Librium is an addictive drug, so it can be hard to stop taking it. But what are the dangers of Librium abuse? This article will explore how long Librium stays in your system, symptoms, risks, and withdrawal.
Drug abuse is a serious problem in the United States. It has become a major public health issue throughout the years. The purpose of this article is to discuss librium abuse and how it can cause serious medical problems for those that participate in abusing librium. Librium (Chlordiazepoxide) is a benzodiazepine drug, which is used for the short-term relief of severe anxiety and for the management of alcohol withdrawal. It may also be used to relieve certain types of seizures (such as status epilepticus or tetanus), relieve muscle spasms (spasticity), help control agitation caused by psychosis, or produce sedation.
Librium abuse occurs when someone abuses librium without medical supervision. This means that they ingest librium in a non medically responsible fashion, leading to serious health problems. Librium abusers are likely to take librium recreationally along with other drugs or alcohol, potentially leading to “drug mixing”.
What is Librium?
Librium belongs to a class of drugs called benzodiazepines that work by slowing down nerve impulses throughout the body. It’s prescribed for anxiety disorders but also has been used as a general tranquilizer or sleeping pill.
People who take this medication may become dependent on it over time because their brain becomes accustomed to the chemical changes caused by its effects on neurotransmitters like GABA and dopamine.
Librium is prescribed for a variety of conditions, including:
- Tension, worry, and anxiety disorders.
- Poor sleep patterns are caused by insomnia.
- Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal such as tremors, agitation, and disorientation.
What Makes Librium Addictive?
Over time, the body becomes used to Librium and will demand more of it as it becomes dependent on its calming effects. People who take this drug may experience cravings for it–which can lead to addiction or abuse.
Librium is a central nervous system depressant that slows down brain activity and breathing and heart rate. When taking Librium, you may experience:
- Confusion
- Drowsiness
- Fatigue
- Nausea and vomiting
Problems with coordination, such as stumbling or feeling dazed. People who abuse Librium can also become severely depressed and therefore suicidal. Because it slows the central nervous system (CNS) down, Librium can also slow breathing and heart rate.
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How Long Does Librium Stay In The Body?
Librium can accumulate in the body and be detected in urine five days after taking a single dose. In the bloodstream, Librium is detectable two to five days after taking it.
In heavy users, it can take up to 30 days for Librium to leave your system after you stop using it. This means that severe or long-term users of Librium have a greater risk of becoming dependent on it.
Librium, like other benzodiazepines such as Xanax (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam), and Valium (diazepam), has a long half-life and varies from one person to the next as to how quickly it leaves the body.
Factors Affecting Drug Elimination
The average drug half-life for Lorazepam is 24 to 48 hours, meaning that 50% of the drug will have been eliminated from the body after this time. You may need to take a larger loading dose of Librium for some time to get the desired therapeutic effects. Once you’ve reached peak blood levels, you can reduce your dosage.
The time required to wash out all traces of Librium from the body varies significantly while stopping the drug, depending on a variety of circumstances, including your age, genetics, your liver function, body mass, how much Librium you took, how long you used it for, and what other drugs may be in your system.
Physiological Factors
Lorazepam is metabolized by the liver and eliminated in urine. If your liver is damaged, the drug’s clearance will be slowed as well, and this can result in changes to the drug’s half-life.
Age also has an impact since liver function typically deteriorates as we age. As a result, people over 65 tend to lose Librium at half the speed (40%) of those in their 20s and 30s.
Pharmaceutical Factors
The longer it takes to get rid of Librium in the body, the higher the dosage and duration of usage. Those who never quite reach peak attention will generally clear their system faster than those who do.
Other substances you may be taking can also affect how quickly your doctor prescribes and doses Librium. Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) is an enzyme in the liver that metabolizes poisons, and Librium is excreted chiefly via this mechanism.
Because there is less enzyme to “go around,” if other medicines use CYP450 for clearance, the rate of elimination of both medications will naturally change due to decreased capacity.
Genetic Factors
Genetic abnormalities can also interfere with the synthesis of amino acids, the fundamental components of enzymes—this impacts cytochrome P450 metabolism and, as a result, Librium’s removal from the body.
Test for Librium
Librium can still be detected in some tests up to a year after its levels have dropped to undetectable levels for others. The following is a list of the times it can be detected in the body.
- Five days after taking a single dose
- 2 to 5 days in the bloodstream
- 30 days or longer in heavy users
- Hair follicle testing: up to 90 days
Withdrawal and Safe Elimination
You should only stop taking Librium under the supervision of your doctor if you decide to do so.
You run the danger of severe withdrawal symptoms if you quit cold turkey, including Trouble feeling pleasure, Agitation, Depression and mood swings, Insomnia, Nausea or vomiting, Tremors, Abdominal cramps, Sweating, and Muscle aches.
Some of these symptoms, such as sadness and sleeplessness, can last for more than a month. Doctors will use a tapering technique to reduce the dose of Librium over time to minimize the danger.
Tapering is still advised, even if you’ve only been on Librium for a few weeks, to reduce the chance of withdrawal symptoms.
