There may be other seizure medications that are safer to use during pregnancy. Valium should not be given to a child younger than 6 months old. Do not give this medicine to a child without a doctor’s advice.
- Alcohol is a legal depressant drug that anyone age 21 and older can obtain in the United States.
- Misusing both of these drugs can affect multiple areas of your body, leading to long-lasting health problems.
- To avoid complications like seizures, you should speak to a doctor before quitting abruptly or cutting back after a long period of dependence.
- A staggering 90 percent of countries that WHO surveyed were prompted to include mental health and psychosocial support in their plans, but it wasn’t enough.
- Do not stop taking this medicine without checking first with your doctor.
You may also go through inpatient/ residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient treatment. A depressant overdose may be difficult to notice or manage in yourself. The powerful sedating effects will make it difficult to stay awake, move, or even speak. If you are taking sedatives or opioids and alcohol is involved, never do it alone.
Can You Overdose on Valium and Alcohol?
Some may mix a prescription benzodiazepine like Valium with alcohol intentionally. Potentiation is a dangerous consequence of mixing these chemicals, but it also causes a more intense euphoria in smaller doses. While it’s likely to make you feel sleepy and sedated, people may try it to achieve a more intense high.
In 2009, 23.5 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem. Of these, only 2.6 million received it at a specialty facility. Take the first step toward addiction treatment by contacting us today. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines the criteria for the diagnosis of alcohol use disorder.
Follow the directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets. Never use Valium in larger amounts, or for longer than prescribed. Tell your doctor if you feel an increased urge to use more of this medicine.
However, despite thousands of years of drinking alcohol, researchers don’t know exactly how it works in the brain. The main way it is thought to affect the brain is to interact with a naturally occurring chemical called gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA is closely tied to relaxation, anxiety management, and sleep, and it works by opening a channel in your nerve cells to let in negative ions. This negative charge shuts down certain activities and has the overall effect of allowing you to rest and digest. Alcohol may have an effect on these channels to enhance the effect of GABA.
During a fatal depressant overdose, respiratory depression is often the cause of death. Valium boasts a long half-life that ranges from 20 hours to 80 hours. Even after 24 hours, you’ll still have half the amount of Valium in your system. The next morning, you’ll be left with one-quarter of it in your system.
Diazepam can slow or stop your breathing, especially if you have recently used an opioid medication or alcohol. A person caring for you should seek emergency medical attention if you have slow breathing with long pauses, blue colored lips, or if you are hard to wake up. Valium is used to treat anxiety disorders, or alcohol withdrawal symptoms. As previously mentioned, some people mix Valium with alcohol without understanding the danger. This is known as polysubstance addiction or polysubstance use disorder. Valium may have originally been used to treat a legitimate medical purpose, but when it’s used, it can become a vice, and a person may not be able to find balance without it.
What Happens When You Mix Valium With Alcohol?
Alcohol misuse can contribute to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart disease. Depressants manipulate some parts of the brain that are related to automatic functions like heart rate and blood pressure. Alcohol and benzodiazepine misuse can cause long-term issues with these important functions.
Drugs.com provides accurate and independent information on more than 24,000 prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and natural products. This material is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Data sources include Micromedex (updated 3 Mar 2024), Cerner Multum™ (updated 4 Mar 2024), ASHP (updated 10 Mar 2024) and others.
Effects and Risks of Mixing Alcohol and Valium
Both Valium and alcohol can cause potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms. To avoid complications like seizures, you should speak to a doctor before quitting abruptly or cutting back after a long period of dependence. Substance use disorders that involve depressants are often treated with medical detox, which involves 24-hour care from medical professionals. Through detox, you may receive medications to help you taper off alcohol or Valium. Benzodiazepines, including Valium, are sometimes used to help people taper off depressants. If you only have a mild chemical dependence, you may be able to taper at home with the help of a doctor.
Valium is sometimes used with other medications to treat muscle spasms and stiffness, or seizures. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Using this medicine during the later pregnancy may cause problems in your newborn are there drops to reverse eye dilation baby (eg, sedation or withdrawal symptoms). If you think you have become pregnant while using the medicine, tell your doctor right away. Depressant withdrawal may be worse if you’ve been through it before because of something called kindling.
This medicine may cause some people, especially older persons, to become drowsy, dizzy, lightheaded, clumsy, unsteady, or less alert than they are normally. Also, this medicine may cause double vision or other vision problems. Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are not alert or able to think or see well.
What other drugs will affect Valium?
But normal may be a term used for feeling relaxed, getting enough sleep, and so on. Using a drug to feel normal is a type of unhealthy coping, and it can be extremely dangerous. This type of coping has potential to lead to dependence, tolerance, lack of control, and co-occurring medications for alcohol use disorders disorders. Polydrug use is common, especially among people who use drugs recreationally. Settings in which drugs are being used to achieve an intoxicating high may have more than one substance available. Polydrug use may also be common among people who experience drug overdoses.
This can make you feel like you’re becoming tolerant to the alcohol or Valium, which means that it doesn’t seem to be as effective as it was when you first started taking it. Long-term alcoholism can lead to liver disease and dysfunction. amphetamine sulfate oral However, Valium may also damage your liver if it’s used for a long time, especially if it’s misused in high doses. The FDA warns that liver function tests should be used to monitor your liver during the long-term use of Valium.
Mixing alcohol with Valium also damages the liver, which is essentially the body’s filter. Liver damage can end with other, sometimes fatal, conditions such as cirrhosis, or hepatitis. When Valium is being prescribed to treat symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, be sure that your loved one is leaving enough time in between the two substances to avoid danger.
