4-benzodiazepine-2-one. It has sedative and antianxiety effects that give calming and relaxing sensation on the body.
Other common benzodiazepines include Xanax (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam), and Valium (diazepam). With this effect, this medicine is commonly used to treat generalized anxiety and panic disorder, it’s also often prescribed to treat other illnesses, despite not being approved for them by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
What is Lorazepam uses?
Here are the health benefits of lorazepam:
1. Lorazepam helps anxiety
Lorazepam, as commonly prescribed, has anxiety-reducing effects and its best-known indication is the short-term management of severe anxiety. Food and Drug Administration USA suggest the use of benzodiazepines no longer than four weeks.
Lorazepam slows down unusual activity in the brain. By calming the brains’ activity, it helps relieve anxiety, relieve restlessness, relieve tension, and relieve feelings like irrational fears. It works well with other antidepressants to help manage anxiety disorders. Antidepressants take some time to become effective. Potentially, it can take weeks. This is where Ativan can be helpful because it staves off anxious feelings until the antidepressants kick in. You may also read: Benefits of St. John’s Wort for Anxiety
2. Lorazepam helps insomnia treatment
Lorazepam sometimes prescribed for insomnia as it able to effectively reduce agitation and induce sleep. A single dose of lorazepam occur approximately 2 hours after administration with the average half-life about 12 hours makes it an appropriate choice for the short-term treatment, especially when the symptoms show severe anxiety or night terrors. You may also read: Benefits of Mimulus For Anxiety
3. Lorazepam helps Seizures
Intravenous diazepam or lorazepam are first-line treatments for convulsive status epilepticus. Status epilepticus (SE) is an epileptic seizure due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain that lasts more than five minutes or two or more consecutive seizures within a short period of time.
Lorazepam has anticonvulsant properties and pharmacokinetic profile can terminate acute seizures by intravenous. The oral lorazepam also used occasionally as a long-term preventive measure of resistant absence seizures. You may also read: Benefits of Gaba Supplements for Anxiety
4. Lorazepam helps with prevention of alcohol withdrawal syndrome
There are the health benefits of lorazepam. Lorazepam’s anticonvulsant and CNS depressant properties are useful for the treatment and prevention of alcohol withdrawal syndrome. It assisting in alcohol withdrawal to prevent delirium tremens. Since lorazepam does not require hepatic oxidation, an impaired liver function is unlikely to happen.
5. Lorazepam can be used as Sedation
Lorazepam can be used for patients who receive mechanical ventilation. It is usually given to reduce the amount of anesthetic required and administered before a general anesthetic or before unpleasant awake procedures to reduce anxiety, increase compliance, or to induce amnesia for the procedure. The choice falls into lorazepam as its ability to prevent new memory formation and reduce agitation and anxiety.
6. Lorazepam helps catatonia
Catatonia, or simply psycho-motor immobility and behavioral abnormality is responsive to lorazepam.
7. Lorazepam helps in chemotherapy treatment
It is sometimes used in chemotherapy in addition to medications used to treat nausea and vomiting. While having many benefits, lorazepam has many adverse effects that can be dangerous especially if the user get addicted to it.
Lorazepam works by producing a calming and sedating effect that target neurotransmitters in the brain, known as gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABA). GABA primary function is to prevent the brain cells from becoming overactive, and this is where lorazepam works. You may also read: Health Benefits of The Blue Zircon for Mental Health Improvement
Lorazepam slowing down the central nervous systems by boosting GABA, resulting in excess agitation and excitement in the brain. In just a few weeks, however, the nervous system can get used to this effects and develop tolerance. The user will need higher doses to get to the same place of relaxation and calmness. If this continues, the user can become dependent and seek euphoric feeling when taking larger doses. You may also read: Benefits of Kalonji for Depression
What is Lorazepam Possible Side Effects?
Lorazepam comes with side effects such as :
- Problems with sleeping.
- Cognitive memory problems.
- Temporary drowsiness, dizziness, and confusion.
- Physical and mental exhaustion.
- They become confused.
- As benzodiazepines are a depressant to the CNS, they may become depressed.
- The depressive feelings can lead to thoughts of suicide or hurting oneself.
- They may experience hyperactivity.
- They may become agitated which can turn to hostility.
- They may experience hallucinations.
- They may become light-headed which can lead to fainting.
Serious lorazepam side effects can put people at risk. If a person experiences the following, they should call their doctor immediately.
So, Is lorazepam life saver or life ruiner? Is the Question that Simple?
As you’ve read the benefits and its side effects, it’s truly difficult to say that lorazepam is either all good or all bad. Sure, not everyone who uses lorazepam will become addicted, and sure, most of its user develop a physical and psychological dependency on the drug but it’s not something they cannot prevent with the right doses and if they actually developed a dependency, with the help of psychiatrist most people could overcome the addiction.