To help expedite the process, you may need to drink a lot of water to allow the drugs to pass through your kidneys.
Exercising can accelerate your natural metabolism, but it should be done under the supervision of a doctor. On the other hand, extreme exercise is dangerous when you’re trying to flush Librium from your system.
They may also supplement with vitamin B6, which can help the liver process the drug.
Tapering From Librium: The Safe Way to Do It
The main goal of the taper is to reduce your withdrawal symptoms as fast as possible, not to make you prolong the process or abstain longer than necessary. Some people can be off Librium after just a few days, but this is very rare. Most will need at least three weeks to get clean, with most requiring more time. This is because it takes some time for the brain to realize that there’s less Librium in your system when you’re on a reduction schedule so that it won’t have withdrawal symptoms right away.
It may not be easy, but what must be done is this: reduce the dose by 10% every two days until you’re down to 5mg of Librium per day. This will help you get over any psychological dependency on the drug faster.
If at any point during your taper you have lousy withdrawal symptoms or feel worse than usual, do not hesitate to get more medication from the doctor. It’s more important to get relief than adhering strictly to his advice! What’s more, don’t stop taking medicine because you feel better!
Once you get down to 1mg per day, you should have a relatively painless experience in the future if things have gone well during your taper. As long as you continue to take Librium for a while after that dose is reached, however, there’s little chance that you’ll suffer any withdrawal symptoms or side effects from stopping treatment altogether. You should still follow up with your doctor and make sure there aren’t any issues at this point.
The last thing you want to do is quit medication abruptly only because it feels like the right time (according to how long it has been since your previous dose). That could put you in danger of withdrawal symptoms later on.
Quitting anything cold turkey isn’t advised, and you should follow the doctor’s orders closely. It is best to go slow and make sure the dose reduction schedule works for you before trying to stop taking Librium altogether.
Once all Librium is out of your system, you must stay on a healthy diet and exercise regularly to help boost your metabolism and aid in thoroughly getting rid of any medication still lingering in your body.
If those last bits of Librium aren’t flushed from your system, they could trigger withdrawal symptoms again once they’re out there alone in the bloodstream without any medication to hold them back.
Librium Withdrawal Symptoms to Monitor
It’s also important to watch for any symptoms you might not necessarily think of as withdrawal symptoms.
If you get dizzy or lightheaded, become annoyed at small noises or distracted by other things quickly, have problems sleeping (or sleep too much), suffer from weakness, feel like bugs are crawling on your skin, and notice other strange physical effects, tell your doctor immediately because these could be signs that there’s an issue with other drugs or chemicals in your body.
These symptoms should go away on their own when the drug is flushed out, but they can be related to other substances in your system or could point out a medical condition.
You must see your doctor at least once every two weeks during the taper process and for several weeks after you’re off Librium completely to make sure nothing else is going on under the surface.
How Can I Tell If Someone Has Taken Librium?
If you are worried that someone close to you has taken Librium, look for the following symptoms:
- Drowsiness
- Lack of coordination or balance
- Slurred speech
- Impaired reasoning and confusion
How To Get Treatment For Librium Abuse
If you feel that you need help with an addiction to Librium, contact your healthcare professional. This could be a medical doctor or a psychiatrist who specializes in mental health or drug abuse treatment.
If you are not sure where to get help for your addiction, call the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Detox is often the first step in helping you overcome an addiction to Librium. This is where your body’s physical dependence on the drug begins to be treated by allowing it to adjust without having Librium in your system.
The effects of withdrawal can be excruciating, depending on how long you’ve been taking and how much. You may also experience debilitating physical and mental symptoms, so detoxing under medical supervision is highly recommended.
Without the drug in your system, you may suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms until your body realizes what has happened and adjusts to being without Librium.
A sudden shutdown of the medication after an extended time on a low dose can cause other problems. This can be devastating for some people suffering from an addiction to Librium, which should be taken seriously if it’s affecting your life.
How Long Does Librium Detox Last?
The length of time you are in depends on your personal needs as a patient, but detoxing from Librium usually takes between five to ten days.
If the body has become used to receiving Librium at specific times each day, it will take some time to adjust without being present in the bloodstream or liver.
During this adjustment time, mood swings are likely to happen, and anxiety over what’s happening inside the body right now that’s causing these feelings.
If you go to a treatment center or detox facility, you will be guided through the process of coming off Librium, possibly with support from an addiction specialist.
Without more medication or other drugs to calm these psychological effects, they will usually subside once the body has adjusted to not having any Librium left in the system.
After detoxing comes rehab, where outpatient treatments like group therapy can help you understand what the addiction was all about and how to live without Librium.
How Can I Prevent A Relapse?
There are several things you can do to help avoid relapse once you’ve completed treatment for your abuse of Librium.
Several days after detoxing, consider joining a support group where you will be able to share stories with other people who have been through similar experiences or even ones that are different but equally challenging.
Participating in groups like these helps you see that you are not alone in your battle to overcome an addiction, which is sometimes the most significant step in winning the fight against it. This way, instead of viewing drugs as something that can’t be beaten or turned away from, they become just another part of life to deal with.
