We need specific guidelines on how to prescribe long acting benzos as needed.

Long acting benzos are a different beast, and doctors seem even more ignorant about those than the short-acting ones. For instance, if you take Xanax two days a week and then stop for five and then resume, it’s unlikely you’ll develop a dependency unless you’re one of the unlucky folks who grow tolerant upon immediate exposure. But Klonopin, for instance, with its ridiculously long half-life, maybe can’t be taken as frequently.

For instance, my pattern before I fell into this daily use (not because as needed no longer sufficed but because my life turned upside down in a way I didn’t foresee) was to take it for three or four days, stop for two to four, and resume. Of course sometimes pill days were fewer and breaks were longer, and I’m not positive I developed dependence this way because stopping for a week or two never really resulted in adverse symptoms but given its half-life, it would seem that taking it any more than once a week could be habit forming, which is less likely with Xanax and Ativan (I have no experience with Valium save for childhood surgeries).

The truth is, I have no idea if I was playing it safe. And no one else does either. So frustrating! The only guidelines (no longer than 4 weeks) apply to daily use.