Interactive graph: Blood level buildup

Hi,

 

I made an interactive graph to plot the blood level of regular benzo intake over time. It helps to visualize and understand the mechanism, to estimate how much benzos you actually have in your system, and to show how in certain situations your blood level can rise up to several times the daily dose. Especially for benzos with long half life. I don't think many people realize this.

 

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/am79qqhs4b

 

I preset the graph for valium, with a half life of 2 days, a dosage of 10mg taken once per day.

Time is in days, dosage in milligrams. Units don't really matter, you can also work with hours for example.

The blue line shows the blood level over time. Every spike is a dosage taken.

On the bottom of the graph there are 5 points that you can drag: dosage, half life, interval, day to quit and the orange is a selection.

You can also manually set the parameters in the folder 'Input parameters' on the left.

You can stretch the view by holding shift while dragging the axes.

 

'Day to quit' doesn't imply you should go cold turkey of course, it's just to show the blood level trajectory if you would do so.

 

Let me tell you a little anecdote:

When your blood level rises like this, it's easy not to notice. But behind the curtains your brain is degrading. I once took a benzo with a half life of 250 hours every evening for a few weeks. That benzo had a little high that lasted only about three hours, after which I felt sober, but my cognitive functions quickly started to deteriorate. After two weeks my articulation got worse and worse and I started to sound handicapped. It took me another two weeks to realize I couldn't live this way. That long because of my impaired judgement. I switched to another benzo, tapered off to my normal routine and got my articulation and most of my brain functions back.

 

This was years ago, I'm completely recovered now. I made the math functions and the graph myself from scratch and I'm proud of it, I wouldn't have been able to do this if I wasn't sober. So that's some motivation for you guys, quitting benzos can get your forgotten brainpower back.

 

N8N: What a fantastic idea!  This tool could be enormously helpful to members of our community.  You should be proud of yourself on two counts — first, for recognizing the need for such a tool; second, for building this prototype.  Thank you for sharing it with us.  Libertas

This is incredible N8N, thank you for sharing it with us and I appreciated your anecdote, it perfectly illustrates why this matters!

N8N, this is fascinating - thank you for providing it.