Posted by Scott M on September 07, 2009 at 12:07:58:

In Reply to: Increasing Dosages posted by Jackson on September 06, 2009 at 18:01:21:

Hello Jackson,

You have just described tolerance. You could increase the dose and that would probably work for a while until you reach another tolerance point. You could alternate different meds for a while to slow down the tolerance. The problem is, if you are talking about benzos or z-sleeping drugs, that the longer you take them at increasing dosages the harder it will be to get off them.

Each time you hit a tolerance point your gaba-a receptors make an adaptive change and you can only get the same results by increasing your dosage. When you finally decide to taper off the benzos your gaba-a receptors are in a down regulation mode which will make it extremely difficult to sleep.

I'm at .5mg of valium in my taper now and i'm barely sleeping.
I was doing pretty good until i was at 2mg of valium. I'm assuming that the valium is no longer working for you as it originally did.

If i'm correct, you should think long term about your sleep and begin a taper. I wish you luck in whatever decision you make.

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