Sleep is one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle. Getting enough sleep can improve your mental and physical health and prevent certain diseases and disorders. However, most Americans don’t get the recommended amount of sleep, partly because we tend to live busy lives, and partly because of some common disorders.
Sleep and anxiety disorders prevent millions of Americans from getting a full night’s rest each year. For that reason, doctors and researchers have searched for medications that can help alleviate these common but serious issues.
Benzodiazepines, like Estazolam, are used to treat sleep disorders, anxiety, and other problems. However, they can also cause addiction, chemical dependency, and withdrawal. Learn more about Estazolam addiction, the signs and symptoms, and how it can be treated.
Estazolam is a prescription benzodiazepine that’s primarily used to treat insomnia and other sleep disorders. It has anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, and hypnotic effects that can also be used to treat anxiety and seizures in some cases.
Estazolam is also in a broad category of drugs known as central nervous system depressants along with alcohol, barbiturates, and other sleep aids. Depressants work by suppressing excitability in the nervous system, causing sedation, sleepiness, and anti-anxiety.
In high doses, the drug can cause euphoria, loss of motor skills, and other alcohol-like intoxication effects. Estazolam can also cause adverse effects like tolerance, dependence, addiction, and withdrawal.
Estazolam can cause symptoms like dependence and addiction after a period of abuse, but it can also lead to dependence after regular use that lasts too long.
For that reason, Estazolam is typically reserved for short-term therapeutic use, and doctors tend to avoid continuous, long-term use.
The drug can also be more dangerous for older patients. As we age, our ability to process drugs like benzodiazepines weakens. When older people use benzos, they are more likely to experience adverse symptoms like next-morning drowsiness and chemical dependence. However, long-term benzo use is more likely for people older than 65, according to one study.
Recognizing the signs of an Estazolam addiction can help you to get the help you need. Catching an addiction early can help to mitigate some of the potential damage a substance use disorder is capable of doing in your life.
Addiction can lead to health problems, legal issues, and financial ruin if left unchecked. If you are worried that your Estazolam use is becoming a problem, there are some signs and symptoms that may point to a substance use disorder.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you are using Estazolam:
- Using more than you intended
- Needing more than you started taking to achieve the same effects
- Taking the drug to feel normal
- Trying and failing to cut back or quit
- Feeling uncomfortable symptoms if you miss a dose
If you believe that a friend or family member might be struggling with a substance use disorder related to Estazolam, there are a few signs and symptoms you may notice, including:
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Change in sleep patterns
- Depression
- Sleep disturbances
- Tremors
- Loss of interest in normal activities
- Suffering work or school performance
- Isolation
- Intoxication similar to drunkenness
- Loss of coordination
- Lying about drug use
- Hiding drugs
Addiction is a serious, chronic disease that can have a lasting impact on your life, especially if it’s left untreated. If you are taking a powerful psychoactive drug like Estazolam, it’s vital to know the risks of addiction and how it can be treated.
Though addiction is a chronic disease, it can be treated with evidence-based treatment options and medical detoxification. Because Estazolam can cause potentially deadly withdrawal symptoms, it’s critical to go through withdrawal with medical supervision.
The safest way is in a medical detox program that involves, 24-hour medically managed treatment services. In detox, you will be treated by a medical team that will help you avoid dangerous symptoms and ease your discomfort.
After you complete detox, if you developed an addiction to the drug, you will go through addiction treatment that’s designed to address underlying issues like mental health issues or past trauma. You may also develop a relapse prevention plan to help you safeguard your sobriety in the future.
It’s common to go through individual, group, and family therapy sessions in treatment. You may also go through behavioral therapies that are designed to facilitate lasting change. The most common type of behavioral therapy in addiction is cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps you develop effective ways to cope with triggers and cravings.
Estazolam is a prescription drug that’s used as a medication, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be dangerous. Like other benzodiazepines, it can be deadly in high doses, when it’s mixed with other drugs, and during withdrawal symptoms.
As a depressant, high doses can suppress important brain functions like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. An overdose is usually characterized by loss of consciousness, slowed breathing, low blood pressure and heart rate, and loss of motor skills. An overdose can cause you to stop breathing or to suffer a cardiac arrest.
Estazolam is more likely to cause a fatal overdose when it’s mixed with opioids, alcohol, and other sleep aids. When combined, the drugs can potentiate one another, which means their collective symptoms can be more intense. When drugs potentially each other, it can cause a serious overdose with relatively low doses of each respective drug.
Estazolam can also be deadly during withdrawal symptoms. Chemical dependency can cause your brain to adapt to Estazolam. It may even increase the release of natural excitatory chemicals to counteract the drug. When you stop using the drug suddenly, your nervous system will become chemically unbalanced and overactive. This can lead to seizures, extreme confusion, panic, coma, and death in some cases.
- Nearly 9,000 overdose deaths were caused by benzodiazepines in 2015.
- Benzodiazepines make you twice as likely to get into an accident while driving under the influence.
- More than five percent of American adults used benzodiazepines in 2008.
